Several new additions featured among 5 former Jayhawks on UFL rosters

AP Photo/Julio Cortez

West’s Mason Fairchild, of Kansas, participates in the East West Shrine Bowl NCAA college football game in Frisco, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024.

The United Football League begins its schedule on Friday, and that means another opportunity for a handful of former Kansas football players to show off their talents in the spring.

This year, the UFL ranks feature few holdovers from last season, at least in terms of these former Jayhawks. From last year’s opening-day rosters, only safety Bryce Torneden, of the Michigan Panthers, returns. Defensive end Darrius Moragne caught on with the Arlington Renegades for two brief stints during the 2024 season but did not record a stat.

In all, five players who finished their collegiate careers with KU are on UFL rosters to begin the season.

Moragne, a two-year contributor for KU from 2018-19 out of Arizona Western College, returns to the spring football ranks, where he is a veteran at this juncture after playing for the Jousters in The Spring League in 2021 and then the Pittsburgh Maulers in the USFL the following year, for whom he tallied 16 tackles and 1.5 sacks.

Moragne spent time in 2024 with the Renegades and the Canadian Football League’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats and is now back in the UFL with the Houston Roughnecks.

Torneden is about to play his fifth straight season of spring football: one with the Sea Lions in The Spring League, two with the Pittsburgh Maulers in the USFL and now two with the Panthers after the Maulers’ contraction. Last year he recorded 38 tackles and two sacks from his safety spot.

A Lawrence native who attended Free State High School, Torneden tallied 229 tackles in his four years at KU before embarking on his pro football career.

New this season are tight end Mason Fairchild, wide receiver Kwamie Lassiter II and edge rusher Lonnie Phelps.

Fairchild will be a rookie for the DC Defenders. He went undrafted out of KU and unsigned for a long time after participating in the Buffalo Bills’ minicamp, before he eventually caught on with the New Orleans Saints in the preseason. Fairchild was released and re-signed on a couple occasions before making the move to the UFL.

Between the 2022 and 2023 seasons at KU, he caught 62 passes for 894 yards and nine touchdowns.

Lassiter was released by the Cincinnati Bengals in August prior to what would have been his third season with the team. He has one career catch, a memorable 2-yard reception in the final minutes of a game in 2023 against the Arizona Cardinals, his late father’s former team.

Lassiter, one of several members of his family to attend KU, signed with the Memphis Showboats in December. He will not, however, be catching passes from Jason Bean. The Showboats had picked him No. 1 overall in the UFL Draft last year, but Bean remains on the roster of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.

Phelps declared for the NFL Draft after one year at KU, the 2022 season, in which he recorded 58 tackles with seven sacks and a pair of forced fumbles as a transfer from Miami (Ohio). Phelps latched on with the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent. He remained with the team until they waived him when he was arrested on suspicion of DUI in June.

Of note, Daniel Wise Jr., a former all-conference selection as a Jayhawk who spent time with four NFL teams, also experienced considerable success in his first foray into the UFL last year. The defensive tackle was an all-league selection with the Panthers and remained on their roster until the end of February, when he was released. Pro Football Newsroom reported it was due to injury.

Chris Evans

Kansas Jayhawks defensive end Darrius Moragne (97) pressured Boston College Eagles quarterback Anthony Brown (13) during the first half of an NCAA football game at Boston College in Boston, on Friday, September 13, 2019.

AP Photo/Butch Dill

Tampa Bay Bandits running back Juwan Washington (29) is tackled by Pittsburgh Maulers defensive back Bryce Torneden (22) during the second half of a USFL football game Monday, April 18, 2022, in Birmingham, Ala.

AP Photo/Emilee Chinn

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Kwamie Lassiter II (18) carries the ball against the Indianapolis Colts during an NFL preseason football game on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Cincinnati.

AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

Cleveland Browns defensive end Lonnie Phelps (63) during an NFL football camp, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023, in Berea, Ohio.

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Written By Henry Greenstein

Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off “California vibes,” whatever that means.

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