Their bond comes because they occasionally feel like fish out of water, East Coast dudes living smack dab in the middle of the country.

But Kansas University football players Chevy Graham and Tevin Shaw want everyone to know that there is a different between New York, where Graham calls home, and New Jersey, Shaw’s home state.

“New Jersey is more like New York City than New York state,” said Shaw earlier this week as he Jayhawks prepared for Saturday’s 11 a.m. showdown with Rutgers in Piscataway, New Jersey. “The state is more city-like as a whole. It’s a tough place. Driving, it’s always traffic. People aren’t too nice all the time.”

Despite coming from slightly different worlds, Graham, a junior safety who has worked his way onto the two-deep depth chart despite arriving in Lawrence as a walk-on, said both guys are plenty proud of their small part of the world.

“Tevin’s very Jersey strong,” said Graham, a native of Uniondale, New York. “So there won’t be a problem there, but both places are definitely more up-tempo than here. It’s kind of nice being able to go back for a little bit. Obviously, the football game is the main focus but it’s going to be a great experience.”

For Shaw, Saturday’s experience will be a true homecoming, with the game taking place just minutes from where he grew up.

For Graham, who will be making his first ever trip to Piscataway, just being back close to home is enough to make this trip stand out.

“It’s great being able to go back to the East Coast and see some familiar faces,” he said.

As for how, or perhaps why, he ended up in Kansas in the first place, Graham said the reason was simple.

“I came out here just for a different opportunity,” he said. “I was on the East Coast for the majority of my life and Kansas offered me the best opportunity for me to come out here and play ball so I took that chance and it’s paid off.”

So much so that Graham has worked his way into the regular rotation in KU’s secondary. Shaw, who was recruited to Kansas as a running back, has been a mainstay there since early in his career, but that’s not the only bond these two players share.

“I mean, we joke a lot about it,” Graham said of the automatic New York-New Jersey rivalry that exists between the two. “But there’s a lot of things that we can relate to because we’re both from the East Coast. So in a way we do have that little East Coast bond and it’s definitely nice to have another guy on the team from there.”

Added Shaw of living life in the Midwest: “I’ve definitely adjusted to it, but my first year here it was really strange just talking to people. We generally just don’t have conversations with people we don’t know.”

Luckily for Shaw, that was not an issue for him and Graham, who said his full name is Chevrick, something his mother “threw together.”

“A lot of people had problems with that,” Graham said. “And in eighth grade, my football coach just started calling me Chevy and it just stuck.”

That begs the question, what kind of car does Graham drive?

“An Isuzu, actually,” he said. “But people joke around and call me Ford and all that stuff. Maybe eventually I’ll switch over and match up my name with my car.”