LAWRENCE | Sometimes Jeff Withey&rsquo;s new job gets him down. Maybe it&rsquo;s the second omelet at breakfast, or the second protein shake in the afternoon, or the third steak at dinner. Or maybe it&rsquo;s being a sophomore in college and receiving constant supervision from his bosses.</p><p>At Kansas, they aren&rsquo;t taking any chances with Withey, the 7-foot string-bean center who will be eligible to play basketball in late December as a redshirt freshman. His job is to eat and to do it so prolifically that he will have put on 35 pounds of muscle mass in a calendar year. </p><p>&ldquo;My interpretation of fun,&rdquo; Withey said, &ldquo;is sitting around the house, maybe playing video games, eating a pizza, or going out to a bar, eating wings and watching a game. Always eating.&rdquo;</p><p>A college kid&rsquo;s dream, right? Well, sure, if you&rsquo;re a frat boy whose ambition is to win the flag football intramural league. Withey&rsquo;s extreme eating is so intense that he has had to remind himself that he&rsquo;s still just a kid. </p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pretty stressful time right now,&rdquo; Withey said, &ldquo;because I know I have to put on a lot more weight before I&rsquo;m able to play.&rdquo;</p><p>When Withey announced his intention to transfer from Arizona to KU last year on Christmas Eve, he was surprisingly not all that big of a stocking stuffer for Kansas coach Bill Self. Withey weighed just 210 pounds. He now hovers around 230 but has been told he needs to be around 245 by December. Thing is, Withey will have to weigh even more than that by summer&rsquo;s end to have a realistic shot of leveling out at that magic number. </p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m OK if he gets a little chubby,&rdquo; said Andrea Hudy, KU assistant athletics director for sport performance. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to lose it once the season starts, then he&rsquo;ll lean up and he&rsquo;ll be in shape by the time the Big 12 season comes around, which is what we want.&rdquo;</p><p>For Withey, there is little confusion about what the bosses want.</p><p>&ldquo;The coaches are, in a way, obsessed with it,&rdquo; Withey said. </p><p>Withey understands their urgency. The Jayhawks are widely being projected as the preseason No. 1 team in the country next season, and Cole Aldrich could use a true center like Withey to back him up. Withey has not played in an organized game since his senior year of high school at Horizon High in San Diego. </p><p>Self got to see Withey practice during the second half of last season, but he&rsquo;ll need to see more this fall to be sure Withey can break his four-man big man rotation. </p><p>&ldquo;I saw inconsistencies,&rdquo; Self said. &ldquo;I saw a player that you can see has a lot of ability. He&rsquo;s skilled, he&rsquo;s got some range, he can really block and alter shots. Then I also saw a guy who physically needs to get stronger, a guy whose motor doesn&rsquo;t run as fast as it should all the time, a guy who would take some possessions off. From our perspective, the year he sat was a good year for him.&rdquo;</p><p>Still, despite the deficiencies Withey showed, Self is factoring him into his plans for 2009-10. Self imagines a dependable Withey could allow Marcus Morris to play small forward. Self even threw out the idea of playing incoming freshman Xavier Henry at shooting guard with Morris at the No. 3 slot.</p><p>&ldquo;Jeff is a guy that gives us a lot of versatility,&rdquo; Self said, &ldquo;because he allows our most versatile player, Marcus, to play multiple positions.&rdquo;</p><p>Of course, all of these ideas are thrown out the window if Withey is unable to follow through on his end of the deal. So, yes, the big guy is a bit stressed these days.