Kaleb Purdy liked the culture at Kansas after his visit
Kaleb Purdy took two, official visits in June and it looked like it might be turning into a Sunflower battle for the safety from St. Louis.
In early June he visited Kansas State and at the end of the month he took his official visit to Kansas. Purdy has been keeping a lot of his recruiting out of the public, but he spoke to Jayhawk Slant how things are shaping up and a look at his Kansas trip.
“What stood out to me was just how there are new coaches on staff there, and they are trying to change the program around,” Purdy said. “My high school was 1-9 before I came to the school. And they had new coaches and the staff changed, and they turned it around. So, I know what they are going through.”
Purdy spent a lot of time around several coaches including Jake Schoonover, who has been working as the recruiter for standout from DeSmet.
“Coach Schoon has been recruiting me for a while,” Purdy said. “He is always checking in with me. When my visit was over, he was texting me once I got back home checking on me to make sure everything was good.”
One of the things Purdy was looking forward to was visiting with defensive coordinator Brian Borland. He wanted to see how the scheme would look and how the safeties will be used. Once he saw everything it had a familiar look.
“The defense is very similar to the defense my old head coach ran,” Purdy said. “It was definitely real similar. My family was in his room, and I picked up on it right away and I was like, "Yeah. We run it a lot." And it just came to me naturally and easy. Coach Borland really liked that about me. He put up some game film that was similar to my defense. That was really good.”
Purdy got a tour of the facilities and learned more about the academics on the visit. He spent a lot of time around the players and that also included head coach Lance Leipold.
As Purdy went through the visit one thing he noticed is the culture and family atmosphere Leipold is trying to build.
“When I was sitting with Kenny Logan at the table Coach Leipold was always starting conversations with him,” Purdy said. “They talked a lot. That's what really stood out to me. He wants to know the players outside of football. He only been there for maybe eight weeks. And he's still trying to get to know all the players.
“That really stood out to me with Coach Leipold. Then he brought his wife to meet us, and she was a lot of fun. She was making conversations with me like I was already a player at KU. That's what really stood out to me with Coach Leipold and his wife.”
Purdy said he plans to sit down soon with his mother and talk more about his recruiting and determine what might come next.
He said his coach Carl Reed is sending out more of his film to college coaches around the country and will wait to see how everything plays out.
“Number one, I want to go somewhere and play because I have NFL dreams,” Purdy said. “Somewhere I can play quick. At first, I wanted to go somewhere far from home. But KU is only like 4-5 hours away and I am good with that.
Purdy added: “The second thing I am looking at is just the vibe from the players. Can we be teammates and friends outside of football? I want to have that family vibe, some people I can hang around with my whole life.”