Kansas football’s Daniel Hishaw, back from hip injury, wants a Big 12 Championship
Kansas running back Daniel Hishaw Jr. smiled when talking about his position group.
Between Hishaw, Devin Neal, Dylan McDuffie and Sevion Morrison, Kansas football will have a plethora of quality backs to choose from. And it’s not just the running back depth that’s leading to success this fall camp.
According to Hishaw, the offensive line hasn’t been too shabby either.
“I think our O-line is really helping us look better than last year,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of veterans here. They are making it easier for us than any year, but they were really good last year, too.”
Last season, Hishaw had an excellent first five games, with 259 rushing yards and 95 receiving yards, plus six total touchdowns. One of those came on a long catch and run against Duke that was one of the top KU highlights of the season.
Hishaw averaged 5.9 yards per carry until suffering a significant hip injury in KU’s 14-11 win over Iowa State.
Despite practicing late in the year, Hishaw didn’t play the rest of the season. Neal, KU’s top back entering the season, led KU with 1,090 rushing yards, 183 receiving yards and 10 total touchdowns.
According to KU running backs coach Jonathan Wallace, Hishaw is full-go at practice with no limitations.
How does he look?
“Daniel looks like Daniel,” Neal said. “Tough dude, man. He’s just so powerful (and) so strong — we know what to expect from him. ... He’s just putting it all together.”
Following the injury, Hishaw said he started to feel like himself again by January.
“I don’t think about it at all,” Hishaw said. “I’m just trying to play football.
Hishaw officially returned to on-field work in the Spring.
“I think it helped me a lot just getting the mental reps,” he said. “Seeing it from the coaches’ perspective, being able to kind of be like a player-coach really helped me ... (learn) where everybody has to be in their spot.”
The biggest focus for the RBs this fall camp? Ball security. KU dealt with fumbling issues throughout last season, giving the ball away 11 times (tied-97th in the country) on fumbles alone.
“We make sure we have our off-hand on there,” Hishaw said. “We’ve got our running back drills that we go through — going through the blaster. The defense, I tell them to punch at the ball. They’re already trained to do that, but I try to emphasize not fumbling the ball when they punch at it.”
Earlier this week, Hishaw and Neal were chosen as Doak Walker Award candidates. The award is presented annually to the nation’s top running back.
While Hishaw appreciates the nomination, he’s not concerned about individual awards.
“We’ve got to win a Big 12 championship,” Hishaw said. “As long as we win a Big 12 championship, I’m good. And (I want to) go on further than that. That’s my goal.”
