During games senior safety Darrell Stuckey watches freshman linebacker Huldon Tharp crash his body into the formidable bodies of offensive linemen.

It’s part of Tharp’s job description — something each linebacker must do — but the impacts catch Stuckey’s attention for a simple reason: Tharp shows no regard for his undersized frame.

At 215 pounds, Tharp is certainly small for a linebacker in the college football world. But he overcomes that fact with a persistent work ethic and a constant drive.

Stuckey takes the assessment of Tharp one step further.

“He’s one of those guys that you’d see in ‘Gladiator’ side by side with you,” Stuckey said. “He’d be the one protecting you with his shield while he’s stabbing his spear and I’m attacking the guy next to me. He’s definitely a guy I’d want on my front line if I was a Spartan.”

Indeed, Tharp has developed into a trusted component of Kansas’ defense, filling a starting spot that was a question mark during the offseason.

With the Jayhawks graduating three three-year starters at linebacker last season, concern shifted to a perceived lack of suitable replacements. Yet for much of the offseason, Tharp’s name was rarely mentioned. After all, the Big 12 doesn’t feature many freshman starters.

“It’s very rare for a true freshman to come right away and play at linebacker, especially undersized,” Stuckey said. “He’s not the biggest guy. We may weigh the same.”

Tharp actually outweighs Stuckey by 10 pounds, but his point stands: Tharp has relied on aptitude and sheer hard work to earn playing time as an undersized freshman.

“He’s still a little underweight,” coach Mark Mangino said. “And he can’t wait to get into the weight room this winter. But boy he is a fighter.”

Tharp had one more obstacle in his way: He had to shake the remaining rust from an injury.

The summer before his senior year at Mulvane High School, Tharp and his team traveled to a camp at Pittsburg State. On the camp’s opening day, though, Tharp tore his ACL. He missed his entire senior season.

“It was just rough sitting around hoping for the best but kind of expecting the worst,” Tharp said. “It was a pretty rough time.”

In the days that followed, Tharp’s attention shifted toward the bigger picture.

Would he still be able to play Division I football or would schools pull their scholarship offers?

“That was my biggest fear actually when I first found out the news: That all the colleges would back off of me and I might have to go to junior college or play in Division II,” Tharp said.

That wasn’t the case – Tharp actually received a scholarship offer from Colorado while injured — and he ended up committing to Kansas.

Now he’s slowly developed into the Jayhawks’ fifth-leading tackler this season.

“Coming from playing high school football your junior year to playing in the Big 12, it’s definitely pretty nerve wracking,” Tharp said. “But every game I get more confident that I can actually hang with these guys.”

For Stuckey, Tharp’s success has roots on the practice field and during conditioning drills.

Stuckey praises Tharp’s work ethic and maturity – two traits that certainly have helped him earn playing time fresh out of high school.

“When we were running in conditioning, I looked to my right and it wasn’t a defensive back running next to me but Huldon Tharp running next to me,” Stuckey said. “I thought, ‘He’s a linebacker. What is he doing next to me? Am I that slow?’”

Tharp has struggled at times this season, and that’s to be expected from a freshman still grasping the workings of the college game.

But he also has proven that he’s capable of competing in the Big 12.

“He wants to be the best he can and he doesn’t want to let people around him down,” Stuckey said. “Sometimes I think to myself ‘Is that what my mentality was when I first came here?’”

— Edited by Sarah Kelly