Lance Leipold and Kansas have reportedly added a veteran presence to the offensive side of the ball for the Jayhawks.
247 shares that John DeFilippo has joined the staff as an analyst working with the quarterbacks.
A coaching veteran, DeFilippo has well over a decade of experience working in the NFL and has worked with a number of different teams as their quarterbacks coach as well as offensive coordinator stops in the league with the Browns (2015) and Vikings (2018) as well as a stint with the Bears as their pass game coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2021.
That 2021 campaign was his most recent stop in the NFL, as he spent the 2023 season as the head coach for the New Orleans Breakers of the short-lived USFL and in 2024 served as the head coach of the Memphis Showboats of the UFL. He went 7-3 with the Breakers, finishing second in the USFL South Division and was 2-8 in his lone season leading the Showboats following the merger of the USFL and XFL to create the United Football League (UFL).
DeFilippo's stops in the NFL coaching quarterbacks include time spent with the Oakland Raiders, New York Jets (as assistant quarterbacks coach), Philadelphia Eagles, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Chicago Bears.
He spent the 2010 and 2011 seasons at San Jose State, starting off as quarterbacks coach before being elevated to offensive coordinator for his second season with the program working under the direction of Mike McIntyre. That year as the offensive coordinator, he helped to engineer an impressive offensive turnaround, as they improved from 1-12 to 5-7 overall, which opened the door for a return to the NFL for him.
At Kansas, DeFilippo joins a Jayhawks program that has went 5-7 in each of the past two seasons, following a breakout 9-4 campaign in 2023. Leipold is entering his sixth season in Lawrence, has taken the Jayhawks to a pair of bowl games and finished ranked among the top 25 once since taking over.
This off season, Leipold brought former Jayhawks offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki back to the program as associate head coach and offensive coordinator after he previously left to become the offensive coordinator for James Franklin at Penn State. The Kotelnicki addition shifted Jim Zebrowski from offensive play caller back to quarterbacks, a role he had held since arriving as part of the staff in 2021.
Zebrowski and DeFilippo working with the quarterbacks will join an impressive offensive staff that also include Matt Lubick, as well as Bill Queisert, who rejoined the staff from Penn State as well as he will serve as assistant offensive line coach.
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