LAWRENCE — The end of Mike Novitsky’s college football career in 2023 created a void at the center of Kansas’ offensive line.

Novitsky had served as the Jayhawks’ regular starter at center for three seasons, and head coach Lance Leipold’s for five — dating back to the 2019 and 2020 seasons when they were at Buffalo. There was a familiarity there. There was a sense of reliability.

But while that void existed, Leipold and his staff may have found the answer to filling it in the transfer portal. Shane Bumgardner, leaving Division II-level Tiffin, committed to and later signed with Kansas. Bumgardner joined as this past season’s winner of the Rimington Award, honoring him as the top center in Division II.

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“If I had told you I had two centers in nine years as a Division I coach, that’s like a — yeah, it’ll be interesting,” Leipold said Thursday. “Shane was at … Tiffin University. When I was at Omaha we played at Tiffin, so I kind of knew a little bit about the program. But much like Dominick Puni, we look at every player that — more than likely from any scholarship level on, in, the portal, put eyes on them. And it was somebody that we were looking for.”

It can be tough to find the right offensive lineman in the transfer portal, Leipold explained. It’s one position he’s been surprised by in that respect. But as Leipold noted they identified a need, and there was attrition elsewhere with one player they’d looked to develop as a center — Joey Baker — previously deciding to give up football.

There’ll be an adjustment period for Bumgardner to navigate, of course, including physically given Tiffin listed him at 6-foot-3 and 290 pounds in 2023. But Leipold’s staff has shown an ability to identify talent that can make the jump up in levels of football before, like with Puni — a former Division II player himself who is in line to be picked in this year’s NFL draft. Matt Gildersleeve, Kansas’ director of sports performance, also highlighted recently that Bumgardner is quickly making strides by taking advantage of the resources that are now available to him.

Time will tell how many strides Bumgardner can make ahead of the start of spring ball, as well as ahead of the start of the season in general. But Leipold expressed hope Bumgardner is someone who can contribute right away. Bumgardner was listed as a senior on Tiffin’s roster this past season, so the end of his college career is closer now than the start.

“My expectations are that you’re coming in here and contribute, because we’re not trying to bring in guys that don’t have many years of eligibility left not to come here and play,” Leipold said. “But, at the same time, he knows he has to earn it. But it gives us a little more flexibility in what we can do in mixing and matching of our offensive line. Michael Ford (Jr.) can snap, but we’d rather keep a guy who started three years for us at guard and keep him at guard if we can.”

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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Shane Bumgardner could be Kansas football's answer at center in 2024