Beaty chooses trio of Jayhawks for media days

By Matt Tait     Jul 6, 2015

The Big 12 Conference on Monday announced the names of the athletes who will represent their universities at Big 12 football media days later this month.

Kansas University will be sending senior defensive end Ben Goodman, junior offensive lineman Jordan Shelley-Smith and sophomore tight end Ben Johnson to represent the Jayhawks at the two-day event July 20-21 in Dallas.

It has long been considered an honor to be selected to represent your team at the media frenzy that draws scores of print, television and online reporters from all over Big 12 country, and even though two of the three Jayhawks headed south have yet to play major roles for Kansas, both Johnson and Shelley-Smith are projected starters and figure to be key parts of the offense in 2015.

Goodman, who hails from Beaumont, Texas, has played in 35 games during his KU career and been an important but somewhat overshadowed part of the Jayhawks’ defense since his red-shirt freshman season.

As a senior, Goodman will be counted on not only for leadership but also to be the face of a defense that will look to replace nearly every starter from a 2014 group that finished in the middle of the pack in the conference in most statistical categories.

It’s a lot to ask of any group of players let alone a single player, but the charismatic Goodman, who just seems to keep improving year after year, is not likely to shy away from what he believes is his time.

First-year KU coach David Beaty will join the trio in Dallas, which will mark Beaty’s first official order of business for the 2015 season.

Here’s the rest of the lineup for the nine other Big 12 schools headed to media days later this month:

Baylor: head coach Art Briles, DL Andrew Billings, WR Corey Coleman, OL Spencer Drango, DE Shawn Oakman; Iowa State: head coach Paul Rhoads, WR Quenton Bundrage, QB Sam B. Richardson, DB Sam E. Richardson; Kansas State: head coach Bill Snyder, DB Dante Burnett, DB Morgan Burns, OL Cody Whitehair; Oklahoma: head coach Bob Stoops, OL Ty Darlington, QB Trevor Knight, WR Sterling Shepard, LB Eric Striker; Oklahoma State: head coach Mike Gundy, WR David Glidden, LB Seth Jacobs, DE Emmanuel Ogbah, CB Kevin Peterson; TCU: head coach Gary Patterson, QB Trevone Boykin, OL Joey Hunt, S Derrick Kindred, DE James McFarland; Texas: head coach Charlie Strong, CB Duke Thomas, RB Jonathan Gray, OL Taylor Doyle; Texas Tech: head coach Kliff Kingsbury, OL Jared Kaster, DL Branden Jackson, RB DeAndre Washington; West Virginia: head coach Dana Holgorsen, S Karl Joseph, LB Nick Kwiatkoski, OL Tyler Orlosky, RB Wendell Smallwood.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.