Kansas waited until the tail end of the transfer-portal cycle to make one of its most attention-grabbing moves of the offseason.
In a rare — albeit increasingly common in an era of greater player movement — transfer between rivals, former Kansas State running back Dylan Edwards announced in an Instagram post on Sunday morning that he is joining the Jayhawks.
Edwards, a Derby native, began his career at Colorado. He was in Lawrence for a visit on Friday night for the KU men’s basketball game against Baylor.
The addition, which takes Edwards across enemy lines in the Sunflower Showdown rivalry, gives KU a new level of speed and play-making ability in its revamped backfield to complement hard-charging transfer running backs Jalen Dupree (Colorado State) and Yasin Willis (Syracuse).
In just three seasons at the collegiate level — the most recent one limited to four games and a redshirt due to injury — Edwards has already embarked on an unusual career path. That began even before he started playing college football. He had originally committed to K-State as a member of the class of 2023, but flipped to Notre Dame a month later — then, when it was time to sign, he became an early marquee addition for head coach Deion Sanders at Colorado.
Edwards burst onto the scene, like the rest of the Buffaloes that year, in a dramatic upset win over the previous national runner-up TCU, when in his collegiate debut he caught five passes for 135 yards and three touchdowns and added a rushing touchdown. By the end of his freshman season, he had 321 rushing yards and 299 receiving yards. He also briefly appeared as a sprinter on the CU track team the following spring.
At the conclusion of that term, he made the move back to his home state to join the Wildcats. The 2024 season is his most productive to this point, as he started six of the 12 games in which he played and accounted for 546 rushing yards and 133 receiving with seven total touchdowns, with a 7.4 yards-per-carry average that ranked first among power-conference running backs with at least 70 carries. He also returned a punt for a touchdown and served as a kick and punt returner throughout the year.
Edwards played in just four games and redshirted during the 2025 season. He suffered an ankle injury in the Wildcats’ season opener against Iowa State on Aug. 23 before he had the chance to register a carry. He managed to play three additional games on the year, including one against UCF in which he rushed 20 times for 166 yards and a touchdown, but eventually he and K-State shut things down for good in early November.
As a result of the redshirt, he will have two years of eligibility remaining at KU.
The move adds another level of intrigue to this year’s Sunflower Showdown, beyond the Jayhawks’ ongoing quest to snap their 17-season losing streak. The date for this year’s game has not yet been announced, but it will take place at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
