It took a lot for Kansas running back Chase Belcher to return to the college football ranks, where, after a few weeks of getting acclimated to his new team, he currently sits second on the Jayhawks’ depth chart behind starter Dylan Edwards.
A rule change, an injunction, conversations with family, coaches and attorneys and wading through the recruiting process all over again all were necessary parts of bringing the Valdosta, Georgia native to this point in his career.
But those hurdles were nothing compared to the toughest obstacle he had to overcome in his football life, which came during his senior season of high school in 2021 and nearly cost him his time on the field altogether.
Rolling through the playoffs and leading the state of Georgia in touchdowns at the time — 15 rushing and 10 receiving — Belcher suffered a serious hip injury that derailed everything.
“It was the same injury that ended Bo Jackson’s career,” Belcher recently told R1S1 Sports, referencing one of the most famous hip injuries in professional sports history, which Jackson suffered during a 1991 playoff game with the Los Angeles Raiders.
“But, with Bo Jackson’s injury, (a posterior hip dislocation that led to a bone disease during recovery) his hip came out of his socket and the ball (joint) died. My socket broke, but there was still movement in and out of the socket. So, they just put a lot of plates and screws in my hip and I was blessed to be able to play football again.”
Former Lowndes High School coach Jamey DuBose, who now leads Bainbridge (Ga.) High School in his 34th year of coaching, remembers the night Belcher went down. Lowndes was playing Collins Hill and future Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter that night. And, at first, DuBose thought Belcher had suffered one of those minor injuries, a contusion or something.
“It was a normal run on an outside zone,” DuBose recalled during a recent phone interview with R1S1 Sports. “He broke it outside and took a hit as he was going into the end zone. It looked like a normal hit, but he came up limping.”
That limp became much more serious than it seemed at first, and sent Belcher into a whirlwind stretch that messed with his mind, body and future.
“I know it’s late in his career, but I’m just so happy he’s finally reached the pinnacle of where the young man deserves to be, at a nice, big school with an opportunity to play.”
— Former Lowndes High football coach Jamey DuBose on Chase Belcher
While his story has a happy ending, Belcher went into surgery that winter believing that his football career was finished. That’s what doctors told him during the initial diagnosis and while discussing how to move forward.
Like anyone would be — especially a 17-year-old athlete entering the prime of his football-playing life — Belcher was devastated.
“They told me that I was done playing before the surgery,” he said. “But once I woke up from surgery, they were like, ‘We wouldn’t necessarily advise you to play, but you can do what you want to do because we put some extra reinforcements in here so you’ll be able to do what you want to do.’ They knew how upset I was when I heard that initially.”
From there, his singular focus flipped to getting back on the field. Where he would do it was anybody’s guess. But DuBose always believed it would happen.
The reason?
“He was incredible through rehab,” the coach said. “The man was a stallion.”
While awaiting a temporary injunction this fall in Monroe County, Indiana, which made him eligible for a fifth year of competition under the NCAA’s new 5-in-5 rules model, Belcher leaned back on some of the same things that got him through the injury and rehab.
Mental fortitude was the biggest.
He refused to consider making a career out of something other than football. He has done some day trading and believes, one day, that he’ll be employed in the finance world. But that day is not today, so he trained daily, sometimes more than once, hoping that another opportunity in football would come, be it back in college or in one of the professional leagues.
Under-recruited to begin with, in large part because he played wide receiver his freshman and sophomore seasons before DuBose arrived at Lowndes and eventually moved him to running back, the injury his senior season of high school inspired many of the schools who were aware of him to look elsewhere.
“He was an electric guy catching the ball and making plays to begin with,” DuBose said. “But, at running back, he was just a natural. He was almost unstoppable. I always thought, ‘’Man, this is a big, thick kid playing wideout.’ But he had great hands, he had sneaky speed and he was able to run good routes even out of the backfield for us. And he had a great year.”
During that strong senior season, Missouri came began to recruit him late. He had taken an official visit to West Virginia. And a Virginia assistant coach who talked to Belcher while with the Cavaliers kept in touch with him after moving to Washington State. Even KU running backs coach, Jonathan Wallace, who is from the same hometown as DuBose — Phenix City, Georgia — had a brief conversation with Belcher back then.
But the injury made him a risk for everyone. And they all found easier, healthier options.
“This was the year that the portal opened up, too,” the 6-foot, nearly 220-pound Belcher explained. “I was on crutches, and they were either like take the chance on me or get someone out of the portal.”
Added DuBose: “The larger schools, they already had their offers out. Chase got caught up in a numbers game and couldn’t find a school that was still looking for a running back.”
That led him to three smaller schools in four years before landing at Kansas during the middle of Year 5 — Northern Arizona in 2022 and 2023, West Georgia in 2024 and Kennesaw State in 2025.
It wasn’t the Big 12 or the SEC or the ACC. But it wasn’t nothing either.
“People truly don’t understand what I mean when I say this,” Belcher began. “But for me it was such a blessing to even be able to play football again — just a blessing, that’s the only way I can describe it. And I’m so grateful that I’m still playing.”
The fact that it was at Kansas where he landed only adds to the story.
When he first talked to Wallace this time around, he had a moment of deja vu and even asked Wallace, “Haven't we had a conversation before?”
In addition to that, Wallace's road to Lawrence reunited him with Edwards, whom he spent part of the summer of his junior year of high school playing in a national 7-on-7 showcase with. He said the first time the two met face-to-face in Lawrence brought back all kinds of great memories of simpler times and they reconnected “like nothing changed.”
DuBose is far from surprised that things have worked out for his former running back. The Belcher he knew back then was wired different than most. To be positive. To smile. To take life as it comes. To appreciate everything you get and take nothing for granted.
Even at the start of his recent interview with R1S1 Sports, Belcher stood up from his chair before sitting back down and said, “I was taught that when you shake a man’s hand, you stand up.”
Belcher, 22, is here today because of that mindset. He always stood up. When it hurt. When it was hard. When others might not have. He did.
“Chase is a motivated young man,” DuBose said. “And he always understood that some people have different paths, but it’s the journey that really makes you who you are. Back in high school, he just had a smile on his face all the time. He was a polite young man. But when he hit the field, he was a warrior and a winner and a guy you could always rely on.”
“I know it’s late in his career," DuBose continued. "But I’m just so happy he’s finally reached the pinnacle of where the young man deserves to be, at a nice, big school with an opportunity to play.”
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