KU senior Ben Heeney, without his signature beard, at Wednesday's meeting with the media.

With one game left in his KU career, senior linebacker Ben Heeney did something drastic to try to bring a little luck the Jayhawks’ way…. He shaved his beard.

The bearded Heeney has been a fixture around KU football for the past couple of seasons and the Hutchinson native has been known as much for the look as his dominating play on the field.

Wednesday, at the final media session of the season, though, Heeney walked in with a fresh shave an evil-genius smile.

Heeney said this week was the first time half of his teammates had seen him without the beard and even shared stories of veterans having to do a double-take when they walked past him in the locker room.

“Everyone’s been turning their head because they didn’t expect it to happen,” he said. “I just kind of want to play a game without it and see what happens. I’m not just a beard, I’m also a human being.”

Heeney said he had some fun with the shaving session earlier this week and left various forms of mustaches and snapped pictures of those with his cell phone before saying goodbye to the facial hair for good — at least for now.

“It was kind of spur of the moment and I was just like, ‘Man, it’s not bringing any good luck,’ so I just wanted to shave it off and play a game without it and see if it brings any luck. Everyone’s always been so all-about it, I was just kind of like, ‘All right, this isn’t all I am.'”