With his final season as a Jayhawk winding down and just one credit hour on his class schedule this semester, the time has arrived for Kansas wideout Luke Grimm to pour everything he’s got into his final run with KU football.
As he's done so, we've followed him every step of the way in this weekly diary that has chronicled Grimm’s 2024 season.
Some of what you’ve read here, in Grimm’s own words, has focused on the stuff happening between the lines — big wins, memorable catches and the grind of the season. But a lot of it has focused on Grimm the person, a 23-year-old senior who has given everything he has to the program and seen it pay off in a big way.
The Grimm File
Age: 23 | Height: 6-0 | Weight: 190 | Position: Wide Receiver
Notable: Last season, Grimm became the 16th Jayhawk to reach the 100-catch mark for his career... The senior wideout enters the 2024 season with 126 career receptions, putting him within striking distance of climbing into 4th place (155) on KU's all-time receiving chart and with an outside shot at cracking the top 3 (214 and 219)... He also is less than 300 yards away from reaching the top 5 on KU's receiving yards list... Dubbed "The Grimm Reaper" early in his career, Grimm appeared in 6 games as a true freshman and has finished each of the past three seasons in the top four in receptions, including leading the team in 2022 and finishing second last season... A 3-star recruit by Rivals.com, 247 Sports & ESPN, Grimm was ranked as the No. 7 wide receiver in the state of Missouri by Max Preps in the 2020 class.
Updating Grimm's stats/season: Through 11 games, Grimm leads the Jayhawks in catches (48), receiving yards (617) and receiving touchdowns (6) and earlier this month moved into the No. 3 spot on KU's all-time receiving yards list with 2,399 yards, passing former KU great Kerry Meier. He also sits at No. 2 on KU's all-time receiving touchdowns list, with 23, and in 4th place on the program's all-time receptions list with 174.
Grimm and the Jayhawks had big goals for the 2024 season entering the year, and 5-6 overall and 4-4 in Big 12 play entering the final two weeks of the regular season was not what any of it looked like in their minds.
But even those marks look pretty nice right now, considering the Jayhawks are one of the hottest teams in college football and sat 2-6 and 1-4 just a few weeks ago.
None of that mattered in the moments leading up to last week's win over No. 16 Colorado in what was the Jayhawks' final "home" game of the season.
Thirty-eight seniors, including Grimm, were recognized during a brief on-field ceremony before kickoff, and, before that, Grimm shared his emotions surrounding the arrival of Senior Day.
“The memories are fun because, when we got here it was COVID and Q sent me a Snapchat memory like, ‘3 years ago today,’ and it’ll be us sitting in a meeting, 6 feet apart with masks on, or us eating at the hotel with Kwamie Lassiter and Andrew Parchment and Stefon Robinson and all those guys. It’s funny to see how far we’ve grown and how young we looked, but it’s awesome because you kind of grow up in a sense with these guys.”
True to form, Grimm has been so locked in throughout the season, and especially in this final month, that he hasn't had to deal with much reflection yet.
“I don’t feel yet that I’m emotional about it. It’s more just when I see those memories it makes me laugh to think about it. It’s more like a happy, joyful stage of looking back on it and thinking it was more funny than anything else. But I’m sure there will be a day where I’m gonna look back and just be like, ‘Dang, that was such a fun time.’”
Senior Day was fun. With braided crimson and blue necklaces for each senior and the framed jersey and the families on the field and the smiles on a perfect day for college football — not to mention that big game vibe of facing Coach Prime and Colorado at Arrowhead Stadium — the whole scene was straight out of a movie.
It also was the first time Grimm ever paid much attention to it. He never talked with seniors from the past about their experiences with the senior ceremony nor did he ask anyone this year what to expect.
There was, however, one memory with a senior from his past that has stuck with him every day since it happened in late-December of 2022.
“(It) was after the Liberty Bowl against Arkansas. I was talking to (former KU lineman) Earl (Bostick Jr.) and he just started crying. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the last time I’m ever gonna play football with you.’”
“You would never think that I would be friends with Earl. Coming into college, he’s an offensive lineman, I’m a wide receiver, we’d probably never talk to each other. But me and Earl were such good friends and when he started crying I was so taken aback by it. And then it was just a super-emotional moment for me, like, ‘Wow, you’re not gonna be here in three weeks when we come back and start lifting.’”
“I’m sure the last game that we play (be it this week at Baylor or in a bowl game) will be that moment for me, like, ‘Yeah, I’m not coming back.’ I don’t know who that moment’s gonna be shared with, but hopefully they’re as upset to leave me as I am that I’m leaving them.”
Like nearly all of his teammates who have been asked about this late-season resurgence, Grimm pointed to the team's steady approach, which took root years ago, as the reason they've been able to make a little history.
No Kansas team had ever won three consecutive weeks against ranked teams. And there were reports after last Saturday's win over the Buffs that no unranked team in the history of college football had ever knocked off three ranked teams in a row.
There's a reason KU has been able to do it. And while a lot of it is the character and make-up of the guys in that locker room, Grimm said it also came down to the leadership this program has had.
“The motto has been it’s a one-game season. And, for us, that’s been easy because our biggest thing the entire year and since Coach Leipold’s staff has been here is 1-0 – we’re going 1-0 this week. All that matters is this week. It is all about this week.”
“When you look ahead is when you get caught.”
Being able to smooth the waters, stick with that approach and find a way to salvage a season that had the highest hopes possible has been a great way to go out. Doing it with friends and teammates that he considers like family has made it all the more meaningful.
“It’s just as special as it gets. We all got here together, 17- 18-year-olds. You’ve heard it probably a million times, from going to Stouffer Field after workouts in the summer to where we are now, where we’ve all got thousands of snaps of college football under our belts and been starters for so long. It’s just really cool to be with those guys and go out with them and grow up with them and grow into the people that we are.”
“I get from the fan perspective of we went 9-4 last year and nobody expects you to do worse than you did the year before. And we didn’t either. But, for us, with all the expectations of this year and how we’ve responded to how the beginning of this year went, I couldn’t be more happy with how this team has been the past three weeks and how I know we’re gonna finish the season – all the guys in the locker room and all the coaches and how we’ve turned it around these last three weeks.”
Next up for the Jayhawks is this weekend's regular season finale at Baylor. Kickoff is slated for 11 a.m. from McLane Stadium and the game will be shown on ESPN2.
Win and the Jayhawks will become bowl eligible, moving the next key date to Dec. 8, when the bowl matchups are announced.
Lose and the 2024 season, along with the KU careers of guys like Grimm, will be finished.
Doesn't get much bigger than that. Much like it hasn't the past three weeks.
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