One position where Kansas has a lot of bodies is at the wideout spot. Between Mangino's final season and Turner Gill's initial classes, Kansas is stockpiled. At the same time there is very little in the way of proven talent as most of what we've seen on the field over the last two years has been inconsistent at best.
Perhaps the one big blessing in disguise was the Daymond Patterson injury. The Jayhawks now return two players who have shown playmaking ability in Patterson and DJ Beshears. But Charlie Weis has historically liked bigger targets and that's where the competition is going to be this Fall. To help boost that competition, Weis has once again gone the junior college route with one of his wideout recruits, while the other could end up moving around depending on how things play out.
Josh Ford
WR | 6-4 | 200 | Yuma Arizona / Arizona Western CC
Ford comes to Kansas as a big target with very good speed. In fact at 6'4" 200 pounds the JuCo prospect clocks in with a 4.4 forty time. Kansas is lucky to have had Ford fall to them. Had things worked out according to plan he likely would have already been on campus at either Miami or Maryland this Spring. That didn't work out and the Jayhawks are the benefactor at this point.
This past season, Ford led all receivers at Arizona Western in receptions, yards, and touchdowns. For the season, he finished with 58 receptions while gaining 845 yards and recording touchdowns 10 times. Ford was committed to play for current Miami coach Al Golden out of high school but ended up taking the JuCo route and that has led him to Kansas after two years. He'll come in expecting to compete with players like Chris Omigie, JaCorey Shepherd, Erick McGriff, etc. Based on what he's shown to date against some very strong competition (Nebraska committed corner and Alabama committed corner), we could see Ford sooner rather than later.
Tre Parmalee
WR | 5-10 | 160 | Overland Park Kansas / Bishop Miege
Parmalee joins the Jayhawk commitment list as a very early Charlie Weis recruit. Weis has an existing relationship with Parmalee's father from his time at Notre Dame and obviously Tim Grunhard coached Parmalee at Bishop Miege. Prior to Kansas making the call Parmalee was committed to play for Dave Doeren at Northern Illinois. Doeren has done pretty well over the years recruiting Kansas City so that has to be viewed as a positive in some respect.
As for Parmalee's immediate impact, that's hard to say. He spent time at wideout and defensive back at the high school level and at this point the staff might be looking at a wait and see approach as they determine need and ability or further evaluate how Parmalee might develop for them.
At 5'10" 160, Parmalee might more closely fit in the Patterson, Beshears role which is a spot he was pretty successful at while at Bishop Miege. During his senior season Parmalee was named the Kansas City area player of the year. Parmalee has been a vocal recruiter for Kansas since committing and could become a valuable member of the team with time.