LAWRENCE — Before the final practice last week, Kansas coach David Beaty gathered his players before they headed to the locker room. There was one more thing to do.
Beaty said it was time to properly honor the outgoing seniors, so one by one, each of the 19 players — from 173-pound Michael Glatczak to 335-pound Larry Mazyck — were hoisted onto the shoulders of their teammates and carried off the field.
“I don’t want to call anybody out, but I would say that it was more than four or five (people crying). There were a couple guys that were trying to hold it back, but that was really tough,” junior safety Fish Smithson said, “because that’s a big, life-changing point.