photo by: Kansas Athletics

Kansas running back Devin Neal carries the ball against West Virginia with a block from Bryce Cabeldue, left, on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Morgantown, W.Va.

The Kansas football team may have fallen short of a third straight bowl, but several KU standouts will still get an opportunity to play at least one final college football game this winter.

Among the Jayhawks’ momentous and exceptionally large senior class, three players have already earned spots in postseason all-star games, as they look to improve their outlook for professional football.

Offensive tackle Bryce Cabeldue and cornerback Mello Dotson accepted on Dec. 12 their invites to next month’s East-West Shrine Bowl, while as of Saturday, running back Devin Neal was headed to the Senior Bowl.

These are the first three participants confirmed for the upcoming slate of postseason all-star games, which begins on Jan. 11 with the Hula Bowl and continues Jan. 18 with the Tropical Bowl, both in Orlando, Florida. Neither of those competitions has officially revealed any Jayhawk selections just yet.

Dotson, a fifth-year senior from Daytona Beach, Florida, recently became the first KU football player named an All-American in six years (since Joe Dineen Jr. in 2018) when he earned second-team honors from the Walter Camp Foundation. He then became a third-team AP All-American on Monday for good measure.

The longtime Jayhawk, who picked off 12 passes in his career and took four back for touchdowns (a school record), entered the top six highest-graded qualifying corners in the Big 12 on Pro Football Focus, along with teammate Cobee Bryant, with a mark of 78.5, and both were first-team all-conference selections.

Also a fifth-year senior who had started for almost three full years at right tackle prior to 2024, Cabeldue shifted to protecting quarterback Jalon Daniels’ blind side late in fall training camp ahead of the season, switching spots with fellow tackle Logan Brown. The 6-foot-6, 315-pound native of Clovis, New Mexico, did not miss a beat. He started all 12 games and, as with Bryant and Dotson, he and Brown both found themselves in the top six qualifying players at tackle in the Big 12 on PFF, helping to anchor what was by many metrics KU’s best position group all season. Cabeldue’s all-league honorable mention was the first such honor of his career, and he’ll have a chance to use the Shrine Bowl (Jan. 30 in Frisco, Texas) as a springboard toward a professional future.

Neal has one of the best NFL outlooks of any Jayhawk at this juncture. While he may not necessarily put up the flashiest numbers at combines, his elusiveness has caught the eye of scouting experts.

“There are likely to be double-digit running backs drafted in the second- to fourth-round range in April, and Neal figures to be part of that logjam,” The Athletic’s Dane Brugler wrote last month after Neal’s dazzling 287-total-yard, four-touchdown showing against Colorado. “His receiving skills, along with his makeup (his coaches rave about him as a person and player), could help separate him in the spring — even if his 40-yard dash is average.”

The Senior Bowl (Feb. 1 in Mobile, Alabama), traditionally the premier college all-star game, will give him a venue to display these sorts of skills, the ones that allowed him to become KU’s all-time leader in rushing yards, 100-yard rushing games, scrimmage touchdowns and rushing touchdowns. He finished 2024 averaging more than 100 yards per contest, with 1,266 yards and 16 scores on the ground to go with a career-best 254 receiving yards.

photo by: AP Photo/Rick Egan

Kansas cornerback Mello Dotson (3) intercepts a pass in the endzone as BYU tight end Mata’ava Ta’ase (88) defends during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Provo, Utah.

photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Kansas offensive lineman Bryce Cabeldue (77) looks to make a block during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Iowa State, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023, in Ames, Iowa. Kansas won 28-21.

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas running back Devin Neal (4) runs in a touchdown during the second quarter against Colorado on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024 at Arrowhead Stadium.

Dotson, Cabeldue and Neal may just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these sorts of postseason opportunities. Players like Bryant, a nationally prominent talent who followed Dotson in short order with All-American selections of his own from the American Football Coaches Association and the Sporting News, and Brown, a former five-star recruit who declared for the draft early, are obvious candidates for selections.

But considering the wide range of players who participated in these games last year — Patrick Joyner Jr., Kwinton Lassiter and Rich Miller in the Tropical Bowl, Jason Bean and Craig Young in the Hula Bowl, Mason Fairchild and Kenny Logan Jr. in the Shrine Bowl and Austin Booker and Dominick Puni in the Senior Bowl — a slew of other Jayhawks with wide-ranging backgrounds could be candidates.

As a reminder, the 2024 senior class also included (among others) the likes of wide receivers Lawrence Arnold, Luke Grimm and Quentin Skinner; tight ends Jared Casey and Trevor Kardell; guard Michael Ford; defensive linemen Jereme Robinson, Caleb Taylor and Dylan Wudke; linebackers JB Brown and Cornell Wheeler; and safeties O.J. Burroughs and Marvin Grant. Offensive linemen Dre Doiron and Darrell Simmons Jr. have announced their own plans to pursue the Canadian Football League and NFL drafts. Many of these players could hope to use all-star appearances to improve their draft stock.

Bean, who was later invited to the Shrine Bowl after the Hula Bowl but dropped out due to illness, still made the Indianapolis Colts’ practice squad, where he remains (though was also the top pick in the United Football League draft). Young is a free agent after time with the Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers. Fairchild spent several stints with the New Orleans Saints before signing with the UFL’s DC Defenders, while Logan played in the preseason with the Los Angeles Rams and recently got acquired by the Edmonton Elks of the CFL.

Puni and Booker were the highest-drafted Jayhawks in recent memory to the San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears, respectively.

These games are not the only route to the pros, of course. Mike Novitsky caught on with a team that was thin at center in the Seattle Seahawks, was released and later rejoined their practice squad on Dec. 3.