Jim Zebrowski used bye to reflect, his thoughts on Iowa State

Kansas offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski used the bye week to take a deeper look at his offense, looking for answers to improve consistency as the team prepares for the final November stretch. With Iowa State next, Zebrowski said the additional days allowed him to reflect on second-half struggles that have surfaced in recent weeks and to tighten things up before facing the Cyclones defense.

Zebrowski reflects on past game

During the early part of the season, Kansas was more effective with halftime adjustments and quick scoring drives. But as the schedule progressed, the offense has experienced a drop off after the break. Zebrowski said the bye week was heavily spent asking questions about how to reverse that trend.

“It kind of reiterated the fact that we’re not doing a great job in that third and fourth quarters,” Zebrowski said. “Sometimes it’d be an okay third and then not good fourth or a solid fourth, but that was a bad third or how do you say, bad but not productive. So, trying to figure that out because like I said early on in the season it was really good. Like we come out and score at halftime now. Then all of a sudden we got a little lull of not being able to score when we come out of the locker room and then the Arizona game we didn’t score.”

Zebrowski said the bye week allowed him to take a step back and analyze not only execution, but also what he’s doing as a play-caller. He mentioned that while missed blocks or drops can be easy to point to, he was looking at whether his play call sequencing or situational calls contributed to those stalled drives.

He went into detail about it.

“So that’s kind of like the thing to reflect on. There’s so many different ways to look at, like what am I calling things differently than I should be? I always look at myself first going how am I doing this? Am I doing that? So that’s kind of time I reflected on that a lot, just trying to figure out those, how do we keep the momentum going? Because we had some really good end to half type and the Oklahoma State game was great. But then after that went back to like had a little lull and then bounced back in the fourth quarter. So just trying to figure that thing out.”

Part of Zebrowski’s process included going through detailed drive sheets, analyzing down-and-distance tendencies, pacing of calls, and where momentum appeared to shift. He said it was essential to view the film and look at coaching decisions, execution, and defensive adjustments—to find answers.

“I look at the play calling; I look at the play by play and yards to go sequences,” he said. “Do I move this or called that or got to get this good opportunity or however. There’s so many different ways to go about it. That’s what I always get because it’s easier to say, we missed this block or we dropped this pass or we made a bad throw or return. I’m like, well, if I could have done this differently, what would I have done? What could I have done?”

Preparing for Iowa State’s 3-3-5 defense

As Kansas prepares to travel to Ames, Zebrowski said the challenge posed by Iowa State’s defense is familiar. Defensive coordinator Jon Heacock’s system has long been the blueprint for the three-high safety look that spread through the Big 12 and the rest of college football. With injuries on the back end, the Cyclones have remained steady.

“You know I’m really impressed with their defense,” he said. “They’ve got injuries in the back end. You know they had some injuries and they keep playing well and that’s just really impressive because obviously they kind of started that whole drop eight, rush 3 variation version that people kind of built kind of. I remember what years ago watching like I kind of felt like they might have done that to keep Oklahoma down back in the day who tried to slow those off tempo teams type down.”

Zebrowski said Heacock’s scheme forces offenses to be patient. Iowa State rarely gives up explosive plays, forcing opponents to string long drives together. That approach, combined with a physical front, makes the Cyclones a challenge to prepare for.

“They did a great job of it and then everybody kind of piggybacked and jumped on that deal,” Zebrowski said of the 3-3-5 defense. “But I see a group of guys like this, those guys are physical, tough kids. You know the linebacking corps always kind of their strength. Those are tough guys that just play hard downhill and the kind of guy that I’m sure a coach there wants to have.”

Zebrowski complimented their secondary—despite recent injuries—for staying sound and avoiding mistakes that could lead to big plays.

“In the back end they are fundamentally sound and solid,” he said. “Just don’t give up big plays. They did a really good job of making you drive and drive. They will bend somewhat. They do their darndest not break and make you drive 10, 12, 14, 16 plays are not always the easiest so it’s kind of similar.”