Dylan McDuffie might be one of the newcomers to the running back room, but he is also the oldest.

McDuffie played for Lance Leipold at Buffalo before transferring to Georgia Tech. After one season at Georgia Tech, he entered the transfer portal again and landed at Kansas with several of his coaches from Buffalo.

It is well known over the last two years the running backs have suffered injuries that hampered the group. With everyone healthy now, there is a lot of talent at the position and McDuffie brings experience.

“He brings a lot of passion,” said running backs Jonathan Wallace. “He brings a lot of leadership. Those are the things that I really appreciate about Dylan McDuffie and the way that he carries himself, his routine on a daily basis. He gets in here in the building early.

“And it's affecting the rest of the room. Those guys can see this is his last year. He wants to do everything he can to make it the best one, but it's good for all those guys to be able to see how to operate even when it's your last year."

Wallace hopes the younger players notice how McDuffie carries himself heading into the last year of his career. What he brings to the Kansas backfield goes beyond leadership and what he is doing off the field. He is showing a lot to Wallace to get in the mix for carries at a deep position.

“The kid runs hard now,” Wallace said. “I mean, he runs extremely hard, and that's something that we observed and knew we needed in the backfield. We want to continue to have guys that run that way.”

McDuffie likes the makeup of the running back unit, where several players are fighting to get playing time.

He arrived in January and went through spring football. So, what does he think of the overall group of backs?

“Dogs” he said. “That's really just the one word for it. I think we are just dogs. We’re willing to do whatever it takes to win, whether carrying the ball, blocking, catching, like I said. And for a group that has four guys that could all play and be starters somewhere, it's a very unselfish group to willingly know that we're going to be rotating. Knowing that we all need each other and that the competition is making us better, but it's also making us closer too.”

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