The Kansas defense will lose several players to graduation next year, including Kenny Logan, Rich Miller and Craig Young who all played their final game in a Jayhawk uniform in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl against UNLV.
All three of them have high hopes for what they are leaving behind next year, and the culture they have helped establish as the Kansas football program rose its level of play.
“This is just the beginning,” Logan said. “We finally proved to the people that we can do it, but the sky is definitely the limit. I believe in the guys coming back next year that we're going to be back here and even probably bigger.”
Miller is excited to see all of the experience the Jayhawks have coming back on both sides of the ball, as many starters are expected to continue their careers at Kansas.
“All the experience coming back, everybody knows everything,” Miller said. “We got guys, we got Marvin Grant, you know what we got, Mello [Dotson]. We got all these guys making all these plays coming back. Devin Neal. Everybody coming back making plays, man. This place is going to be the place to be.”
All three players took different paths toward their last season of college football. Logan endured the coaching change and stayed at Kansas for five seasons, while Miller followed Leipold from Buffalo.
Young made the move from Ohio State, and could not have been more pleased with the way his transfer to Kansas worked out. Even though he was transferring from one of the premier college football programs to a program that won just two games the year before, Young was confident he would have success at Kansas.
“It’s definitely what I expected when I came here,” Young said. "The thing about KU is that its only going to get better. The sky's the limit for KU and I wish I could stay here. This is what I wished for though. This is what I dreamed about. When I got to KU, I wanted to win. I did that for two years and it’s only going to get better for KU.”
Miller said that “no one thought we would be here,” about the Jayhawks reaching nine wins, and was taking in the moment during the post game celebrations.
“We’re gonna go down in history,” Miller said. “We understand that. We've done things that haven't been done here in a long time, and it just feels so good to end our college career with a win.”
What Miller appreciates most is the adversity that they went through to get to the point where they completed a nine-win season and a bowl victory.
“We just had to put up a fight out there, not only against the other team, but we had to fight through a lot to get here,” Miller said.
For head coach Lance Leipold, it is easy to see the impact that the game had on the entire team, and is looking forward to seeing how they can build off of it.
“It means a lot to these young men,” Leipold said. “It means a lot for the program going forward.”
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