Nadame Tucker recaps Kansas visit and future trips

Nadame Tucker took his first visit of the year and he left Kansas with a positive vibe about everything he learned about the program.

The defensive end from Hutchinson Community College is starting to pick up more scholarship offers and now he has something to use as a measuring stick.

“I loved it, man,” Tucker said. “I told them that I told it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard to top what Kansas did for me. So, I appreciate everything. My mom enjoyed it. She's loving it. She definitely told me to save KU as an option for me.”

Tucker said he values his mother’s opinion.

“She has a say in it,” he said. “If it doesn’t sit right with her and if it doesn’t feel right with her, I wouldn't even consider anything about the school. She has an eye for certain things. But for the most part everything felt genuine. There was a lot of love. That's all good.”

One of the things that stood out to Tucker was watching the game experience when the Jayhawks played West Virginia.

“I love the energy and the fans,” Tucker said. “I know they aren’t having a good season with a lot of wins, but they were rocking that night. So, I know if we bring that, and we bring them wins and that's what you they need, everything will come together. Definitely I had fun.”

Defensive coordinator Brian Borland has been the lead recruiter for Tucker and during the visit he got a chance to meet with several other coaches including Lance Leipold.

“I like Coach Borland a lot,” he said. “I see the vision he has. I see the vision Coach Leipold has, and I asked a lot of the guys, they said, everybody's genuine along with Coach Leipold and everybody's trying to buy in.”

That was a big selling point for Tucker.

“And that's the big thing for me,” he said. “I want to be around guys that have the same mindset as me that want to accomplish the same things, you got those types of guys, sky's the limit. Especially when you get to bonding and all that stuff.”

Tucker spent time around several coaches and got to meet Taiwo Onatolu, who was promoted to an on-the-field coach.

“He was talking football, a lot of football,” Tucker said. “We had a lot of good conversations just about football and we were just talking like regular guys. He is a good guy. I like him.”

When he met with Leipold to hear more details about the program he got a good picture of how the team progressed in his first year.

“I have a lot of respect for Coach Leipold so when he talked, I listened,” Tucker said. “Just getting there and already making the turnaround it definitely brought that different level of respect for him. With the abilities he can bring to an organization I have a lot of respect for him, and I look forward to see how far he takes this program.”

Tucker has more visits to set and had Memphis and Houston as possibilities. He recently picked up an offer from Arizona State and more college coaches are stopping by practice to watch as they prepare for their bowl game.

“I don't know yet what my other visits will be it's getting crazy,” he said.