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SPORTS
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KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | MONDAY, NOV.16, 2015
Tyler Patrick after scoring a touchdown on Oklahoma on Oct. 31.
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
CHRISTIAN HARDY
@ByHardy
About 28 minutes north of Houston's loop at The Woodlands High School, Tyler Patrick, an undersized speedster without a true position, was preparing to start his high school football career.
For the first time, Patrick's work ethic was tested. Eventually, Patrick came back and started at safety on the junior varsity team. Four years later, that same speedy, undersized receiver was starting for David Beaty's Kansas Jayhawks — he was just a bit taller and faster.
It was 2010. The Woodlands football coach Mark Schmid and his staff were brainstorming where to put the small freshman, who, at the time, didn't have a lot to offer outside of his speed. Before they could decide, Patrick broke his foot and was out for the season.
Recovery
"He just kept working." Beaty said before his team opened the conference season this year. "He's one of those kids that has shown he's been ready for the challenge, and he's been consistent."
The broken foot was the first pivotal point in Patrick's short career.
As a freshman, he didn't have a place on the football field, and as a sophomore coming off a foot injury, that couldn't have been more difficult.
"His freshman year was going to be an important year as far as us kind of defining where he would play for us," Schmid said. "We typically, after a kid's freshman year, we kind of steer him to one side of the ball or the other — either as an offensive player or a defensive player."
Schmid and the coaching staff didn't get that luxury with Patrick. Instead of using his freshman year to decide where he was going to play, he was designated as a safety before the spring of his sophomore year. Once the cast, which immobilized his foot
for months, was removed, he was doing what he did best right away: running.
Patrick spent evenings with The Woodland's former track and field coach and had regular training times to run on his recently healed foot. When spring training came around, he was slotted into the safety spot. He stayed healthy in his sophomore year and started on the junior varsity team, though still a bit undersized, but, more importantly, still fast.
"Once that thing healed, he worked extremely hard in the offseason to get back, to give himself an opportunity to prove to the coaches that he was a good football player and there was a place for him," Schmid said. "That whole attitude was who he was, the entire time he was here."
Patrick thrived at safety the next year as a starter on the varsity team. Patrick led Schmid's team in tackles with 84 and was first team all-district and all-county and earned an honorable mention at the all-state level.
Moreover, that season served as a taste of offense for Patrick. Because of his speed, Schmid transformed Patrick into a rare crossover player that year. Patrick still would spend most of his time on the defensive side in practice, but would come to the offensive side regularly to join the huddle as a receiver.
"We recognized the gift that he had and what he could bring to our table as an offensive player," Schmid said. "As a junior we started using him that way, then as a senior it was full-time."
The other side
The transition, Schmid said, was relatively seamless. Patrick's work on the offensive end during his junior year, combined with his glistening speed, made the fit at receiver rather effortless. Still, though, Patrick had a few pieces of his game to work on as he switched to offense full-time — namely
his hands, which have become a building block of his game at Kansas.
Just as he did with his speed after he injured his foot, Patrick put hours into getting his hands up to par. He spent the spring and summer months working diligently with the quarterbacks and running routes on his own. He spent time with the JUGS machines and doing pass-catching drills beyond practice. The more work he put in, the better his hands got.
"If we had him at receiver from the beginning, there's no telling how good those hands would have been by the end of his senior year," Schmid said. "He understood the relationship between hard work and success."
That year, Patrick played inside and outside receiver and led The Woodlands with 39 catches for 776 yards and seven touchdowns. He played extensively on special teams, just as he did the two previous years, returning punts and kickoffs and was tabbed all-district.
Later, success came in the form of interest from a handful of colleges and, eventually, an offer from former Kansas receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Rob lanello. It was the only FBS offer Patrick received outside of Air Force, according to ESPN. Patrick chose lanello, and opted to play under former coach Charlie Weis.
"Some Saturdays, when were not working, we've been able to watch him a little bit on TV," Schmid said. "We all follow him as much as we can, and we see him doing really well."
In his first season with Weis, just as his first season at The Woodlands, Patrick was an afterthought. Though he was on scholarship, Patrick was redshirted and played scout team all the way through spring camp in 2015. Even after Weis was fired in the middle of 2014, Patrick stayed at Kansas.
Earned it
Then came Beaty, who changed
the entire mentality and normalities of Kansas football. "Earn it" became the motto, and with it came a new starting 11 every week. Here and there, Beaty would make small adjustments in the starting lineups — both offensive and defensive — based on the effort and work put in at practice. It was the perfect environment for Patrick to thrive.
Yet, Beaty didn't take a long look at Patrick through spring camp. Patrick was still just a special teamer for Kansas. With so many new faces and players on the roster, Beaty struggled to get reps for all of them, and Patrick fell to the wayside until he made an impact at the spring game, where he caught four passes for 43 yards.
"He just kept working." Beaty said at the end of September. "When he wasn't playing, he was still covering kicks for us at the gunner position and, man, he was out there showing up"
Injuries opened up reps, and reps led to Patrick learning the offense and creating a connection with the quarterbacks, including junior quarterback Montell Cozart, who started the beginning of the year before injuring his shoulder.
"He's quarterback friendly — he makes the quarterback look good," Cozart said. "When it comes time in the game, I know that he's not going to shorten his depth because of a defender in front of him, I know he's not going to take too many steps to where I throw it short or something like that."
Cozart added: "I know our relationship and our chemistry is going to be on point."
After clawing his way into the regular wide receiver rotation come summer camp, Patrick was a regular with the starters by the time the se as o n came.
"Throughout camp, he there's everyday working hard, working on his routes, working on the details of his game, and it's really helped him progress," senior wide receiver Tre' Parmalee said. "He's getting what he deserves because he's earned it. He's a great player."
Beaty's system of practice-first allowed the redshirt freshman to earn more and more reps and eventually start for Kansas in the third game of the season against Rutgeers.
Patrick has started almost every game since the game against Rutgers. He scored his first touchdown of his career on homecoming weekend against Oklahoma and came to
he had steadily improved.
"We value production just like the world does," Beaty said. "We are going to go by what we see, not what people say outside of our room, but what we see out there in terms of who is producing."
After starting 2015 as an afterthought, without Beaty's attention, Patrick has turned in 220 yards and two touchdowns on 25 catches with two games to go and three more years at Kansas ahead of him.
"For him to be doing that at Kansas, really doesn't surprise me that he would approach college football the same way," Schmid said. "That's how Tyler
has been."
Athletics may change how students get in to volleyball games
AMIE JUST
@Amie_Just
On Wednesday night, several students said they were told they might not be able to get into the Horejsi Family Athletics Center for the match against Texas, which the Jayhawks lost in five sets.
Kansas Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said Athletics would discuss in the offseason a change in the way students and ticket holders are allowed to enter Kansas volleyball games.
The game against Texas was sold out, leaving students to wait until they could be let in if there were extra seats.
Horejsi has a capacity of 1,300. Athletics approximated that 1,503 were in the building Wednesday night. By its count, 111 of those people were students. Later, Marchiony said in an email to the Kansan there were 161 students in attendance, including band members.
Some KU students arrived at Horeisi more than an hour and a
half ahead of time in hopes they would get seats.
"We got here 10 minutes before 5 [p.m.]," said Will Lemm, a freshman from Leavenworth. "They let the first 10 students who were outside the student entrance in. Beyond that they wouldn't let any [more students] in until everybody else had gotten in."
After KU Athletics let in the 10 students, a person who appeared to be an Athletics employee told a Kansan reporter it was unlikely that more than 20 students would be able to enter the match. Other students said they left, assuming they would not get in.
Lemm said he and his two friends were the third, fourth and fifth students in line.
"We got there about an hour early and started waiting. There was a pretty long line when we got there, and we were wondering why the students weren't being let in because all the general admission was," said Avery Anderson, a student who left on his own accord assuming he would be turned away. "And then we waited about 20 minutes or 25 minutes, and they came out and said that they were probably only going to be able to let 20 more students in, and everyone else wasn't going to get a seat."
ZOE LARSON/KANSAN
Marchiony said, generally, students and people with general admission seats enter at the same time. He also said the University "didn't have an issue" with people getting in to Thursday night's match.
"She didn't say, 'Only 20,' Marchiony said, referring to an Athletics employee. "She said, 'We're going to let 20 in right now and as we see how the stands are, we'll let more in."
He added: "That was a misinterpretation of what she said [by students who left], because everybody who stayed on line
Marchiony said it was possible KU Athletics would alter the entrance system in the future. He said he thinks changing how students are let into the Horejsi Family Athletics Center would be something that the administration would discuss in the offseason.
Horeisi Family Athletics Center has consistently filled over capacity during Kansas volleyball games this season, according to the reported attendance numbers from KU Athletics. There have been more than 1,400 fans at every home Big 12 match the Jayhawks have played this year; there have been more than 1,500 in all but one Big 12 home match.
got in. There were a lot of people who didn't misinterpret that."
Kansas basketball player
And going over capacity has affected students and student athletes, who often attend matches.
"We ended up accommodating everyone who remained
Marchiony said KU Athletics did not give special treatment to any of the student athletes.
Wayne Selden Jr. tweeted that he feared he wouldn't be able to get into Wednesday's match, but he eventually got in.
on line," Marchiony said in an email.
Marchiony did not give a time-table of when a potential change would happen.
Kansas volleyball has one more scheduled home match this year, which will take place Nov. 28 against Texas Tech.
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