A month after national signing day, Mark Mangino is still recruiting.

Kansas University’s football coach announced his second late commitment Thursday — offensive lineman Matt Darton of San Diego’s University City High.

“Our team hasn’t been that good the last few years,” Darton said of his 5-5 squad. “We just started getting better, so we haven’t been looked at that much.”

While college recruiters didn’t swarm to University City High, Darton (6-foot-6, 295 pounds) still received scholarship offers from San Jose State, Idaho and Western Michigan.

“I kept getting calls and getting offers,” Darton said. “They just weren’t schools I wanted to go to.”

That changed when one of University City’s coaches sent out highlight tapes of the massive lineman, and one ended up at Kansas.

Darton, who was a high school teammate of KU defensive back Rodney Fowler, was excited about the Jayhawks. The two hooked up Saturday when Fowler served as player host during Darton’s campus visit. The lineman signed his letter of intent Tuesday, 27 days after the Feb. 4 national signing day.

Mangino announced an 18-man recruiting class on signing day, then added Concord, Calif., linebacker Joe Mortensen 10 days later.

Ed Yandall, the athletic director and outgoing football coach at University City, said KU’s latest addition had plenty of potential.

“He’s got the size to be successful if he gets on the right track,” said Yandall, who will coach Darton this spring in track. “He needs to hit the weights now, solidify what he has, get rid of baby fat that might be there and establish a work ethic that will get him where he wants to be. If he were able to find that spark at KU, he could be anything he wants to be.”

Darton, who had more than 90 knockdown blocks as a senior left tackle and was a two-time member of the San Diego Union Tribune’s all-academic team, said he likely would take a red-shirt season in 2004.

“I just want to get stronger and faster,” said Darton, who will come to Lawrence in July.