Kansas football recruiting

Kansas continued to add to its incoming group of wide receivers — and its basketball roster at the same time — when it earned the commitment of two-sport athlete Jaden Nickens on Thursday afternoon.

“It was very important having sports like Kansas basketball, being number one in the nation, and a football program on the rise,” Nickens told Jon Kirby of JayhawkSlant.com. “I also had other offers, but Kansas definitely stood out how they had a plan for me in order to play both of them.”

Shortly before announcing his decision on a 247Sports livestream, Nickens said, “The decision I make today is me staying true to myself.”

Nickens is a 6-foot-3, 190-pound four-star wideout who plays at Sierra Canyon in Chatsworth, California. Nickens previously lived in Oklahoma City and attended Millwood and Douglass high schools; from August 2023 until March 2024, he was committed to Oklahoma.

In the months since his initial decommitment announcement — in which he cited his desire to play both sports — Nickens reported scholarship offers from Michigan State, Cal, Georgia and KU, eventually listing those last three in a top-five list along with Oklahoma State and Texas A&M. He also received some late attention from Arizona State, which he referred to as a two-sport offer.

Now, Nickens’ commitment to the Jayhawks comes on the heels of Maize wideout Bryson Hayes’ flip from Nebraska, which occurred on Saturday night after KU beat Iowa State.

The addition of Nickens brings the Jayhawks up to four freshman receivers in the 2025 class, replacing the four seniors they will lose to graduation (Lawrence Arnold, Luke Grimm, Quentin Skinner and Trevor Wilson); with Doug Emilien and Keaton Kubecka as their most experienced returning options, though, they could still choose to look to the portal for additional help.

Nickens will be a scholarship athlete for football, although with the pending roster changes due to the NCAA settlement in the House case, the Jayhawks will likely only be able to carry 105 total players, scholarship status notwithstanding, for football and 15 for men’s basketball.

“When I talked to the basketball staff and football staff, they were all very excited about me playing the other sport,” Nickens told Kirby.