Jake McTaggart has KU in top four, plans to visit

The Kansas coaches attended different satellite camp this summer and it helped them identify several recruits.

That paid off for Jake McTaggart.

The tight from Hayesville, NC caught the attention of the Kansas staff and it helped earn him an offer.

“I was down at the mega camp at Florida State and Coach Z the quarterback's coach was there,” McTaggart said. “He saw me, and we talked after the camp. We had a good conversation, and I got his phone number.”

McTaggart was referring to Coach Z as Jim Zebrowski who coaches the quarterbacks. The two had phone conversations after the camp and McTaggart ended up with an offer based on his performance.

“We had a few phone calls,” he said. “The first couple ones it was sounding like I would need to come to the camp, or visit, or something like that. And then it was the third or fourth phone call, he called me and offered, which it kind of caught me off guard. But I was really, happy about that. He calls me probably once or twice a week, and we text pretty much daily.”

The 6-foot-6, 230-pound tight end said he has built a good relationship with Zebrowski, who is the lead recruiter. He has also talked with offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.

“I think he's a great guy,” McTaggart said of Zebrowski. “And I think he's genuine, which is hard to find I feel like in this recruiting thing. He's been one of the more real coaches. I feel like he's been completely honest with me. He hasn't tried to blow smoke or anything like that. He's been just real straight-forward, and I've really appreciated that.”

You can usually find McTaggart off the line of scrimmage and is a threat to catch passes all over the field. But it was actually his blocking that caught Zebrowski’s attention at the camp.

“When he saw me at the camp, he said he saw me outside the zone blocking drill,” he said. “He thought that I was just a blocking tight end. And he said that then he saw me run routes, and he really liked that as well.

McTaggart continued: “In all my films, you'll never see me as a true tight end. I'm always split out. And he said he liked that I was versatile enough to be able to be split out. And then he saw at the camp that I was able to block as well so he really liked the versatility in my game to spread out, but also be able to get inside and block people as well.”

The Kansas offense is still a mystery with a first-year coordinator, but McTaggart said the tight end position will be utilized.

“We had a couple conversations and they just told me how they run a lot of 11 and 12 personnel, and how the tight end is very important to the offense,” he said. “They try to utilize that a lot. So that's been the main thing is just letting me know the ways that they would use me.”

He announced a top four of Kansas, Charlotte, Liberty, and Troy. McTaggart said he has a good relationship with all of the coaches in his top four.

There is still a long way to go in his recruiting and Kansas is in line to get an official visit.

“I'm talking to my parents about it right now, and we're trying to get either something set up for an unofficial at the end of July and then an official visit during the season, or just the official during the season,” he said. “We're still trying to set that up, but I'm definitely going to take one of my officials there (Kansas).”