Now entering his sixth season with the Kansas football program, super-senior Kwamie Lassiter II has seen plenty of receivers come and go through the years. During his interview session at Big 12 media days this week, the veteran leader told reporters what makes some of his current younger teammates stand out.
After teaming up with veteran receivers Andrew Parchment and Stephon Robinson Jr. the past couple of seasons at KU, Lassiter is the lone holdover from the trio as he heads into his final college football season with the Jayhawks, while Parchment left for Florida State and Robinson moved on to Northwestern.
KU’s receiving corps, which also picked up a key addition this summer with Buffalo transfer Trevor Wilson coming in, obviously will need some younger players to step up for the offense in the fall, as well, to supplement the production of the team’s two leading returning receivers, Lassiter (43 receptions, 458 yards, two touchdowns) and sophomore Luke Grimm (19 catches, 255 yards, two TDs).
Among the underclassmen with potential, Lassiter said he “of course” likes sophomore Steven McBride, a wideout who drew the praise of position coach Emmett Jones for his breakthrough spring.
Additionally, Lassiter said true freshman Kelan Robinson, who just arrived on campus this summer, has impressed him.
“He’s a real worker, real mature for his age,” Lassiter said of Robinson, a 6-foot-2, 183-pound Class of 2021 signee from Grand Prairie, Texas. “And all he wants to do is get better at his game. He wants to improve every part of his game, on and off the field. You don’t see that too much out of an 18-year-old. But he’s real mature.”
Another key member of the receiving group figures to be Lawrence Arnold, whose debut season at KU got derailed due to injury. Now a redshirt freshman, Arnold played in the first four games of 2020, even making one start. The 6-3, 185-pound wideout from DeSoto, Texas, totaled six catches for 45 yards before a shoulder injury forced him to miss the rest of the season.
Although Arnold’s participation during spring practices, Lassiter shared, was somewhat limited as he continued to recover from the injury setback, the veteran noticed his younger teammate improving.
“He wants to just keep leveling up, just like the rest of us,” Lassiter said. “Everybody’s got something they need to work on, including myself.”
Now that Lassiter has been around Arnold for a year and seen his talents and approach, the super-senior views Arnold as capable of making a jump in his second year with the team.
“He’s real confident in his game, as he should be,” Lassiter said. “I feel like he’s the type of player that won’t let anybody get in his head, won’t let anybody tell him that he can’t do something.”
No. 2 — Lawrence Arnold, 6-3, 185-pound RS-fr.
No. 5 — Majik Rector , 5-9, 152-pound fr.
No. 7 — Trevor Wilson, 5-11, 190-pound soph.
No. 8 — Kwamie Lassiter II, 6-0, 175-pound super-sr.
No. 10 — Tristan Golightly, 6-4, 214-pound soph.
No. 11 — Luke Grimm, 6-0, 176-pound soph.
No. 19 — Steven McBride, 6-0, 152-pound soph.
No. 85 — Kelan Robinson, 6-2, 183-pound fr.
No. 88 — Jamahl Horne, 5-10, 186-pound jr.
