Daniel Hishaw’s Potential Redemption - 74 Days Until Kansas Football

The moment in the fourth game of the 2022 Kansas football season when running back Daniel Hishaw broke the first tackle against Duke in his monumental 73 yard catch and run might’ve been the moment you thought, whoa. 

When he spun away from a sea of Duke defenders and broke free for the end zone, many among us thought Kansas had all the pieces offensively.

It sure appeared that way. The Heisman hype was starting for quarterback Jalon Daniels, Devin Neal was his usual explosive self, Luke Grimm was emerging, Jared Casey was and continues to be a fantastic story, and Daniel Hishaw was breaking tackles and making big plays as the second man in the Jayhawks backfield.

Kansas beat Duke, in large part to that momentum shifting blitzkrieg of a run by Hishaw, but alas, his time in the sun was short lived after that. Against Iowa State in the fifth game of the season, he ran for 28 yards and a score, but tragedy struck. He suffered a season ending hip injury, and Hishaw would have to watch KU’s unexpected run to a bowl game from the sideline. 

After such a great start to the 2022 season, where he racked up 262 yards on 44 attempts and five touchdowns on the ground (close to a 760 yard and 14 TD pace over a 13 game season), along with that magical play against Duke and two other catches, a season ending injury just as the Jayhawks were starting to roll could prove devastating for the psyche.

Add in that Hishaw missed all of 2021 with a similar hip injury (on the other hip) after a nice freshman campaign in 2020, and you could see where some (many?) might not think that a football career was in the cards.

But the positive among us just might see a nice redemption arc situation transpiring in 2023.