Report: Fuchs leaving KU staff for NFL

By Henry Greenstein     Feb 16, 2024

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Kansas offensive line coach Scott Fuchs works with his position players on Thursday, March 2, 2023 at the indoor practice facility. Photo by Nick Krug

The Kansas football team is set to lose another key assistant.

John Brice of FootballScoop, a coaching news site, reported Friday afternoon that KU’s offensive line coach Scott Fuchs is going to take an offensive assistant role with the Tennessee Titans under their new head coach Brian Callahan.

Fuchs has excelled in building sturdy, versatile offensive lines since arriving as part of Lance Leipold’s initial staff in May 2021. One of the most notable of accomplishments of his tenure has been molding Dominick Puni, a transfer from Division II Central Missouri, into the Jayhawks’ reliable left tackle during the 2023 season and a probable early pick in the NFL Draft this April.

Fuchs has also played a significant role in recruiting for his position group. 247Sports lists him as a primary or secondary recruiter on three of KU’s 2024 O-line signees: David Abajian, Carter Lavrusky and Harrison Utley.

The Jayhawks have fellow lineman Kene Anene coming in for next year, as well as transfers Shane Bumgardner (Tiffin) and Darrell Simmons Jr. (Iowa State).

Fuchs has coached at numerous levels of college football since beginning his career as a graduate assistant at alma mater North Dakota State in 1994. He worked with Leipold at Omaha and Buffalo before coming to KU.

The Titans role would be his first job in the pros.

He has three sons: Hank, Jack and Gus. Hank played at Free State High School and is beginning his college football career at Indiana State, while current Free State lineman Jack has a scholarship offer from KU.

Fuchs’ reported departure creates another vacancy for Leipold to fill after replacing offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki with Jeff Grimes and co-defensive coordinator Jordan Peterson with DK McDonald.

Also on Friday, ESPN reported that Oscar Rodriguez, a defensive analyst for KU who was once interim head coach at Akron, is leaving the Jayhawks to become head coach at Southwestern College, a community college in California.

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Written By Henry Greenstein

Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off "California vibes," whatever that means.