The day Quentin Skinner arrived at KU in 2020 is still fresh in his mind, in part because he did it at the same time as fellow wideouts Lawrence Arnold and Luke Grimm and quarterback Jalon Daniels.
“I remember that first day we moved in, cheesy, but like it was yesterday, man,” he said on Tuesday. “We moved in all of our stuff, all of our families met each other, and first thing I questioned everyone in there was, ‘Well, we already kind of did our check-ins with the team, y’all want to go run routes?'”
The then-young Jayhawks did just that for an hour and a half, getting to know each other and building the rapport that persists now into their fifth year at campus.
“I think they have so much experience,” offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes said. “Not only experience but experience together. There’s a chemistry there that you want to allow to show up on the field.”
And it will finally be showing up on the field again soon. For the first time all offseason, after Daniels missed most of last year with a back injury and Arnold got injured on the first day of spring practice, the quartet of players all practiced in full on the same day — last Friday, Leipold said.
“It felt great to be back out there,” Daniels said, “(with) a lot of guys that I’ve built chemistry with over the years that we’ve been here, and being able to realize that that connection hasn’t gone anywhere is always exciting to see.”
Arnold said it reminded him of his freshman year.
“It just gave me a feeling of everyone wants to be here, this is something that we want to do, and it (hadn’t) felt like that in a while,” he said. “So having our group back together, it’s going to be electric for sure.”
They will indeed be together against Lindenwood on Aug. 29, as for the first time since early last season, Kansas will play a game in which the announcement of its starting quarterback is a genuine formality.
“He will start the opener,” Leipold said of Daniels, with a slight smile. “I’ve seen a lot of good things from Jalon Daniels in the past 10 days. He hasn’t missed anything. He’s played well and he’s confident. He’s excited. His enthusiasm is contagious.”
Added Daniels: “My last game actually being able to play was against BYU (on Sept. 23). So I feel like I’m just going to take advantage of the opportunity that’s given to me.”
Daniels’ injury journey, as he dealt with back tightness that began during 2023 fall camp and flared up repeatedly over the course of the season, is well documented.
Arnold’s, which had him on a mobility scooter during spring practice, was not quite as much so. He said that if such an injury to his foot would have occurred during a season, he would have wrapped it up and continued playing. But while he found it depressing to miss time, he never lost confidence in his ability, and came to feel better after having surgery.
“Just coming back from the injury, I don’t feel like I missed a beat,” Arnold said. “Running and everything, I feel good. My foot actually was hurting more before my surgery than now. Now that I can run, I can cut cleaner and stuff. I feel 100%.”
The result is that now Arnold, the Jayhawk selected to the Biletnikoff Award watchlist (for the nation’s best wideout, though he said any member of the trio would have been deserving), can provide his own unique skill set alongside his teammates.
“(Grimm)’s more manipulative when it comes to routes and late hands catching the ball,” Arnold said. “Even though NCAA (the video game) don’t like Q-Skin, Q-Skin is the fastest wide receiver. He has speed, like Q-Skin could run on the track team kind of speed … I feel like with me, I just bring more of a big body to our room. If I got to go across the middle and take a hit catching the ball to get yards, I can bring that to the room.”
All of these were on display when the three finally reunited for practice. Grimes said it was “fun to watch.”
“To have those guys back on the field with Devin (Neal) and Daniel (Hishaw Jr.),” Leipold said, “it’s kind of a nice little glimpse about how explosive this team can be.”
