After appearing in only two games last season, redshirt junior cornerback Damarius McGhee is excited about the opportunity to get on the field this season. McGhee was a four-star recruit out of high school and played his first two seasons at LSU before transferring to Kansas.

In his first year at Kansas in 2023, McGhee battled a back injury for most of the year. He said the experience was frustrating but had people in his corner to help keep him composed.

“It was frustrating man but [the] training staff, some of the players on the team, they kept my head up,” McGhee said.. “It was just a struggle, man, something I just had to fight through.”

McGhee said he started to get healthier at the end of the season and was about 100% by the bowl game. Now, he looks forward to making an impact on a team with lofty expectations in 2024.

“The guys welcomed me back,” McGhee said. “We’re just trying to work man. We’re trying to go get that Big 12 Championship, so that’s what we’re trying to do. That’s what we’re locked in on.”

McGhee is also personally ready to prove that he is still a capable football player. After appearing in 12 games for LSU during his freshman season, he’s appeared in just three games over the past two seasons.

“I do this for my family man,” McGhee said. “I’m just trying to get out there, show them I still got it in me.”

Kansas has a duo of impressive corners in Cobee Bryant and Mello Dotson. McGhee said he watches the reps the duo takes and tries to emulate what they do. He said he watches a lot of what Dotson does during man and Bryant in press scenarios.

“I try to take some of the stuff that Mello do and Cobee do and add it to my bag,” McGhee said. “They’re like to me, like, the best two corners in the Big 12 for sure.”

While Bryant and Dotson will likely get a majority of outside reps, there’s an opportunity for playing time at the nickel corner position. Co-defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald said McGhee was in the mix there alongside Jalen Todd and Jacoby Davis.

“That’s something I always wanted to do in high school because in high school I was a traveler,” McGhee said on the opportunity of playing nickel. “I used to have to play nickel corner safety, but I’m just ready to show you all what I’m about.”

McGhee’s versatility was something that stood out to McDonald as well. He thinks McGhee will have the chance to help Kansas in different ways after having a great spring.

“He had one of the best springs that we had in secondary and so now he’s just [got to] continue to bring that along and able to push some guys and once again just give us some flexibility on things we can do on the back end,” McDonald said. “If we get into some third down packages and different things like that, you're able to move some guys around and you can throw him on the field and feel confident that he can go and play at the level of hopefully, you know, that Cobee and Mello are playing also.”

One of McDonald’s biggest pieces of advice is, “Time will either promote you or expose you.” This is something that has stuck with McGhee.

“You can see that,” McGhee said. “You see it happening in front of your eyes and just him saying that, it’s just crazy.”