Kansas head coach Les Miles has put a couple more pieces of his staff together with the addition to two new analysts and a director of video operations. Joining the Jayhawk football staff are Jay Niemann as a defensive analyst, Christopher Woods as an analyst, and Alex Knisely as Director of Video Operations.
Niemann spent the past three seasons as a defensive coordinator for Rutgers, and he brings plenty of coaching experience with him to Kansas. Prior to his stint at Rutgers in the Big Ten, Niemann coached the defense at Northern Illinois, Northern Iowa Hardin-Simmons University in Texas, and Drake. He certainly has some familiarity with the landscape of the Big 12, as he played football for Iowa State from 1979-1982.
Woods previously was the defensive coordinator at Columbia, a position he held since 2011. He has also made coaching stops at Bryant University, Harvard, Stonehill College and Mansfield, where he won PSAC Coach of the Year and was named the AFCA Region II coach of the year in 2003, before the university shut the football program down in 2006.
Analysts do not hold any coaching roles on the staff that have any direct coaching of players. Instead, they break down film and help prepare game plans and offer their insight in any way they can.
Kniseley comes to Kansas from Northwestern, where he spent the previous two seasons as an assistant director of video operations.