Why Lance Leipold wanted to hire Jim Panagos, and what it means for Kansas’ coaching staff

LAWRENCE — With the onset of February came a revived interest in recruiting for college football fan bases across the country, but it also came with the announcement of a coaching staff change for Kansas.

Jayhawks head coach Lance Leipold announced Tuesday the program had hired Jim Panagos as the team’s defensive tackles coach. And Wednesday, as Leipold spoke with reporters about the prospects Kansas added, he also explained the reasoning for the move and what it means for his staff as a whole.

“When looking at the earlier changes we made following the end of the regular season, continued to analyze our situation, it just resonated to me back — what I initially wanted to do,” Leipold said. “… When we made some of our biggest improvements at our last job was when we had two defensive line coaches. And having Taiwo (Onatolu) coaching the defensive ends, which he’s experienced in doing, and then bringing in Jim to coach our defensive tackles, was something I felt was going to be a great opportunity for us. And through that process, knowing that we’d have great alignment within our defensive staff room, this would benefit our players.”

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With as many guys as Kansas had last season on the defensive line, the 2021-22 roster listing 18 online as either a lineman or end and Leipold estimating between 16 to 20, Leipold indicated having one defensive line coach spreads that coach too thin. Leipold brought up breaking down one-on-one film, scout film and opponent film. He said this will improve players’ development, engagement and alignment with what the Jayhawks are looking to do schematically.

Panagos joins Kansas after spending a couple of seasons at Rutgers, and he has spent time coaching both in college and professionally in the NFL. According to Kansas’ release Tuesday, Panagos has coached more than 20 future NFL players. During his time at Temple in 2017, he was nominated for the Broyles Award.

“Shoot, I don’t know how many years I’ve known Jim now,” Leipold said. “I met him when he was at the University of Minnesota. He came to Buffalo to one of our camps. I was highly impressed.”

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Jake Schoonover, the special teams coordinator this past season, is moving to an off-field analyst role that’ll keep Kansas at 10 on-field assistants. Leipold said Schoonover will still be involved with the coordination of the special teams. Leipold, who praised Schoonover’s efforts in recruiting and relationship-development with high school coaches in Missouri and Kansas, added Schoonover will become the Jayhawks’ director of high school relations.

“(Schoonover) can spend more time with that,” Leipold said, “and expand that role more and add to our recruiting staff in that way that I feel will benefit our program for the long term.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.