Termaine Fulton and Byron Gasaway aren’t just back on the Kansas University football team.
They’re back bigger, stronger and faster than they were when injuries forced them to sit out last season as medical red-shirts.
“I worked real hard this summer and put up the best numbers ever,” said Fulton, KU’s 5-foot-10, 188-pound junior wide receiver from Topeka. “I had a position record in the squat, and my vertical went up three inches. I worked really hard to get better.”
“I’ve gotten heavier and stronger, and that should benefit me,” countered Gasaway, a 6-4, 205-pound sophomore wideout from Grandview, Mo. “I’ve gotten a step faster.”
Gasaway’s return has been hampered by a tweaked ankle he suffered on the first day of two-a-day drills, but he’s eager to take the field again after sitting out last season after breaking his jaw in a preseason weight-room accident.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” said Gasaway, who a year ago at this time was restricted to a liquid diet. “I was kind of rusty at the start of the summer, but I got back together with things in 7-on-7 drills. You could see our timing was a lot better. There weren’t a lot of hesitations, and we were getting a lot accomplished.”
Fulton’s injury-induced layoff was drastically different than Gasaway’s. Fulton started the first two games of the 1999 season before suffering a high-ankle sprain while blocking downfield in the second quarter of KU’s rout of Cal State Northridge.
“I came back a little in the spring,” Fulton said, “but it was frustrating. From June to August, I worked very hard to get back. So far, things are going really good. I’m in excellent condition. The ankle’s holding up fine. I feel stronger. My legs are a lot stronger. I’m not even tired.”
The loss of two of KU’s fastest wide receivers last season put a hitch in the Jayhawks’ offensive get-along.
Both speedsters showed big-play potential.
Fulton has started 16 and played in 24 games in his two-plus seasons. He has 41 career receptions for 913 yards with eight touchdowns and an impressive 22.3-yard-per-catch average.
Gasaway played in all 11 games as a true freshman with one start. He had 12 catches for 148 yards and two TDs that year.
Their return has coach Terry Allen eager to start flinging again especially since they’ll be joining a group that includes returning Harrison Hill and speedy junior college transfer Roger Ross.
“We think, if we stay healthy, we’ll be pretty good there,” Allen said. “I fully expect Termaine will be 100 percent of the receiver he was before the injury, and then some. It doesn’t help that Byron has been slowed, because he needs all the snaps he can get. Remember, he was a high school quarterback and we put him at wide receiver and threw him out there and he made plays. He’ll get better as he learns to become a wide receiver, as he learns to use his size and speed.
“And everybody knows what Harrison is capable of, and Roger Ross will contribute. He’s as good as advertised.”
Don’t Fulton and Gasaway know it.
“We’re pretty deep,” Fulton said. “If we stay healthy, we should be pretty good. It’s really competitive. We’re all fighting for a starting position.”
“We’ve got real good depth,” Gasaway added. “That will do nothing but help us out this season. It puts pressure on you, but that’s something I’m looking forward to.”
The Jayhawks will don pads for the first time this preseason today.
“Everybody’s getting anxious to get pads on,” Allen said Monday. “Everybody would like to see what everybody can do from a physical standpoint.”
Though KU likely will hold at least short scrimmages every day, the first major scrimmage of the spring is tentatively slated for Saturday morning. It might take place at Memorial Stadium on the new AstroPlay surface.
“We haven’t scrimmaged at the stadium yet,” Allen said. “We have to break it in sometime.”
