If only all of Tyler Lawrence’s games in the town that bears his name could go this smoothly, the Kansas University football program would be on its way to the top of the Big 12 Conference and beyond.
Lawrence, a senior quarterback with an accurate left-handed throw and efficient feet, made an oral commitment to attend KU next fall on a football scholarship. His sneak preview couldn’t have gone better for him or much worse for Free State High on Thursday night at Haskell Stadium.
Lawrence didn’t throw a pass in the second half of Shawnee Mission West’s 52-7 victory over the Firebirds because the game already was won.
Lawrence, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound winner, had shown by halftime he had Division I ability. By then, he had completed five of eight passes for 144 yards and three touchdowns. The completions were to five different receivers. For the game, he rushed for 45 yards and one touchdown.
His first touchdown pass, a 60-yard completion, was to brother Blake Lawrence, a junior of whom Tyler said, “I’m hoping he comes to KU with me to play linebacker.”
Lawrence will join a program that already has a heavy favorite to start the next three seasons, the next four if Kerry Meier keeps his redshirt on all season. This wasn’t lost on Lawrence, whose grade-point average is 4.3 on a 4.0 scale.
“I didn’t consider that at all,” Lawrence said of Meier’s presence. “I’m sure he’ll be the starter. I have a lot to learn and I hope he can teach me some things.”
Watching a high school player perform in a one-sided game isn’t the easiest way to evaluate how he’ll do in the Big 12. Still, the lefty showed a lot of poise on those rare instances the Firebirds were able to bring some heat. And he did have a nice knack for cutting to open space with the football tucked safely under his arm. He doesn’t possess a cannon, but he throws an accurate ball down the field and would have had one more long touchdown pass if not for a drop. As Brian Luke can tell him, that happens.
Lawrence said coaches from Kansas State and Maryland called him. Harvard and Yale also tried to persuade him to commit. He said staying close to home and joining “an up-and-coming program” were factors in his decision to become a Jayhawk.
The biggest reason?
“Coach Mangino’s a great guy,” Lawrence said of Mark Mangino, who didn’t have to promise to name the town after the QB to get him to commit. “He had by far the most personality of any coach I ever met. We talked about a lot of things, not just football.”
Many linebackers and safeties, receivers and running backs, tight ends and kickers who dot college rosters were quarterbacks in high school.
Lawrence, who has completed 16 of 25 passes for 341 yards and seven touchdowns and has not thrown an interception, said he was recruited “purely as a quarterback.”
“They said I would be a pocket passer,” he said with a smile. “That’s kind of funny since we don’t pass much and when we do I’m always on the run. I have a lot to learn.”
He has no shortage of learning tools, from humility to a fertile brain to active feet that stay planted when they’re supposed to and don’t shuffle out of panic.
