<table> </table> LAWRENCE | Jeremiah Hatch says that he doesn&#8217;t care which position he plays on the offensive line at Kansas, but his eyes got pretty big when reminded that left tackles get paid the most money of any lineman in the NFL.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got a <em>long </em>way, <em>long, long, long, long </em>way to the NFL,&#8221; said Hatch, a redshirt freshman now starting at left tackle. &#8220;Trust me, I&#8217;m not even thinking about the NFL.&#8221;</p><p>Hatch is living in the moment, just as he did as a freshman at Carter High School in Dallas when his basketball coach told him that he had to play football to play basketball. Hatch had never played football before, and he&#8217;s pretty sure the request from the basketball coach was no coincidence.</p><p>&#8220;I think it was more of the football coach telling the basketball coach,&#8221; Hatch said.</p><p>Carter coach Allen Wilson must have known what he was doing. Hatch was starting on the varsity by the end of his sophomore season, playing center for one of the Metroplex&#8217;s most notable high school football programs.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all football. That&#8217;s all it&#8217;s about,&#8221; Hatch said. &#8220;Everyone knows in the city who Dallas Carter is.&#8221;</p><p>Hatch played basketball at Carter, too. Well, kind of.</p><p>&#8220;I was a football player on the basketball court,&#8221; Hatch said.</p><p>It had become obvious that Hatch had a future in football. All of a sudden, college coaches were making trips to Dallas to see him play. For KU coach Mark Mangino, Hatch was a &#8220;can&#8217;t-miss guy,&#8221; and it wasn&#8217;t Hatch&#8217;s athletic ability that stood out the most upon meeting him.</p><p>&#8220;Everything was thought out carefully,&#8221; Mangino said. &#8220;He never let anybody in on where he was leaning. He comes from a strong family with great support from his mother and grandmother. They were the most attentive people when I sat in their home and talked to them about Kansas. I liked that quality about him. He played his cards close.&#8221;</p><p>Hatch chose KU over Texas A&amp;M, Texas Tech and Arizona, among others. He redshirted his first season, spending time learning all five positions on the line. With the graduation of right tackle Cesar Rodriguez and the early defection of left tackle Anthony Collins to the NFL, Mangino saw the opening to give Hatch a chance at tackle. He started the season on the right side, but Mangino decided Hatch was better suited for the left side at this point than fellow redshirt freshman Jeff Spikes, now on the right.</p><p>KU offensive coordinator Ed Warinner said this week that he&#8217;s not sure whether Hatch would stay at left tackle for the rest of his career. Spikes, at 6 feet 6 inches and 314 pounds, has the better size for that position than Hatch, who is 6-3 and 311 pounds. Hatch&#8217;s quick feet &#8212; maybe the basketball helped him somewhere &#8212; have been the difference for him.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been surprised,&#8221; Hatch said. &#8220;It&#8217;s all a dream come true. I never thought I&#8217;d be here. I&#8217;m just really glad the coaches gave me a chance. I want to make the most of it.&#8221;