You could credit Sadiq Muhammed’s emergence this season to a depleted secondary. It’s an easy theory, but one Kansas University football coach Mark Mangino won’t buy.

And he’s the law on the matter.

“No matter what the situation is in terms of injuries,” Mangino said, “he’s going to play a lot.”

Which makes Muhammed’s story inspiring, to say the least. Recruited mainly by Division I-AA Drake and Division-II Northwest Missouri State, Muhammed felt overlooked as a cornerback coming out of Hickman Mills High in south Kansas City, Mo.

Muhammed wasn’t mad, and as soft-spoken as he is, you wonder if he ever gets mad. But he was eager to prove himself right, even if it meant paying his own way while taking the journey.

So he sent tapes to most of the Big 12 North schools and got a response from the KU coaching staff, which encouraged him to join the Jayhawks as a preferred walk-on.

“We evaluated him and said, ‘Yeah, he’d be a great guy to have as a walk-on, and who knows?'” Mangino said. “A lot of times when we take a preferred walk-on, there’s always the hope that those kids will develop and at some point contribute.”

Three years and a position change later, Muhammed is atop the depth chart at free safety, as Kansas prepares for its 6 p.m. game Saturday against Northwestern State.

“He’s an interesting study,” Mangino said. “He walked on here, showed up every day to work on the field, in the weight room. A quiet guy, never asked for anything. Just kept working and working. He believed he could play at this level.”

In his first two years, Muhammed had good grades toward his exercise-science degree and switched from cornerback to safety in practice. Yet he never saw the field.

“It wasn’t frustrating,” Muhammed now says. “I was having fun, getting better, learning defenses and learning how to play the game.”

He finally did play eight games last year as a third-year sophomore, including a lot of action against No. 2 Texas after Jerome Kemp was injured. Muhammed collected eight tackles against the Longhorns, perhaps showing definitively that he belongs, at long last.

KU coaches agreed, awarding Muhammed a scholarship during the offseason.

But that wasn’t his proudest moment.

“It’s a big accomplishment,” Muhammed said of the grant. “It’s a bigger accomplishment just getting the chance to actually play.”

Muhammed was expected to provide secondary depth again in 2006, but an injury to projected starter Darrell Stuckey dissolved the deepness, at least at free safety. Muhammed and Justin Thornton now make up the two-deep, and both are expected to play plenty Saturday.

It’s another dose of assurance for Muhammed, just a few years after most Division I-A schools looked away.

“He’s really a special young guy. He has my respect,” Mangino said. “He came here and paid his own way and earned his own way. That’s a type of kid that we’re really proud of.”

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McCoy out: Mangino confirmed defensive end John McCoy would not be available for Saturday’s game after having minor surgery last week.

McCoy, who’s back with the Jayhawks after serving a tour of duty overseas the last two seasons, is not listed on the depth chart at defensive end.