Will Les Miles intervene in offensive play-calling?

Kansas football head coach Les Miles is known to intervene in his offensive coordinator’s play-calling; however, Miles claimed this will not be the case in 2020.

For once, Kansas football seems to have found a legitimately good offensive coordinator in Brent Dearmon who was promoted to the role in the middle of last season. Dearmon’s Jayhawk offense actually looked capable, but at times, it looked like there were play calls that didn’t seem to be part of his RPO-heavy scheme.

Some plays seemed to come directly from head coach Les Miles, and it wouldn’t be the first time that he’d taken a very active role in the play-calling during his head coaching career. The problem with Miles’ approach is that Pooka Williams isn’t the kind of back that you line up in an I-formation with and run between the tackles all game, but yet that’s what Miles seemed to want to do.

Ultimately, Miles lost his job at LSU due to his stubbornness in refusing to adapt to the way offenses are ran nowadays. Chris Low of ESPN put it best:

"“Miles loves physical, shove-it-down-your-throat offense. He loves fullbacks and tight ends and running the football. But as the college game started to change, Miles dug his heels deeper in the Louisiana soil, and while everybody else was spreading it out, running tempo, finding ways to be creative and scoring points, Miles was still trying to do it his way.”"

Based on his press conference earlier today though, it sounds like Miles may finally be ready to turn over a new leaf and let Dearmon do his thing. Miles hinted at having a laissez-faire approach to the offense in 2020, and letting Dearmon run the show: “I’ve said, hey, we’ve got a great coordinator, let’s let him coordinate.”

If Miles is really going to allow Dearmon to do his thing without intervention, it’d certainly be a huge step for Miles, and it could very well help the Jayhawks get over the hump. Kansas really did show flashes last year on offense, and Dearmon didn’t even get an offseason to prepare.

Now, he and his offense have had all offseason (albeit a strange one) to get ready for the Jayhawks’ first game of the season, which is coming up on September 12 against Coastal Carolina. It’s exciting to think about what Kansas football is capable of under Les Miles and Brent Dearmon, especially if the offense is running like a well-oiled machine.