Four stray observations from Big 12 Media Days

It’s hard to overstate the sheer amount of exposure that Kansas football players got last Wednesday at Big 12 Conference Media Days.
After most of them spent about eight or nine minutes each with local KU reporters in the early afternoon, they returned later on for breakout sessions that lasted about as long as any writers from the 14 different Big 12 markets wanted to talk. In and around those two windows, they had sessions with local radio, ESPN, Fox, BYUtv, SiriusXM, the Longhorn Network and, for good measure, “Kid Reporters” from St. Philip’s School and Community Center in Dallas.
In short, they talked a lot, about a lot of topics, in a lot of places.
With that in mind, here’s a bit more of what the Jayhawks said at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, last week, and how it might be relevant to the season ahead.
• Rich Miller says the Kansas football team’s Detroit pipeline is just going to keep getting stronger. The Jayhawks have made a point of recruiting the area since the arrival of Miller’s own position coach, linebackers coach Chris Simpson. KU is up to four Detroit natives on this year’s roster with the addition of cornerback Jameel Croft, a recently arrived freshman and a former teammate of Miller’s at Martin Luther King High.
Croft was a freshman there when Miller was a senior, so they didn’t play together that year, but Miller said when he came back to Detroit, “I went out for games and watched him go crazy every game.”
The Detroit connections figure to get deeper in the 2024 class, as KU has already earned verbal commitments from quarterback Isaiah Marshall and defensive back Jalen Todd of suburban Southfield A&T. Miller said players from Detroit have a “different type of mindset, different type of passion for the game,” and he expects KU to continue canvassing the area long past the end of his own Jayhawk tenure.
“We carry a chip on our shoulder forever,” he said, “and I think they’re going to continue to go there because they know those guys (are) going to come with something different.”
• Miller’s personal mindset centers on levity. He said he tries to play loose rather than “to be uptight and just all in your head and trying to kill the next man” because football is, fundamentally, a game.
It’s a sport he’s been desperate to play since he was 6, when he could practice with a team but was too young to get into a game, but still went to every game and suited up anyway. He said he used to cry because he was so mad he couldn’t get on the field.
When he finally did get the chance to play, though, that despair turned to jubilation. A self-described class clown, Miller credits his father for his propensity for joking around.
“I could say jokes all day and I could make a fun time out of any situation,” Miller said. “I might walk around, look like I’m real serious and everything, but I can’t help that, man. I’m always ready to play, I’m always ready to have fun with somebody.”
Even as he tries to compartmentalize that attitude, he couldn’t even commit to keeping it separate from his persona on the field: “When it’s time to work, you ain’t going to see no — I lied, you still might see a few smiles, but it’s time to work for sure.”
This approach has paid dividends for Miller over the years and he said he sees no reason to change it — though he’s still trying to improve footwork and watch more film heading into his fifth year of collegiate eligibility, ultimately so he can be more informed and keep enjoying himself on the field.
“I started playing this game because it was fun and I was better than everybody,” he said. “So I’m not going to be here like, ‘Oh, man, I need to do something different.'”
• Devin Neal touched briefly on his football future when speaking to reporters. The Lawrence native is a true junior and could choose to declare for the draft following the season if he builds on the momentum from last year, when he tallied 1,090 rushing yards and nine touchdowns.
“I think it’s an important year for me for sure,” he said. “Obviously I do have my own dreams and aspirations. Not thinking too hard about it, but it definitely is on the back burner, thinking about the NFL. Especially with my age and being a running back too.”
He did add that, if he sticks around, he has playing at BYU “circled” for next year because he said LaVell Edwards Stadium looks like such a fun place to play.
In the meantime, he expressed pride that he’s helped elevate a program in the town where he grew up. He said it “felt like something I owed to this school and my city.”
“It’s everything that I’ve dreamed of,” Neal said, “when I committed, when I made that declaration that we’re going to get to where we want to be.”
Back in his high school days, Lawrence High running back Devin Neal puts a move on several Washburn Rural defenders during the first quarter on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020 at Lawrence High School.
• Asked about a potential breakout candidate at receiver, Kenny Logan Jr. cited Tanaka Scott.
“Tanaka Scott been putting the work in all offseason to make sure he’s going to be a guy that you can mention next year,” Logan said. “Just seeing his transformation and where he’s been as a player is great to see.”
A three-star prospect coming out of Murphy High in Mobile, Alabama, Scott tallied just eight catches for 109 yards last season in his first action at KU, playing in 12 of 13 possible games. (He was suspended for one game following a charge of aggravated assault that was dismissed.)
Scott could still find it difficult to carve out playing time with all seven of Jalon Daniels’ top targets returning from last season — Scott is No. 8 — but he’s at least made an impression on one key teammate.
This isn’t the first time Scott has shone in practice; at his first preseason camp back in 2021, then-super-senior Kwamie Lassiter II, now with the Cincinnati Bengals, praised his blocking and physicality. The 6-foot-4, 205-pound receiver could get a more prominent chance to display those skills this season.