photo by: AP/Colin E. Braley

Kansas linebacker Gavin Potter during a NCAA football game on Friday, Sept. 3, 2021 in Lawrence, Kan. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

Linebacker Gavin Potter is no longer with the Kansas football program, Kansas football coach Lance Leipold confirmed on Tuesday.

The former KU starter has been removed from both the roster and the depth chart and Leipold said there was not much conversation about his departure.

“It wasn’t a whole lot,” he said. “He decided that was what he was going to do, he wanted to redshirt and move on. That’s unfortunate. Because of the way things are set up to-day, those are happening across the country, and that’s dis-appointing, but not overly surprising either.”

Before leaving the program prior to KU’s win over Iowa State, Potter, a senior from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, appeared in all four games he suited up for and made five tackles with one pass breakup and credit for half of a tackle for a loss.

Despite not being with the team, Potter still appeared to pay close attention to the Jayhawks’ play. Shortly after KU completed the win over Iowa State, Potter tweeted, “Proud of them boys!!! Told y’all not to be surprised!!!”

As is the case at running back, with KU counting on its depth at the position with Daniel Hishaw Jr. expected to be out of the lineup for several weeks, the Jayhawks also are thankful for their depth at linebacker.

Craig Young, Rich Miller and Taiwan Berryhill Jr., are listed on the starters on this week’s depth chart, with Miller backing up Young on the outside and newcomers Eriq Gilyard and Lorenzo McCaskill also serving as backups.

Miller leads Kansas with 38 tackles in five games and Young, a transfer from Ohio State, is third on the team with 26 tackles. Young also has two tackles for loss, two sacks, two pass breakups and two QB hurries.

Gilyard, Berryhill and McCaskill currently rank 12th, 13th and 15th on the team in tackles, and have combined for four tackles for loss and an interception.

Leipold said the versatility of each player in the group will help make up for being down one at the position.

“Lorenzo and Eriq, I think, are two of our most physical linebackers in the inside,” Leipold said. “Again, there’s depth and competition, and we’ve talked about that in the past. I think the ones that are here are embracing it.”

KU-OU to start at 11 a.m.

KU’s Week 7 road game at Oklahoma is slated for an 11 a.m. kickoff, the Big 12 Conference announced this week.

The Jayhawks’ Oct. 15 game at Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma, will be shown on either ABC or ESPN2. An an-nouncement on the network will be made closer to kickoff.

The game will mark KU’s first road game since its Week 3 win at Houston. The Jayhawks followed that up with home games against Duke, Iowa State and TCU this weekend.

The first two were sellouts — just the second and third filled venues in 13 years — and with ESPN’s College Gameday in town for the first time ever this weekend, KU is expecting an-other sellout for the Top-20 showdown between No. 19 Kan-sas and No. 17 TCU.

Kickoff for that game is also scheduled for 11 a.m. on FS1.