Inside Lawrence Arnold’s decision to stay with Kansas football after transfer portal flirtation

LAWRENCE — The post on Twitter earlier this year, in April, came with a bit of a shock.

Lawrence Arnold had announced that he decided to enter the transfer portal. The wide receiver, a talent in line to become Kansas football’s top option at the position in 2022, was on his way out of town.

Still on Arnold’s Twitter account is a post responding to Luke Grimm, a teammate and fellow wide receiver who said he’d miss Arnold, saying Arnold felt a lot of love toward him.

But Arnold never truly left the program, and has been participating as fall camp for the Jayhawks has progressed. Earlier this week, he spoke with members of the media about what his position group might be able to achieve this upcoming season. It was almost as if that flirtation with departure never occurred.

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And as Arnold explained his thought process, the redshirt sophomore detailed the line of thinking that kept him in town. He delved into why he’ll ultimately be a part of head coach Lance Leipold’s second season leading the program. As he and Leipold would outline, it was about communication.

“It was more so just a communication thing, and it was just a lot of mixed emotions,” said Arnold, who tied for second on the team in receptions last season. “… After talking to my mom and talking to coach Leipold about everything, it was — I just wanted to be back with the team and just move forward from there and just look toward to the season, for real.”

As Leipold spoke, he alluded to friends and teammates leaving through the transfer portal as something that can affect an athlete like Arnold emotionally. But while Arnold did see his position coach and some teammates depart once the 2021 season had concluded, he pushed back on its effect on his decisions.

Arnold was adamant anyone leaving Kansas didn’t affect how he felt, and that while he loves Emmett Jones — now a coach at Texas Tech — he likes to follow his own path.

The conversations between Leipold, Arnold and Arnold’s mother, Arnold said, were about making sure everyone was on the same page. They wanted to ensure everyone was focused on moving forward, not holding anyone back. Personally, Arnold felt mentally he was holding himself back because of how he overthought certain things.

Leipold would have liked to have been able to hit pause on the situation, before the news became public. But that’s not always going to be possible. Regardless, Leipold said the dialogue allowed everyone involved to hear different perspectives and move on in a positive direction.

“When I was thinking about my decision, I cried on the phone with my mom for probably like two hours,” Arnold said. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to leave this team.’ Like, and that was a big reason. I talked to my brothers every day. Like: ‘Y’all are the big reason that I want to be here. Like, I want to be a Jayhawk and I want to play with y’all.’

"So, just being around them every day after the whole situation was a big, probably the biggest impact on me, of like, ‘Yeah, I want to be here with these guys.’”

Arnold noted that he wouldn’t say anyone was recruiting him to remain with the Jayhawks, because he never ended up actually leaving. But he was talking to people at Kansas as it all played out. There were those who came to visit him as conversations were ongoing, and those he went to visit himself.

Terrence Samuel, who took over for Jones as the Jayhawks’ wide receivers coach, took away from it all that the bonds Arnold formed with teammates became more important than anything happening in the periphery. Samuel praised Arnold for going that route. Speaking generally, Samuel explained the periphery as being just how much college athletes have to deal with.

“It’s stuff all over the place, way more than what I had to deal with in ’90 when I was playing,” Samuel said. “Because you didn’t have the internet. There’s dinosaurs. I mean, so, I was Barney Rubble or whatever, however you want to consider it.

"But these guys, there’s just so many things that these guys have got to deal with. They’re being tugged in a lot of different directions, and it’s just nice to see a guy say, ‘You know what? These are my guys. These are who I want to play with. I’m going to stay here and I’m going to go ball out with these guys.’”

That Arnold is still with the team means he can be a part of a position group he has been outwardly confident about for some time. Because of how close he feels the wide receivers are, how they hang out in a way not all teams do, he thinks they can be the best in the Big 12 Conference and shock some people. He thinks they can be among the nation’s leaders.

At this point, it’s still unclear if Arnold will be the leading option, another like a junior in Grimm will be or if they’ll operate by committee. The departure of Kwamie Lassiter II, who’s now battling in the professional ranks for a NFL roster spot with the Cincinnati Bengals, has undoubtedly left a void. Arnold believes he provides a skillset that can be dominant on the perimeter, block and be physical, and he’s not the only one confident in his potential.

“He’s green and growing,” Samuel said. “He’s still physical. He’s going up and catching the ball with his hands. … You guys probably saw where they were last year. I didn’t get a chance to see that. But their confidence now — they know how to line up. They know. They’re attacking DBs now. They’re attacking the secondary now. That’s what he’s doing. That’s what looks good. He’s playing bigger, playing stronger and playing faster from day one.”

Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Douglas Emilien, who transferred from Minnesota, added: “He’s a monster. He could be a monster. He’s stacking days and competing each and every day.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Inside Lawrence Arnold’s decision to stay with Kansas football