Kansas University’s football team set school records for single-season points (384) and total yards (5,479) during the 2003 season.

The Jayhawks, who return three starting lineman, their top two running backs and a wealth of wide receivers, are preparing for their encore with workouts four times a week.

“The sky is the limit with this offense,” sophomore quarterback Adam Barmann said. “There’s not much we can’t do.”

The tricky part could be replacing quarterback Bill Whittemore, who passed for a school-record 18 touchdowns while helping the Jayhawks to their first bowl game since 1995.

Whittemore passed for 2,385 yards and rushed for another 534 despite missing three games of his senior season and most of a fourth because of a broken collarbone.

This season, KU has a group of quarterbacks vying to replace him, including Barmann, junior-college transfer Jason Swanson and returning backups Brian Luke and John Nielsen.

“Those are definitely big shoes to fill, replacing Bill,” said Barmann, who started three games in place of Whittemore last fall. “He’s one of the best quarterbacks to come through this school in a long time, but we can’t think of it like that. We have to come out and do what we can do.

“We can’t try to be Bill Whittemore. We have to be Adam Barmann and Brian Luke and do what we can do. If you try to go out and play like somebody else, it’s not going to work. You have to go out and play your game.”

Raising the bar

Junior-college transfer Jason Swanson, left, and sophomore Adam Barmann will compete for the quarterback job for Kansas University this fall.

Barmann’s game impressed his coaches and teammates last season as a freshman. The Weston, Mo., product was expected to take a red-shirt season, but he was forced into duty after Whittemore was injured Oct. 25 at Kansas State.

Luke and Nielsen were ineffective in a 42-6 loss to KSU, and Barmann made his collegiate debut a week later at Texas A&M. The freshman passed for 294 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for another TD in a 45-33 loss.

He finished with 564 passing yards in three games.

“He has really good arm strength,” Swanson said. “He’s mobile, and he’s real smart. He has the all-around ability to play the position.”

KU listed the 6-foot-4 Barmann at 210 pounds last season. He said he might have weighed “205 dripping wet with a rock in my pocket.”

After offseason workouts, he is up to a legitimate 219. Luke (6-6) has jumped from 220 to 230, while Swanson (6-0) has bulked up from 185 to 193.

When camp opens Aug. 6, those three will be the leading contenders to replace Whittemore.

“Bill was a playmaker,” Barmann said. “He could run around and make plays. I think we’re all capable of that. … Whoever is playing the best at the time should be the guy who plays — whoever is going to give us the best chance to win.”

Barmann came to Lawrence for one month last summer to work out with his new teammates and director of strength and conditioning Chris Dawson. Then he went home to enjoy his summer vacation.

He knows he can do better this fall.

“This time last year, I was hanging out in Weston not doing too much,” Barmann said. “Now I’m working out with coach Dawson, which is a totally different world.”

“I really expected to red-shirt last year,” he said. “If I wasn’t going to red-shirt, I would have stayed the whole summer, but I had no idea I was going to play. This summer the preparation is so much greater.”

Swanson not discouraged

Barmann was the clear-cut No. 1 quarterback after the spring game when he completed 16 of 27 passes for 212 yards with a touchdown and an interception. His one turnover came on a Hail Mary at the end of the first half.

Swanson, in just his 15th practice since transferring in January, completed seven of 15 passes for 49 yards with four interceptions in the spring game.

“I didn’t judge myself too much on the spring game,” said Swanson, who passed for 3,652 yards and 27 TDs in two seasons at City College of San Francisco. “I only had a short time to adjust to everything, so I wasn’t down on myself at all. I feel a lot more comfortable now than I did when I first got here.”

Swanson has become stronger and faster thanks to his work in the weight room and has a better grasp of the playbook. The changes are obvious to his teammates.

“He’s picking up the offense,” Luke said. “He’s able to read defenses quicker. A lot of progress has happened since he got here in January.”

Swanson said Barmann had the advantages of Division One experience and more time in KU’s program, but he was not conceding anything.

“I feel like I still have a good chance of being the starter,” he said.

Don’t forget Luke

KU won’t be content with having two quarterbacks ready to play — the Jayhawks used seven quarterbacks the past two seasons.

Luke, who had a breakthrough game at Oklahoma State with 193 yards and two touchdown passes in relief of an injured Barmann, also could be in the picture as a junior.

“My red-shirt freshman year, I was out all year,” said Luke, who suffered a broken thumb during the 2002 preseason and had his passing hand in a cast for more than a month before being pressed into duty in KU’s 10th game. “Then two guys go down, and I’m in. I’ve seen every situation.”

The Barmann-Swanson battle during camp is expected to result in one earning the starting job.

“There’s no pressure,” Luke said. “I’m still working hard as if I were in the paper every day. I don’t let that effect me whatsoever.”

Nielsen also returns for his senior season, but the former junior-college walk-on appears to be a long shot at a loaded position. Another QB, sophomore Joe Hogan, left the program this summer.

The Jayhawks have one other quarterback to watch, though maybe not this year. Freshman Marcus Herford (6-3, 205) has been impressive in summer workouts.

“He’s a great athlete,” Swanson said of the DeSoto, Texas, product. “He’s the fastest of us by far. He has tremendous speed and a good build. He’s a little wet behind the ears like any freshman, but he’s picking it up really quick.”

KU’s quarterbacks bonded during spring drills by hanging out every Thursday night. Now Herford is part of that group as well.

“We’re all good buddies,” Luke said. “There’s no hostility. We compete with each other, and that makes us better.”