Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BEST PLAYER GONE: Linebackers Trey Lathan & Joseph Sipp Enter Transfer Portal - is Kansas TOAST?

Starting point is 00:00:00 KU just lost, in my opinion, their best player returning for 2026. They lost another linebacker, and now they have, like, it's the Will Smith meme. Like, no returning linebackers in the linebacker room. A couple freshmen in there. What's going on? Is Kansas toast on defense? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Derek Johnson, this is Locked on Jayhawks, another bonus episode for you as Trey Lathen is gone. Thanks for making L.O.J, your first listen every day, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. And on today's episode of the show, we are breaking down Trey Lathen leaving, we're breaking now Joseph Sip leaving, we're breaking down the linebacker room in Shambles right now, the defense in Shambles, Tranceford Portal, bound for KU, and we're going to update our list of the top 10 biggest losses for KU football in the Trance for Portal so far. are. Let's start right here with the news on Trey Lathen. He's entering the transfer portal.

Starting point is 00:01:04 Okay, there's a quick news there. Let's move to Joseph SIP, who he's entering the transfer portal. Now, Lathan entered on Thursday. Obviously, the portal opened it up on Friday. We found out about the SIP news today on Friday. And it's weird because you would think, okay, by losing Trey Lathen, in theory, you'd have maybe more money, more opportunity to offer Joseph Sip, but clearly whatever it was wasn't enough. Now, I doubt this was a lack of trying from KU. SIP is somebody who finished the season with 86 tackles for KU. He had seven tackles for loss, one and a half sacks, an interception, five pass deflections, two fumble recoveries, four-force fumbles, or one-fourth fumble. He was an excellent player for KU. And it's not

Starting point is 00:01:46 just the production, right? Because sometimes somebody can be productive, but, you know, maybe they struggle in some other areas, like kind of lyric roles would be somebody that comes to mind there. If you look at some of the pro football focus grade, Lathen finished with a 74.8 p.m. FF grade. Among the 34 linebackers in the Big 12 qualified for at least 50% of the maximum snaps, he's 10th of the 34. So that's like a good place to be. But specifically when you look at where he's good at, Lathen had the second best tackling grade among those Big 12 linebackers. Then you look at coverage grade. Lathen has the third best coverage grade among Big 12 linebackers. Those are two really good areas for KU and really important ones. We saw KU struggle

Starting point is 00:02:26 a lot in coverage this past season. Lathan was good in coverage. So now you go from being a team with struggle in coverage to losing your best coverage linebacker. KU struggled with missed tackles this season. Trey-Lathen didn't always hit the right angle, but as far as avoiding missed tackles, again, second in the Big 12 in tackling grade among the 34 big 12 linebackers are qualified there. So now you go from being a team who struggled tackling to losing one of your best tacklers. I had when we did our whatever that was a week or two ago, our top 10 returning players, for KU football. I had Trey Lathen number one. Like I said on the show, I thought you could have made an argument for Blake Harold,

Starting point is 00:03:05 for Leroy Harris, maybe even like Jalen Todd in that discussion. But I had Trey Lathen number one. I was really confident about what he could be. Think about another year too, like learning the system even more. This player who was like a receiver in high school, so theoretically the learning curve, like you're going to continue to learn on the job even more because there are certain things that are new to you. I think whoever gets Trey Lathen is going to be in for an absolute treat because

Starting point is 00:03:29 that dude can play ball, and this is a huge loss for KU. I think this is the biggest loss so far. Plus, you add to it, KU's defense wasn't very good this past season, even with having a good player like Trey Lathen. So now it just gets even more difficult to try to improve overall as a defense. And then the other news of Sip leaving today hurts even more now because do I think Joseph Sip is as good as Trey Lathent? No, I do not.

Starting point is 00:03:49 But, you know, he was obviously injured this year and had to redshirt for KU, but he had a really good production at Bowling Green before. In 2024, is the junior at Bowling Green, 79 tackles, 11 and a half TFL's, seven sacks, two past deflections and a fumble recovery, really productive player. He was an All Mac linebacker in his time there. And where this leaves KU now is basically without anything on the linebacker depth chart. I mean, I don't say that to be disrespectful to the young guys. I actually really like the future of Malachi Kirby and Joseph Credit, but they're young guys. Like ideally, you don't want, like you want to give guys time to develop or get their bodies ready

Starting point is 00:04:26 to play as opposed to just saying, hey, you have. have to play because we don't have other people on the roster. And maybe at least one of those guys will be in that situation. But this is very bad for KU because I think I had SIP number 10 on the returning players for KU. So you lose two of your best players that were coming back. And in my mind, the number one player with Trey Lathen, it's the biggest portal loss for KU, not just this year, but I think since you lost Armaud Reid Adams in the portal. And the SIP one isn't a great loss either.

Starting point is 00:04:55 And again, you look at it overall for the KU defense, not a defense that was. stellar last year. Now you're losing two projected starters. A rough start to the transfer portal for KU. I want to discuss more in the linebacker room, what that looks like, where KU goes. Then we'll get to some of the others that are kind of on the latest gone column as well and re-ranking KU's biggest losses in the transfer portal so far. That next. This episode of the show is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook and hey, it's Friday. Guess what? There's going to be a happy hour on Fridays with Fanduel. It's our official pregame limited time window where special offers drop right inside the Fandual app before the action starts. The timing's perfect, right before the games,

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Starting point is 00:06:29 And you get an invite to our members only locked on every day or club discord server, which includes a group chat for like the big 12. We have like a transfer portal one up there. We have college football, college basketball, all sorts of stuff. And you can find the specific link for that at locked onjahawks. That's locked onjahawks.supercast.com. You can also find a link for it in the show notes as well. All right. So we also did a bonus episode talking about Andy Kohlnicki coming back to KU. That's the good news from the past 24 hours. Bad news is all these transfer portal losses and specifically Trey Lathen and Joseph Sip entering the portal. Even more specifically, the Trey Lathen one. And both of these moves even make the John John Kamara loss even worse for KU, right? Because it's almost like you do wonder from a timing standpoint if Lathen enters first or if SIP enters first or if these guys enter first and second before Kamara is there.

Starting point is 00:07:21 there are a bigger likelihood KU is willing to offer a little bit more money. And theoretically, there's a bigger lane for starting playing time for John John Kamara where there's a better chance he doesn't leave. And who knows? We saw the Florida Bedunga situation like, is it possible KU could go out there and try to bring back Kamara or David McComb or, I don't know, one of these guys that's I guess anything is possible now. Like that's what we've learned.

Starting point is 00:07:45 Like money really talks in a lot of these situations. But clearly there's a reason these players are entering the portal and it probably is, I mean, it could be role. It could be not getting along with the coach. It could be wanting to be closer to home. It could be that the money is talking and that KU's made their hard line in the sand and it wasn't enough. So I tend to think when somebody enters the portal, I don't expect them to come back. But I guess after the Flory situation, I'm never going to rule it out either at this point in time, right?

Starting point is 00:08:11 I ate a lot of crow with that one to say the least. But you look at the lineback room for KU. Now I just have two scholarship players in the lineback room. And by the way, overall, at this point, Kansas, I have them down for like, in the mid to high 50s in scholarship players on the team. That means you have like 30 spots that you have to fill with scholarships, which I have fun cutting those checks that's going to be an expensive venture for KU to say the least, right?

Starting point is 00:08:35 But you look at the linebackers for KU. It's Malachi Kirby, who, I mean, curvy was somebody who came in as a very highly recruited player as a high-end three-star for KU from the Iowa area. And kind of a jack-of-all-trades, good athlete can do a lot of different things redshirted his first year i do think highly of malachi curvy the question is is he going to be ready as a redshirt freshman i mean we saw john john kamara get some snaps as a redshirt freshman but that was a little over 200 snaps it's one thing to do that it's another

Starting point is 00:09:04 to play 500 600 snaps as a redshirt freshman is he going to be ready for that i have no doubt in my mind that curvy's like i think curvy is going to be a good player for k u is he going to be that fulfilled potential in 2026 or would it be more in 27 then you look at joseph credit another player that felt like a diamond in the rough ad, this past class for KU, that like, I like credit. I like watching some of his tape. I like some of the scouting report stuff and the stuff you would hear from other people on him. But is he going to be ready? He's a true freshman?

Starting point is 00:09:32 No. So ideally you want to redshirt him and, you know, get him up to speed in the system and with his body and add the proper weight and muscle and all that sort of stuff. You don't want to have to throw somebody in there just because, like, okay, I think about it this way. Austin Alexander as a redshirt freshman was a starter for KU. And in a lot of ways, that's a success story. But I think a lot of people saw some of the struggles he had this year. Like he had some good moments, but he had some struggles. And they saw the struggles and now it's like, oh, you know, for some people,

Starting point is 00:10:02 man, Austin Alexander isn't very good. And I'm just sitting there like, did he have a great season? No. But the fact he's even on the field or starting as a redshirt freshman tells a different story. Like it wasn't always, it wasn't always rainbow and sunshines when Kobe Bryant and Mellow Dotson were on the field when they were like, you know, redshirt freshman or sophomore, you know, but they got better as they stayed along. And I think Austin Alexander is going to take a jump. I think he's a talented kid that, you know, he got some reps and he'll be better as a red shirt sophomore. It's almost like sometimes you're better off not playing as a red shirt freshman freshman freshman freshman freshman sophomore. But it's silly. It's like, remember Bo Nex? Like Bo Nex is a freshman and sophomore at Auburn was very shaky up and down. He was like a Heisman candidate in his last year at Oregon. You get better as you stick around sometimes just because you don't see. see it, or sometimes because you see it on the field and you see struggles on the field,

Starting point is 00:10:51 we over, over exaggerate when in reality, we should just be celebrating you're on the field. And if anything, the fact that Austin Alexander was starting as a redshirt freshman, again, I think he's going to be much better as a retro sophomore. The fact, he was even starting as a success story, but it's also kind of an indictment on KU that they didn't have another corner who was starting in that place. And that's this long-winded way of coming around this, that you, don't want to have happen at linebacker here. If Malachi Kirby is that much of a beast and ready to go as a redshirt freshman, great. That's a great problem to have for KU. But you don't want

Starting point is 00:11:27 Malachi Herk Curvy having to start in 2026 if it's just because they didn't have any other better options. And then it's like, you know, ideally we wanted Kirby to start in 2027, but we started in 2026 because we didn't have the other options. That's where you're at right now with KU. Now, obviously, they're going to make additions in the transfer portal, but to what level are they going to go for. Are they going to? And you look at some of the linebackers. KU has brought into the portal. There's, there's been some misses. There's been some whiffs in past year like Eric Gileard, Lorenzo McCaskill. And I don't know if it's that it takes time to learn the system for KU. And, you know, you need guys who are going to be here multiple years. That's not a great

Starting point is 00:12:06 thing for KU to be at either. So I am very about the linebacker room, a room that we have spent a lot of time worrying about in the entire Lance Leipoldera that we felt like was going to be better last year. I think in a lot of ways was better last year, but still had some of their faults. And now you're starting fresh in what could be a very scary situation for KU in the livebacker room. Please just get John John Kamara back. I don't know. Anyway, let's talk about some of the other latest news, other players gone and re-ranking

Starting point is 00:12:32 the biggest losses for KU. This episode of the show is brought to you by Ruggiet. And let's talk about something that most men don't bring up, but absolutely should. That's stress from work, money, life. it doesn't just switch off at night. And when it shows up at the worst possible time, Ruggiat Ready is designed to help you take back control. Ruggiat Ready is a next generation prescription treatment

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Starting point is 00:13:41 thought of as being a future, you know, tackle for you. And certainly the offensive line high score recruits that KU has brought in have just not worked out. And that doesn't mean that they're not good play. Like some of them are recruiting misses. Some of them are they're transferring away. It just feels like KU's most successful offensive alignment to this point have been transfers, right? Like Bryce Foster was a transfer in from A&M. Michael Ford was a transfer in from Buffalo. Mike Nabitsky transfer in from Buffalo. Dom Poonie D2 transfer. Logan Brown transfer from Wisconsin. I guess Bryce Cable did. with somebody, he was a less Miles recruit, but I guess this staff gets credit for developing him.

Starting point is 00:14:17 So Kobe Baines, Louisville transfer, Amir Herring, Michigan transfer. Maybe KU should only bring on transfers on the offensive line and just not worry about it at the high school level. Maybe that would just be easier. Jaden Doss also leaves, that one sucks because it's like you invested a developmental year, so to speak, in this kid, and then he's just gone, you know. I guess it doesn't always work out. but I thought he could have had a role like he was losing a lot of receivers so who knows what happened there and then Dylan Brooks is the other one he's had to battle injuries so wherever he needs

Starting point is 00:14:50 to go to finish out his career and just get some playing time like good on him for that one but re-ranking KU's biggest losses we did this on a recent episode reshuffling it so to speak number one is Trey Lathen that's the biggest loss for KU um all big 12 potential really good linebacker does a lot of things that this KU defense struggled that last year pretty simple there And again, going back to the idea that if KU linebackers are getting better in their second year and struggling more in the first year, and he already had a good first year, I mean, sky could have been the limit for him. Number two, I have David McComb. Again, this is a bit of projection, but it's also adding the value of the quarterback position just in general is so important. And you don't want to lose a potential future piece.

Starting point is 00:15:32 Number three, I have John John Kamara. I thought about, you know, three through five, really three through six. I think you can order in a lot of different ways. maybe this is with hindsight, but I guess that's what we're doing here. Now that Lathen's gone, too, I think the John John loss becomes a little bit bigger, both in future and now value. You would have been your 2026 starter and potential to have NFL athleticism, right? Number four, I have Joseph Sip.

Starting point is 00:15:57 Number five, I have Tyler Mercer. Like, all these guys are in different timelines, projected starters for you in 20206. Number six, I have lyric Rawls. Seven, I have Harry Stewart. Eight, I have Damani Maxon. nine, I have Carter-Lavruski, and 10, I have Jaden Doss. I think realistically, like, okay, with Max and Lovruski and Doss, those are all players that, like, you could have seen having a role for KU at some point

Starting point is 00:16:21 in their futures. Maybe you'd even put Stewart in that area. I thought Stewart was in line to at least be the second running back this next year for KU, but certainly the top six are the ones that hurt the most. And it certainly feels like those top six, like if you're looking at this year compared to any other year in the Lance Leipoldera of players they've lost, this is probably the most productive and prop of players they've seen leave to go into the transfer portal. Now, we detailed this on a recent episode.

Starting point is 00:16:49 There's the Tyler Mercer episode, some of the recent losses KU's had and a lot of the gains they've had back in the portal. KU's actually typically done a very good job of bringing back, and a lot of times, even more value than they've lost in the transfer portal. We'll see if they can do that this year, though, because it's an uphill battle at this point in time. Now, the one thing you could say is a lot of those players on that list are potential value, our future value, are what you're hoping they'll be. You can what they are now, and maybe that can overcome it and make you a little better in 2036. That'll be the big question for Lance Lippolding company. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks. Don't forget, check out our Andy Kodolniki episode.

Starting point is 00:17:27 That's at least the positive news today for KU Football. Check out our KUUCF preview, and then we'll be back for a postcast KUCF, although at this point, the news is so. quick and wild that I'll probably be back before then. Anyway, this has been LOJ. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BEST PLAYER GONE: Linebackers Trey Lathan & Joseph Sipp Enter Transfer Portal - is Kansas TOAST?

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