If Jerome Kemp makes an impact on Kansas University’s football team, it won’t be as a running back.
KU coach Mark Mangino said Wednesday the red-shirt freshman had been moved to safety.
“We think we needed some help there, depth more than anything,” Mangino said. “It’s something he wanted to do. He came to us, and we thought it was a good idea.”
Kemp (5-foot-9, 200 pounds) was an all-state running back and defensive back at Wichita Southeast. He picked KU over Kansas State, Missouri, Michigan State and Colorado.
Rivals.com rated him as the nation’s No. 31 cornerback prospect as a senior, but he wanted to play running back in college. After sitting out last season, he battled sophomore Clark Green for the No. 1 spot at tailback during spring drills.
Green kept his starting job in preseason camp, and freshman John Randle — Kemp’s former Southeast teammate — took over the backup role.
Since making the move Monday, Kemp has worked out at free safety and strong safety. Mangino said he was leaning toward using the freshman at strong safety.
“He’s strong. He’s fast and a very intelligent young guy,” Mangino said. “In just a couple days he’s started to pick things up. How much he’ll get on the field we don’t know, but if we feel like he has a decent understanding we’ll put him out there.”
Mangino said Kemp was eager to contribute after being used strictly on special teams through three games.
“He’s on a crash course,” Mangino said. “Since we made this move we can’t keep him out of the office. He’s been in there watching tape and asking all kinds of questions. He wants to do it. He’s eager, and that’s a good sign.”
Kemp’s move makes senior Harold McClendon KU’s No. 3 tailback. McClendon has three carries for 14 yards and one catch for 12 yards.
Kemp could bolster a secondary that’s seen red-shirt freshman free safety Jonathan Lamb and junior strong safety Tony Stubbs play the majority of downs in all three games.
Sophomore Rodney Fowler had been expected to challenge Lamb at free safety, but the transfer was set back by a “little injury” during preseason practices and has been limited to special-teams duties. That could change soon.
“He’s really picking up steam,” Mangino said. “In fact, I told him today I noticed he’s getting bigger and stronger. He’s starting to get a feel for our defense. We expect that as time goes by he’ll play more and more.”
In other injury news, Mangino said defensive tackle Chuck Jones definitely would play in Saturday night’s home game against Jacksonville State, but the coach was uncertain how much the junior would be able to contribute.
Jones started in the season opener but suffered an undisclosed injury. He played sparingly the following week against UNLV and did not play last Saturday at Wyoming.