Credit the lack of injuries. Or the addition of depth. Or both.

There are a bunch of reasons why true freshmen rarely have been sighted on the football field for Kansas University this season.

Lack of ability, though, isn’t one of them.

“It’s a really talented freshman class,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “We’re looking forward to working with these kids.”

But first thing’s first: a year of development on the practice field, where 12 of the 15 freshmen on scholarship are stuck. Only tight end Russell Brorsen, linebacker James Holt and running back Tang Bacheyie have played this year.

Brorsen was used because of depth issues at tight end, while Holt and Bacheyie have been relegated almost exclusively to special teams.

The rest — including highly touted quarterback Kerry Meier, running back Angus Quigley and Ottawa native Caleb Blakesley — will have four years of eligibility beginning in 2006.

It wasn’t a lock to be that way. For the first five games, all of the freshmen are fair game to play, depending on injuries and needs. Once the fifth game is over, though, a freshman’s chance to debut is slim to none.

This season, injuries were minimal, so nobody was needed in midseason.

“That red-shirt year, if you can do it, it’s great,” Mangino said. “We’ll really benefit here in the long run from having red-shirted most of the class.”

Kansas had similar luck in keeping true freshmen off the field last year, playing only Marcus Henry, Kyle Tucker, Todd Haselhorst and James McClinton. That allowed up-and-comers like Mike Rivera, Marcus Herford and Aqib Talib to bulk up and get more comfortable with Division I-A football.

All of the freshmen — including preferred walk-ons like Lawrence High product Ian Handshy — have dressed and roamed the sidelines in at least one home game this season.

But where they can make an impression is on the practice field during the week. Mangino couldn’t stop naming names when asked which true freshmen had looked sharp in practice this fall — Meier, Quigley, Jeff Wheeler, Raimond Pendleton, Brandon Duncan, Darrell Stuckey and Justin Thornton were the names that came out before he ran out of breath.

“There’s a number of them,” Mangino said. “I always worry about leaving somebody out.”