Kansas University’s new offensive coordinator insists he won’t be married to a game plan that isn’t working, no matter how sure he was during the week that it was going to be a hit.

Along with head coach Mark Mangino and the rest of the staff, the Jayhawks will have a modified offensive look this fall. While some of the playbook from the Nick Quartaro years remains in use, other parts were discarded when Warinner was hired to replace Quartaro in January.

In their place will be some new formations, several plays that haven’t been seen before and a few different processes to get the plays set up.

Don’t get comfortable, though. Warinner is big on being free-formed – adjustments, versatility and options are words that leave his mouth when speaking of his duties. And that’s not just during the week.

Nick Krug

It’s on Saturday, too.

“We’re going to take what the defense gives us, and try not to be stubborn and impose our will, so to speak,” Warinner said. “Versatility is key.”

With the season opener less than three months away, KU’s new-look offense still is largely a secret. In a lot of ways, it probably will stay that way until Central Michigan comes to Lawrence on Sept. 1, and maybe even beyond that.

But expect everything. Expect running back Jake Sharp to streak out of the backfield and catch passes more frequently. Look for formations to hint at one thing before the complete opposite is executed. And look for the coaches to think quickly and react to the defense unfolding in front of them while the play clock ticks away.

In football, getting X’s and O’s to produce is all about evolving. Warinner, for one, thinks that his way is on the right track.

“Because it has versatility, it has the ability to accumulate a lot of yards,” Warinner said. “But it also has some big-strike capabilities.

“This system is derived from other places and other systems. When it was used at some other places, it was pretty successful.”

Familiar new guy

Though a new offensive coordinator comes with a tedious adjustment period, it wasn’t nearly that bad with Warinner’s arrival.

Warinner coached KU’s offensive line in 2003 and 2004 before taking a similar job at Illinois. While in Lawrence, he helped recruit Anthony Collins, Cesar Rodriguez and Ryan Cantrell, three projected starters on the offensive line this year. He saw Brandon McAnderson grow from a Lawrence High great to a promising college fullback.

He’s already familiar with Marcus Henry, Marcus Herford, Adrian Mayes and Derek Fine. He even recruited offensive guard Chet Hartley to join him at Illinois last winter. Hartley declined, picking Kansas just weeks before Warinner accepted the KU job.

So, yeah, he even knows one or two of the new guys. There’s enough familiarity there that Mangino nonchalantly called Warinner “a veteran of our staff” during the spring.

Still, Warinner recognized that a lot had changed since his first stint. He had never met Kerry Meier or Todd Reesing, KU’s two starting quarterback candidates. Weapons like Mark Simmons and Charles Gordon were gone, and respected leaders like linemen David Ochoa and Bob Whitaker had finished up college football by the time Warinner came back.

So that made spring football a critical time for KU. Not only was the offense getting its feet wet with a new system, but Warinner was learning a new batch of players and what their strengths were.

He then built the fundamentals of KU’s new playbook from there.

“We were able to accomplish the introduction of that (in the spring),” Warinner said. “I think the players saw the potential of it and what it could give us.”

Lots of options

The new offense developed from conversations Mangino and Warinner had during interviews.

“(Mangino) had some ideas about some things he wanted to see changed in the offense, things he wanted to see added,” Warinner recalled. “So following that lead, we built on those concepts. A lot of it is his ideas and concepts, and it’s a combination of mine and other things that guys on the staff bring to it.

“It’s a joint effort, but we’re on the same page as far as, ‘These are some things that coach wanted, and we made sure they’re in there, and then there’s a few other things that we added.'”

It’s hardly a finished product, though. Warinner said there’s more to introduce to his players this summer, and there’s more need for the coaches to evaluate which players excel at which plays.

For example, Warinner envisions mixing and matching the backfield to precisely give KU a strength needed to attack the opposing defense. Jake Sharp, a quick jitter-bug tailback, brings one thing to the table. Brandon McAnderson, a 235-pound horse, brings another that’s strikingly different.

“McAnderson will definitely be used more this year than he was last year as a ball carrier,” Warinner said. “We’ll see how much Jake Sharp can handle week to week without wearing him out. I would say that the running back position will be by committee with those two guys being the lead guys. Either one can be in there when there’s one back in the backfield, and when there’s two backs, they both would be in there as a starting point.”

And Warinner expects both to catch passes much more frequently. Those two, along with tight end Derek Fine, can provide solid receiving options underneath while Marcus Henry and the other wideouts go deep.

Options. There’s that word again.

“We’re trying to spread the field and be able to put pressure on the defense in a lot of different ways,” Warinner said. “We want to be able to focus in on a particular coverage or a defensive back or a particular receiver we want to feature.”

Keep it quiet

But too many more specifics will stay a secret for now.

The spring game in April featured a couple of quirky setups, like a diamond formation with four receivers in the shape of a square out wide. The Jayhawks appeared to experiment with no-huddle a few times, and some plays obviously were new to those who had seen KU play extensively pre-Warinner.

It’s a significant – though not drastic- makeover, although Warinner thinks it’s not any harder on his players.

“It isn’t complicated internally,” Warinner said. “It gives the impression that it could be, but it’s not.”

Players have hinted that more big plays can be expected. “Uptempoed” was used by more than one player asked to describe it in the spring.

But really, the only foe that has a good idea is KU’s defense, which faced the new offense for 15 practices during the spring.

The film will start to circulate after KU plays Central Michigan on Sept. 1, but that’s OK. Though the premise will be the same, Warinner will never get comfortable, never be predictable.

And he’ll try his hardest to never, ever be boring.

“I see it,” Warinner said, “being a lot of fun.”