Freshman receiver Sims leads youth brigade for Kansas football

Last winter, in the weeks after David Beaty took hold of the controls at Kansas, the first-time college head coach compiled a list of options. It was already late in the recruiting process, and to cull together a respectable class, Beaty was going to have to channel Usain Bolt during the final weeks before signing day in early February.

He started with what he knew: The state of Texas.

In those chaotic days, Beaty passed along a name to new receivers coach Klint Kubiak, who had just arrived from the Minnesota Vikings. The name was Steven Sims. He was a 5-foot-10, 165-pound wide receiver from Houston. And if Kansas had anything going for it this late in the process, it was this: None of the big boys in Texas were that interested in Sims.

“If you turn his high school film on, you kind of say: ‘How did guys miss on him?’” Kubiak says now. “But there are a lot of teams in that area picking guys up, and for whatever reason, he didn’t get picked up. It worked out for Kansas.”

Indeed. Nearly six months later, Sims is more than just another under-the-radar recruit who landed at Kansas. When the Jayhawks open the season at 11 a.m. Saturday against South Dakota State, Sims could find himself starting his first college game as a true freshman.

“There’s always a guy that you’re not expecting, and then you go, ‘Wow’,” says offensive coordinator Rob Likens, who will debut his version of the Air Raid on Saturday. “He was one of our ‘Wow’ guys. We’re excited about him.”

(h/t Kansas City Star)