LAWRENCE — Devin Neal knows he’s viewed as a steadying presence for the Kansas football team.

Neal, a Lawrence native, is a senior running back. He returned for one more year not just as one of the best at his position the program has ever had, but a valued leader. So, as the Jayhawks (1-2) have worked in recent days to bounce back from back-to-back losses, it should come as no surprise he’s one of the leaders with whom assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes took time to meet this week.

They’re trying to find solutions, not point fingers, to fix the issues that saw the offensive side of the ball struggle at times against Illinois at UNLV. They’re attempting to get back in sync. This type of intentional conversation isn’t something that was common last year, Neal explained, but he’s liked it, and it could help Kansas regain some of the momentum it’s lost ahead of Saturday’s Big 12 Conference game against West Virginia (1-2).

Kansas football will look to enjoy similar momentum-building moment against West Virginia

“I think it was well-needed, not only to talk schematically but to talk about what we need more from our leaders,” Neal said. “When you can have those type of talks, it shows a lot of growth, it shows a lot of maturity, and really, you just lay everything out there.”

Grimes, in his first year with the program, compared these talks he has from time to time to the ones head coach Lance Leipold holds with the team’s overall leadership group. Sometimes Grimes meets with individuals, while others times it’ll be a group. With how many veterans Kansas’ offense has, Neal thinks they’re capable of having mature conversations and responding well to them.

Both of the past two defeats have seen Kansas struggle with turnover issues and fail to put together game-winning drives in the fourth quarter. Regarding the former, Grimes said redshirt junior quarterback Jalon Daniels — who’s thrown six interceptions — was just trying to make a play and wasn’t able to. Regarding the latter, Grimes said like many things, it comes down to a lack of consistency.

Right now, Grimes thinks there's a lot they're doing well in practice but not carrying over enough into games. Over this past weekend, he dove into how he can better put players in position to have success. One thing that could change is Grimes, who has called the games from the field so far, switching spots with co-offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski and move upstairs.

Grimes explained both he and Zebrowski are comfortable at either place, but there could be benefits from the change. Grimes notes he could potentially get a better view of things, and Zebrowski, who works with the quarterbacks, could be on the field to be alongside Daniels. It might be a part of the answer for this team, which saw its players talk this week about how they still have goals that are attainable.

“Our mind needs to shift into, ‘We can still win the Big 12 championship,’” senior offensive lineman Bryce Cabeldue said. “Just because we’re 1-2 right now doesn’t mean that they can count us out. Us finding new ways to becoming better and better every single day is what we’re trying to do.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Can Kansas football's offense find its form against West Virginia?