Keep an eye on: QB Isaiah Marshall

There’s still time to dive into the stars and standouts on the Kansas football roster ahead of the upcoming 2024 season, which is quickly shaping up to be one of the most anticipated seasons in program history.

And we most certainly will when preseason camp begins this week.

But for now, as we’re still finding our way through the summer, we thought it would be good to take some time to look at some of the fringe guys who could be on the verge of a breakout season or a bigger role with the Jayhawks this fall.

We started a couple of weeks ago with wide receiver Keaton Kubecka.

Next up in this series is true freshman quarterback Isaiah Marshall.

Making the transition to college football is tough for just about any true freshman.

But doing it as a quarterback when you know there’s a bona fide star plugged into the starting spot ahead of you is something entirely different.

That’s the situation in which KU QB Isaiah Marshall finds himself heading into the 2024 season with the Jayhawks.

Packed with promise and potential and easy to spot as a real option as the Jayhawks’ quarterback of the future, Marshall will at least start his Kansas career with the knowledge that starting QB Jalon Daniels has forgotten more about playing quarterback in college than Marshall currently knows.

As such, and with Daniels’ individual success likely being a huge factor in just how much success Kansas will have as a team this season, Marshall enters the season in search of a new way to set goals.

Rather than targeting a win total or personal passing or rushing yardage or touchdowns, Marshall is taking a super-simple approach to everything he does.

“I try not to look too far into the future,” he told R1S1 Sports this spring. “I just take it day by day, and as long as I take it day by day and work on my process goals, then the outcome will come.”

Marshall said the Jayhawks have a goal sheet and do identify areas and achievements that they’d like to hit. But he’s never really been driven by any of that. Instead, he focuses on winning each play, improving each day and carrying that from week to week, month to month and season to season.

“In high school, I’m gonna be honest, I really didn’t even know my stats,” said the 6-foot, 215-pound QB from just outside of Detroit. “I just go out there and play. I don’t really focus on the stats. Like I said, the outcome will come if you focus on the process.”

While that way of thinking is music to any coach’s ears, quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski and new KU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes both said they have encouraged Marshall to set goals even in Year 1 and not be shy about how big they might be.

“You always want to say, ‘Well, you don’t come to some place not to play, right,’” Zebrowski said this spring. “You don’t want him to say, ‘I hope I go there and never play.’ So you kind of want them to get that expectation of wanting to play and doing everything they can to play.”

Added Grimes: “For freshmen, I always say if you’re not preparing to be the starter then you won’t be.”

That’s not to say that anyone, including Marshall, Grimes and Zebrowski, believes the freshman has a shot to unseat Daniels as KU’s starting quarterback this season. But it’s important to remember that there was no one at this time last year who thought that Cole Ballard, as a true freshman, would start the Jayhawks’ biggest game of the 2023 season. Yet there he was, under center for the first snap against Kansas State in mid-November.

The reason Ballard was able to be put into that position at that moment was because of the way he prepared himself in the weeks and months that led up to it.

“You should be pushing to be the best version of yourself and get yourself ready to play — whatever that means,” Grimes said. “You better be ready to play, whether you enter the season or enter Game 9 one, two or three on the depth chart. You never know when that moment’s gonna come; and some guys they’re thrust into it and they haven’t prepared for it.”

Neither coach sees Marshall fitting into that latter category.

Instead, they see him working hard, staying humble, asking questions and striving to improve. Every rep, every practice, every day.

In fact, Grimes said this spring that it was not uncommon for the early enrollee to send him texts out of the blue asking him about a certain aspect of KU’s offense and how he could better execute or understand it.

“He’s got a real hunger for it,” Grimes said.

Not every player is wired that way, but Marshall said it’s natural for him.

“I just compete,” he said. “Whenever it’s my turn, I’m gonna compete and take advantage of the reps I do get. It’s not easy. I don’t think anything here is easy. I just think it’s you don’t have a choice if you want to be great here.”

Add that philosophy to his solid frame, God-given ability and advanced maturity and it’s easy to see why the Jayhawks like their newest quarterback.

“He has a really high level of intelligence, for a young kid, to be able to pick stuff up,” Zebrowski said this spring. “It’s been really fun watching him and he’s gotten a ton of reps, so it’s been awesome and he’s been really good.”

At the core of it all is that idea of putting your best foot forward at all times, against anybody for everything you get.

“You’re gonna compete everywhere you go,” Zebrowski said. “So, you just tell (the freshmen), set high expectations, just keep on taking each play for what it’s worth. You have plenty of time, take it one moment at a time and see what happens.”

By all accounts, Marshall did that this spring. And now he gets to do it all over again when preseason camp opens on Tuesday.

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