Nate Dwyer tried to sneak a peek at his new Kansas University football defensive linemates during newcomers-only practice earlier this week.
On Friday, Dwyer played with them for the first time and could barely contain his glee.
“I only saw them a little bit before, but, wow,” Dwyer said. “They’re picking it up like they already know it. They’re fast, fast and powerful. We should have a great defense, because they’ve got all the tools.”
Dwyer must have felt like the only tool in the shed during the summer. A 6-foot-3, 300-pound junior out of Stillwater, Minn., Dwyer is the only defensive lineman on the KU roster with major-college experience.
Two junior college transfers reported in time to go through spring drills alongside Dwyer, but two red-shirt freshman backups Dijon Dillon, who quit the team, and Lance Carson, who was declared academically ineligible left the team since the end of spring drills.
Then came the main wave of the juco invasion, when Ervin Holloman, John Culp, Demond Benford and De’Nard Whitfield reported for two-a-days.
By Friday, the first day of two-a-day, full-squad drills, the newcomers were quickly thrown on the field.
“This personnel,” Dwyer said, “gets me excited.”
So does the Jayhawks’ new 4-3 defensive alignment. KU experimented with it in the spring, and Dwyer is a convert.
“I love it,” he said. “It’s great for me, because there are two big bodies in the middle instead of just one. It takes the load off me. I won’t get double-teamed all the time anymore. It’ll be tough for teams to run up the middle on us, and we’ve got great speed coming off the corners.”
Who lines up where remains to be seen. But KU coach Terry Allen said Friday the first-string front seven would feature Dwyer and Holloman inside, Whitfield and Chaz Murphy at defensive ends, Algie Atkinson at outside linebacker and Marcus Rogers and Tim Bowers or Dariss Lomax at inside ‘backer.
“It’s still a little early to tell,” Allen said. “Everything’s guesswork at this stage. We haven’t put on pads yet. All you can tell is, you can’t tell anything. But we feel pretty good about it, and we have some flexibility. Some of our inside linebackers can be outside linebackers, some of our outside linebackers can be defensive ends, and some ends can move inside. We’ve got some flexibility and moving around to do. But, we like what we’ve seen so far. Those new guys look like they can really help us.”
Rogers, a 6-1, 235-pound junior, agreed.
“I really feel good about our defensive line,” he said. “We’ve got Nate and some good people around him, and we’ve got a lot of speed off the edge. This is really an exciting time.”
Trainer: Tight end Jason Gulley was writhing in the throes of a full-body cramp, but he was the only Jayhawk so waylaid by high heat and humidity at Friday’s practice.
“We had quite a few guys dehydrated and light-headed,” Allen said. “Unbeknownst to me, this was supposed to be one of the worst days in the last couple of weeks for heat and humidity. Our training staff was really worried.”
Wideout Byron Gasaway tweaked an ankle in Friday’s morning practice, but he returned for the afternoon session.
Upcoming: The Jayhawks will have two practices today, hold a light special-teams workout Sunday, then hold their final practices without pads on Monday. Tuesday will be the first day in full pads.