photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas tight end DeShawn Hanika runs downfield after catching a pass during Kansas Football's pro day on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at the Anderson Football Complex in Lawrence.

A lengthy recovery process after an injury is nothing new for former Kansas tight end DeShawn Hanika.

He just has a habit of making each one a bit less lengthy.

“You know, in my eyes, timetables are meant to be broken,” he said.

So there was Hanika on the turf field at the Anderson Family Football Complex running a 40-yard dash last Wednesday at KU football’s Pro Day, less than six months after enduring his second season-ending leg injury in as many years.

“A lot of people thought I probably wouldn’t make it out here, doc included,” Hanika said afterward. “… I’ve dreamed of coming out here and doing something like this, whether it be the combine or Pro Day, since I was 5 years old timing them on TV with my dad. So there was no way I was going to miss this, so I’m just happy I got to come out here, and shoutout to the Kansas training staff yet again.”

The operative words being “yet again.” After he sat out all of 2023, his last year at Iowa State, amid a state gambling investigation, Hanika transferred to KU and tore his Achilles tendon, which cost him the 2024 season. He received a medical waiver to play a seventh season of college football and served as the Jayhawks’ top tight end for four games, including a six-catch, 74-yard, two-touchdown performance at rival Missouri, before suffering the next injury at the start of the Cincinnati game on Sept. 27. It required season-ending surgery, as head coach Lance Leipold announced a week later.

“Once you’ve been through it as many times as I have, you get used to it,” Hanika said. “You know there’s no one there to help you, so it’s kind of on you, and I’ve had this dream since I was little, so there wasn’t going to be anything that was going to stop me from getting here, working out two, three times a day, rehabbing three times a day. There was nothing that was going to keep me from stepping on this field today.”

Hanika said a year ago that he chose to come back to KU for his final season because he didn’t want to “live with any what-ifs” wondering what he might have been able to accomplish if he had chosen to continue playing football. He endured the recovery process the first time around with the help of the Jayhawks’ training staff and his wife, Kate.

This time around, he had another source of motivation: his son Ace, his “little alarm clock,” who was born on Nov. 24.

“Seven a.m. on the dot, he wakes up every morning, and that’s all the motivation I need,” Hanika said. “Just try to give him and his mom, my wife, the best possible future that they can have. I couldn’t ask for a better supporting cast out of those two.”

Also providing his own form of support is Hanika’s younger brother Connor, a high school senior who will text him in the morning, “Hey, old (guy), let’s get up, get moving, let’s go.”

“I love him for that, and he’s probably one of my best friends in the world,” Hanika said. “So having got people like that in my circle, it made it real easy to get up.”

Hanika measured at 6-foot-4 and 246 pounds on Wednesday while taking part in the vertical jump (32 inches), bench press (19 repetitions), 40-yard dash (best time 4.95 seconds), 5-10-5 shuttle (4.72) and three-cone drill (7.65). It was the latest step on his long and nonlinear journey toward potentially playing professional football and representing his hometown of Topeka and high school, Hayden Catholic, in the process.

“It’d be great to be one of the first ones, if not the first one, to make it there,” he said, “and just to show people that kids in Kansas, especially in Topeka, we have athletes, we can compete with anyone, and once you give us a chance, it’s really hard to get rid of us.”

Whatever the case, Hanika will leave a legacy of sorts at KU, in part because Connor is joining the team as a preferred walk-on this summer.

“He called me probably 30 seconds after they left his school and gave him his PWO,” Hanika recalled, “and he said, ‘I’m coming to KU.’ I was like, ‘Hold on a minute, dude. Hold on, timeout. What do you mean?’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t even need to see it. I’ve seen you, I’ve seen it up there with you, I’m coming.’ And I was like, ‘All right, I mean, good luck.’ And he goes, ‘Don’t need it.'”

Hanika said it speaks well of Leipold that he would be willing to give his little brother a chance.

“I know he’s going to hit the ground running when he gets here,” he added.

photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas tight end DeShawn Hanika speaks to reporters at the conclusion of the Kansas Football Pro Day on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Lawrence.

photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas tight end Deshawn Hanika gets his hands on a pass during Kansas Football’s pro day on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at the Anderson Football Complex in Lawrence.

photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas tight end Deshawn Hanika finishes his 40-yard dash during Kansas Football’s pro day on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at the Anderson Football Complex in Lawrence.

photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas tight end DeShawn Hanika runs a 40-yard dash during Kansas Football’s pro day on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at the Anderson Football Complex in Lawrence.