Kansas cornerback Damarius McGhee watches every rep he can of the Jayhawks’ two starters, Cobee Bryant and Mello Dotson.
“Because what they do in the game, they do at practice as well,” McGhee said on Sunday. “So it’s like they know what’s happening before the offense even knows. So I just try to take certain stuff from Cobee, take certain stuff from Mello and just put it in my bag.”
For different kinds of coverage, he takes inspiration from different teammates: “I would say off-man, I look more towards 3 (Dotson). And then press, I’ll look more towards 2 (Bryant).”
McGhee will get a long-awaited chance to display those skills on the field, after he played just five snaps during his first season at KU; now he may be poised to serve as the third cornerback behind Bryant and Dotson, and will be the most experienced player at the position with eligibility beyond 2024.
“I just try to be where my feet at, man,” McGhee said. “Because being out last year, I’m just locked in on this season.”
He arrived in the spring of 2023 as a transfer from LSU, and had even started a bowl game for the Tigers as a true freshman in 2021. But he played just five snaps in KU’s season opener last year and dealt with a back injury that prevented him from returning to action.
“It was just a minor tweak, but I just couldn’t play on it, so they just sat me out,” McGhee said. “There was a certain point during the season to where I was going to go back out there, but they just sat me out for the rest of the year.”
He added: “I probably started to feel 100% probably around the bowl game, but they said it was just one game, so ain’t no need to just get out there and do that.”
Kalon Gervin and Kwinton Lassiter served as the main backups to KU’s top two corners — now both preseason all-conference picks — last year. But both backups exhausted their eligibility, putting McGhee in prime position entering his second spring with the program.
New co-defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach D.K. McDonald said he’s been extremely consistent.
“He had one of the best springs that we had in the secondary, and so now he’s just continuing to bring that along,” McDonald said. “(He’s) able to push some guys and once again just give us some flexibility on some things we can do in the back end, if we get into some third-down packages and different things like that. You’re able to move some guys around and you can throw him on the field and feel confident that he can go and play at the level, hopefully, that Cobee and Mello are playing also.”
McDonald has made an impact on McGhee, who praised him for elevating the room and its culture, and — like so many other players since McDonald’s arrival — noted the value of McDonald’s NFL experience.
“His favorite phrase is ‘Time will either promote you or expose you,'” McGhee said. “You can see that. You can see it happening in front of your eyes.”
McGhee’s time may come sooner rather than later — so long as he can emerge from the competition that defines the cornerback room beyond Bryant and Dotson, with players like true freshman Jalen Todd and redshirt freshmen Jameel Croft Jr. and Jacoby Davis also in the picture. Specifically, McDonald pointed to McGhee, Todd, Davis and Bryant himself as options to play as the nickel cornerback, and from McGhee’s perspective, the competition rises even higher than that.
“It’s been crazy, because everybody’s still trying to compete for the No. 1 spot,” McGhee said. “Even 2 and 3, they still competing, every day.”
Chance Parker/Special to the Journal-World
