photo by: Kansas Athletics

Anderson Kopp

In the sort of move that has been rather rare during Lance Leipold’s tenure as head coach, Kansas has played the same five offensive linemen for every snap each of its last two games.

“There is more consistency, and that’s what we’re looking for,” associate head coach Andy Kotelnicki said on Tuesday. “… We can’t rotate people in at any position just for the purpose of ‘Oh, we’ll get them a few reps.’ If they merit that, they can do that.”

One of the most impressive elements of this group of five is that redshirt freshman center Anderson Kopp has certainly merited all 179 offensive snaps he’s received over the last two weeks.

He hasn’t been perfect by any means — Kopp himself says he needs to improve at “protecting the red line and not giving up so much pressure for our quarterbacks” — but he’s handled dramatically increased responsibility and fit like a glove in the first two starts of his collegiate career.

“We all come to play Division I football to actually play the sport,” Kopp said. “So just to be able to get out there and play the sport with the other four O-linemen who are all my best friends has been so much fun the last two weeks.”

The 6-foot-4, 305-pound lineman, from Phoenix, is the son of a pair of KU alumni, including former Jayhawk defensive tackle Kevin Kopp. He joined the Jayhawks as a freshman in the class of 2025 out of Brophy College Prep and appeared in just one game as a reserve center.

This year, Kopp initially appeared set for a similar role, especially with KU also having guard Amir Herring at its disposal as a potential center option behind Oklahoma State transfer Kasen Carpenter.

But when Carpenter first went down injured against Middle Tennessee on Oct. 3, it was Kopp who spelled him for much of the rest of the game and made his 59 snaps (according to Pro Football Focus) with aplomb; then when Carpenter had to exit again against Kansas State two weeks later, Kopp took over. Since then, he’s been a fixture in the middle of the KU line.

The cadence with which his first half of the season unfolded helped him work his way into his first significant collegiate gameplay.

“The first game action was LIU, which was I guess kind of good to kind of ease into it, because you’re playing a little bit of a lower school,” Kopp said. “It actually worked out perfectly, because then you go to Middle Tennessee, which is like a (Group of Six) school, and then you go Power Four … Every time I go in, it’s like I go against a better competition, in a sense.”

That ramped up toward facing the formidable defensive fronts of Baylor in his first start and TCU last Saturday. Kopp said he wasn’t especially nervous because he had already accumulated so much experience in the weeks that preceded the game against the Bears: “I think it was more of excitement nerves, rather than like anxious, tense, ‘Am I going to mess up?’ nerves.”

Kopp played 92 snaps in that victory with a 55.6 Pro Football Focus grade, followed by 87 with a 63.2 grade in the loss at TCU.

He felt the effects of his increased workload right away — “That’s probably been the biggest thing I realized — last week was like the first week I’ve practiced and I wasn’t fresh because I had the weekend off,” he said — but it didn’t take him too long to get acclimated. Plus, he remembered what former KU linemen like Bryce Foster and Kobe Baynes had told him about the importance of taking care of his body.

“After that Baylor game, I was definitely sore, but after TCU, I mean, I think once your body gets used to it, it’s not very bad,” Kopp said. “After TCU, I woke up the next day and actually I felt great, I wasn’t sore.”

Then it was on to UCF, this Saturday’s foe, for him and his new running mates — tackles Calvin Clements and Nick Morrow and guards Connor Stroh and Tavake Tuikolovatu. Kopp said the offensive line is so close that they would be able to excel in all sorts of combinations. But he did acknowledge the merits of the current starting five.

“It’s so nice to have freaking Connor Stroh, 6-7, 340, right next to me to just help me do the doubles, or Vake, who’s again like 330,” Kopp said. “Having those big guards, it makes my job a lot easier, and then Cal and Nick, super experienced tackles, calling out different out calls and stuff. So those four dudes have helped me so much (to) play consistently, too, because of their knowledge and how good they are, it makes my job a lot easier.”

While Carpenter waits to return, he has by all accounts been a great help to his younger teammate. Leipold has said as much, and Kopp confirmed it himself on Tuesday.

“Kasen being an older dude and having so much experience has helped me tremendously, not just in the last four weeks but since he came here in January,” Kopp said. “We got together in January, February, before even spring ball, working together, and through spring ball and fall camp, it’s been like he’s been helping me so much to progress my game, just because he’s so smart, he’s played so much football that it’s not just been like the last four weeks he’s helped me.”

Specifically, Kopp attributed a lot of his mental growth and ability to read presnap cues to what he’s learned from watching film with the veteran Carpenter, a fourth-year player who also spent time at Tulsa.

He has a lot of growing still to do at this early stage of his college career, and that’ll continue when the Jayhawks meet the Knights’ front this weekend.

“Their D-tackles are good, they’re big, one’s big, one’s twitchy, so it’s really just having great eyes,” Kopp said, “and (Carpenter’s) helped me a lot in practice and film, just being able to go out there and execute.”