Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - 2 SCHOLARSHIPS LEFT: How will Bill Self Fill Jayhawks Roster - From Tre White to Council & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Javan Bardwell decommits, court cases running amok. Who's most likely for KU at this point to fill one of their scholarships? Plus, we'll get into some of the latest with KU football and more. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What's up, Derek Johnson here? This is Locked on Jayhawks. We were brought to you today by Fandual.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Join all the action at fanduel.com to play daily dingers. and make your free pick on who's hitting a homer this MLB season. We're going to be breaking down some of the latest news. KU Soccer had their kickoff game to the season. We heard some other news that we want to get to, obviously, kind of the latest every day with some of the courts and everything. We're going to get into the latest at KU football going on. We heard from Jonathan Wallace, the running backs coach at a loaded running back room,

Starting point is 00:00:58 and Taibo Onatolu, the special teams coach, some good nuggets there. And we're going to talk right off the bat with the, I guess the repercussions, Javon Bardwell decommits from KU. And who is the most likely at this point for KU to reel in for one of their final two roster spots? Because it's interesting, it's not that I would have put the highest percentage on Javon Bardwell becoming a Kansas Jayhawk, but among the kind of, I don't know, the most common four names with Trey White, Melvin Council, Mahalo Musich, and Javon Bardwell, Bardwell did have the easiest path, I think, to becoming eligible for Kansas and joining the team.

Starting point is 00:01:38 We see players reclassify all the time. It seems like a much more straightforward process. And clearly, if he's all in, I mean, he's, he is part of decommitting from Kansas. He mentioned he's now part of the class of 2026. Like, it's clear that he had everything or has everything lined up to reclassify anyway, right? So that was more of a, can Kansas take him or not? Does Kansas want him or not? And who knows?

Starting point is 00:02:06 Maybe it's even a situation where by him announcing that and he opens up his options, like if we do hear back quickly, if we do, right, if it takes a couple weeks, it's probably too late by then. But let's say we hear back in two days that Melvin Counsel or something is ineligible. Could you loop back and be like, hey, Javon Bardwell, we got a spot for you? You know what I mean? I don't know. But that was the easiest path to getting eligible, right?

Starting point is 00:02:31 So now you're left with Tray White, Melvin Counsel. Michael Moose sketch. Obviously, there's other players in the transfer portal, whether it's players that are still kind of left over that might be looking for spots and maybe they get a little desperate and are willing to take less NIL money or take on a lesser role than they previously were expecting, right? And that falls in KU's lap entirely possible. There's a bunch of players that have sued the NCAA in some of their different states and have won and are now eligible. There's plenty of other players in other states that are suing the NCAA to basically get the five and five retroactive.

Starting point is 00:03:06 And who knows if they will win or not, but based on how the other states have gone, you could see it going that same way. Then there's a Colorado case going on, which is just trying to give basically blanket eligibility to everybody in the class of 2022, right? So there's potentially a new whole world of players that you'll be able to look into older players, productive players, ones that are looking for a quick home that again could fall into your lap. But based on the most we've heard right now,

Starting point is 00:03:35 Trey White, Melvin Council, Mahalo Musa Kitch, and the reasons why are simple. Counsel and Trey White were both on last year's team. In the case of Trey White, right now, he would only be eligible if he stayed at Kansas. We'll get more on that in a second here. With Melvin Counsel, he was, you know, I don't know, the heart and soul of the Kansas team a season ago,

Starting point is 00:03:54 and his case is a little bit different and has drawn headlines for kind of a different way because it is not the same process, right? He's trying to get a basically his Juko year is not counting. He wouldn't be eligible with the traditional five and five. And then you have Mahilo Musich, who Musich does not fit your traditional age model, but he is somebody who is already actually committed to Kansas.

Starting point is 00:04:17 But it's funny because the way that Kansas is approaching this at this point of time, it almost feels like they're not even expecting Mahalo Musich to get eligible at this point in time. And I don't know if he will be able to. He's like 25 years old or he's going to be. in the middle of next season. I don't know how he's going to be able to get eligible, right? So who is the most likely at this point? Like if I had to, you know, place a large wager or something on who do I think is the most likely

Starting point is 00:04:47 to be at Kansas Jayhawk next year? I think the guy that I would start with would be Trey White. To me, that feels like the highest percentage chance of any of these things happening for KU. I think he has the best path, right? And he actually has a couple paths to getting it done. The beauty for Trey White is that he does fall into this, you know, retroactive five and five suit. And originally the big question with Trey White, when some of this news started to break between Mike Vernon and some of these different people was the idea that, okay, but is he going to be eligible?

Starting point is 00:05:18 Did he sign his Exhibit 10 contract with the Miami Heat that would make him ineligible? Well, sounds like it was just agreed upon verbally but wasn't actually signed. So it sounds like he would be okay there, right? if the Colorado case goes through, if this WISNY, whatever case that's going to the 10th circuit of appeals or whatever, I don't know, whatever, legal terms, if it ends up working against the NCAA, so working in the players favor, and it basically maintains the decision that everybody in the class of 2022 stays eligible, then boom, he's just eligible and you can scoop him up if you're Kansas and you don't have to worry about anything because he would just

Starting point is 00:06:01 be a returning player anyway. So it doesn't matter if he entered the portal or not by a certain time. He would just be returning to school. That would be the easiest path and the most direct path to Kansas getting him eligible. The next path, though, if that does get appealed, and I guess denied in the appeal process, is that these individualized, I shouldn't say individualized because there's still class action suits, but the like individual states, I guess I should say, right? Like, you had the uh because this one's in colorado but it has taken on kind of a national scope of things because of the way it was ruled by judge sweeney uh but you had the the initial one was in ohio and that one went the players way again i thought there was an appeal there but

Starting point is 00:06:44 i don't know whatever happened with that uh i think there was one i don't know there's one going on like california georgia one of the other ones like wrapped up in their favor as well and i can't remember which state is where basically you get a state full of players and then those ones, even if this Colorado case doesn't end up happening, the players who are attached to those class action lawsuits in the specific states are able to still be eligible. So if this doesn't work out with this sweeping one in Colorado, Trey White just has to attach himself to one of these class action lawsuits in one of these states and just hope that wins. And then you have a second path to being able to get eligible. And based on the fact that we've seen other states,

Starting point is 00:07:27 you know, basically grant the injunction and those not fail that feels like a above 50% chance to me that Trey White would be eligible and be possible for Kansas. So that's the one that I almost feel the best about. I think from there when you look at the Melvin Council and the Mahilo Moosecich cases, to me, they both feel like uphill climbs. I don't know. The Melvin Council one feels like maybe it's closer to a 50-50 coin flip. The Mahalo Musich one to me feels like it's less than that, right? So I guess I would rank it one Tray White, two Melvin Council, three Milo Musichich for what I just view to be most likely based on what I know, right? With the council one, it's tough to say because it is a separate court case. It's not as easy for me to point and be like, well, this case, you know, happened and went in his favor for this or that, right?

Starting point is 00:08:17 It is a little bit different there. So we'll see what kind of happens there. But just in general, it feels like the NCAA loses in court a lot. So I guess that's a good thing. And then you have the Musichich one, which it seems like they're going to try to go off the old rules for his eligibility. But even then, it's like you've been playing a lot of professional basketball years. You know, there's a lot of payments in there. Plus you're going to be 25 midseason.

Starting point is 00:08:41 I don't know. Here's actually a conspiracy theory that I don't know that I believe, but I'm going to toss out there. And maybe I'll start to believe it more after I mentioned this. Is there a world out there that because, again, remember, part of the idea of bringing in Mahalo Musich is, or part of the cool part about it, is his agent is like a very, very powerful agent connected with a lot of really good players overseas and in that area of the world. Is it possible that KU was like, I don't know that this guy's good enough? And they were like, but if we take him, if we tell this agent we'll take him and do everything

Starting point is 00:09:17 in our power to try to get him eligible, then he's going to hook us up with some other good players down the road, even though we know he's not going to be eligible. So even though we don't think he's that good, we're not going to have to worry about it, right? And then we get a good connection here. That is a conspiracy theory. Don't know, I believe it, but you could convince me on it. That's for sure. So I think that's how I'd kind of view it.

Starting point is 00:09:39 Trey White, I don't know. If I'm putting in a percentage on it, I almost feel like 75, 25. I put Melvin Council at like 50-50, and then I put Mahalo Moose to catch like 30-70, something like that. So we'll see. We'll see what happens, right? But, you know, I'd be thrilled if Trey White were back in a Kansas uniform. All right. Let's get to our latest KU football camp update.

Starting point is 00:10:02 Heard a lot about the running back room as well as some special teams. A lot of Dylan Edwards talk. We'll get to all that next. This is locked on Jayhawks. Baseball fans, if you think you know who's hitting a homer today, fan duels giving you a free chance to call your shot with Daily Dangers. It is easy to play. Just make your free pick for who you think is going to hit a home run in their game.

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Starting point is 00:11:39 Thanks again for joining us on Locked on Jayhawks, and we'll continue to do some player deep dives. Don't forget to check out our Jvon Bardwell specific episode that we did last night as well. Our KU football, we got to hear on, what was it, Wednesday from Jonathan Wallace, the running backs coach for KU, as well as Taiwo on Oortolu, the special teams coach. And a lot of Dylan Edwards talk between the two of them overall combined. You know, Jonathan Wallace talked a lot about that Dylan Edwards has really grown in what he can do beyond just being a player in the backfield, really mentioned a lot of his abilities to kind of line up in the slot or line out wide and be a receiver for this team. And it's funny because he was asked for a comp and Jonathan Wallace mentioned Puka Williams, which is funny because I've always mentioned, like I'd always be curious what Puka Williams is. do in an Andy Codal nicky offense and a Lance Leipold team with more you know support and insulation around him maybe we're going to find out that answer this year obviously

Starting point is 00:12:39 Dylan Edwards has to stay healthy for something like that to happen but um I really liked that we heard you know if I was interesting because for all the drama might be the right word that has surrounded different points of Dylan Edwards career you don't get that vibe when you hear Jonathan Wallace talk about him or when you there was also like a little presser with Dylan Edwards and he was just this like quiet like um you know seemingly very mellow kid that you just didn't get that from and like Jonathan Wallace mentioned like how coachable he's been and how eager and how hungry he is to learn and to get everything right now maybe that comes from you know some of the the past couple years maybe it was a bit of a humbling experience for him I do think because of all that you're

Starting point is 00:13:28 getting him at a good time if you're Kansas, right? Like, I think it very much comes in a world where, um, he's going to want to prove himself. It's almost like a guy in a contract year at the professional level, right? Like, that's where Dylan Edwards is right now. He's in a contract year. If he has a really big season, he could go pro. He could transfer to an even bigger school for his fifth and final season. If not, you know, does he go from being the guy who's bounced around a few times and had some, you know, drama here and there to, you know, what happens, right? So you're almost getting him in an extra motivated season, it seems like he's doing everything in his power to have that

Starting point is 00:14:05 big type of season. You certainly like to see that. But we also heard that he's being kind of experimented around and tossed around a lot of the different areas in special teams, which I think makes sense, right? You get him eight to ten, maybe 12 carries per game. You get him a couple catches per game. You get him a kick return or two per game. Seems to make sense. Make this guy super involved in the team in a lot of different ways. We also heard from Jonathan Wallace on Yassine Willis, and his comparison was a mix of Daniel Hyshaw and Lee Sean Williams. Honestly, like, it seemed like he was trying to scratch for that.

Starting point is 00:14:39 Like, he was asked for comparison and he just gave some guys. And I think that does make sense, relatively speaking with KU guys. I don't really know that there's a comparison because even with the Hyshaw one, I think that's the natural one because it's like these are bigger backs who do have a bit of explosiveness. High Shaw's explosiveness was more so before some of the injury stuff, but also it's still different. Like, you've seen Willis, I don't know, like Daniel Highshaw wasn't necessarily hurtling over guys. And as much as Willis is actually like, I don't know if Willis is listed as like weighing heavier than Highshaw, Highshaw would actually truck you more often than Willis does.

Starting point is 00:15:20 whereas Willis willis will stiff arm you jump over you more often. So I don't know. There's some differences in their game. I get part of the comparison, bigger back, who has athleticism, right? But this also stood out to me. Jonathan will always keep an eye out for this. If you ever hear a coach mention running back is doing well in pass protection, you know they have the heart of the coach because coaches love running backs who can pass protect.

Starting point is 00:15:48 And that's what they mentioned with Yacine Willis. That'll be able to keep him on the field. Sounds like he's been working a lot with Andy Kodalnicki, catching the ball. That was a bugaboo for him last year, trying to be a more complete back. I think you're going to see a lot of Yucin Willis and Dylan Edwards on the field together because of the ability to move Edwards around and stuff and that ability for Willis to survive on passing downs with the past blocking and an improving receiving game. So interesting there. And then we also got to hear a little bit on Jalen Dupree.

Starting point is 00:16:14 Jonathan Wallace mentioned him as being a very decisive runner. I think that backs up everything I saw in film. he did mention he's behind a little bit because of the spring, which was kind of my worry. It is unfortunate. Like I do think he is every bit as good as, you know, these other guys in the room. It's just that when you have a bunch of good players that are competing, when you miss all that time in the spring, it does put you in a fortunate spot. I just hope that, you know, Dupree is able to stick around for KU, you know, whatever happens this year because, you know, I could see him having a bigger impact in 2027. But you never know what's going to happen with injuries or opportunity.

Starting point is 00:16:49 And then we also heard with Taiwo Onatolu talking about not just the Edwards situation, but that Tate Nagy will continue to be the punt returner for them. So I guess that kind of checks that off. It seems pretty simple, even though it's a bunch of new guys for KU as the kicker and punter and everything. Seems like everything is kind of, you know, going according to plan of who's supposed to play where, who's supposed to play who, and all those sorts of things, right? But he did mention something interesting in that, like, now that there's no red shirts,

Starting point is 00:17:18 because it's just a five and five and like your year's going to count whether you play or not you can literally just be like hey and he mentioned this like later in the season fourth fifth game of the season or whatever we can just be like hey some of our starters who maybe we're playing on special teams they're a little tired or they're beat up we can just be like hey we have a freshman who has i guess you know no pun intended they're fresh bodies um that can come in and just you know go all out and have fresh legs from special teams perspective and even if it's only for two games doesn't matter the year was going to count against them regardless so it does it's almost like a it's almost like a army plan where you're just like just throw numbers at it you know just throw numbers at

Starting point is 00:17:59 the wall and try to break through you know what i mean um but that is kind of an interesting take on it and that's something that you know helps everyone in theory but that means your freshman got to be ready to go and got to be committed to uh doing just that all right we're going to continue on a little bit the k u soccer opener, a big time transfer portal player, sounds like is no longer focusing on KU and some new college football rules. We get to all that next. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by the game. Since 1986, the game has been creating classic college hats that fans are proud to wear, whether you're an alum, a current student, a season ticket holder, or simply someone who never misses a game, a great college hat is more than just apparel. It's a way to

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Starting point is 00:19:51 Anniversary offer won't last forever. All right, finishing up some of the latest news here. So Jackson Kohler, somebody I did a deep dive on on the show, would have been really interested in for KU. I think like a, I don't want to say this because I'm just going to say it anyway, a Diet Coke version of Nick Collison. I'm going to have somebody mad at me. Like, he's not nearly as good as Nick Colson.

Starting point is 00:20:15 No, duh. That's why I said a Diet Coke version. If you want to even say a Diet Diet Coke version, that's fine. But just like that type of player, just not as good. So that's unfortunate. Sounds like KU no longer kind of in that one. Sounds like they just kind of checked in, but it never really went anywhere. Some new college football rules.

Starting point is 00:20:31 Targeting penalties were assessed in the second half of games in the past led to a player being not just, you know, taken out of the rest of that game, but being suspended the first half of the next game. That no longer is a thing, which I think is the right way to do it, right? No matter when you get the targeting penalty, you're done for that game, you're back for the next game. I like that a lot better at this point of time, right? Also, offensive pass interference was previously a 15-yard penalty, right? And was it five? I don't know. It's 10 now. And then there's also the fair catch kick is going to be introduced to college football, which I'm not entirely

Starting point is 00:21:08 sure what that is, to be completely honest. And then finally, KU Soccer had their season opener tonight, hot one for them to be kicking off the season. And they started off with the win, 2-0 against Utah State, ranked 15th in the preseason poll. Again, high expectations in, what are we, three or four of the Nateley era. They went to the Sweet 16 last year. They won the Big 12th tournament, the year before that.

Starting point is 00:21:34 They went to the Big 12 tournament final last year as well. So good start to the season 2-0 against Utah State. All right, don't forget to check out our Javon Bardwell episode from the other night. We're going to have more deep dives coming at you that. we have playing for you and we'll have a football Friday episode of the show coming out on Friday including going over some of my recent film reviews of Jalen Butler and Carter Moses. Who's going to win that other tight end spot? Who's going to play that Jared Casey role?

Starting point is 00:21:59 We'll break that down and plenty more on tomorrow's episode. See you next time on Lockdown Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - 2 SCHOLARSHIPS LEFT: How will Bill Self Fill Jayhawks Roster - From Tre White to Council & More

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