Can anybody replace KU legend Devin Neal? Next man up may be Daniel Hishaw Jr.
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Daniel Hishaw Jr. emerges as Kansas football’s top running back for 2025.
- Hishaw steps into leadership role following Devin Neal’s NFL Draft exit.
- Kansas backfield depth includes Leshon Williams and Johnny Thompson Jr.
Daniel Hishaw Jr. has stayed in touch with his Kansas football teammate of four years — all-time Jayhawks rushing and touchdown leader Devin Neal — a sixth-round pick of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints in the April 26 NFL Draft.
“I’ve seen him, text him. They just had their first day of full pads a day or two ago. We talked right before his fall camp and everything. Yeah I love Devin,” said Hishaw, who — after a bit of a wait — is expected to be KU’s featured running back during the 2025 season, his sixth season at KU.
Hishaw, a native of Moore, Oklahoma, joined another sixth-year player — former Iowa running back/portal transfer Leshon Williams — as well as redshirt sophomore back Johnny Thompson Jr. for media interviews Thursday in a meeting room in Anderson Family Football Complex.
Hishaw is rated as a second-team preseason 2025 All-Big 12 selection by Athlon Magazine. He was asked if he feels it’s time for the country to see what he can do with his good buddy Neal now in the pros.
“I mean honestly I feel like it’s KU’s year for us all to be seen,” Hishaw said. “I’m not worried about my name being around the country, I want KU’s name to be around the country.”
The veteran college football player does realize his name commands respect in the Jayhawks’ locker room, especially with Neal having moved on.
“I would say (I am) just making sure every day I’m very intentional on being a leader, just making sure there’s not a day that I could take off of not being a leader,” Hishaw said. “Some days in past years, I probably could have taken a day off or two, which I shouldn’t have, but it was a lot easier to. Now I definitely have to (lead).”
Hishaw noted that this year’s stable of KU running backs again includes several talented players.
“At the end of the day we’re just all going out there,” he said, “So if me, Dev, or any other running back went out there last year, we’re all training, doing the same goals. It’s the same thing this year, getting the team better, doing what we need to do for the team.”
Former Hawkeye Williams, who gained a team-leading 821 yards on 170 carries (4.8 per carry) for Iowa in 2023 — before an injury limited him to three games last year — marvels at the physique of Hishaw, who gained 376 yards on 65 carries (5.8 average) with three TDs in eight games in 2024.
“Hishaw is unique. You see it. He just walked in (interview room). That dude is big,” said Williams, a Chicago native who stands 5-foot-10 and 215 pounds. Hishaw is 5-10, 220.
“I don’t think I’ve had a running back as big as him I ever played with,” Williams said. “He’s really explosive. He can move, too, for that size.. So that’s special right there.”
Hishaw’s best year at KU was the team’s injury-plagued season in 2023, when he rushed for 626 yards on 121 carries with eight TDs.
He appeared humbled by his new teammate’s compliment.
“I think it’s really cool for him (Williams) to say that to me and say that about me. It feels good,” Hishaw said. “And it just shows that ... the work that I’m putting in is paying off. So I really appreciate that.”
KU running backs coach Jonathan Wallace, who also met with reporters after KU’s morning training camp practice Thursday, said Hishaw is leading “by his actions and his words.”
“I think that he’s improved really a ton of his game,” Wallas said. “He is really, really super fired up in a lot of ways of just how he’s carrying the ball, how he’s making guys miss, how he’s catching the ball, a lot of things that we’ve seen really through his career. And now he’s sort of put it all together in mastering (it).
“So it’s a lot of fun to just see him out there and having fun and doing really, in my opinion, what he’s always done. And that’s (make) big plays. I’m just really, really excited to see how he’s put those things together. And how he’s continuing to do that throughout camp.”
At Big 12 football media day, Kansas coach Lance Leipold noted Hishaw “is a player who’s waited patiently. Honestly, much like (quarterback) Jalon (Daniels), he has had a kind of bumpy road with injuries. Two years ago, before he was injured in the Iowa State game, he probably was playing as good of football as anyone we had offensively. He’s got a great combination of speed and power. He’s a physical back. He has good hands. He’s good in pass protection.”
Hishaw said he’s anxious for the 2025 campaign to start. He believes the Jayhawks, who have a new offensive coordinator in Jim Zebrowski, will put a lot of points on the new scoreboard at renovated Booth Memorial Stadium.
“Just seeing all of us together on the sideline and having that type of energy to the stands … all that will bleed into the fans and everything,” Hishaw said, “because we’re going to make good plays on the field and just it’s going to bring energy to everybody.
“Those stands ... it’s going to be crazy. I hope everybody knows where their seat is this year and nobody’s fighting over seats at the first game or anything like that. So, yeah, it’s going to be fun.”
Hishaw said the refurbished stadium — which features all new seats on the west side, with the east to be refurbished at a later date — “means a lot, like we have to build that first brick. That’s what it really feels like when you look at that stadium. Nobody else has played in there. So we need to lay that first brick. Shoutout Tony Sands (former KU running back), and just keep continuing for the next teams to just set a legacy for them.”
Hishaw said he knew he wanted to be a Jayhawk ever since his junior year of high school in Oklahoma. Now, he’s hoping for a smooth sixth-year senior season — both in terms of health and the team’s overall record of wins and losses.
He’d also love for a repeat of his electrifying 73-yard receiving touchdown against Duke in 2022, a play during which he shed several tacklers.
“There’s ups and downs and everything in life, but I haven’t been disappointed at all at my time here at KU,” he said. “It’s been so great and just so many learning experiences and just helping me become a better man. So I’m glad I’ve been here all these years.”
Years that included four as a teammate with a KU legend, in Neal — and now are set to conclude with Hishaw taking center stage.
This story was originally published July 31, 2025 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Can anybody replace KU legend Devin Neal? Next man up may be Daniel Hishaw Jr.."
