One Last Run - Chapter 7 | Aye aye, captain

With one season remaining and just one credit hour on his class schedule this semester, the time has arrived for Kansas wideout Luke Grimm to pour everything he’s got into his final season of KU football.

As he does, we’ll follow him every step of the way in this weekly diary that will chronicle Grimm’s 2024 season.

Some of what you’ll read here, in Grimm’s own words, will focus on the stuff happening between the lines — big wins, memorable catches and the grind of the season. But a lot of it will focus on Grimm the person, a 23-year-old senior who has given everything he has to the program and seen it pay off in a big way.

The Grimm File

Age: 23 | Height: 6-0 | Weight: 190 | Position: Wide Receiver

Notable: Last season, Grimm became the 16th Jayhawk to reach the 100-catch mark for his career... The senior wideout enters the 2024 season with 126 career receptions, putting him within striking distance of climbing into 4th place (155) on KU's all-time receiving chart and with an outside shot at cracking the top 3 (214 and 219)... He also is less than 300 yards away from reaching the top 5 on KU's receiving yards list... Dubbed "The Grimm Reaper" early in his career, Grimm appeared in 6 games as a true freshman and has finished each of the past three seasons in the top four in receptions, including leading the team in 2022 and finishing second last season... A 3-star recruit by Rivals.com, 247 Sports & ESPN, Grimm was ranked as the No. 7 wide receiver in the state of Missouri by Max Preps in the 2020 class.

Grimm and the Jayhawks had massive goals for the 2024 season entering the year, but the 1-4 start, including two losses in conference play, have gotten things off to a rocky start.

It's in those tough moments, when the team's leaders are asked to step up the most, and Grimm and several other Jayhawks have done their part to try to pull the team through the early-season slump.

That's what captains do. And Grimm is one of them. Officially.

He’s done it five times now but it has remained a thrill each time.

For the first time in his KU career — and just the second time in his life — Grimm has been tagged with the official title of team captain, joining Jalon Daniels, Devin Neal and Cornell Wheeler as this year’s group of four.

Grimm has been a leader in many ways for this team during the past few seasons. But to be officially recognized as one of four captains on a roster of more than 100 players meant a lot to him when it was announced four days before the season opener.

“Being voted a captain really makes it awesome. It would’ve been cool even if it was just the coaches picking me. But it’s my teammates. My family. With the amount of respect I have for all of them, to know that they have the same respect for me is awesome.”

“For them to see that everything I do is for our team, I’m just so proud of this team and to be a captain for them.”

Always a lead by example guy as much as anything, Grimm has done plenty of that, too. So far this season, he leads the Jayhawks in catches (30), receiving yards (317) and touchdowns (4), numbers that put him 6^th, 13^th and tied for 4^th among all Big 12 wide receivers.

Scenes from Luke Grimm's 6-catch, 85-yard, 1-touchdown afternoon in the Jayhawks' loss to TCU last week at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. [Chance Parker photos]

The only other time Grimm has fulfilled this formal role as team captain came during his senior season of high school ball at Raymore-Peculiar, where only seniors were allowed to be named team captains.

“Same thing. Team votes and you’re just so honored to be a captain when the team votes for you.”

Grimm and the other three Jayhawks found out that they had been chosen as this year’s KU captains when head coach Lance Leipold informed the team after a Monday practice in late August at the team’s indoor facility.

“The guys around me just slapped me on the back. Devin was right next to me. Coach called JD and Devin first and then he called Cornell and then he called me. And I was just like, ‘That is so cool.’”

As cool as it felt to hear it in that moment, Grimm immediately reminded himself that the honor would change nothing.

“Other than people congratulating me about it, it’s just the same job you do every day. I come in and I want to make everyone else around me better. If that means I’ve got to get on people, encourage people, demand it, I’m gonna do it. It doesn’t change anything.”

One thing that has changed is his pregame routine. Grimm is used to coming out with the returners and then going through his regular pregame work with the receivers. But now he has to add the captains’ huddle and opening coin toss to his duties.

Luckily, he had Daniels — the only repeat captain among the four — to take him through how things work before kickoff.

“Yeah, he did. I was like, ‘Uhhh, where do we go?’ And he directed me the ways that we were supposed to go. I had no idea. So, shout-out to JD for being a returning captain.”

“When we were walking out, though, I’d never done it before and the captains go first and I was just so excited to be in that position because it’s definitely not guaranteed. It’s awesome.”

“This is like a dream from when I was younger, but you don’t understand it then. You see the C on their chest or hear that these are the team captains and you’re like, ‘I want to do that.’ But then you get there and you’re like, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of responsibility.”

Next up, Grimm and his three other co-captains will walk out to midfield at Mountain America Stadium, just before Saturday's 7 p.m. (central) kickoff against Arizona State on ESPN2.