When it came down to it, everything lined up for Mason Oglesby to become a Jayhawk.
“Kind of one of those, ‘When you know, you know,’ type of things,” Oglesby said.
The four-star New Palestine tight end announced his commitment to Kansas on Friday night, picking the Jayhawks over his other finalists: Indiana, North Carolina and Ohio State.
Oglesby, who caught 34 passes for 513 yards and six touchdowns as a junior for the Class 5A state champion Dragons, said there were a lot of factors that led to his decision to select Kansas, including the potential to play early in his college career and the Jayhawks’ high usage rate with the tight end position.
“They have a tight end-minded (offensive coordinator),” Oglesby said of Jim Zebrowski. “He’s the type of guy you want to play for if you’re a tight end because you are going to get the ball in a lot of different ways.”
There was a feeling that Oglesby might be an Indiana recruit, even as recently as a couple of weeks ago. That feeling was shared by Oglesby, who took an official visit to Bloomington on the weekend of April 24. He took his official visit to KU the following weekend.
“If you would have told me a few months ago, I wasn’t going to IU, I would have been surprised,” he said. “I really loved IU, but I kind of had to make a business decision and it came down to Kansas.”
The 6-4, 225-pound Oglesby caught 35 passes for 364 yards and one touchdown as a junior. He also has played defense for the Dragons at outside linebacker, making 87 tackles in his three seasons.
Kansas went 5-7 each of the past two seasons under coach Lance Leipold, who led the Jayhawks to a 9-4 mark in 2023. Oglesby is the sixth commit for Kansas in the 2027 class. He has struck up a friendship with Chance Thomas, a three-star quarterback prospect from California who committed to the Jayhawks earlier this month.
“The pieces are falling into place,” Oglesby said of the class. “I think with my commitment, there will be a few more people who will see the vision that I have in changing the program around. The players have a big part in it. I think we can get it rolling. We have the right coaching staff; we just need a good class to come in and get it going.”
Oglesby said the thought of “writing my own story” was appealing.
“I don’t want to be a guy who is in the program for four years but only plays one year,” he said. “I want to go somewhere and leave a legacy and I feel like I can do that at a school like Kansas. I had great connections with the coaching staff. You can tell it’s a close-knit relationship between the coaches and players there and I really appreciate that. They showed me their plan for me and I feel like they can develop me into the best player I can be.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649. Get IndyStar’s high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: ‘Make an impact early.’ New Palestine tight end Mason Oglesby commits to Kansas
Reporting by Kyle Neddenriep, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
