Two-sport standout Keon Coleman to announce college choice on Saturday

By Matt Tait     Jun 28, 2020
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Kansas University football recruiting

Kansas football target Keon Coleman has entered the final week of his recruitment and plans to make his choice on Saturday.

Talk about adding a little extra boom to your Fourth of July.

The three-star wide receiver (Coleman is a four-star prospect in the 247 rankings) who has explored the idea of playing both basketball and football in college [is down to a final three of KU, Oklahoma and South Carolina.][1]

A 6-foot-4, 188-pound playmaker from Opelousas Catholic in Louisiana, Coleman is ranked as the 72nd best wide receiver in the country and 12th best player in the state in the 2021 recruiting class by Rivals.com.

While Coleman has skills as a basketball player — he averaged 20 points per game during his junior season in high school — and has talked to KU coach Bill Self about the potential to play both sports, most believe his future is in football.

Last season, as a junior, Coleman caught 35 passes for 1,200 yards and a whopping 22 touchdowns and his size, frame and ability to make plays down the field have him projected as a player with tremendous upside.

KU receivers coach Emmett Jones has been KU’s lead recruiter for Coleman and his recent track record with Kansas wideouts certainly won’t hurt his chances.

Last season, in his first year on the KU staff, Jones helped Daylon Charlot, Andrew Parchment and Stephon Robinson Jr., all turn in career years. Prior to that, Jones spent three seasons on Kliff Kingsbury’s staff at Texas Tech, where he helped the Red Raiders lead the nation in total offense and passing offense during his first season as a full-time assistant.

The Jayhawks beat out a lot of quality football schools to still be standing in the race for Coleman as his recruitment winds down. But winning a battle with OU for a quality wideout could be tough.

In fact, the Rivals.com FutureCast predictions for Coleman are unanimously in favor of the Sooners, with nine Rivals analysts giving OU the edge here.

The fans see it slightly differently, but even there OU is still the favorite, grabbing 45% of the votes compared to 20% for KU and 9% for South Carolina.

[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/tale-tait/2020/jun/22/ku-makes-top-3-for-two-sport-standout-ke/

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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.