Kansas City, Mo. ? He hasn’t played a down of college football and already Kerry Meier, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound red-shirt freshman from Pittsburg, is Kansas University’s most-hyped football player. Since he hasn’t taken a snap, it’s too early to call him a leader, yet not too early to predict he’ll be one soon.
“A leader?” echoed James McClinton, a 6-1, 283-pound defensive tackle out of Garland, Texas. “I really don’t know, but we respect him a lot.”
Why the respect for a player who hasn’t so much as handed off in a college game?
“We call him a franchise,” McClinton said, surprised at the question. “Why not respect him? If you try to swat the ball and just touch his hand, coach is going to get on you. This is our player right here. This is our quarterback. This is the man right here. I don’t know leader-wise, but he’s the quarterback of the team, and he’s supposed to be the leader. We’ve also got David Ochoa, the captain, so he’s a leader.”
A coach who waits for a quarterback to be ready before he plays him will wait forever because there is no simulating game action. It’s too risky.
“Get him in the game, he’s going to mess up, let him mess up and make his corrections and probably next game he’s going to have an awesome game,” McClinton said of Meier. “Just let the man go out there and play. That’s what I say.”
McClinton was one of three KU players brought Tuesday to downtown Kansas City to represent the Jayhawks at the Big 12 Conference media days, joining tight end Derek Fine and Ochoa, an offensive lineman.
Said Ochoa, a 6-4, 285-pound senior from Houston: “Kerry Meier is one of the best athletes on our team. He’s one of the fastest. He’s one of the strongest. A lot of people also say he hasn’t taken a snap in a Big 12 game. The kid is an incredible athlete. He never gets too high. He never gets too low. You hear the cliche all the time: The next play is the most important play. Kerry really is the embodiment of that.”
Fine, a 6-3, 245-pound junior from Sallisaw, Okla., was given credit for a touchdown on a disputable catch in the spring game. Meier seemed to like throwing to him.
“He’s got a poise about him,” Fine said of Meier. “His personality allows him to be that way.”
KU coach Mark Mangino’s persistence in getting expanded testing done during physicals resulted in the discovery of a condition that required Meier to have a heart procedure, removing the suspense of whether he would be red-shirted last season. Meier made the most of his time on the sideline, winning a share of the Otto Schnellbacher Award given to the scout team MVP.
“Let’s keep in mind that Kerry has never played a down of college football, but based on what you see, just being around him, first of all, he has the tools that are necessary, the physical tools,” Mangino said. “Size, speed, escapability from the pocket. He has all the mental things that you’re looking for. He’s smart. He’s perceptive. He’s mentally tough. He’s a tremendous competitor.”
Unlike last season, KU has an undisputed starting quarterback around whom the team can rally. That beats split loyalties, and it beats depth of mediocrity.
