Kansas football tight end DeShawn Hanika is out for spring with leg injury
Kansas tight end DeShawn Hanika is out for the rest of the spring with a leg injury, according to Kansas football coach Lance Leipold.
“He had surgery and that’s about as far as I’d like to go with that right now,” Leipold said Tuesday.
On Monday evening, Hanika posted about his injury on X (formerly Twitter).
“On the road to recovery now! Thank you to everyone that has reached out and offered their love and support! Thank you to my teammates, coaches, and staff for having my back through this difficult time. I promise that I will do what I can to attack this rehab process,” he tweeted.
Hanika, a Topeka native who last played at Iowa State, joined the Jayhawks in December. In the 2022 season, he had 17 catches for 244 yards and four touchdowns.
With Mason Fairchild’s departure to the pros, Hanika could have stepped in as the Jayhawks’ starting tight end.
Now, the Jayhawks will now rely on Trevor Kardell and Jared Casey as their top two tight ends. The pair combined 15 receptions for 176 yards and three touchdowns last season. Casey is also known as a standout run blocker.
While the Jayhawks are down a name on the depth chart, they are prepared to move forward, according to Kardell.
“Last year with Mason here, it was really nice with his knowledge of the game — learning the game from him,” Kardell said in late March. “Toward the end, we started thinking about it more and more — we’re not going to have him next year. It got pretty important for us to retain a lot of the offense this year and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that so far.”
The pair will certainly receive more reps without Hanika in the foreseeable future, but they won’t be the only ones.
“Jared Casey and Trevor Kardell have played a lot of football here, so we are going to rely on them,” Leipold said. “Quinton Conley is a guy that will get some more work. Tevita Ahoafi-Noa is a guy that’s been in the program and he will get some of those reps.”
Leipold also said the Jayhawks may use different personnel groupings, including with the receivers, to make up for the loss of a tight end.
The Jayhawks are now nearly finished with spring practices, with a spring showcase set for April 12 at Rock Chalk Park. Leipold has certain expectations for Friday.
“You want it to be sharp,” he said. “I thought the last (scrimmage) we turned the ball (over) a little more than we wanted to. ... Last week, we were a lot sloppier in penalties, so I want it to be cleaner. I want to see us tackle well. I want to see us execute in such a way on both sides of the ball that you feel good.
“I want us to see us take another step — get in front of people. Sometimes, it’ll be the first time some of them have been in front of a crowd. ... They’ll see what they can do under pressure. Most importantly, I want to see us come out of it healthy.”
