Backup QB Tyriek Starks leaves KU football

Kansas quarterback Tyriek Starks (18) waits for the snap during the fourth quarter on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017 at Memorial Stadium.

After two seasons with the University of Kansas football team and almost no time actively contributing in a game, quarterback Tyriek Starks has left the program.

On Tuesday morning, the backup QB from New Orleans tweeted out a one-word message, “Reset…” shortly after JuCo Football Forer reported he was set to transfer to Southwest Mississippi Community College.

An official with KU football confirmed Starks is no longer with the program.

Considered a three-star prospect out of Warren Easton High, where he played for now-KU running backs coach Tony Hull, Starks took a redshirt at Kansas in 2016.

This past year, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound QB played in one game, subbing in late during the Jayhawks’ season opener, against Southeast Missouri State.

In mop-up duty of KU’s lone victory of 2017, Starks never attempted a pass or registered a carry, instead handing the ball off to various running backs.

The news of Starks’ departure surfaced a day after Kansas added another quarterback for the coming semester, junior college transfer Miles Kendrick, a sophomore from College of San Mateo (Calif.)

Moving to the juco level will provide Starks the chance to play during what will be his redshirt sophomore season, before possibly returning to the FBS level in 2019.

In two seasons at Kansas, Starks never ascended any higher than third on the depth chart, and the Jayhawks will return the two players who were in front of him this past year, Peyton Bender and Carter Stanley. Bender will be a senior this coming fall, while Stanley will be a redshirt junior.