Kansas University’s football team has received National Letters of Intent from 25 incoming players in what coach Mark Mangino called his best recruiting class on paper, KU announced on Wednesday’s national signing day.
“We have helped ourselves in many, many areas,” Mangino said. “Based on our evaluations and studying the background of these players, we believe each and every one of them have an opportunity to help us at some point and time during their career.”
Twenty of the 21 recruits expected to sign with the Jayhawks did send a LOI to Kansas, along with four other surprise recruits in a class ranked 48th in the nation by rivals.com.
The only expected signee who didn’t join the Jayhawks was running back Aaron Brown, who instead joined Texas Christian. Brown, rated as a two-star prospect by rivals.com, was KU’s only expected running back commitment, but was replaced by fellow Texan Angus Quigley, who rushed for more than 1,400 yards his senior season.
Other unexpected signees for KU included linebacker/athlete Arist Wright, lineman Jonathan Throneberry (who chose Kansas over attending Northeastern Oklahoma A&M as a precursor to Oklahoma) and defensive lineman Darius Warner (who told rivals.com that he plans on attending Butler County Community College for two years before joining the Jayhawks).
Kansas landed four in-state players, led by quarterback Kerry Meier. Other Kansans who will join the Jayhawks for next season are Caleb Blakelsey, Darrell Stuckey and Adam Welty.
The only other surprises for the Jayhawks were defensive back Tang Bacheyie and kicker Alex Hanson.
Bacheyie signed with the Jayhawks before the 2003 season, but never joined the team because of an injury and academic issues. Mangino said Wednesday that Bacheyie now is attending Kansas and ready to play football, though.
Junior college players Marcus Anderson, Paul Como, Jake Cox, Brian Murph, Eric Washington and Wayne Wilder already had signed with the Jayhawks and will participate in spring practice.
– See tonight’s 6News broadcasts and Thursday’s Journal-World and KUsports.com for a full story on KU’s recruiting class. Information from rivals.com was used in this report.
KU’s expected 2005 signees