Kansas announces 2019 football captains

Head coach Les Miles announced Saturday that Hakeem Adeniji, Bryce Torneden and Kyle Thompson will serve as team captains for the 2019 football season.

All three Jayhawks, as selected by their teammates, are serving as captains for the first time in their careers.

Adeniji, of Garland, Texas, is a three-time letterwinner for the Jayhawks, and was recently named to the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award Watch List (top offensive player in Division l who also exhibits the enduring characteristics that define Earl Campbell) as well as the Outland Trophy Preseason Watch List (top interior lineman). Adeniji also picked up All-Big 12 Second Team honors for the first time in his career last season, after being recognized as an honorable mention honoree in his first two seasons as a Jayhawk.

Lawrence native Torneden enters his senior season as a three-time letterwinner with the Jayhawks, while being named to the Wuerffel Trophy Watch List (community service) ahead of the season. Torneden has been a prime leader for the Jayhawks in the community on and off the field, earning All-Big 12 honorable mention honors in 2018 and was selected as one of the Big 12 Conference’s two football players tabbed for the NCAA’s Football Student-Athlete Connection Group.

Thompson has also earned preseason honors, being named to the prestigious Ray Guy Award Preseason Watch List for the nation’s top collegiate punter. Thompson, of El Cajon, California, was the Big 12’s top punter in 2018, averaging 43.3 yards per punt, including 17 kicks of 50 yards or longer. Thompson turned in a career-long 76-yard punt in KU’s season-finale against Texas last season.

Kansas hosts Indiana State on Saturday, August 31 inside David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas. The game kicks off at 11 a.m., CT and will be televised on FSN.