The departure of a successful coach rarely bodes well for a college football program. Central Michigan, which lost coach Brian Kelly to Cincinnati last December, will try to overcome its coach’s departure in its game against Kansas on Saturday.

Butch Jones stepped into the Central Michigan coaching job in January. He recently coached the wide receivers at West Virginia for two seasons. Before that, he worked as Central Michigan’s offensive coordinator from 1998 to 2004.

The offenses he helped construct at Central Michigan and West Virginia gained yardage and scored with ease. His involvement in such successful offenses has earned him the respect of many of Kansas’ players and coaches.

“I see it as a challenging first game,” coach Mark Mangino said. “We have really no idea exactly what they’re going to do on offense or defense or special teams because it’s the first time this staff is together. We are preparing for everything — everything you could see on offense, defense or the kicking game.”

Central Michigan’s entire offensive coaching staff arrived from different schools this offseason and that could make the Chippewas tough to scout. Last season, offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian coached for the Chicago Bears, wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni coached at Bowling Green and running backs coach Jeff Beckles coached the Georgia Southern receiving game. Throw in Jones’ work at West Virginia and Central Michigan’s staff has quite the eclectic portfolio.

“It’s hard to say what to expect from them,” junior defensive end Russell Brorsen said. “We’re expecting them to be uptempo and a really good team. They were very good last year, and we expect them to be once again.”

Uptempo does not begin to describe the West Virginia offenses Jones co-authored for the past two seasons. The team ran a versatile offense out of a spread formation and relied on an elite running attack and an effective deep passing game.

Central Michigan does not have the same caliber of weaponry as West Virginia, but Jones has plenty of talent to work with. The Chippewas return all of the top skill players from a squad that finished 10-4 and won the MAC Championship last season.

“On the offensive side of the ball, they have an outstanding quarterback in Dan LeFevour,” Mangino said. “He threw for over 3,000 yards last year, but not only that, he’s capable of running the ball. He can escape the pocket very easily; he’s big and quick.”

LeFevour is one of the most promising young quarterbacks in college football. He earned MAC Freshman of the Year last season and posted a stellar 26-to-10 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Junior running back Ontario Sneed and sophomore wide receiver Bryan Anderson are LeFevour’s favorite targets. In 2006, Sneed battled injuries but caught 52 passes out of the backfield. The 6-foot-5 Anderson enjoyed a sensational freshman campaign, securing 73 receptions last season.

Despite Central Michigan coming off a conference championship and a bowl victory, some media and fans have been quick to dismiss the Chippewas as non-BCS conference pushovers. But Mangino said he thought Central Michigan deserved more credit.

“We have respect for Central Michigan and the people in our office, the team and the players do too,” Mangino said. “If anybody’s underestimating Central Michigan, they aren’t in this building.”

It remains to be seen whether Butch Jones will help the Chippewas build on last season’s success. On Saturday, Kansas will be the first to find out.

— Edited by Meghan Murphy