Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - All-Big 12 CB Cobee Bryant Back for Kansas Jayhawks Football in 2024 + Armaj Reed-Adams Transferring

Episode Date: January 1, 2024

All-Big 12 cornerback Cobee Bryant is coming back to the Kansas Jayhawks football program in 2024; what it means for the KU CB room and secondary and defense next season. Armaj Reed-Adams, guard and tackle is entering the transfer portal; what it means for the KU offensive line and offense in '24. Plus, what Cobee Bryant can accomplish for his career and legacy by returning for another season with Lance Leipold, Brian Borland, Jordan Peterson and company.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kobe Bryant is returning for KU football in 2024. Also some transfer news with our Maj Reed Adams leaving the program. We discuss Kobe Bryant's legacy, all of what that means for KU football headed into next year. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day.

We are free and available anywhere that you get your podcasts. And Happy New Year. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere that you get your podcasts. And Happy New Year. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. The everydayers out there tuning in to all the different shows. Today we're breaking down Kobe Bryant, announcing that he is back for 2024. We are also breaking down Armage Reed Adams, who has announced that he will be entering the transfer portal after being one of KU's most played offensive linemen so far this season.

So we're going to start with Kobe Bryant. Then we're going to get into Armage Reed Adams. Then we'll finish up again with Kobe Bryant and his legacy and opportunity of what he has to kind of build to that legacy in this final season. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150 back.

If your team wins, visit FanDuel.com to get started. So the first news is Kobe Bryant is returning to the fold for KU in 2024. This will be his, I believe, final season of eligibility. I don't believe he could have another. I don't think that would be the plan anyway. I think the plan is ball out this next year anyway, and then maximize your draft capital. And, you know, you're looking to have a big season

and try to win a Big 12 title. And then, yeah, I mean, I've kind of made the comparison before that. I know, you know, you'll see some people being like, oh, but he's, he's only whatever he's listed at 170 pounds. Are you sure that guy can be a day one or day two draft pick? I see no reason he can't be. And there was a guy who just went 16th overall in this past NFL draft who was out of Mississippi state. It was like 160 pounds at the combine. If you're that good, you're going to go. So I think Kobe Bryant eventually, and especially if he has another big year this year, can turn

into a day one or day two NFL draft pick. I'm very high on what he can become. I thought he was a little underrated in what he was this year. And if you have more people watching the tape, I do think from a national award perspective, you didn't see him pop up on all American awards. I think sometimes a lot of those voters just view it on stats. And so there's not a lot of readily available stats for defensive backs and corners like there are for receivers and quarterbacks to where you just vote on interceptions. And I don't think that's the right way to do it. There's other ways of kind of looking at it with some of the coverage stuff, but Kobe was excellent this season for KU. And now, you know, you have Kobe and Melo Dotson back for next year.

So you have that dynamic tandem. You're bringing in three really good corner recruits. You brought in two last year who you've heard some really good things about, especially with like Jamil Croft. Your highest rated recruit the year before that was B.J. Dilworth, a redshirt, and then was trying to get in the mix this year. So even though you lose Kalen Girvin and Quentin Laster, you feel like that corner room is deep, and it obviously has that frontline talent with Kobe and Mello. As far as Kobe, he comes off a year where he had a 77.6 PFF grade and he had an 88.8 grade in run defense. So, I mean, he was able to get up there and was willing to, you know, lower his shoulder. And

obviously we saw the B byu which for my money was the the hit of the year for ku you also had a 74.5 coverage rate that was uh much higher actually before the bowl game where uh it dinged him a bit for the the good unlv receiver having a couple catches on him including the touchdown but um funny enough when you're going by like the target numbers against he didn't get credit for the interception being a target against him, which actually would have helped the numbers a little bit because he kind of came off the ball and got the interception there. He was only targeted 37 times this year.

So like teams, you know, that in itself shows how good of a corner you are. When you're playing as many snaps, like every snap that Kobe Bryant is playing, and you're only targeted 37 times, it shows the other coaches and the people watching tape and preparing for the game are like, we got to avoid this guy because he is a problem for us. He had a 74.8 NFL quarterback rating against this year. Out of comparison, that's like what Mac Jones is doing in the NFL this year. So if you're making every quarterback one of the worst quarterbacks

every time they target you, that's a really good spot to be in for Kobe Bryant. And he's been all Big 12 first team back-to-back seasons now. He got it in 2022. He got it here in 2023. The expectations are, again, to kind of do that again and to be on the list of maybe even All-American lists and, you know, boost up the draft stock. And obviously this is big for the KU defense.

It's big for the KU secondary. It's big for the KU defense. It's big for the KU secondary. It's big for the KU corner room. You look at the secondary now with, with Mello Dotson and Colby Bryant returning to the fold for KU. And you feel like you have those two starters at corner. You figured out now you just have to kind of figure out, okay, who's going to be the third corner. Who's going to play that Kalen Girvin role.

Who's going to play the Quentin Lashner role. I think you'd think Demaryius McGee, your former transfer from LSU, who's a former four-star recruit. He had to deal with some injury stuff this year. Maybe he slides into that. Maybe it is a B.J. Dilworth. Maybe it is a Jameel Crofter, Jacoby Davis. Maybe it is one of the freshmen with Austin Alexander, Andre Gibson, or Jalen Todd. I think you'll have good competition there, and whoever is there will be very talented, but that'll be the one thing they have to figure out. But yeah, the starters are very figured out with Mello Dotson,

Kobe Bryant. And with having both back now, I think you go into the season and I, I mean, it's hard for me to say, I don't know as much about, you know, what Utah and Washington or not Washington,

Utah and Arizona and Colorado specifically have it like the corner positions. Just from looking around what would currently is in the big 12. Iowa state is a team that could potentially be in the conversation for this, but Kansas is in the conversation, if not the top of the conversation, for the number one cornerback room in the Big 12 this season. And I think with having Colby and Mello both back, and then you look at it, yes, you do lose Kenny Logan,

which would be a big loss, but still you have OJ Burroughs and you have Marvin Grant, and now you have Devin Dye transferring and Jalen Dye and all those young, talented freshman corners or players like Damarius McGee in the fold as well. This is one of the better secondaries in the entire country for 2024. And that is a great place to start for a defense. And if you're Brian Borland and Jordan Peterson, the co-defensive coordinator, I mean, this has got to be awesome when you're calling plays, when you know you can trust that back end, that you can send extra pressure, that you can send extra blitzes because you trust those back guys

to take care of business at the end. I mean, think about the experience at the back end. Kobe Bryant, Melo Dotson, OJ Burrows, Marvin Grant, if those are your four starters, which I think you'd expect it to be, all of those players are seniors. So you have a lot of experience on the back end. And then you look at the backups of those positions. If it's Demarius McGee, let's say BJ Dilworth, Devin Dye, and Jalen Dye, three of those four are redshirt juniors. And then Dilworth would be a redshirt sophomore. So you're talking about three plus year players all the way through the two deep.

That is very, very impressive. And this just makes that defense a lot easier. I mean, you go into the season where now you're losing Austin Booker, how much star talent you're going to have back on the defense? Well, you have the star talent back in the secondary. And when you look at losing Austin Booker, okay, that loses a pass rush. We need to find a way to do better against Pat, right? Or you need to find a way to mitigate his loss, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Well, one way to possibly do that is have good coverage corners that can give you more time for the pass rush to get there, that can allow you, like I said, more trust that you can send blitzes

because you trust that back end to be able to kind of hold their own. So this is a huge, I guess, addition, pickup, retainment, whatever you want to call it, for KU football headed into next year because Kobe is, I mean, you go into the season and say, yeah, he's your best defender, right? Like to have your best player back on the side of the ball, that is a huge boon. And it's not just having a really good player.

It's having a player who has all Big 12 first team, having a player who has All-American, having a player who has NFL draft potential, right? That can be the game changer. And when you look at KU's defense, they improved so much from where they were a year ago so they go from giving up 42 points per game in 2021 to then 35 points per game in 2022 then this year they jump up nine points to about 26 points per game and that was kind of middle of the pack in the country they're ranking like the 60s in the country so basically uh

according to college football like you're kind of average there right but based on where you were the two previous years that is a huge jump and now that you have those guys with Kobe and Mello back there's no reason they can't take another huge jump and now turn into you know one of the five best defenses or something in the big 12 and when you pair that with with having Jalen Daniels and all these stud receivers and uh you know we'll get to the offensive line talk here in a second, but with what you still expect to be a really good offense, that's how KU wins the Big 12. Think about it. With KU having a top five offense in the Big 12, basically top three or four, depending where you look, in the Big 12, and having about a middle of the pack when you look at the points allowed per game,

the yards allowed per game, that sort of thing. Middle of the pack defense in the Big 12, and having about a middle of the pack when you look at the points allowed per game, the yards allowed per game, that sort of thing, middle of the pack defense in the Big 12 this year. They won nine games, and they very easily could have won, what, 10, 11 games with the Kansas State game, the Texas Tech game, even the Oklahoma State game. So now if the defense is becoming top five in the Big 12, and the offense can stay top three, I mean, you can absolutely win the Big 12. And this is one of those moves that you're going to look back on in a year.

And if Kansas does accomplish that, you're going to be like, yeah, it started right here with this decision and with the Mellow-Dodson decision and with all these sorts of things. So big deal. We'll get more into what this means for Kobe Bryant's legacy and some career achievements that he has an opportunity to accomplish this final season. But coming up next, KU did lose someone over the past 24 hours to Armage Reed Adams transferring

out of the program. We'll get to that coming up here in Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. And the NFL regular season is about to come to a close here, but that doesn't mean you still can't get on on the action on FanDuel Sportsbook. Right now, you can get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. That's $150 in bonus bets, win or lose. Yep, so easy to use. There's so many different ways to bet, like live game or live same-game parlays. You can find bets in the new Explore tab.

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and make your first bet a layup. FanDuel, official partner of the NFL. The next bit of news is our Maj Reed Adams is transferring out of the program for KU football, one of KU's offensive linemen. They really rotated. It was like six guys basically rotated for five spots for KU throughout the season. When you look at Dominic Pooney playing left tackle for you,

it was Michael Ford playing a little bit all over, but mostly at the left and right guard positions. Ford snapped 354 at left guard, 397 at right guard, nine at center and two at right tackle. So Michael Ford was just everywhere for you, but mostly as a guard. Then you look at Kobe Baines. He snapped 437 times as the right guard. He played a lot.

Bryce Cabledew was at 670 at right tackle, 11 at left tackle. And then you had obviously Mike Nowitzki playing his snaps 816 at center. He played one snap at left tackle. And then you had obviously Mike Nowitzki playing his snaps 816 at center. He played one snap at left tackle. That was the play I believe that Dominic Pooney played center on like the tush push play. And then Armage Reed Adams played 456 snaps at left guard, two at right guard, and 138 at right tackle. So when you just look at the amount of snaps that he got for the offensive

lineman, one was Nowitzki, two was Ford, three was Poonie, four was Cabledew, and five was Reed Adams. So Baines played less than Reed Adams, but it was close enough together that I think you do feel okay that, okay, Baines can take over what he is. Obviously, you never want to lose offensive lineman and offensive line depth, and this one does hurt. When you look at the run block grades this year for KU, among players who had at least 100 snaps for their offensive lineman,

Pooney was the top run blocker at 71.7 for KU. Michael Ford was second at 69.9. Bryce Cabledew was third at 67.9. Let's see, Spencer Lavelle, who played limited snaps, was 66.4 for what it's worth. And then Armage Reed-Adams was 64.6. So among the starting offensive linemen, he was fourth in run blocking. Past blocking grade, Dominic Poonie was a 91. Michael Ford was an 84.8.

Kobe Baines was a 77. Nolan Gorchika, again, limited snaps, 74.5. Bryce Cabellew, 69.7. Armage Reed-Adams was a 77. Nolan Gorchika, again, limited snaps, 74.5. Bryce Cabalew, 69.7. Armage Reed Adams was a 65. So basically his overall PFF grade, 63.1, 64.6 in run block, 65 in pass block. Those are solid numbers, right? I mean, 60 to 70 is basically an average starter in pro football focus grades.

So if you're in the middle of 60, you're basically an average player. So you've got basically an average offensive lineman here whose first year is a starter, which that's very reasonable to expect. If he comes back next year and starts again next year, then he turns from an average player to an above-average player, an average player to a good player, you know, all conference. So it is a big loss in that standpoint. The good news for Kansas, as I was kind of talking about, though,

they did play those six guys. So at the very least, you do have Kobe Baines to work in. But that's a lot to lose on the offensive line because you're already losing Dominic Pooney, your best offensive lineman at the most important position, left tackle. You're losing Mike Nowitzki in the center position, always tough to figure out because of the mental acumen that goes with it. And now you're losing one of the guards too.

I think there's some semblance of okay you can move michael ford to center we'll see if they end up doing that or keep him at the guard position uh but i guess now you could view it as okay you bring in one transfer for to be an interior offense alignment whether it's center guard and then you have ford play the other and then you have baines play the other guard spot you have cable do in at one of the tackle spots and then your other tackle spot is either clements or logan brown and then you have Baines play the other guard spot you have Cable do in at one of the tackle spots and then your other tackle spot is either Clements or Logan Brown and then that still leaves you with whoever loses the battle between Clements and Logan Brown as a backup that's a good backup to have Nolan Gorchika would still be a backup there that's a solid you know bit of depth

you have there um and then you still have Spencer Lavelle who's an experienced player who has I believe one more year of play that he would still be a backup for you also have Spencer Lavelle, who's an experienced player who has, I believe, one more year of play, that he would still be a backup for you. You also have James Livingston, who I've heard some good things about in some of his growth, kind of working behind. Dre Dorian would still be there. So they still will have a bit of offensive lineman depth. Obviously, they're bringing on four linemen as far as freshmen come in. You still have players in the program like Hank Kelly and DK Stearns, if they can kind of make a jump up. So you have depth. you have starters here,

but it certainly becomes more of a position you have to address by adding players via the portal. So it is a loss. It's unfortunate to happen. But one that I think this is kind of the point with everything, right? Whether it's losing Andy Kolnicki, whether it's losing Austin Booker, whether it's, you know, eventual players going pro early, like last year with Lonnie Phelps, you're going to lose players, whether it's the transfer

portal, because that happens to every school or to the NFL draft, because you're going to, as your program gets better, get more notoriety. Players are good. Players are going to start going early, right? Coaches are going to leave for other jobs because they're going to get opportunities. When you are a good football program, you will lose players and coaches. It becomes how you overcome that. So I don't mean to say this to be dismissive of Majoreet Adams leaving because, again, he was a good player for KU. And it stinks because he had a bit of a heartbeat there to the program. Like you saw there was like a video of him practicing pre-bowl where he was mic'd up.

He was the guy carrying out like the flag and everything. It stinks to lose a guy like that, especially one who was playing all those snaps and was playing adequate football for you. You think back to like the Texas Tech big block he had where that was a really fun play in that game. But at the end of the day, you have to keep moving forward. And if you're Lance Leipold in this KU football program, you will always be dealing with some level of attrition.

Every football program across the country is. It's always be dealing with some level of attrition. Every football program across the country is. It's how you deal with that level of attrition. And I think you have to feel good about that with KU football because we've seen it. You lose Kyron Johnson, you go find Lonnie Phelps. You lose Lonnie Phelps earlier than you thought. You go find Austin Booker. Now you lose Austin Booker earlier than you thought.

Okay, go find the next guy, right? You think about going back to his days at Whitewater. He loses Jim Zabrowski as an offensive coordinator to go be an assistant coach elsewhere, like at Northern Illinois. Okay, eventually he finds other coordinators like Andy Kotelicki and stuff. You have to be able to replace because you're never going to be able to retain everything, right, whether it's coaches or players. And I think the staff has shown enough that they can do it.

So there are certainly some questions. You could only have two starting linemen back if you count Kobe Baines as starter. Again, similar starter level snaps. But still, if I say the offensive line next year ends up being Calvin Clements at left tackle, Bryce Cabledo at right tackle, Kobe Baines and Michael Ford at the two guard spots,

and then some transfer portal center. Or the line ends up being Logan Brown at tackle, Bryce Cabledo, Michael Ford at the two guard spots and then some transfer portal center. Or the line ends up being Logan Brown at tackle, Bryce Cable do, Michael Ford at center, Kobe Baines at guard, and a transfer at the guard position. That still sounds like a fine offensive line. So I think they're going to be okay. The other big part of this, though, is Armage Reed Adams from DeSoto, Texas, went to DeSoto High School.

You know who else is from DeSoto, Texas, went to DeSoto High School and was friends with Armagereed Adams, very good friends ever since they were little kids, L.J. Arnold. So that remains to be seen if this has any impact on Arnold. And if – because it definitely seemed like Gage Keys and Austin Booker, really good friends, Keys ends up leaving, goes to Auburn, gets a big payday with NIL. Seems like that may have impacted Austin Booker leaving.

Does Armage Reed Adams leaving possibly impact a decision to be made for LJ Arnold? Or does Arnold say, no, listen, I'm having a lot of success here. I'm going to stick around. I don't know. You hope that it doesn't lead to anything, but certainly a tough one to lose Armage Reed Adams. But again, as a program, you have to overcome that stuff.

And I think Kansas will be able to do it because so far they've shown they've had the affinity to do just that. All right, we're going to finish up with Kobe Bryant's legacy at KU and some career opportunities that he's going to have an opportunity to accomplish in this final season with KU. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks, you can find anywhere you get your podcasts. Thank you to Everdare's tuning in to everything. We'll have some more KU basketball content later this week,

including a KU TCU preview. And we will also be joined by Nick Schwert, I believe, later in the week. So Kobe Bryant now comes back for a final season at KU, and he's already had an outstanding career in Lawrence, but he's got an opportunity to really go up there on some pretty cool lists. So right now he has nine career interceptions. That currently puts him tied eighth all-time at KU

with Charles Gordon, who's, you know, all-time KU fan favorite for a lot of people, and John Koenig. He has only one interception behind Gary Adams and Leroy Irvin, along with Wayne Ziegler. So an opportunity to move up a little bit more there. If he gets two interceptions this year, he would be tied with Milt Garner for fourth. If he gets three, he would be tied with Hal Clevenger for third.

The big one here, because Ray Evans is in first. He had 17 of them. He had 10 in one season, which is even crazier when you think about it. Back in the day, in the 40s, when he was playing. Teams weren't even throwing that much. The fact he ended up with 10 interceptions in a year and 17 for his career, it's pretty incredible. That's going to be a tough number to get because that would take eight from Kobe Bryant to tie him, nine to pass him. And as we just talked about, Kobe Bryant was only targeted 37 times this year. Teams avoid throwing at him because they know they are at high risk

of having an interception. So it would be very hard to have nine interceptions or eight interceptions when teams aren't even throwing at you that much. But the Aqib Tlaib one feels attainable because that would be four. He had four this year. He had, I think, four last year too. Aqib Tlaib in second all-time at KU with 13 career interceptions. I don't know.

If I was a corner at the University of Kansas, I think that'd be pretty cool to be tied or beat Aqib Tlaib in a record, right? Because he's one of the all-time corners at KU. Kobe Bryant's going to have an opportunity to do that. I don't know how long this one has been tracked because there's not a lot of data on it on the KU Media Guide. But he has, does Kobe, 165 interception return yards in his career. That's very attainable to move up to.

Top three at KU, Aqib Tlaib has 322. Hassan Defense has 192. And Bradley McDougald has 189. So Kobe's one big interception return from moving all the way to second and a big interception return year from moving into first. He has two career pick sixes. That's already tied first with a cube to lead Patrick Brown and Roger foot. So if he gets one more this year,

boom, he would move into first. He has three career defensive touchdowns overall, though. I don't know where that ranks. I didn't see anything for that. And the media got also 15 career pass deflections, wherever those would rank.

He has an opportunity to add that. And then this one's really cool. He's been all big 12 first team for two straight seasons. And there's not a long list of players all time at KU who have ever been three-time all-conference first team. And obviously KU's been in different conferences. So this is the list. Dutch Lahnberg was all Missouri Valley three times,

1917, 1919, 1920 ray evans was three time all big six 1942 46 47 he's in the ring of honor as well john hadle was three time all big eight in 59 60 61 he's in the ring of honor curtis mcclinton three time all big eight 1959 1960 1961 ring of honor gail sayers in the ring of Honor, three-time All-Big Eight, 1962-63-64. Kurt Knopf was three-time All-Big Eight, 73-74-75. Bucky Scribner, three-time All-Big Eight, 1980-81-82. Willie Plus, three-time All-Big Eight, one of KU's best defenders ever at linebacker, 1983-84-85.

And then Dan Eichloff, the kicker, three-time All-Big Eight in 1990, 91, and 92. That is a list of just nine guys all-time at Kansas, two of which were specialists in Eichloff and Bucky Scribner. So basically seven offensive-slash-defensive players all-time at KU have been three-time first-team all-conference. And what's crazy about Kobe having the opportunity to do this, it's so much harder to do this now than it was a while ago, right? Think about it. If you're in the conference when it's the big six, or if you're in the conference when it's the big eight,

how many teams are there in the conference? There's six, there's eight teams, right? Now in the big 12, you know, this year there were 14. Last year there were 12. This next year there's going to be, what, 15, 16 teams. So to be first-team all-conference now, there are so many more candidates and teams and players who could make that list, which makes making the first team even harder. And think about it. It's been 31 years since a KU player's even done it three straight times.

He's got an opportunity to join that list and something we might never see again. Like, honestly, if Kobe Bryant is first team All-Big 12 this next year, that makes him the 10th player ever at KU to make it three times and the eighth offensive and defense player to do it. Think about it. We might not ever see it again for a couple reasons. One, players transfer a lot now. Players enter the draft early now. You have a lot of guys who come in

and maybe redshirt in year one. The expanded conferences and how many teams and how much competition there is. It's going to be really hard to ever see that again. So enjoy it while you can, because who knows? Next time we see a guy who has the capability of doing this. But beyond that, he's also going to have a great chance to be an All-American for KU next season, and that's a short list of KU players

who have ever been able to do that. So really cool opportunity in front for Kobe Bryant and excited to get to watch him one more year in a KU uniform. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts. You can like and subscribe on our YouTube page. Also, we'll see you next time. Happy New Year with LOJ.