LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -Although he almost never makes a fuss over freshmen, Kansas coach Mark Mangino is willing to change that policy for Bradley McDougald.
Mangino did so even before the quick and athletic receiver made his debut last week with two catches for 49 yards in No. 24 Kansas’ season-opening win against Northern Colorado.
“I have not really had a true freshman come in and do what he could do since I’ve been here,” Mangino said. “He understands what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it. He will be in the mix in the rotation and will play a significant amount for us this season.”
A four-star recruit from Dublin, Ohio, the 6-foot-2 McDougald first decided to play safety for Ohio State. Then he had a heart-to-heart with Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel and told him he preferred to play offense.
e the most impact for a team, it would be as a wide receiver.”
Into the picture stepped Kansas offensive coordinator Ed Warinner, who knows McDougald’s high school coach, Karl Johnson. Warinner’s selling point was the pass-happy offensive scheme the Jayhawks have been running in back-to-back bowl seasons.
“McDougald would have an opportunity to come in and play behind (Kerry) Meier, learn a lot of things, and maybe take over that position,” Warinner said. “That’s a 90-catch-a-year position in our offense. He was more excited about doing that than playing safety in the Big Ten.”
Then, a week before his first college football game, McDougald found out that he’d be starting in place of Dezmon Briscoe, a preseason All-Big 12 pick who was suspended for the opener for violating unspecified team rules.
The freshman never flinched.
“You have to have trust in yourself, you have to believe in yourself, you have to trust your skills, and you have to trust your coaches,” he said. “Your coaches wouldn’t throw you in the fire if they didn’t think you were ready.”
Kansas plays at UTEP on Saturday. With McDougald, the Jayhawks have enviable depth at receiver for quarterback Todd Reesing, who already holds almost every school passing record. Briscoe and Meier are the fourth-highest scoring wide receiver duo in the nation with 32 combined touchdowns.
22 or more touchdowns. His 1,407 yards receiving last year was the third-most among FBS schools.
“Once you get here and you sit down in the meeting room and you look around at the receivers, it is kind of intimidating because they know more than you do,” McDougald said. “But it is basically about getting on the practice field and making plays.”
Meier, who was McDougald’s “big brother” when he arrived on campus, was immediately impressed with his playmaking abilities.
“He has the ability to make everything look easy,” Meier said. “He’s just a smooth athlete that takes it all in stride. A lot of times it looks like he’s not going very hard, but he has the ability to make plays and make it look easy.”
Everybody from the trainers to his teammates have been talking about the impressive freshman who bolted the Big Ten.
“We thought he would be pretty good, but then you hear the kids talk around the building and the strength coaches talk and you realize he has the ability to be pretty good,” said Mangino. “As soon as we got him on the field, just a few days into practice, we realized he was a talented young guy.”
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