Without Kwamie Lassiter II, Kansas begins identifying the future at wide receiver

By Zac Boyer     Mar 22, 2022

Zac Boyer
Kansas wide receiver Lawrence Arnold catches a pass during a drill at the Indoor Practice Field on March 22, 2022.

The reaction Terrence Samuel had shortly after he was hired as the Kansas football team’s wide receivers coach in December was understandable.

He recognized that the Jayhawks had Kwamie Lassiter II leading the way in the passing game last season — and then a cast of other contributors playing secondary roles.

“I want Kwamie here,” Samuel said Tuesday morning when asked to recall what he thought those first few days. “I mean, he was a great player. Everything that I watched him do, all I did was salivate. I wish I could have the opportunity to coach him.”

Lassiter was the go-to option for Kansas and its quarterbacks last season, but for the first time since 2016, he won’t be on the field. It will be up to Samuel to figure out who will be.

Coach Lance Leipold turned to Samuel, a longtime wide receivers coach who was hired on Dec. 13, to lead the Jayhawks into next season. He’ll replace Emmett Jones, who was hired to be the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach at Texas Tech.

Leipold has known Samuel for nearly two decades, dating to their time coaching together at Nebraska-Omaha. Samuel spent last season at Syracuse, the one before that at UNLV and the previous nine at Michigan State.

He has already earned a reputation on the recruiting trail as being a coach who can connect with recruits, and that feeling resonates among his players as well. That should be a bonus, given that Jones was well-liked, too.

“I think they definitely have a players-first mentality where they want to create a relationship because, I think for them and players now, it’s more that you’ve got to trust the person to want to play them or want to play for them,” said wide receiver Luke Grimm. “I think them being player-first coaches, that really helps a lot for them.”

Samuel’s ability to get players to buy in should also help lead the transition to the post-Lassiter years in the passing game. Lassiter had 59 catches for 653 yards and three touchdowns last season, when he accounted for 30.2% of the Jayhawks’ receptions and 29.4% of their receiving yards.

When asked on March 1 about the team’s priorities during spring practice, Leipold said finding out who would replace Lassiter — or at least his production — was near the top of that list.

“I don’t think it’s going to be one player — and I don’t want it to be one player,” Leipold said. “I want us to probably be a little bit more diversified in the receiving corps so that we have more weapons, and I feel confident that will happen this spring.”

Aside from Lassiter, only three players caught at least 20 passes last season. Slot receiver Trevor Wilson, then a redshirt sophomore, had 27 catches for 364 yards and a touchdown. Lawrence Arnold, then a redshirt freshman, had 27 catches for 349 yards and three touchdowns. And Grimm, then a sophomore, had 22 catches for 349 yards and three touchdowns.

Only four Big 12 schools did not have at least five players with 20 or more catches last season — Kansas, Kansas State, TCU and Texas Tech. But whereas the other three had at least three players with at least 10 catches, the Jayhawks had only two: tight end Mason Fairchild and wide receiver Steven McBride.

Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki said earlier this month that, like Leipold, he’s content not having one player be the go-to target for the Jayhawks. What he called “ball distribution” will be key to the passing game developing as more of a threat in his second season.

“One of our spring objectives is to be able to really identify the limitations of individuals and then their abilities, and if we know this young man can run this route the best, or he’s the best with the ball in his hand after a short throw, we want to get those guys on the field to be able to do that when we’re playing games on Saturdays,” Kotelnicki said. “I think people are going to be surprised when we start playing games by where that group has come.”

Arnold, as one of those wide receivers, agrees. He had a bold prediction when asked Tuesday about Kotelnicki’s statement — “We’re going to have one of the best receiver rooms in the nation,” he said — and acknowledged that so many of the Jayhawks’ wide receivers have different skills and attributes that will set them apart.

That’s part of why Samuel is now coaching at Kansas: It’s on him to put it all together. After his initial impressions, what he noticed as soon as he began coaching the wide receivers when spring practice started three weeks ago was that all of them try hard, so effort is not something he thinks he’ll have to teach.

“What I’m having to teach them is how to be efficient,” Samuel said. “They need to be a little bit more efficient in how they’re running their routes, arm action, how they burst off the line of scrimmage. I see guys with skill set. I’ve been able to teach guys with a lot of different skill sets — tall guys, small guys, basketball player-type guys.

“These guys all fit those categories, and that’s why I’m really excited because … we should be able to find a player that should be able to take advantage of some opportunities.”

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85289Without Kwamie Lassiter II, Kansas begins identifying the future at wide receiver