When Boden Groen caught his first touchdown as a Jayhawk, a 7-yard grab from Jalon Daniels in Kansas’ blowout win over West Virginia on Sept. 20, Groen was able to find space in the flat on the right side of the field when no Mountaineer was even past the hashmarks.
Then, Groen’s second touchdown came on Saturday against Cincinnati, and it was a 24-yard snag that required a bit more of an adjustment. A couple Bearcats were about five yards away from him on either side. That was a huge cushion for the 6-foot-4 tight end, but by the standards of the rest of his 10 total catches this season, he was blanketed.
Indeed, the Rice transfer has been wide open to a remarkably consistent degree in the first half of his lone season as a Jayhawk. KU offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski said that it feels “like the Mason Fairchild, Jared Casey experience again, man, doesn’t it?”
“You see it form, you’re like ‘Yes,'” Zebrowski said. “Then you’re just like, ‘Please make that throw.'”
Daniels is increasingly making those throws to Groen, a sixth-year senior who started his career at Saddleback College, had success but battled a shoulder injury at Rice and then joined the Jayhawks over the summer as a late addition.
“That’s one of the things that’s really more on me, because I got to earn my trust with him,” Groen said of his connection with Daniels, “and I think that’s something that (we) worked on throughout the fall, and definitely over the last couple weeks I’ve built more trust with him and he’s more ready to rip the ball with me.”
He has surprisingly passed Cam Pickett and Levi Wentz to become KU’s second-leading receiver with 171 yards on the year, behind Emmanuel Henderson Jr., and could be in line for an even greater workload in the wake of DeShawn Hanika’s leg injury.
“We had to go back to the portal after a defection in the summer,” Leipold said, referencing Keyan Burnett’s offseason return to Arizona after joining KU in the portal. “We were hoping for the best, didn’t know with him coming off injury what we’d really get, and really (were) hoping for depth. And right now he’s putting himself in a good position to be a starter.
“And he’s extremely smart. He’s picked things up. I mean, that adjustment on that touchdown catch was really a cool thing to watch. It was a thing of beauty watching him adjust his body to make that play.”
Groen, for his part, said he went into “pure instinct mode” to reach out and grab the ball lofted by Daniels on Saturday.
“He’s done everything that he can to put himself in a position to be able to get on the field and make plays, and it’s shown this season,” Daniels said.
With KU rotating four tight ends — Hanika, Groen and redshirt freshman Carson Bruhn, plus occasionally Leyton Cure — Groen has already been on the field fairly often. Part of the reason why he came to Lawrence, in fact, was an understanding of “all the multiple different ways and multiple different people and body types (KU has) used in that position.”
“It’s an awesome system for this position,” he said.
Groen had between 21 and 27 snaps in each of the Jayhawks’ first four games. When that number had to double on Saturday after Hanika went down on his second snap of the day, Groen said it didn’t require much of an adjustment for him other than “being a little bit more tired.”
He was still able to get just as open as when he was rotating in off the bench.
“Z’s always drawing up those little plays,” Groen said. “Don’t want to give anything away, but he’s confusing the defense and it’s worked out nicely for me, so I’m very thankful for that.”
Next up for Zebrowski, Groen and the Jayhawks after their disappointing loss to Cincinnati is UCF, which gave up two touchdowns to tight ends in its recent loss to Kansas State. The Knights await at 6:30 p.m. Central time on Saturday at the Acrisure Bounce House.
“I think the team is responding well to this little bit of adversity,” Groen said. “Everybody’s flying around, and really passionate about getting back on track.”
