Going deep: My early stab at filling out KU football’s fall depth chart (for now)

By Matt Tait     May 15, 2012

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Kansas quarterback Dayne Crist (10) gets set to run a play during the first day of spring practices on Tuesday, March 27, 2012.

We now are officially two full weeks removed from the end of spring football and that seems like as good a time as any for me to release my projected KU football depth chart for the fall.

A couple of quick things to remember before diving in:

1. I only saw the first 20 minutes of about five practices and 90 minutes of another.

2. These projections are based not only on what I saw and heard this spring but also what I didn’t see and include plenty of players who will arrive on campus in June. Those players have a bullet point after their names in the depth chart below.

3. It’s possible — likely even — that not all of the players below are listed at the positions they’ll play this fall. Take wide receiver, for example. On the pre-spring depth chart that KU coach Charlie Weis handed out, seniors Daymond Patterson and D.J. Beshears were listed as the 1 and the 2 at the same WR spot. However, based on what I saw this spring, it seemed as if Beshears emerged as one of the team’s top three receivers, so I’ve got him as a first-team guy. I’ll tighten this up when August rolls around (thankfully, we should get some more help from Weis then) but, for now, I’m going with my method.

4. This thing has changed about six times during the course of the past six weeks and could very easily be tweaked again next week. But, hey, I’m not the head coach and it’s not my job to set this thing in stone. So let the speculation begin and let’s see how different this version looks from the one we get in August.

**Offense**
**WR** Kale Pick (Sr.) — Josh Ford• (Jr.)
**WR** Daymond Patterson (Sr.) — JaCorey Shepherd (Soph.)
**WR** D.J. Beshears (Sr.) — Christian Matthews (Jr.)
**LT** Tanner Hawkinson (Sr.) — Chad Kolumber (Soph.)
**LG** Duane Zlatnik (Sr.) — Damon Martin (RSFr.)
**C** Trevor Marrongelli (Sr.) — Dylan Admire (RSFr.)
**RG** Aslam Sterling• (Jr.) — Gavin Howard (Jr.)
**RT** Riley Spencer (Jr.) — Bryan Peters (RSFr.)
**TE** Jimmay Mundine (Soph.) — Charles Brooks• (Jr.)
**QB** Dayne Crist (Sr.) — Turner Baty• (Soph.)
**HB** Tony Pierson (Soph.) — Brandon Bourbon (Soph.)

**Defense**
**DE** Josh Williams• (Sr.) — Keba Agostinho (Jr.)
**DT** Jordan Tavai• (Jr.) — Pat Lewandowski (Soph.)
**NT** Ty McKinney• (Jr.) — John Williams (Jr.)
**DE** Michael Reynolds (Soph.) — Keon Stowers• (Jr.)
**SLB** Toben Opurum (Sr.) — Tunde Bakare (Sr.)
**MLB** Schyler Miles• (Fr.) — Anthony McDonald• (Sr.)
**WLB** Huldon Tharp (Jr.) — Darius Willis (Jr.)
**CB** Greg Brown (Sr.) — Greg Allen• (Fr.)
**CB** Tyler Patmon (Jr.) — Nas Moore• (Jr.)
**SS** Lubbock Smith (Sr.) — Ray Mitchell (Soph.)
**FS** Bradley McDougald (Sr.) — Victor Simmons (Soph.)

**Special Teams**
**K** Ron Doherty (Jr.) — Alex Mueller (Soph.)
**P** Ron Doherty (Jr.) — Victor McBride (Soph.)
**KR** D.J. Beshears (Sr.) — Bradley McDougald (Sr.)
**PR** Daymond Patterson (Sr.) — D.J. Beshears (Sr.)

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.