Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Bill Self was RIGHT: Did It SAVE THE SEASON? Plus Three Key Returning Defenders for Kansas Football

Starting point is 00:00:00 Bill Self was big time right and it might have saved the KU basketball season. 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 going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to every dayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the

Starting point is 00:00:36 show. And on today's edition of LOJ we're talking Bill Self, Bryce Dessert, why he was right, why it could be a big saving point, a big moment in the offseason for KU basketball in possibly saving the season in a real way. We're also going to get a little KU football talk three KU football defensive players that are gonna have a huge impact on whether KU reaches all of its goals and has successful 2025 season three returning defensive players for KU football at that today's episode of the show is brought to you by

Starting point is 00:01:06 fan dual sportsbook. Right now new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins do that over at fan duel. Okay, so Bill self, what was he right about you might be asking? Well, turns out there's a little teaser for watching on YouTube turns out that a dessert, who is the international recruit that they were recruiting from France, really good center, would have been a really good prospect, really good addition, if KU would have been able to land him and make things work

Starting point is 00:01:38 from a impact perspective and what he could have brought to the table. Some of the scuttlebutt was that they'd even went as far as KU got Bryce Dessert to commit to the program, but that they were unable to make those next steps with, you know, questions about getting eligible both in terms of, you know, him getting paid with his previous club, the age that he was or is, I guess, in addition to, you know, what was going on with the student visa pauses, there were just a lot of questions, were they going to be able to get him

Starting point is 00:02:10 eligible? And that kind of put them in a position to move on to another situation. Now, it wasn't a situation where they had to move on. It was a situation where Bill Self sort of could have said, okay, we don't care. We're taking the commitment here from Bryce Dessert. And we're going to kind of roll with it. And we're going to try to get him eligible, we're't care. We're taking the commitment here from Bryce Dessert and we're gonna kind of roll with it and we're gonna try to get him eligible. We're gonna fight tooth and nail

Starting point is 00:02:29 to try to figure this out, to try to make this work, to try to get him overseas here to where he is a part of our rotation. And he would have been a really good fit as a backup center for Flory, probably even somebody who could play next to Flory for short minutes at a time. The problem with all of that is that

Starting point is 00:02:46 if you do bring on somebody who is a risk in terms of are they going to be eligible? Are they going to be able to play or not? You end up in a situation where if you fall flat on your face, if that situation does not work out in your favor, now you're sitting there without anything. And so this was the news from I guess today that Anadolu FACE, which is a club in France has completed the signing of Bryce dessert on a two plus two year deal. Basically, he's getting a contract with a club in France. And why is that important?

Starting point is 00:03:21 Right? There was also some scuttlebutt, some talk, some rumors, circulate, whatever you want to talk about. The Kansas State, the Jerome Tang was going hard after dessert after things fell through with Kansas. That Kansas State was going to try to figure out the eligibility stuff, and was going to try to make it happen, and was going to try to maybe go a little bit deeper into that process than Kansas might have been willing to then Kansas might have done. And so I don't know if this is going to have an effect on Kansas State in limiting them in some way. But let's just think about this from the Kansas perspective. Let's just think

Starting point is 00:03:54 about, you know, how this could have like, could you imagine if Kansas did take the commitment and announced it with price dessert and as crazy as this offseason has been with Flory going in and out of the portal with players that have been rumored to KU that didn't end up happening with players that we've just talked about with KU that they maybe did or did not have interest in that data did not end up happening. And I mean, that would have been the ultimate cherry on top in an offseason that has really caused anxiety and stress at different points for KU fans.

Starting point is 00:04:24 I think it's fine now with where the roster has gotten with the most recent or I guess final editions possibly of Paul and Bea and Cole Rosario, that it's fine now. But if we're talking at that point in time, if you were to bring this kid on and then it happened and then it got yanked away, I mean, it would just increase the kind of panic level around everything.

Starting point is 00:04:43 But it's more so the idea of the opportunity cost that you would have lost had you had his commitment. So we think about Paul and Bea, for instance, right? If you would have added the commitment from Bryce Dessert, now, I guess technically you could say, okay, Kansas would sell the open scholarships. Maybe they would have still gone out and said, hey, we still want to add Paul and Bea,

Starting point is 00:05:02 or we want to add this other big man as insurance because you would be going through the trying to get dessert, the eligibility process. And maybe you would be saying, hey, we still need to bring on another guy. You know, maybe back when Pat's Wemnick before he committed to I forget if it was Seton Hall or where maybe that would have been more in play or something like that. Or K you would have still added another big man to say, okay, this is our insurance policy in case we can't get Bryce dessert eligible. But what if you wouldn't have done that? And it's not just about the theoretical of, okay, did you have an insurance policy? Did you have a backup policy? The longer we go in this, the

Starting point is 00:05:34 more those backup policies, so to speak, start committing to other schools, the longer those players decide, okay, I'm just going to stay overseas and sign with this club for another year or another couple of years and beyond all that If you were getting a commitment from say Bryce dessert If you would have stayed entrenched with the idea of like we're gonna do everything in our power to get this guy eligible To which him signing with a professional club probably tells me that okay Because clearly he did have interest in coming overseas. Clearly he did have interest coming to college.

Starting point is 00:06:06 The fact that he's signing with a pro team is that the pro team offered him such a good deal. He couldn't refuse. I mean, that's possible. But why did it come so late? It's probably more likely than not that Bryce Dessert is signing back with the club in France because that is his best option. And they don't know if he's going to be able to get eligible and coming to the U.S. And so if you were to get to this point now, if you're Kansas and find out that that was going to be the case, if you would have taken the commit, if you would

Starting point is 00:06:30 have decided to go down that route and let's say you had to say, okay, if you have $2 million left in your rev share, NIL, whatever your, your money budget, your allotment that you're going to give to the roster, you're going to give to the players and you have $2 million left. And you were telling Bryce dessert, hey, we're gonna give you 1.2 million, or whatever the number would have been, I have no idea. 1.2 million to come over and do this. You can't go out and recruit, even though you haven't actually spent it, even though he hasn't officially come over,

Starting point is 00:06:59 you can't go out and talk to these other players and be like, Okay, cool, we got another commitment. And he's going to come on for 1 million. And then you're like, Oh, crap, but then we couldn't pay Bryce dessert. It would essentially be like a cap hold in a way where you would be saying, Okay, we have $2 million left, but we need 1.2 reserved in case we can get dessert eligible. Now we only have 800,000 to go work out on somebody else. And in that said situation, are you able to get a colesario? Are you

Starting point is 00:07:23 able to get a Paul and be a right? So in this scenario, where if you would have taken the Bryce dessert commitment, if you would have fought and tried to make it work eligibility wise, and then it didn't happen? Does Kansas just straight up not end up with Paul and be a right to see? Does he back out of NC State and pick another school by now? Does he go to Oregon? At this point, does col rizzario continue on with some of his other, you know, visits because he was scheduled to have all these visits over

Starting point is 00:07:49 the course of summer and eventually pick another school? Those are real questions that if Kansas would have gone all in on Bryce Dessert, you know, I don't know if it would have ended up working out in these other ways. And now Kansas is in a situation where, okay, theoretically, if you told me Bryce dessert and Paul and Bia were both eligible for Kansas, I think Bryce dessert has a higher floor and and probably is going to be the

Starting point is 00:08:11 better player for this specific season. But again, you didn't know if you were going to get dessert whereas with a Bia it's like, okay, he's here. He's on campus now at KU like this is a thing they're getting real minutes real impact, real potential from what you know, Paul and Bia could bring on the floor. And so this is what Bill Self was right about. He was right about the idea that he wasn't totally sure if this was going to work. And he said, you know what, I can't afford to take this risk. I have to go for this other stuff. I have to move on and find other options. He did just that with Paul and Bia. He did just that with Cole Rosario.

Starting point is 00:08:45 And if he did not make that decision, I don't know if they have either player. And then you'd be sitting here right now in the middle of July going, hey, we don't really have a backup center. We still have a very incomplete roster, right? It would be kind of a mess. It would be kind of a disaster. So Bill Self made definitely the right decision, I think is what that tells us. And it puts Kansas in a point where like, if you still didn't have a backup center right now, like I don't know, does that ruin the season if you're okay? You know, but now you don't have to worry about that because Bill Self did make the right decision in the end. All right, KU football, three defensive players returning to the team this year.

Starting point is 00:09:19 They're going to have a gigantic impact on how good the defense is. And if the team is going to reach its goals here in 2025. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you're all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green or high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You're already following the action, why not make it a little more thrilling? With FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your

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Starting point is 00:10:14 get $150 in bonus bets. If your first bet wins, open the FanDuel app today or visit FanDuel.com to get started as FanDuel, the official sportsbook partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network. to get started as fan duel the official sportsbook partner of the lockdown podcast network Thanks for joining us on this episode of locked on Jayhawks Don't forget you make locked on college football or locked on college basketball your second listen every day And don't forget to tune into our big 12 squads, which are Thursday afternoons Which you can find right here in our locked on Jayhawks feed Okay, three big KU bat aU football returning players that are going to have

Starting point is 00:10:47 a big impact on the defense, whether it's successful, whether it's not whether the team is successful, whether it's not in the upcoming 2025 season, I'm going to start in the defensive backfield and we're going to go with Jalen Todd, I think Jalen Todd's gonna I mean, automatically, you look at the corner position, right? You lose mellow dots and you lose Kobe Bryant, that is a ton of production. That is a ton of awards, recognition, accolades

Starting point is 00:11:11 that those guys have accomplished at KU. They did so much for the Jayhawks defense. And so you have very big shoes to fill. And that's where Jaylen Todd comes into this. And we actually saw Todd start to get a good amount of playing time at the end of last season. So overall, Todd is somebody who is six foot one, six foot one, 195

Starting point is 00:11:29 pound corner, originally from Detroit part of kind of that Detroit, Michigan pipeline that he's been able to establish came in as an 89 rated three star recruits and nearly a four star crew was really thought highly of and comes in right away and gets playing time as a true freshman at Kansas enough so that he didn't even you know take a redshirt last season that's how much that's how highly the staff thought of him even on a team that had Melo Dotson and Kobe Bryant and he ends up playing 151 snaps last season but

Starting point is 00:11:59 again most of them come over the back half of the season he plays over the course of seven games for KU. But six of those seven games came from week six on so he's he's really getting majority of the snaps 137 of those snaps over really the back half of the season. He ended up with nine tackles to pass deflections, though, you know, stats for corners. I don't know the counting stats don't really do it justice. He had a 63.4 pff grade. So you know, that's about an average

Starting point is 00:12:26 level starter, which for a true freshman playing right away, speaks to him having a very high potential. If that's your floor, if that's, you know, your first time coming into the college game as an 18 year old, I don't know how old he is, assuming 18, 18, 19, whatever it is, is an average level starter. The sky's the limit for you, right? You have a 61.1 coverage grade as part of that too. And it really felt like something where, you know, the Baylor game was kind of a disaster for KU, obviously altogether, but I really remember Jaylen Todd

Starting point is 00:12:59 and actually the PFF grades agree with it, kind of breaking out in that Colorado game toward the end of the season. It was your senior day. It was your senior day, it was your final home game, you place 41 snaps, he had a 76.4 PFF grade and a 77.2 coverage rate, he was targeted four times, he only gave up 23 yards receiving. So the next week against Baylor grades aren't great, but I don't think

Starting point is 00:13:18 grades are really good for anyone for KU because that game was just obviously bad for cancer point The point being he has shown flashes. He's somebody that I think the staff trusts and somebody that I expect to be a starter this year for KU. Now, how close can he get to what you were getting with Melo Dotson and Kobe Bryant? I mean, you could make the argument if you're just looking at like recruiting rankings, that maybe he has a higher ceiling than those guys. No, no, no. That sounds crazy to say, given the awards those guys got.

Starting point is 00:13:44 Neither one of those guys is also drafted though. And could the ceiling of Jalen Todd be a future drafted corner? I mean, that's entirely possible, right? But he's going to have a big impact because you do lose so much there. You need him to at least be adequate. You're not asking him to replicate what those guys are doing. Be Jalen Todd and just be an adequate corner out there, right? And obviously you have some other transfers that come in that are going to make a big impact there as well but Jalen Todd can be a legit starting corner for KU it makes finding that other corner spots really those other two corner spots because you're gonna play a lot of three corners it makes that so much easier as opposed to having questions about who even your number one guy is going to be. And how much improvement can you have

Starting point is 00:14:25 from year one to year two? You would certainly think there would be a big jump there. Speaking of a guy having big improvement onto his sophomore season, it'll actually be year two to year three technically. This is my other guy that I wanna talk about, Taylor Davis, another defensive back. Six foot, 185 pounds.

Starting point is 00:14:40 He's safety originally from the Texas area. And he was an 86 graded three star coming out in the class of 2023. He redshirts his first year at Kansas and then this past season he ends up recording 33 tackles with one past deflection in Taylor Davis here and so he ended up having to get on the field a little bit more because of some injuries for KU, but I think obviously that'll serve Davis

Starting point is 00:15:07 and KU as a whole well this upcoming season. He ended up with 61.2 PFF grade, 317 snaps. So again, he played a lot of football for KU as a redshirt freshman. I had really good numbers as a run defender for safety, 76.9 in run defense, 71.6 in tackling It's got to have to work on the coverage 53.1 in coverage though. I don't always know what to take in terms of coverage grades on safeties from PFF because a lot

Starting point is 00:15:34 of that's going to be scheme dependent and like, you know, what is your coaching to have asking of you. But you know, I was impressed with what Taylor Davis showed at certain times and it'll be interesting too, because is he going to be more of the free safety or the strong safety type for KU? And is he going to be moving from what he was playing last year to what he's playing this upcoming season? How does that affect his game? So that's going to have a big impact. But like, as

Starting point is 00:15:57 much as we talk about KU losing their corners from last season, you know, they lost their safeties to right experienced guys, OJ Burrows was getting playing time like for four years really and was really like a three year starter for KU. Marvin Grant was a three year starter for KU and was a really good hitting box safety for KU.

Starting point is 00:16:14 And so can Taylor Davis, you know, come in and be somebody who again kind of fills those shoes and for you to have success not just this year. It is apparent this year because of all the players you lost last year, not just this year, it is apparent this year because of all the players you lost last year, but just in general as a program you have to be able to I guess bring in good high school

Starting point is 00:16:33 recruits, develop them for however long that takes for some guys one year, for some guys three or four years, develop them and get them ready for when you do lose talent, they have to be ready to fill in and replace those shoes with either, similar or close to, or in some cases, even better production than the previous guy was there. That's what the best programs in the country do. That's what the consistent programs, that's what the programs that are winning

Starting point is 00:16:57 seven, eight, nine games every year do. They lose players, maybe they don't get as good of a player coming in, but they at least fill the production similarly. And then maybe the player after that is even better, right. And so Taylor Davis represents that opportunity of somebody that the staff recruited has developed, and now has an opportunity to

Starting point is 00:17:14 make a big impact on the team and at a position where it's okay. I think lyric roles could be a starter for the team. And then it's like, okay, there may be some questions, who are the other safeties going to be? I think they have some interesting players, some interesting talent, but Taylor Davis is kind of the one you look at where it's like, OK, there may be some questions. Who are the other safeties going to be? I think they have some interesting players, some interesting talent. But Taylor Davis is kind of the one you look at where it's like, OK, he's the incumbent. He's the guy coming back. Can him and Todd, both as kind of young players in the secondary, you know, maybe there's

Starting point is 00:17:35 going to be some growing pains, especially early in the season at certain times of the year. But by the time we get to the end of the year and over the course season, can you see enough flashes where those guys are making a positive impact on the defense and also making you feel good about? OK, once we get to twenty twenty six, when those guys have that full year under their belt, are they going to be possible studs? Are they going to be possible all conference players in the future for KU? I have another defender that I think is going to have a huge impact that is returning to KU on the 2025 season, though doesn't really have a name. I'll tell you why in a second. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Again, don't forget you can check out Locked on College Football or Locked on College Basketball for a second listen every day. And don't forget to check out Locked

Starting point is 00:18:19 on Big 12 as well. Okay, so we're talking the three returning players on the KU defense. They're going to have a huge impact on the success of both the unit and or the team in 2025. And I talked about some of the the young DBs with Jalen Todd and Taylor Davis. This one I don't have a specific name but I'll explain why it's pick your favorite defensive tackle. Now, maybe the fact that DJ Withers went down with the team to media day, big 12 media days is indicative that he's like the leader of the group

Starting point is 00:18:49 and he's the guy to kind of go to. But maybe he's just the leader of the group, right? There's a chance that what if he's, I don't know, talent wise, the third best defense tackle in KU, but he's the best leader, right? That could be why he got down there. I'm not saying that's the case. I think that probably is an indication

Starting point is 00:19:03 that maybe he is the best defensive tackle on the team. But like Tommy Dunn at times last season, especially early in the year, showed some flashes of being a dude for KU. Blake Harold as a Redshirt freshman last year was awesome over a lot of games. Obviously a little bit more limited snaps than some of those other guys, but KU likes to rotate those D tackles.

Starting point is 00:19:21 Keenan Caldwell probably had his best season for KU with right around 200 snaps a season ago. So like you look at those guys and like, you know, there's a lot you can point to. And then you bring Gage Keys back, who was starting to show some impressive flashes at the back half of his season when he started getting more playing time with Kansas

Starting point is 00:19:38 before transferring away to Auburn. Now he's back into Kansas. So like you look at those five defensive tackles and you could convince me that any one of them breaks out. Now, maybe I would feel a little bit better about one guy over the other breaking out, but you could convince me it would be any of those five. If I was picking two guys,

Starting point is 00:19:56 I think I'd go with DJ Withers, right? Again, you have the, maybe the leadership element and it would be Blake Harold. The fact that Harold, who is not like an overly highly recruited guy, like he wasn't like a near four star or anything like that, but came in as just a redshirt freshman on the line and produced as well as he did.

Starting point is 00:20:12 I mean, if we look at PFF grades, for instance, Harold was the highest rated defensive tackle for KU. 68.5 PFF grade. He had nine pressures for the team. Keenan Caldwell had one pressure. He had a 67.9 rating. Marcus Calvin, that's 16 snaps. Not a lot to go on there, but 67.4 PFF grade.

Starting point is 00:20:30 So maybe he's somebody who can factor into it with a little bit more time. Tommy Dunn had a 64.5 with 13 pressures, over 276 snaps. DJ Withers had a 62.3 with 15 pressures. So Withers actually had the most pressures, also played the most snaps at 365, but had the lowest BFF grade. But even then, you're talking about Wither's being 62.3.

Starting point is 00:20:51 And this is of the returning guys, not counting guys like Javier Derrit and Caleb Taylor, but like, again, like that puts you in the range where it's just like, okay, you're at the very least solid starter. And it felt like Wither's and Dunn, a couple of years ago, kind of broke out to the point of like, okay, there at ago kind of broke out to the point of like

Starting point is 00:21:05 Okay, there at least they broke out from the point of being like they're developing to now. They're they're playable. They're rotational They're you know possible starters stuff like that and maybe that's what you're looking for from those first two guys you mentioned with with Taylor Davis and You know on the outside corner with Jalen Todd, right? You know, and on the outside corner with Jalen Todd, right? Now it's like, can one of those two guys who would make those jumps with Dun and withers, can one of them to break out to me in an all big 12 caliber player or somebody who gets you four or five sacks or is a really good defense tackle, a game wrecking player, and maybe it's Harold, maybe it's withers,

Starting point is 00:21:38 maybe it's one of the other players, maybe it's none of them, maybe just all of them are solid players you can rotate in and some of the parts equals something really good for KU. But if one of those guys can break out, and now you're talking about having like a legit all big 12, you know, even if it's like all big 12 second team or honorable mention level defensive tackle next to a Dean Miller who had, you know, six and a half sacks a season ago next to a Justice Finckley who brought in from Texas next to some other interesting defensive ends, whether they've been transferred into the program or young players are cultivating along and you have the rest of the depth of that defensive tackle room. You might be cooking with something as a defensive line. I don't know if like there's

Starting point is 00:22:18 going to be that one guy like an Austin Booker or a Lonnie Phelps that KU has had at the pass rush, but maybe if that does happen, if that defensive tackle does break out, maybe it ends up being the best, you know, one through four the entire defensive line that we've seen in the Lance Leipold era. And that would certainly help them be the best defense of the Lance Leipold era and maybe have a really productive season overall. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show

Starting point is 00:22:42 anywhere you podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time for another edition of Locked on Jayhawks.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Bill Self was RIGHT: Did It SAVE THE SEASON? Plus Three Key Returning Defenders for Kansas Football

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