On the same day the Jayhawks announced running backs coach Bill Salmon had resigned to join former linebackers coach Mark Farley at Northern Iowa, KU also closed in on a replacement for Farley.

Johnny Barr, who served as the inside linebackers coach for Arizona State from 1997-2000, was in Lawrence on Wednesday for what he called a “job interview.”

He also attended KU’s spring practice at Memorial Stadium, watching the workout while being introduced to the Kansas coaches.

“I played at Oklahoma so obviously I’ve played here,” Barr said of KU. “I coached in the Big 12 for 11 years so I’ve been here. And I’ve played golf here. Lawrence is great and the university really seems like a nice place to be. I’ve always thought it was. It’s probably the prettiest campus there is in the Big 12.”

Barr, a 1970 graduate of Oklahoma, played for two Big Eight champion squads. He also coached with first-year KU defensive coordinator Tom Hayes at OU from 1991-94.

“I worked with that guy at Oklahoma for four years,” Barr said, nodding at Hayes. “So we’ll see what happens.”

KU coach Terry Allen was vague, but optimistic while addressing the linebackers coach opening.

“The defensive one is good, excellent,” Allen said of the candidate. “If we get through everything, we can announce we hired this guy. The one that we’re going to get is excellent. The one that we’re going to get is going to be a good fit.”

Allen added that announcement could come as early as today.

The KU coach’s mood was more somber, though, while discussing Salmon’s departure. Allen had known Salmon since 1975, when the former was a freshman quarterback at UNI in the shadow of the latter, a senior QB.

Each also was the best man in the other’s wedding.

“That one really surprised me, a tough one,” Allen said of Salmon. “It was a situation where it’s tough to leave a guy you’ve been working with that long, but it’s pretty unprecedented to give a guy a five-year contract.”

Salmon, who had been stripped of his offensive coordinator’s duties during the offseason, will serve as assistant head coach/offensive coordinator for Farley. When asked if he’d ever heard of a five-year pact for an assistant, Allen said, “Never in all my life.”

KU also announced Wednesday that administrative assistant Rob Bolks would coach the running backs until a replacement could be found. When that might be, Allen couldn’t say.

“Sure, I’d like to get it done, but I’m going to make sure we get the absolute best person,” Allen said, adding that might not be until after spring drills are completed. “There’s so many good candidates I think that you’ll really be impressed with the caliber of people that are out there.”

Jayhawks scrimmage

KU scrimmaged during the final 10 minutes of practice Wednesday. Although senior Zach Dyer and red-shirt freshman Mario Kinsey took the majority of the snaps at quarterback, red-shirt freshman Kevin Long completed the longest pass, a 40-yarder.

“We got 18 plays in out there,” Allen said of the scrimmage. “We got a couple hits. We made a couple plays. We were just so extremely inconsistent. That was the epitome of it (QB situation) today. Anything that we did live, I think you saw each of the three guys do something good and also do something terrible.”

Up coming

KU returns to the practice field today and then will take a day off Friday.