Compared to Kansas University’s helter-skelter football recruiting season, signing day was downright serene.
KU coach Terry Allen who, like most of his staff, was on the road just about every allowable day to make up for being short-handed announced his fifth recruiting class on Wednesday.
It numbered 26 players, including: nine junior college transfers; five offensive linemen, but just one high schooler at that position; six linebackers; and three defensive backs, including a juco transfer.
What it did not include was much in the way of surprises. There were no last-minute commits and decommits, no moments of did-he-or-didn’t-he-sign anticipation spent hovering over the fax machine.
That’s not to say Allen didn’t hover.
“Some of it had to do with the excitement of having it done,” Allen said, “but I woke up at 4 o’clock this morning and found myself sitting by the fax machine at 6 a.m. But we did get all 19 signed today for a total of 26.”
It would have been 27, but DeShawn Spivey, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound defensive end from Kansas City Washington High who had orally committed to Kansas, hadn’t met NCAA initial-eligibility guidelines.
“Four guys in this group have to qualify,” Allen said. “But they’re all very, very close. One guy had a 67 and needs a 68. One has an 800 and needs an 820. There’s one name not on this list. We’re not going to sign somebody who we thought wasn’t going to qualify. But if he makes a giant leap in the next testing period, we have a scholarship available.”
In the offseason, the Jayhawks targeted offensive line and linebacker as the areas of greatest need for improvement.
That explains the four juco linemen and three juco linebackers who enrolled at KU at semester.
“With the disappointment of last year’s season, having to overcome that, this is an outstanding class,” Allen said. “This group is an excellent fit for us.”
The Jayhawks had plenty to overcome in recruiting. Allen has had four straight losing seasons, and his job security has become an issue. And Kansas didn’t have a full contingent of coaches. Allen dismissed two aides at the end of last season, and a third left. Then a fourth, Darrell Wyatt, left for Oklahoma State, and Allen has hired just two replacements.
But Allen said the only effect of that was in the amount of time the staff had to spend away from home.
“We immediately hired two coaches,” he said. “With the cost-containment issues we have today, you can only have seven on the road at one time. Myself included, that’s eight full-time people on the road. So, we had a full complement on the road at all times.
“(But) it taxed the coaches on staff because we were on the road all the time.”
Kansas football coach Terry Allen
Allen insisted his lack of a defensive coordinator didn’t hurt his recruiting efforts.
“It’s not really an issue in kids’ minds,” he said. “It’s not important to them. They just want to play football.”
Allen reiterated that he would assume the role of offensive coordinator and said he hoped to be close to naming a defensive coordinator.
Allen tried to lure former Chiefs’ assistant Kurt Schottenheimer to KU, but Schottenheimer instead opted to join his brother, Marty, with the Washington Redskins.
“We tried to get Kurt Schottenheimer hired,” Allen said. “But blood is thicker than water. That took longer than I had hoped. I’d like to think we’d be done with that process very, very shortly, within the next week. That’s an area I guarded some time on it. I wanted to get the best person we could get. I decided time wasn’t as important as getting the best person was.”
Allen’s greatest regret about his latest recruiting class is that is includes just two high school linemen, one on each side. Allen remains high on red-shirt freshmen defensive linemen Travis Watkins, David McMillan and Clarence Laws, but Allen would have liked to add more high school offensive linemen.
“We felt we needed to get the best and strongest in the offensive line,” Allen said. “When you get four from junior college, you’re not going to get a lot of high school ones to fall in with that.”
Of the nine juco players who signed, seven already are on campus. The two who won’t report until fall are punter Curtis Ansel and cornerback Remuise Johnson.