Dylan Edwards has spent the first stretch of Kansas preseason camp doing just about everything the Jayhawks could ask of him.
He’s taken handoffs, caught passes, lined up in multiple spots and worked on return duties, and the early word out of Lawrence is that the versatile newcomer has already made a strong impression.
“We’re putting him all over the place. Fired up about him,” KU special teams coordinator Taiwo Onatolu said Wednesday.
Edwards, a 5-foot-9, 175-pound redshirt junior from Derby High School, arrived at Kansas after two seasons at Kansas State and a college start at Colorado in 2023. Onatolu said the speed and vision jump off the field right away.
“He sees things really well. He’s really dynamic.
Part of what makes him so hard (to bring down) is he’s a smaller guy and you can’t see him around or behind big fullbacks. Then all of a sudden when there’s a little crease, he hits it and he goes.
So we’re really fired up about what he’s doing,” Onatolu added.
That kind of weaponry is exactly what Kansas running backs coach Jonathan Wallace has been talking about. Wallace said Edwards adds value not only as a back, but as a player who can be moved around and used in different ways in associate head coach Andy Kotelnicki’s offense.
“What he can do beyond the backfield has been a lot of fun to see because he is dynamic in the backfiel,d and it gets really exciting when we split him out,” Wallace said. “Just his ability to separate in routes, his ability to run routes, his ability to catch the ball down the field, which you would like to be able to see someone like him be able to do. … It just makes you that much more explosive.”
When Wallace was asked whether Edwards reminded him of anyone else he has coached, he brought up Pooka Williams.
“Just in terms of what (Williams) was able to do on the field, dynamic in terms of making them miss, turn ability, catch ability, all those things,” Wallace said.
Williams, who played at KU from 2018 to 2020, ranks 10th on the Jayhawks’ all-time rushing list with 1,125 yards in 2018, 1,061 in 2019 and 196 in 2020 after leaving the team early. He scored 12 rushing touchdowns and four receiving touchdowns in his Kansas career.
Wallace was quick to add that Edwards is his own player, though. What stands out most, he said, is the way Edwards approaches the work.
“Dylan’s his own person,” Wallace said. “One thing that I love about Dylan is the kid will do any and everything to make sure he gets it right.
He is super hard on himself, which I love. He’s super coachable.
He’ll hit me up and he’ll ask questions even when he’s not in. ‘Hey, coach, what’s this play?
I need to reference this in this spot,’ whatever it may be.
”He wants to get everything right and I couldn’t ask for more from him.”
Edwards already has one game on his résumé that explains why Kansas is so intrigued. Against Rutgers in the Rate Bowl two seasons ago, he ran for a career-high 196 yards and two touchdowns, including a 65-yard score that sparked a 17-point comeback. He also caught two passes for 27 yards and another touchdown.
That 196-yard outing was the third-most rushing yards ever by a Kansas State sophomore and the most by a Wildcat in a bowl game. Earlier that season, he also ripped off a 71-yard punt return touchdown against Arizona.
After playing in just four games last season and finishing with 34 carries for 205 yards and two touchdowns, Edwards is looking to get back on track.
“It’s been fun,” Edwards said Wednesday after KU’s seventh preseason practice. “Just getting to dial into the installs that Coach K (Kotelnicki) has been bringing in, just trying to execute and make plays.
I think just the offseason work and bringing it to the field, that’s the main point. It’ll show.”
Kansas has already experimented with packages that put Edwards and Syracuse transfer Yasin Willis on the field together, and Edwards said he likes what that does to a defense.
“In this offense we try to keep defenses thinking. As many things as Coach K and Coach Wallace throw at me, I’m going to try to engage and be a sponge and try to show it on the field, to know every play before I go out there. It’ll make me play faster,” Edwards stated.
He also said the transition to Kansas has gone smoothly.
“We’re all friends and we all build off of each other, give each other pointers and stuff like that. Everybody’s cool in the room, and we just can’t wait to have a good year for real,” Edwards said.
Asked about the Kansas State game on Oct. 17 in Manhattan, Edwards kept his focus on the immediate task.
“I’m just thinking about Week 1 right now. Really just going through camp, just trying to live in the present, just try to make plays on the field,” Edwards said.
Kansas opens the season against Long Island at 7 p.m. on Sept. 4 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
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