photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas senior Boden Groen eyes a pass during a drill at practice Thursday, July 24, 2025 in Lawrence.

As soon as Boden Groen suffered the shoulder injury that cost him his senior season at Rice, he knew he’d be back playing again the following year.

“Once that happened, I was already mentally getting ready for this time,” Groen said on Tuesday.

The tight end from Santa Ana, California, who attended powerhouse Mater Dei High School, only played four games for the Owls in 2024, meaning he was able to redshirt and preserve a final season of eligibility. Now he’s going through fall camp at Kansas.

“It’s really a blessing,” Groen said. “Obviously I didn’t think that I’d be playing another year in college, and stuff happens. The medical staff at Rice and the doctors down there did a phenomenal job on my shoulder, so I feel great. I have no problems with my shoulder. It’s just a blessing to keep being able to put on the helmet and go out there and play football.”

After KU lost Keyan Burnett in the spring transfer portal, it honed on in Groen as a new addition to the room.

“We ask our tight ends to be able to be (the) point of attack in the run game, but we also want them to be a receiving threat, and he showed both of those,” said Matt Lubick, KU’s co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach.

Groen has continued to show those qualities in the opening days of fall camp and has made a strong impression as a result; Lubick said on Tuesday he’s received some reps with the first-team offense, “and he hasn’t missed a beat.”

“Boden has made tremendous progress,” Lubick said. “He was not here in the spring, he got here in the summer, and to his credit he’s picked it up way faster than I thought.”

Groen began his college career playing at the JUCO level at Saddleback College, where the 2020 season was canceled but he tallied 14 catches for 152 yards in 2021. (Technically, because of the NCAA’s blanket waiver for former junior-college athletes, Groen could have had a fifth year of eligibility even without his redshirt season.) Then, over the course of two full seasons and one abbreviated year at Rice, he caught 60 passes for 556 yards. As he puts it, “I’ve caught a lot of balls.”

“I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I think I run pretty good routes,” he said, “and then I’m not afraid to stick my face in there and hit some people and I pride myself on that too.”

Groen was a well-regarded player in the portal and reportedly visited Wisconsin before he picked KU. A connection between KU general manager Rob Ianello and a former Rice wide receivers coach helped draw Groen to Lawrence, and he said he also liked the offensive scheme.

Meanwhile, KU knew Groen would pick up its offense well because Rice had what Lubick called a “big play menu” — indeed, as Groen puts it, “We kind of ran everything there was in the book.”

The Owls also put in a good word for Groen.

“We had really good intel from the Rice coaches on how not only is he a good player, but what a great person, (what) a good culture fit he would be,” Lubick said.

If Groen has already caught onto the scheme well, his bigger adjustment has been to the way KU runs its practices, but he said his teammates have helped bring him along. He’s also taken advantage of the resources KU provides in its strength and nutrition programs after arriving from a Group of Five school. In the summer, he put on weight and improved his body composition.

“The facilities are great, all the recovery stuff, that’s nice,” Groen said. “Really, the biggest difference for me was just the amount of food. (At Rice) they were doing their best with what the budget had, but we were not getting as much, as many meals, as nice of meals, and then the additional money for groceries is huge.”

Groen said he was pleased with how he played in the early days of fall camp, as he got back into a rhythm and knocked off the rust following his injury.

“He’s eager to learn, he’s eager to get better,” said fellow tight end DeShawn Hanika. “He asks a whole bunch of questions and he just absorbs knowledge like a sponge. But at the same time, he came in ready to compete. That’s the standard in our room. Nothing’s ever going to be handed to you, whether you’ve been here for three years or you’ve been here for three weeks.”

Hanika added that the “Cali boy” fit well with the overall dynamic of the tight end room.

“Usually you go into a room and you see that there’s a slacker or somebody like that,” Groen said. “We’ve got nobody that’s checked out.”

Groen certainly isn’t as he prepares for his unexpected fifth year in college.

“He’s been very mentally sound, he’s physical, he’s athletic,” Lubick said. “We knew he would be a good football player, but the fact that he’s picked it up so fast and he’s able to rep with the ones is pretty impressive.”