photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Kansas quarterback Cole Ballard passes the ball during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Kansas State Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023, in Lawrence.

Kansas will be unrecognizable at virtually every position in 2025.

The Jayhawks will almost certainly feature new starters at running back, wide receiver, tight end, three out of five offensive line spots, both defensive end positions, three linebacker spots, both outside cornerbacks, multiple safety roles, kicker and punter.

That’s what makes it all the more surprising that quarterback — the one offensive position with some level of continuity, as Jalon Daniels returns for his sixth season of college football — has suddenly emerged as one of the most compelling positions to watch during spring practice.

There was always going to be some level of intrigue surrounding the players behind Daniels, but not nearly as much as when it became clear, via an atypical two-sentence press release from KU Athletics on Feb. 6, that Daniels would be limited in spring practice after an offseason medical procedure on his knee.

“He’s doing fine,” head coach Lance Leipold said last Thursday. “His procedure was something that had been irritating for a while. It was something that kind of reirritated itself in December when he was working out, and it was something that the decision was made that it’s best to get it taken care of now.”

Leipold said it’s not known just yet how much he’ll participate but “it’ll be very limited.”

“Again, he’s progressing well, and again he takes things in such a good way and finds a positive in it,” Leipold said, “… He’ll be able to lead from the sideline right now and go from there.”

Daniels may find a positive of his own, but the announcement of his limitations certainly wasn’t the kind of news KU fans wanted to receive after a year in which Daniels’ early-season production was hampered, as coaches and players referenced at times, by his gradual reintroduction to action in 2024. He had been working his way back from a back injury that cost him most of the 2023 season, which is the reason why he is eligible to play in 2025 in the first place.

With KU bringing in a slew of transfer receivers and tight ends, Leipold acknowledged Daniels’ disrupted spring isn’t ideal.

“But again I still think (we can do) the evaluation of what we’re going to see from the receivers, of their ability to get lined up, the ability to make plays, do the things that are needed,” Leipold said, “and then we feel very confident that again a full summer of those guys working together — and he has some ideas of getting together with them already and a plan that I think he’ll be able to bridge that gap quickly.”

New offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski said there could be a silver lining.

“What you get the most out of it is you get experience by the other guys … see how they can keep growing offensively, that’s the fun part,” he said. “You want to have Jalon there, we all do. But then if you don’t, well, you got all the other guys who can still get tons of reps and experience, so what’s going to help is it (can) create depth.”

Indeed, short-term consequences for Daniels, Zebrowski and the rest of the offense aside, the result of the quarterback’s upcoming limitations is a longer and more in-depth glimpse than ever before into the future of KU’s quarterback room — a bright future, to be sure, but still a rather convoluted one with three young players set to vie for playing time in the years ahead.

The newest, who has the most work to do, is David McComb, an early-enrolling true freshman from Edmond, Oklahoma, who rewrote the record books at Memorial High School. It’s fitting the three-star prospect, listed at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, would come to Lawrence ahead of schedule, since he committed to the Jayhawks all the way back in July 2023, setting the tone for the rest of the 2025 class.

“When he came to camp early, Jim Zebrowski really fell in love with his abilities, his potential, his makeup, his size,” Leipold said on signing day in December. “(He) can do all the things that we do offensively, extreme competitor, all the things that you want in a quarterback.”

This is the second year in a row that KU will get a quarterback on campus in the spring after Isaiah Marshall enrolled early last season. Marshall earned early praise from coaches for his composure and calm disposition, and the 6-foot quarterback from Southfield, Michigan, embraced on-field comparisons to Daniels based on his mobility and his quick decision-making.

But he never made it on the field in 2024, even in mop-up duty, and even with the possibility of playing in up to four games and maintaining his redshirt. Cole Ballard appeared in KU’s decisive victories over Lindenwood and Houston, throwing for 51 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 42 on the season. When the Jayhawks went to a third-string quarterback in the season opener against the Lions they opted for Mikey Pauley, with Leipold citing potential concerns about keeping Marshall under the four-game limit.

Ballard, for his part, has had an unusual career trajectory through two seasons on campus. The son of Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard, he arrived in Lawrence as a walk-on but earned a scholarship sometime around October of his freshman year, by which time he had already positioned himself as the third-string quarterback behind Daniels and Jason Bean. Of course, Daniels did not appear in a game after Sept. 23, 2023, and when Bean suffered a head injury on Nov. 11 against Texas Tech, Ballard got thrust into action. Despite a couple key interceptions, he did enough to put the Jayhawks in positions to win both that week and the following week against rival Kansas State, but they couldn’t pull off either victory.

With Daniels healthy again, Ballard faded to the background for much of 2024, at least until another game against Kansas State. On Oct. 26 he took a snap at quarterback with Daniels split out wide and ran for six yards on a keeper in some sort of unconventional offensive package, but ended up getting hurt.

Ballard got replaced by Marshall as the backup quarterback on KU’s depth charts for the last few weeks of the season, presumably due to the injury, and Marshall took second-team reps during pregame warmups ahead of late-season games against BYU and Colorado. What will be interesting to see is how he can parlay this second-team experience, if at all, into spring practice, or if Ballard will return to his role as Daniels’ primary backup. On Thursday Leipold praised the leadership qualities of both backup quarterbacks.

The hope for a fully healthy offseason for Daniels is out the window, but the weeks ahead will provide some sense of what KU has waiting in the wings in 2025 if needed, and also perhaps a preview of 2026 and beyond.

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

Kansas quarterback Isaiah Marshall tosses the ball during fall camp on Monday, August 5, 2024, in Lawrence.

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas quarterback Cole Ballard (15) heaves a pass during the third quarter on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024 at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.