Kevin Long hopped in his Acura coupe last August, waved goodbye to family and friends, and with belongings in tow, embarked on a 51/2-hour drive from Coralville, Iowa, to his new home Kansas University.

“When I got here,” Long said of his thoughts as he pulled into the parking lot at Jayhawker Towers, “I said to myself, ‘Yeah, this is going to be fun.’ A couple weeks later I found out it’s a lot of work.”

Long chose KU over finalists Iowa, Iowa State and Illinois after throwing for 2,178 yards and 21 touchdowns in two high school seasons.

He carried himself confidently during three days of basic training with his fellow Kansas freshmen. But Long was in for the shock of his life the first day KU veterans reported, quickly discovering his 6-foot-5, 185-pound body was not ready for prime time, major college football.

J-W File Photo

“I thought I was ready to play at this level, but when I got out there on the field … it’s a big difference from what I thought it’d be,” Long said. “When we started practicing with the varsity team for two-a-days, I found out I wasn’t a great player like I thought I was.”

In fact …

“I thought I made a mistake,” he said of his decision to attend Kansas.

Long’s dreams of contributing as a first-year player evaporated into the air like sweat off his brow during an unbelievably hot Kansas preseason camp.

“Two-a-days was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” Long said. “In high school you have a week of it. Here it’s something like 18 days in that heat.

“I discovered the first couple weeks the mental part of the game is probably 100 times larger in college. The physical demands are a lot more 10 times. As far as being stronger and bigger, it’s a must. There are not too many undersized players in Div. I football. The game goes a lot faster.”

During the first week of two-a-days, Long realized his immediate future at KU would consist of red-shirting, that is, practicing his first year with no chance to play in games.

True … almost all freshmen football players red-shirt wide out J.T. Thompson was the only Jayhawk freshman to play last season but that doesn’t ease the shock of being told one must sit out a full season.

“No matter what anybody says, it’s hard going from being THE person at their high school somebody people look up to to being just the average person on the practice field and sometimes below the average person because you are new,” Long said. “That’s a hard adjustment.”

KU coach Terry Allen tries to gently break the red-shirt news to his rookies.

“It’s one of the most difficult things (of being a coach),” Allen said of being the bearer of the red-shirt news.

“All freshmen at one time go through the frustration and disappointment of being all-world in high school to being scout team in college. The kids handle it in different ways. Some guys go through the frustration the first week of the season, some the last week of spring ball. We spend a lot of time talking about it and a lot of time keeping our red-shirt freshmen together as a group.

“In Kevin’s case, he’s like 95 percent of the others that have visions of grandeur playing and making a major contribution in their first year.

“You find out you have to climb the ladder.”

Long believes he did just a so-so job of responding during his red-shirt season.

He excelled in the weight room, putting on 35 pounds during his first school year.

“Yes, it’s tough,” he said of 6 a.m. weight training sessions held four days a week. “In high school, lifting weights is almost optional. You don’t have somebody in your face getting after you. Here it is not optional. You lift. After lifting, you can go back to bed for an hour, but you have to be in class by 8:30. If you miss a class, you run the next day at 6 a.m. We take academics seriously here.”

Long says he struggled somewhat first semester while enrolled in 12 hours of classwork.

He did much better second semester while tackling a 15-hour load.

“First semester, I didn’t concentrate as much as I should have,” Long said. “Second semester I did better. It’s not really harder than high school. You just have to take notes and focus more. You have to communicate a lot more with the professors. They will not come to you. You go to them.

“We have great academic support. There are a lot of people at KU making sure you are on top of things, especially with the freshmen. They meet with us once a week for tutoring sessions. Miss a tutoring session, you run.”

Long did a lot of running in high school.

He ran the 400-meter dash for the West High track team after participating in football in the fall and basketball in the winter.

“I miss the competition,” he said of track. “It’s been a year since I’ve had any actual competition.”

Long missed competition so much, he joined KU’s track team for a brief spell this spring. He left the squad after suffering a minor injury.

“It’s something I might try again … definitely,” he said.

His focus now is the upcoming summer.

“If I am ever going to see the field, I am going to have to put in my time,” Long said. “Watching film, studying film, studying the game. I’m going to work out trying to get on the field next season.”

He’ll be battling junior Zach Dyer, fellow red-shirt frosh Mario Kinsey and others for playing time.

“I think I can compete for the job,” he said. “It’s all about putting in the work and I am going to work my butt off.”

Allen believes Long will contribute at KU.

“Kevin learned this year what it’s like to be a freshman playing major college football,” Allen said. “Not by any means are we disappointed in Kevin. We think he has a great future. It takes time. I think he came to that realization.”

Indeed … “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Long said.

He leaves KU this week as he arrived, re-loading the Acura for the drive home. He’ll be back for summer school and workouts in June.

“It’s a little more beat up now than it was … hauling around the other freshmen who don’t have cars,” Long said with a laugh.

He has some advice for next year’s crop of freshmen who will be reporting to camp this summer.

“Be humble,” he said. “You will become humbled either way, but it’s better coming in knowing you are going to have to probably red-shirt and have to have a year to mature mentally and physically. Be ready for that and be ready to work hard.”