LAWRENCE — Kansas football made the hire of D.K. McDonald official on Thursday.

McDonald, who spent the past few seasons coaching in the professional ranks with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, will return to the college level with the Jayhawks. He’ll do so as KU’s new co-defensive coordinator/cornerbacks coach. And he’ll do so while filling the void left by Jordan Peterson, who left Kansas for a job on the coaching staff at Texas A&M.

“D.K. is a well-respected defensive coach and high-quality person and will be a great fit with our coaching staff and players,” Jayhawks coach Lance Leipold said in a KU release. “D.K. has coached at a very high level and brings great college football, Big 12 and NFL experience and has built great continuity with his staffs throughout his career. We’re excited to welcome D.K., his wife Kayla and their three daughters, Reagan, Margot and Fiona to Lawrence.”

McDonald’s experience in coaching includes extensive time spent mentoring players who operate in the secondary defensively. That goes for his time with the Eagles, where he spent time as assistant defensive backs coach and defensive backs coach. That goes for his time coaching in college, as Leipold mentioned.

At the college level, McDonald had stints at Edinboro (2003-05), Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2006-10), William & Mary (2011), Toledo (2012-15) and Iowa State (2016-20). That latter stint means he’ll bring Big 12 Conference experience to Kansas’ coaching staff. With the Jayhawks, a program that’s coming off of back-to-back bowl game appearances, he’ll look to contribute to the upward trajectory of a program that will feature a pair of All-Big 12 caliber cornerbacks in 2024 — Mello Dotson and Cobee Bryant.

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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: Kansas football hires D.K. McDonald as co-DC, cornerbacks coach