Kansas football interim HC Emmett Jones is a spring favorite

Kansas football has been under the leadership of interim head coach Emmett Jones since spring practices began, and it seems he could be the one in charge by the time fall rolls around.

When he joined Kansas’ staff in 2018, Jones probably wouldn’t have expected himself to be in this role. Now, he’s being tasked with restructuring a Kansas Jayhawks program that failed to find a single win in their 2020 campaign.

Despite the departure of former head coach Les Miles, players seem to have taken a strong liking to Jones in the head coaching role, and it could be what sustains morale going forward.

Emmett has quite a bit of trust with players, and new Kansas Athletic Director Travis Goff has expressed his interest in observing the student athletes’ wishes in the permanent head coaching decision.

https://twitter.com/NCMFC1/status/1381701162290835456?s=20

The Kansas job isn’t an easy one, and I believe Emmett Jones knows that. It starts with putting a solid product on the field.

Considering that Kansas has only won 3 of their last 41 Big 12 matchups, it’ll likely be a while before they’re competing conference-wise.

Emmett seems to be bringing the best interest of the current program forward after hearing his response to a question regarding AD Goff’s plans for Kansas football in the future.

"“Shoot, I just focus on this team, I just focus on these guys, these coaches and I just move forward one day at a time.”Interim head coach Emmett Jones, sourced from CJonline.com"

What fans should be feeling good about, however, is the mindset that Jones is bringing to Kansas’ situation. He is looking at this as an opportunity to give these players a chance to rise out of the ditch and turn things around.

If Jones is given the permanent job, his staff will be responsible for steering things in the right direction. It will involve choosing roles wisely to put this team in a position to succeed.

Plenty of decisions will have to be made. Here are a few that will be on his plate come Week 1.

• Find a consistent starting quarterback to build on.
• Develop a receiver set that can make catches, even for short yardage.
• Rotate a set of running backs, lighten the workload on the ground.
• Maintain an offensive line. Without it, little progression will occur.

Assuming Emmett can distill some change on the practice field, it’s going to, hopefully, create a different output for this Kansas team. It’ll be slow, but it should be noticed.

There’s still a ways to go before the fall, and fans should be excited to see where Jones can take this team between now and then.

In the grand scheme of things, if Jones can help the Jayhawks start competing in games, we should expect more fans in the stands on Saturdays.