For a player who only has one career drive under his belt, redshirt junior quarterback Ben Easters commands a lot of respect from both his coaches and peers. Through his leadership and character, Easters has provided value despite rarely seeing the field over the past four years.

Lance Leipold had high praise for Easters on Monday. He talked about how he understands his role and is consistent with it, as well as being respected in the locker room.

“Ben's one that continues though, as the program has changed some faces, continues to be well respected,” Leipold said. “When he says something, you know, it's received really well and taken to heart and even though he may not be high on the depth chart and that's really neat to see. To have someone as completely unselfish as he is to help this team, I think others take notice.”

Easters embraces that role of being an off-the-field resource to help the other quarterbacks. He’s always seen greeting Jalon Daniels as he comes off the field, offering advice or positive reinforcement.

“We’ve gotten to build a great bond, a great relationship,” Easters said of him and Daniels. “I like to help Jalon try and stay even-keeled because he’s getting fired up from everywhere else. I try to be the first to greet him, give him positive reinforcement every time, just make sure he’s chill.”

Keeping Daniels chill is the easy part, as Easters called him “one of the most poised individuals” that he knows.

Easters has also taken youngsters like Cole Ballard and Isaiah Marshall under his wing. He said he enjoys seeing how they’ve grown over time.

“I think something that's been really cool for me is just watching these guys grow,” Easters said. “Whether or not I get on the field, like I can pour all of myself into these guys. And it’s been a really great opportunity to really just be able to give my all to them every day, regardless of whether I’m on the field or off the field.”

Marshall talked about how Easters has been a resource for him, calling him “one of my favorite guys.”

“Every time I ask him a question, he helps me, he always goes through it with me,” Marshall said. “I think having Ben here has helped me a lot because he always does show me the way.”

However, Easters’ impact goes further than helping the quarterbacks on the field. As quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski and analyst Eric Terrazas help them learn the offense, Easters wants to focus on helping them grow as men. Easters said learning the playbook is the easy part and wants to help them learn how to become leaders.

“I’ve really been focusing on growing them as men and trying to make them good individuals,” Easters said. “I’m just trying to help them really grow in this culture and grow as men, because they’re great guys, and they can be even better leaders.”

Zebrowski mentioned how valuable it is to have a guy like Easters who is so bought into the culture of Kansas football.

“He cares,” Zebrowski said. “And like Lance says, in terms of value to him, the value, one of the biggest value he brings is he's so bought into what we're doing here from a term of culture that has been great and you love to have him. He's a terrific person.”

It’s clear that Easters has a great relationship with everyone in the quarterback room, but he and Ballard share a connection that goes farther than just Kansas. The two never went head-to-head, but Ballard’s Westfield HS beat Easters’ Brownsburg HS during Easters’ senior season.

“It gets brought up every once and a while for sure,” Easters said.

Zebrowski called Easters “one of, if not the best guys in the quarterback room” that he’s had the chance to coach. He also stressed how valuable of a resource Easters is for the young quarterbacks.

“[He] can help the young guys, knows how we do things and can help them be positive,” Zebrowski said. “[He] understands how I want them coached and be able to focus and refocus and all the different things I talked about.”

Easters finally had the chance to get on the field in Kansas’ last regular season game against Cincinnati. The long-time Jayhawk led a touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter and even had a run play where he tried to lower his shoulder, something Zebrowski dubbed an “Indiana thing” as Ballard tends to seek out contact too.

With the game being in Cincinnati, Easters had family travel in to see him play.

“It was really cool, kind of seeing the hard work and the years, years of work put into it finally come to fruition,” Easters said. “We got a touchdown on the drive, so it's [a] really special experience and something I'll remember.”