4-star WR Keon Coleman commits to KU over Oklahoma. He’s going to play hoops, too
Keon Coleman, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound senior football/basketball player from Opelousas (Louisiana) Catholic High School, on Saturday announced plans to attend Kansas.
Coleman, a four-star (out of five) football wide receiver according to ESPN — he is unranked in basketball — orally committed to Kansas over Oklahoma and South Carolina. He made the announcement on Instagram Live, putting on a KU mask after revealing his choice.
“I’ll be taking my talents to the University of Kansas,” Coleman said on the stream.
Coleman, who plans on playing both sports in college but will be on football scholarship, as a junior caught 35 passes for 1,143 yards (32.7 yards per catch) with 22 touchdowns.
It’s a huge recruiting win for second-year KU football coach Les Miles. Coleman, who ranks as a four-star in the 247 Composite, has an overall score of 0.9064. That makes him the third-highest-rated recruit that KU football has landed since 2000 and also the top high school player over that time; running back Pooka Williams (0.9055) is now second on that list.
247Sports’ own recruiting rankings are even higher on Coleman, as he’s rated 116th in his class and as the 14th-best receiver nationally.
Coleman also had football offers from Baylor, Louisville, Florida State, Miami, Kentucky, Penn State, Michigan State and several others. In basketball he had received offers from Louisiana Tech, Nicholls State, Coastal Carolina and Louisiana-Lafayette.
He recently took part in a Zoom recruiting call from KU football and hoops coaches.
“Coach Miles said I can make an impact on the football team and coach Self said I could do the same for basketball,” Coleman told Jayhawkslant.com.
“It shows that they want me for both sports,” he added. “I like them a lot. It’s a good opportunity. They are all good people. Coach Miles was telling me he wants to help me get that Heisman.”
Coleman said Self told him “I do a lot of things you can’t really teach. He said I’m a fast-twitch player and said I was quick.”
Of Coleman, Rivals’ analyst Sam Spiegelman said he “has exceptional hands and a very good catch radius. If it’s in his vicinity, he’ll be able to make a play on the ball. He also thrives at high-pointing the football and his vertical ability is second to none.
“Coleman has a good separation off the line and possesses excellent body control. He’s a smooth route-runner that flashed the ability to make sharp cuts and make head fakes, but he still has a way to go in that department. He is not asked to run too many different patterns in his current offense.
“Coleman is dangerous with the ball in his hands. As a bigger-framed receiver, Coleman is a physical, downhill runner in space with the athleticism to leap over defenders or make a move in the open field. He excels at high-pointing the football and is a very reliable target. He’s seemingly unguardable in red-zone situations.”
This story was originally published July 4, 2020 at 7:21 PM.
