Do the Jayhawks have a capable offensive line this season?

The five blockers up front should at least look significantly unlike many of the ineffective units that came before them, in terms of girth alone.

With that as a jumping-off point, KU’s coaches and players, while avoiding declaring O-line prosperity a certainty, are willing to say on record that this year’s group will be better than the 2017 version.

With transfers such as senior Alex Fontana (6-foot-2, 300 pounds; Houston), junior Api Mane (6-3, 327; College of San Mateo), senior Dwayne Wallace (6-4, 325; Cal), junior Kevin Feder (6-9, 300; Ohio State) and junior Adagio Lopeti (6-4, 320; College of San Mateo) joining the offensive line over the past several months, the unit entrusted with protecting the QB and creating openings for KU’s running backs suddenly looks much larger and older.

Nick Krug

That occurrence on its own seems to have everyone within the program encouraged, including Bender.

“Our O-line has looked better than they have previously,” the QB said recently. “Coach (A.J.) Ricker’s doing a great job with them.”

Now, the O-linemen that KU redshirt senior defensive tackle Daniel Wise battles during preseason practices have the appearance of the ones he sees within the Big 12.

The whole mentality of the group, coached by new KU assistant Ricker, has changed noticeably, according to Wise. It’s not uncommon at practices for the O-line, which also includes key returning members junior Hakeem Adeniji (6-4, 300), redshirt sophomore Malik Clark (6-4, 320), sophomore Chris Hughes (6-3, 310) and junior Andru Tovi (6-3, 320), to keep playing 5 or 10 seconds after the whistle blows.

“Oh, yeah. They’re making their statement,” Wise said of something he noticed starting from the first day of preseason camp. “Not easy guys to push around. They look the part. They’re true dogs in the trenches.”

Before Ricker joined David Beaty’s staff as the new offensive line coach, KU surrendered 92 tackles for loss and 29 sacks in 2017, while finishing last in the Big 12 in total offense (329 yards per game). Ricker doesn’t just expect marked improvement from his group this fall. He said taking a big step forward would be “very realistic,” despite the inadequacies of previous KU O-lines.

“I took this job with knowing a lot of that and wanting to fix it. Obviously, I feel like I can fix it,” Ricker said.

The position coach thinks one of the best parts of coming in new will be his ability to help players overcome adversity when it inevitably comes in one form or another.

“It’s not ‘Here we go again.’ We’re starting all over,” Ricker said.

A complete reboot registers as crucial, given the state of the O-line this past spring, when eight different players up front suffered injuries that kept them from fully practicing. The Jayhawks couldn’t even scrimmage due to the dearth of available bodies along the O-line.

Four months later, the situation comes across completely different.

“I think it’s the most experienced group that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” redshirt junior QB Carter Stanley said. “Because we’ve got older guys that are coming back just a year older, and then, obviously, we’ve got a lot of juco guys and some grad transfer guys. But I think it’s been a lot of good work. I’ve seen a lot of guys do some great jobs.”

Sophomore Miles Kendrick said KU’s quarterbacks have appreciated the drastic change in depth this preseason.

“Just being here in the spring and just experiencing that, I mean, I can say it’s almost 10 times better,” Kendrick said of the state of the O-line, “no matter what five are in there. There’s a sense of leadership with some of those guys, and some toughness. Just some ballers. It’s been looking really good.”

KU offensive coordinator Doug Meacham said the line needed an influx of older, stronger players.

“I think a little bit of what happened to us last year is we were just kind of outmanned up front a little bit,” Meacham said. “I think we’ll be a lot better there, without question, as of today.”

The coaches, though cautious in their optimism, project KU’s offensive line not only to bear the physical resemblance of an upgraded unit, but also to play more effectively than recent O-lines in the program.

“One of the reasons, in all fairness,” Beaty said, “is that they’re older. They’re more developed. Their bodies are bigger. They’re stronger. There’s two years more of bone density on them, and (weight) lifting. Some of them three, some of them one, but most of them two or three years of bone density. That makes a big difference.”

A depth chart ahead of KU’s Sept. 1 opener versus Nicholls State has not yet been made public. Whatever the new combination of starting O-linemen turns out to be, Beaty said the group will “play with a little bit more power” than blockers did on his first three teams.

“In fairness, the guys in the past were fairly young and they had to be called on to play a lot early,” Beaty added. “The good news is, watching those young guys that are here with us still, like the Hakeems and the Chris Hugheses, they look like them, too, which is good. That’s good.”