LAWRENCE — The end of Mason Fairchild’s college career left a void in Kansas football’s tight ends room.

Fairchild, who is now pursuing a professional career, earned second team All-Big 12 Conference honors in 2022 and was a honorable mention in 2023. This past season, for a team that went 9-4 and won the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, he led all Jayhawks tight ends in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. Above all that, he served as a leader for a program that’s reaching new heights.

But now it’s up to the likes of senior tight end Trevor Kardell, among others, to carry this position group forward. Kardell is one of the Kansas players most capable of enjoying a breakout season in 2024. He’s someone who valued the time he had to learn from Fairchild, and has caught himself living out those lessons during the early days of fall camp this year.

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“Just understanding the offense a little deeper, and why the defense is moving specific ways,” Kardell said. “Not just understanding what the tight end assignment is, or understanding where the offensive line is moving, the wide receivers’ depth on routes — really, the why of our offense and being able to help the younger guys understand that was a big thing for Mason, how he helped Jared and I understand why the offense was doing specific things.”

Kardell isn’t the only tight end Kansas will rely upon this fall. There’s also senior tight end Jared Casey, who’s on the preseason watch list for the Wuerffel Trophy, which is awarded each year to the FBS player who best showcases leadership — on and off the field — and values community service. But Kardell could end up being the most important.

New assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes isn’t just handing out playing time to Kardell, or Casey for that matter, because they are returning veterans. During a meeting, Grimes pointed at the duo and called them out by name to outline that they have to earn what they get. But Kardell, who also praised director of sports performance Matt Gildersleeve for his guidance this year, has enjoyed that challenge.

Kardell, who’s coming off of a season in which he caught six passes for 69 yards and one touchdown, doesn’t necessarily have to match or surpass what Fairchild did in the passing game in 2023 — 27 catches, 451 yards and three touchdowns. There’s more to the position than that. But the more he can be a threat in the passing game, and the more he can drive up the level of competition within his position group in that area and elsewhere, the more likely the Jayhawks will be in position to enjoy success this fall.

“The tight end room is full of some dogs,” Kardell said. “We’re ready to go every single day. You’ll never see us slacking off anywhere — weight room, meeting room, on the field, off the field. It really doesn’t matter. Super proud of these guys. It’s a great group to be a part of and take it one step every day.”

Casey, himself, noted about his position group: “We’re going at each other and it’s really showing, and in the film room it’s showing up. And it’s not really even just the team, the team reps that we’re getting, it’s individual drills, it’s special teams drills. You can really see us all flying around and really wanting to get better every single day.”

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: It’s time for Trevor Kardell to step up for Kansas football in 2024