KU football lands two more juco standouts, one high school receiver

By Matt Tait     Dec 14, 2012

Fort Scott Community College photo
Fort Scott Community College cornerback Kevin Short, who, Friday, Dec. 14, orally committed to play football at Kansas University next season.

Add another junior-college All-American to the list of Kansas University football commitments in the Class of 2013.

First-team NJCAA All-American Kevin Short, a cornerback at Fort Scott Community College, joined the party on Friday by orally committing to KU.

Short, 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, chose the Jayhawks over Arkansas, Houston, Louisiana Tech, LSU, Mississippi State and Syracuse.

The three-star prospect becomes the third cornerback — and fourth defensive back — in the 2013 class to commit to Kansas, joining juco standouts Isaiah Johnson, Dexter McDonald and Cassius Sendish.

Safeties coach Clint Bowen was the lead recruiter for Short, who hails from Florissant, Mo., and, this season, became Fort Scott’s career leader in interceptions with eight.

“Me and coach Bowen got to be real close,” Short told Jon Kirby of JayhawkSlant.com. “He always called me and stayed in touch. You could tell he cared and he will take care of me.”

Short will graduate from FSCC in May and report to KU this summer.

Short was not the only prospect to make a commitment Friday. The Jayhawks also picked up pledges from two wide receivers. Garden City C.C. wide receiver Rodriguez Coleman, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound three-star prospect who had originally committed to Cincinnati, gave the nod to Kansas, and Friday night, JayhawkSlant.com reported that Holmdel, N.J., high school wide receiver Ishmael Hyman, a 6-foot, 169-pound three-star prospect, had chosen KU.

Coleman, according to JayhawkSlant.com, had planned to make his way to Cincinnati after his two-year juco stint, which began at Fort Scott. However, a few weeks ago, Coleman reopened his recruitment and schools like KU, K-State and others started to call.

Bowen also was the lead recruiter for Coleman, who canceled a weekend visit to Kansas State and, despite recent interest from new Tennessee coach Butch Jones, formerly at Cincinnati, seems solid with the Jayhawks.

“Coach Bowen did an awesome job recruiting me,” Coleman told Kirby. “He came in and got to know me well. I felt like he got to know me on a personal level and not just about football.”

Wide receivers coach Rob Ianello was the lead recruiter for Hyman and the prep standout told Kirby that the recent flurry of commitments to KU inspired him to finalize his own. Hyman was also considering Old Dominion and Purdue and said he plans to sign with Kansas in February and report to campus next summer.

Friday’s three additions bring the number of oral commitments in KU’s current class to 22 — 15 juco prospects and seven high school athletes.

Of those junior-college players, three — Coleman and Short, along with four-star defensive tackle Marquel Combs, who tapped KU earlier this week — began their college careers together at Fort Scott. The upcoming reunion was not lost on Combs, the leader of KU’s #DreamTeam2013 Twitter movement, who hit the social media site on Friday to celebrate the news.

“I got both of my dawgs with me at KU,” wrote Combs, referencing Short and Coleman. “Just like (the) Fort Scott days!”

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.