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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015
Spring game question mark: running backs
CHRISTIAN HARDY
@HardyNFL
Sophomore quarterback Montell Cozart dives into the endzone for a touchdown against the White team during last year's spring game. This year's spring game is at 1 p.m. Saturday.
@HardyNFL
FILE PHOTO/KANSAN
It's almost game day for Kansas football. Well, sort of.
Coach David Beaty will wrap up his first spring as head coach of the Kansas football program with the annual Spring game on Saturday. It'll be the first time Kansas fans will get a look at the new regime: Rob Likens' fast-paced offense, the almost completely new defensive unit and a glimpse at who may be under center come Fall.
Every starting spot has been placed under the "Earn It" umbrella by the football staff, but it hasn't been clear who has completed that off-uttered task. On Saturday, it will finally be revealed who the coaching staff believes "earned it" through 15 spring practices, with many more opportunities to come.
The position to keep your eyes peeled for is. running back. With a handful of guys who are returning — upcoming sophomore Corey Avery, upcoming senior DeAndre Mann, redshirt senior Taylor Cox and the versatile Keaun Kinner, who dominated at the junior college level last year — it's sure to be an interesting
Cox will return from back-to-back season-ending injuries for his sixth and final season at Kansas. It wouldn't be surprising to see Cox get the starting job — he's the biggest back of the four and has earned the trust of the coaches over his time at Kansas.
"For a guy to go through all of the things he's had to go through to be here... he'll be able to make a major contribution," running backs coach Reggie Mitchell said.
Cox has always brought his size as a running back, but under the tutelage of James Sims and learning at this level, his mental game has risen to another level.
"It slowed down for him," Mitchell said of Cox. "That's improvement, because when the game slows down, you're able to see things that you didn't see before, so he has a little bit more patience."
Kinner will add an interesting dynamic himself. At just
5-foot-9, Kinner was the fastest guy on his Navarro junior college team and toe-to-toe with high school teammate Jaylen Price — now a defensive back for Montana State. With speed like that, he's often compared to Tony Pierson, who carried the ball 72 times as a utility player in his senior season last fall.
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"It matters to them who goes out there. As coaches, we're evaluating all of them... We want to get through it without any injuries."
REGGIE MITCHELL Running backs coach
"He's bigger than Tony was," Mitchell said. "He's a little bit thicker, and bigger than what you would think when you get up on him... I don't know if his size will be that big of a factor. He's probably more elusive than you would think. He's been a pleasant surprise."
It's also not easy to discount Avery or Mann, who switched back and forth to combine for more than half of last year's touches out of the backfield. With a backfield stacked with talent, it's likely the team will feature a multi-headed backfield.
"It's not a problem for me," Kinner said. "Those are my brothers, for real. All the backs that we've got, they've got a lot to bring to the table. Everybody does something different. We don't all run alike."
As for the coaches, after they complete the next two days of practice, they plan on sitting down as a staff and hammering out the starting lineups. As of now, no decisions have been made for Saturday's game.
"It matters to them who goes out there," Mitchell said. "As coaches, we're evaluating all of them... We want to get through it without any injuries."
Edited by Callie Byrnes
Senior running back Taylor Cox attempts to carry the ball past several Blue defenders. Cox earned a total of 69 rushing yards against the Blue team at the spring game last year.
FILE PHOTO/KANSAN
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