photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas quarterback Mikey Pauley (14) hands off to Kansas running back Harry Stewart III (25) during the fourth quarter on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024 at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.

When he arrived on campus in the spring of 2024, not too long ago, Harry Stewart III made a strong first impression.

Not only was the then-freshman running back “built like a monster,” as teammate Daniel Hishaw Jr. puts it now — “He’s still built like a monster,” in fact — but position coach Jonathan Wallace called Stewart “almost like Devin Neal all over again” in terms of how eager he was to ask questions of his coaches and go over extra film.

Positioned toward the bottom of a veteran-heavy running back room, Stewart garnered seven carries in Kansas’ blowout season-opening victory over Lindenwood, then resurfaced to play 11 snaps in the finale at Baylor. And then came another opportunity to step forward in spring practice.

But his second year in the program hasn’t followed quite the same course. Stewart suffered a knee injury during the spring and had to work his way back.

By July 31, though, he was out of a no-contact jersey for the first time in fall camp. That same day, running backs coach Jonathan Wallace said, he broke off a big run during a team period.

“Any time a guy has something in a lower extremity with a brace on or something, it takes a while to get used to and to feel like you can run full speed in that,” head coach Lance Leipold said. “But Harry continues to work hard. He’s done everything that they’ve asked.”

Stewart said he’s “full steam ahead” now after the coaches eased him back into action early in camp.

“Especially going from having a little setback and getting back into it with my teammates, being on the field with them, just preparing day by day, it’s been great,” Stewart said.

As Hishaw’s “monster” remark suggests, Stewart is a solid, well-built back at 5-foot-10 and 215 pounds. But as Leipold notes, he “also has deceptive speed.”

That’s what Hishaw says, too: Stewart’s fast, even if, somehow, “people wouldn’t notice it when they’re watching him.”

“Harry’s actually one of the fastest,” Hishaw said. “I think I’m faster than him, but he’s actually one of the fastest running backs. And when he runs, he glides. He’s moving.”

Stewart sees himself as an every-down back. In keeping with that label, he’s aimed to improve in every possible way.

“It could be reading defenses, it could be pass protections, it could be passing the ball,” he said. “Just always trying to get better at every area of my game, never being satisfied.”

The biggest way in which he’s grown, though, is “into the brotherhood, into this community,” and more broadly as a person, he said. That’s a result of being immersed in KU’s culture on a daily basis.

“It could be certain challenges, it could be different ways of (having) to figure out life,” Stewart said. “But just being here, having that type of family around me, has just improved me as not only a player but as a man.”

Back on the field, Stewart has been competing for a third running back role on this year’s team behind Hishaw and Leshon Williams, the pair listed on Monday’s inaugural depth chart. It’ll be hard to usurp Johnny Thompson Jr., a 2023 recruit a year ahead of Stewart whom Leipold has repeatedly cited as a camp standout, but Hishaw and Williams both exhaust their eligibility after this season.

Then there will be another spring, and with it a chance for Stewart to resume his upward trajectory.