Joe Otting visits Kansas, plans to return in July

The last few weeks have provided a lot of recruiting highlights for Joe Otting. The offensive tackle from Topeka Hayden has picked up offers from both in-state schools this month.

On Sunday he took an unofficial visit to Kansas and picked up an offer from the Jayhawks. The Kansas coaches had several of the area’s top prospects on campus for a barbeque.

“It was great meeting all the coaches,” Otting said. “It was also cool seeing how they brought all the recruits together. There was about 10 of us there and it was pretty cool seeing all those people.”

Otting got the full tour of the program from seeing facilities to meeting the coaching staff. He spent most of his time around offensive line coach Scott Fuchs.

“He's a great person,” Otting said. “He knows his stuff, and he just seems like all around, a great coach. Coach Fuchs was who we hung out with most of the time. We did the campus tour with him and had a meeting with him.”

At 6-foot-4, 265 pounds Otting’s athletic ability caught the eye of college recruiters. The fact he plays three sports was something Fuchs talked about with him.

“They like how I use my athleticism on the field,” he said. “Playing three sports, they said they can tell I'm athletic, and they talk about how they watched my basketball film, and they could see my athleticism off that too.”

After meeting with Fuchs, Otting met with Kansas head coach Lance Leipold. That’s when he got the news he had an offer from the Jayhawks.

“We (Leipold) were having a meeting and he was talking about Coach Fuchs spoke highly of me,” Otting said. “Then he told me that they're going to offer me, and it was exciting for sure.”

When the visit was over, Otting said several things stood out to him.

“The facilities were really nice,” he said. “That's for sure. Just everyone I met, the coaches and people were just all great. That was a big thing I caught.”

Otting plans to make it to Lawrence again next month. After the dead period he will take visits at the end of July.

The college recruiting is off to a good start with two, Power Five offers this month but he does not plan to stop working.

“It's exciting for sure,” Otting said. “Especially how young I am, and I have a lot more room to grow and keep working. In July, I'll be going to a camp down in TCU and visit there. I will also go to the KU camp in July. That's all I have for the rest of the football. Because the dead period, it's coming up, so that'll just be the end of all the football stuff for now.”