From the Capital-Journal:
After an historically bad 0-12 season, Kansas football coach
David Beaty has apparently hit the recruiting trail pretty hard, securing
several key additions in the past week or so — including Isi Holani, a
three-star, 315-pound juco defensive lineman from Riverside College in
California who orally committed Monday, and Stephan Robinson, a 5-foot-11
athlete from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M who committed Sunday night.
However, the
Jayhawks could do themselves a big favor and take a stroll down the road to
Rossville, where one of the most dominant high school football players in state
history currently resides.
I'm talking, of course,
about Tucker Horak, who posted eye-popping numbers at Rossville with 12,834
total yards (good for No. 6 in the nation for career total offense) and 186
touchdowns over the course of his career with the Bulldawgs. His 79.2 percent
completion rate this season helped propel the Dawgs to a Class 3A state title
as he became the first player in state history to rush and throw for 2,000
yards in a single season.
“I loved everything
about (Wyoming), except the altitude,” Horak said in the article. “I love their
facilities, their field was nice and their coaches were super-easy to work
with. I really liked it there. ... Overall, I think I was pretty happy with how
I competed and performed at their camp.”
I'm happy for the
kid, and getting a chance to play early on at Wyoming would be a great
opportunity for Horak. However, the lowly Jayhawks could use all the help they
could get, and pulling in a kid like Horak would put them a lot closer to the
ultimate goal of winning the in-state recruiting battle against Kansas State.
Sure, he's only
5-foot-10 and 180 pounds. But keep in mind that's only an inch shorter and
about 20 pounds lighter than Todd Reesing's listed dimensions (chances are good he wasn't
as tall as advertised), and he was the Jayhawks' greatest quarterback of all
time. Not that every short player is a Reesing-calibre athlete, but after
seeing Horak put up huge numbers all season, I have to believe if anyone has
that sort of potential, it's him. If a kid can complete 79 percent of his
passes in a season at high school while passing for more than 2,000 yards, I
have to think he'd be able to perform better than some of KU's current
quarterbacks.
That being said,
there's no guarantee Horak would even want to sign with the Jayhawks if they
did offer him a scholarship. Kansas football is anything but an easy sell.
However, the
Jayhawks could do far worse than at least offering a scholarship to this kid.
Like the DJ Khaled song, played so often by the pep band at Allen Fieldhouse,
all he does is win. At the very least, he could be a great special teams player
for the Jayhawks or offer depth at a different position like running back or
defensive back. Winning starts with talent, and Horak has plenty to go around.
