Kansas football added Lonnie Phelps to go after opposing quarterbacks, and Phelps knows it

LAWRENCE — Lonnie Phelps knew coming in that Kansas football needed him to bolster its pass rush.

Phelps explained this week that was communicated to him after he decided to transfer away from Miami (Ohio) after the 2021 season, a choice he said was motivated by a desire to find a new home. He knew Kansas was losing Kyron Johnson, who went on to be selected in this year’s NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. Phelps was brought in to make up for that departure.

What’s followed, through the spring, summer and now early days of fall camp, have been opportunities to Phelps to show his teammates and coaches to what level he’ll be able to live up to that. The redshirt junior defensive end’s presence has been unmistakable on a team that struggled to get after opposing quarterbacks last year. And with the season opener next month, will come Phelps’ first chance to prove himself in a game.

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“When it’s time to go, he’s business and he just loves playing the game,” Jayhawks head coach Lance Leipold said. “He’s physical. He’s going to give us a pass rush, all those things. He hurt his hand the other day, missed a little bit of time, but he wanted in there before, even, he was cleared — which, again, shows he’s ready and chomping to go prove something. And that’s exciting to see.”

Phelps hasn’t seen adapting to the Power Five level as much of a problem, after coming in from a Group of Five program. He’s a competitor who felt he could make it anywhere. Whenever Phelps watches film of Johnson and sees how fast Johnson was, Phelps tries to take that and work to be even better.

In the beginning Phelps said he would lose his one-on-one battles with super-senior offensive lineman Earl Bostick Jr. Phelps just hadn’t been around a talent like Bostick before, other than a player in Tommy Doyle who’d go on to be drafted in 2021 by the Buffalo Bills. Now, Phelps said, their battles are more back-and-forth whenever Phelps is able to seek out that matchup.

“Lonnie’s a dog,” said junior defensive lineman Jereme Robinson, who is someone Phelps has noticed as well. “He has that fast twitch to him. Man, he’s crazy. I don’t know what to tell you man. He just has this demeanor, this motor, that — just to never stop.”

A pass rusher’s motor is what matters the most to Leipold, and in Phelps is someone who’s tenacious and will fight and scrap and play to the whistle. Leipold hasn’t seen Phelps, whose technique comes in part from watching YouTube videos with his father, expect any sort of role to be handed to him. Phelps takes coaching, and at 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds has more size than Johnson was able to provide at 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds.

Time will tell if that means Phelps will produce anywhere near the 9.5 sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss he had in 2021, but those numbers would have led Kansas last season and ranked among the best in the Big 12 Conference. Johnson had the most last year for the Jayhawks, with 6.5 sacks and 8.5 tackles for loss. And Phelps, who tries to emulate three NFL players in Micah Parsons, T.J. Watt and J.J. Watt, is on the preseason watch list for the East-West Shrine Bowl.

“I bring pass rush,” said Phelps, who noted his success comes from his speed, get-off, power and aggressiveness. “I bring more aggressive-tivity, more power. And I’d say, shoot, I turn our defensive line up. We stand on business.”

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: Lonnie Phelps will go after opposing quarterbacks for Kansas football