Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - DEPTH CHART WARS: Ballard or Marshall & More Kansas Jayhawks Football Depth Chart PREDICTIONS

Starting point is 00:00:00 Who's QB1? Who's winning some of the different position battles? We're going to project the depth chart. We're still a couple weeks to go in fall camp for KU football. 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 there, Johnson? This is Locked on Jayhawks, and on today's episode, we'll get to some of the latest news

Starting point is 00:00:30 and some of the recent college basketball news and some recruiting news for KU Hoops. So we're going to start right here projecting the KU football depth chart coming into the season. Still a couple of weeks to go in fall camp, things could change up. There can obviously be injuries. There can be guys that continue to rise or perform that earn bigger roles. But through this point in time, let's take a snapshot on how at least I'm feeling about what the depth chart looks like. Let's start the offense, go to the defense. And let's start with the position that everybody wants to know about.

Starting point is 00:00:58 And it's interesting because not to poo poo the whole conversation, but I do think that the quarterback position for, KU is the one that I almost feel, this is going to sound really stupid, least consequential for who wins the job. I don't mean to say that from a standpoint of it's not important. It is important. Quarterback's the most important position, at least in football, if not major sports in general. It is such an important position. But I guess the way I'm looking at it is like, I got to be honest, I don't think there's a big difference between the level of play that you're going to get from Cole Ballard or Isaiah Marshall. Or, you know, for my money, I'm a Chase Jenkins guy, right? I don't think you're going to get a huge level of difference no matter which one gets picked.

Starting point is 00:01:46 And so for me, when I'm looking at, hey, can Kansas make a bowl game? Can Kansas win seven games? To me, it more just comes down to, okay, does the offensive line mesh? Does the running game work? Does Andy Kodlnick raise the floor of whoever the quarterback is? Does the defense get better? Is the special team's good enough? Those are what I care about more to those things happening. But, you know, everybody wants to know who that QB is. And so, you know, it's interesting because coming into fall camp,

Starting point is 00:02:11 I was all over like, I'm pretty expecting Cole Ballard to be the guy. Then we heard different quotes and comments from different coaches and everything. And I, you know, fully leaning end up just fully expecting Cole Ballard. I think over the recent, I don't know, last week or so, it has started to shift, I don't want to say in the favor of Isaiah Marshall, but to where it is really a true, it feels like to me, 50-50 conversation coming down the final two weeks of fall camp. So this is one where, you know, if I, I probably should just say TBD compared to these other positions, but I don't want to do that. That's a cowardly way out here. I am going to

Starting point is 00:02:49 still lean right now, project Cole Ballard as the starter with Isaiah Marshall as the backup. But like I said, I feel like that could change here based on the recent trajectory. But for now, that's what we'll go with. Now, to the running back position, which I think, you know, might be KU's most loaded position on the offensive side of the football. And maybe on the team, I don't know who will be listed as a starter. It'll probably be an or situation, my guess, is Dylan Edwards or Yassine Willis listed as the starter there. It just kind of depends what you're going for. Do you want the more speed, all purpose back?

Starting point is 00:03:23 Do you want more of the power back? I don't think it really matters. Both guys are probably going to split carries and split snaps in terms of that. And then it kind of comes down to an interesting conversation. Who's the third string running back? Jalen Dupree or Corey Amokri. Amokri really impressed in the spring ball and Dupree was hurt. Now in fall camp, Dupree has been relatively impressive.

Starting point is 00:03:43 And Amacri has been banged up a little bit, but is back in action. I'm expecting Dupree to win that job just because I was really high on Dupree coming out of Colorado State. and I think he'll be able to fend him off, but it does sound like a mockery is very talented there at the very least. At the receiver positions for KU, right, you'll probably have three starters, even though I think there will be a lot of times where KU is running formations where they have two tight ends on the field or maybe even two running backs on the field to where there's only in those situations going to be one or two receivers, depending if you have two tight ends and two running backs. if you're KU, you only have one receiver there. If you have two tight ends and one running back or two running backs in one tight end, then you only have the two receivers out there. So there's going to be most of the time, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:04:28 Kansas maybe has, you know, two receivers out there as opposed to three. But when it is three, I think those starters will be listed as Cam Pickett as the starting slot receiver. I have Tate Nagy as the backup behind him. It sounds like picket's a little banged up. So we'll see what happens there. Nick McMillan, and I think Nick McMillan, in the traditional sense, like if you're viewing it as KU having an X receiver and a Z receiver,

Starting point is 00:04:51 I think McMillan would be more of the Z receiver, going to play off ball a little bit more, move around a little bit more. And then I think Nasei Cox would be more of the traditional X, the big bodied receiver who can play on the line of scrimmage and kind of win those big possession catches for you. If Pickett is banged up, probably moves Keaton Quebec into the starting lineup.

Starting point is 00:05:11 I do view Quebec as somebody who can play any of the receiver positions for KU, which helps you there. no idea who would be that sixth receiver, right? Would it be Jackson Cook? Would it be Tyrant Parker? Would it be Corbyn Glasgow with his speed? Would it be Bryson Hayes, who was in second year of the program? I think that'll be kind of interesting to keep an eye on there.

Starting point is 00:05:29 You look at tight end, Carson Bruin, obviously feel good about him continuing to be the starter for KU. Can he take a step forward and be an all big 12 level player? And then to me, the intel I've gotten is that Jalen Butler has kind of usurped Carter Moses over the course of fall camp and that maybe Moses was a little ahead coming out of spring ball, but that Butler has put together some nice fall camps, practices so far. I think Layton Cure is still in the competition as well. But as of right now, I would go with Brune as the starting tight end. Butler as the second tight end and kind of the motion H-back guy.

Starting point is 00:06:04 And then Moses would be the backup to that. Cure would maybe be more of the traditional tight end backup to Brune if you want to get more rotation and kind of keep them all. on the field. The offensive line was a position I was really worried about coming into fall camp. I feel a lot better about it after hearing some of the coaches talk about it and the way they're moving things. I'm still not fully sold that it's going to be, you know, an elite unit or anything like that, but can at least be where it was last year, where it was, you know, last year it was solid. It was above average, you know, Calvin Clements at left tackle, Nick Morrow at right

Starting point is 00:06:38 tackle. It was good to hear a little bit from Darylick Paul, so the offensive line coach over this past weekend talk up Nick Morrow's game and that he does have some potential and he's been taking the right steps. I like to hear that because he's an experienced player, but he had some tribes and tribulations at Cal. So I like to hear that. And then you look at the interior of the offensive line. Amir Herring's going to be starting. Still don't know if it's going to be a guard at center. If it's a guard, Kaysen Carpenter is going to be your starting center. And then you have Tfaki Tuiko-Lovatu. I feel pretty confident at this point he's going to be starting at guard. So if it's Carpenter at center, then you have probably in that situation,

Starting point is 00:07:16 Amir Herring is your backup center. It'll be listed as Anderson Cop on the 2D, but realistically, if it happened in game, it would be Herring. The tackles, Clements at left tackle, Morrow at right tackle, and again, I think Jack Tanner, the former Tulsa transfer, who's now in his third year of college football, I think he'll be the swing tackle where, again, if either of those guys went down, he would come in for either one, but on the two deep, maybe you get a Brandon Salis siding behind one of those two with Tanner behind the other one.

Starting point is 00:07:47 And then at the guard positions, if we're going to go with Carpenter as the starting center, and we have Herring and Tuico Lavatu as the two starting guards, then you're looking at Harper and Stro being the two backup guards behind them. But it feels like KU's depth is in a pretty good place. I mean, the way they've talked up, DeAndre Harper, if you have Stro as a backup, like that's a really good place to be. Tanner seems like he's filling that swing tackle role well.

Starting point is 00:08:14 The fact that James Livingston would basically be your fifth guard speaks pretty well to the depth of the interior of that offense flying that they're still kind of trying to figure out for KU football. But if Carpenter doesn't end up starting at center and they go with herring at center, then

Starting point is 00:08:30 it's herring at center to equal a lot to at guard. I guess I'd lean Stro as the other starting guard, but again, with the way they're talking up Harper, maybe you even give that a shot. But it'll be very interesting because when you look at it, KU in recent years has played a six, like we always talk about the starting five and then the three backups, the three backups cover in the other spots. I think those three backups right now, you'd be looking at Jack Tanner covering the two tackle spots. You'd be looking at Connor

Starting point is 00:08:57 Stro covering the two guard spots and then you'd be looking at DeAndre Harper who can cover guard or tackle for KU, right? And the interesting part is KU. in a lot of these past years has played their sixth offensive linemen. So the first one off the bench has rotated in a pretty good amount to where they end up playing close to starter level snaps. Would that be Harper? Would that be Strow? You know, I think that would be very interesting that competition as well. But that's what I look at right now for the offense.

Starting point is 00:09:27 What about on the defensive side of the football field? We get to that next. This is locked on Jayhawks. Our episode of the show today is brought to you by GameTime. There are more live events than ever worth seen right now. games, concerts, comedy shows, festivals. Hard part usually isn't deciding what you want to attend. It's actually getting the tickets between long wait times, confusing checkout processes and surprise fees. Buying tickets can sometimes feel harder than it actually should. That's why so many fans are turning to game time.

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Starting point is 00:10:36 Download the GameTime app. create an account and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase terms of apply again create an account redeem code locked on l-o c-ed-o-n for $20 off download the game time app today thanks you for joining us here on lockdown j hawks we'll get to the latest k u basketball recruiting news and some other college basketball news coming up here in a second but moving on to the defensive depth chart projection at this point in time and again some of this could still change we got a couple weeks to go but um feel better about this depth chart projection than maybe one before fall camp started I guess I'd put it that way. Okay, so the defense is interesting for KU because do you project it out to be a 425, a 4-3, you know, what if it's the three-down linemen? We'll try to take you through some different iterations. The base we're going to go with, though, is the 4-25, where you have four-down linemen, two linebackers, and then you have the two corners and then two safeties and basically like a safety

Starting point is 00:11:34 linebacker hybrid, right? So I think at the strong side defensive end, it does sound like David Santiago has done well so far. I think because of seniority being in the system, I would still project Alex Bray to be a starter. Honestly, though, I don't think it matters that much. I think Bray and Santiago are going to rotate so much that it's like a 50-50 split. You know, the starter is just going to be kind of a name thing, but both are going to play a lot. So Bray and Santiago there, then you're looking at the weak side defensive end. I think you're looking at Leroy Harris being the starter, Dak Brinkley coming in as a pass rush pro. I think when you're in a four-down

Starting point is 00:12:06 linemen set and it's a, you know, it's third and ten, and you know, they're going to be throwing the football, I think you would go with Harris and Brinkley on the field and take off of Bray or Santiago to have kind of the double gunners on the outside there. It sounds like the progression of Garrett Martin, second year defensive end for KU from Arizona, sounds like he has, you know, really done well so far in the offseason and in camp. And it sounds like he's been versatile enough to play both the strong and weak side to where he can be the third string at both spots and give you a little bit of coverage there. If you're going to going to a formation where, you know, it's going to be the three defensive tackles and then

Starting point is 00:12:46 the two defensive ends are going to be basically like outside linebackers where sometimes they'll drop into coverage like we saw last year. I think Leora Harris would be one and then it would probably make sense for Dak Brinkley or David Santiago to be the other. Keep in mind, David Santiago was playing some outside linebacker at Air Force and Michigan State. So it'd probably be Harris and Santiago in that role. But, you know, if you want the speed and athleticism of Brinkley, you could do that as well. Then you look at the defensive tackle spot. You have Blake Harold,

Starting point is 00:13:15 shoeing starter. Competition between Marcus Calvin and Eamon Smalls. I'm going to go with Calvin. He's been in the system all these years. Sounds like he's been, I mean, it sounds like both those guys, Calvin and Smalls have been,

Starting point is 00:13:25 based on some of the comments and pressers we heard, have been, you know, coaches dreams. They've been hardworking guys, really coachable. They talk to the coaches all the time. Like,

Starting point is 00:13:35 that's great to hear from both. I was impressed with some of the flashes we saw from Calvin. last year. And I think Smalls also banged up at different points during fall camp. So I'm going to go with Calvin as the starter. But again, that's a situation where Smalls is going to play a lot. And again, in the differences in the defensive line, when you're in a four down defensive front, it'll probably be more Calvin next to Harold. But when KU moves to their three down defensive linemen, you'll probably see Harold playing that kind of defensive end type role that you would see in like a

Starting point is 00:14:07 three, four type of alignment. You'll probably see. see more of a nose tackle, which that would become Eam and Smalls. And then you're looking at that other kind of defensive tackle, defensive end hybrid would either be like an Alex Bray or it could be a Marcus Calvin in that situation or one of these other defensive tackles, right? I think that's kind of the distinguishing factor between it. Outside of that, who else ends up on the two deep? I would go with Kevin Oatis right now, second year player from Arkansas,

Starting point is 00:14:34 and just reading between the lines of what we kind of heard from Lance Leipold. Now, Debraille Conday is an older player, but having to make the jump from D2, whereas Oatis, former nearly four-star recruiter who's at Arkansas, even though didn't get on the field a ton, I'm going to go with Oasis as that guy, but can you get snaps out of Oasis and Condi? And then, you know, are you able to get anything, you know, even eight to ten snaps per game from any of the other guys between Josiah Hammond, Jalen Atkins, probably not a first-year player in the Quain Carter, but that's how I'd view kind of that one and with some of the different formations. then you look at the linebacker spot for KU in the base I guess defense where KU is playing two linebackers, a Mike and a will. I think the mic, it's pretty clear.

Starting point is 00:15:16 It's going to be Trey Lathen at this point. The fifth year player for KU who's back another year as a starter, expected to do big things. The will spot, you know, there was some some hype, some noise coming into fall camp that maybe Quincy Davis would be the starter next to Trey Lathen. Sounds like Bam Crouch, the former captain at Boston College who has some good productivity there, kind of taken that position back and run with it. So I'd expect Lathen and Krauth like we were back in, you know, January when he picked KU. And then the beauty of Quincy Davis's strong performance so far is that he's worked at both

Starting point is 00:15:48 positions, Will and Mike, to where he can basically be the backup of both spots. And what that's going to allow for Quincy Davis is he's going to play a lot of snaps. Because if either of those guys need a breather, he can come in for either one. So it's almost like a utility guy in baseball where it's like, you know, this guy can play shortstop and center field and second base. And he doesn't have a, on opening day, he's not a starter. But he's still going to wind up playing 140 of 160 of the games because he's going to fill in for five different guys when they need a break. So that's the way Quincy Davis is going to play, you know, close to starter level snaps because he's a backup to both guys.

Starting point is 00:16:29 On the two deep, though, I think they'll show him as the backup to one guy. and I would go right now Malachi Curvei as the backup to the other one. Now maybe it's listed as Debreuil Alameen, but it sounds like, and we'll get to this, Alameen more would be the wheel linebacker or that kind of linebacker safety hybrid. So I have Curvei on the depth chart there for a second year player. And that would be nice too to show him on the duty because then you can give him proof of concept

Starting point is 00:16:55 of like, hey, I know we talked about you progressing. You're going into year three, like once you get to the off season this year and he's like, well, should I transfer? I want to get playing time and stuff. And you're like, no, look, look at the two deep.

Starting point is 00:17:06 The two guys in front of you were seniors. You were on the two deep. You're going to start next year. You know, you can do stuff like that, right? But yeah, that third linebacker role, if it is more of a traditional four three where KU has a third linebacker, that would be Jibril Alameen, who is the transfer from Marshall, really athletic linebacker for KU. In the sense, when it's more of a linebacker safety hybrid for KU, that could still be Alameen. It would probably either be Alameen or Mason Ellis in that specific situation. Now, if that extra player is going to be more of a safety, then yeah, maybe it's Ellis, maybe it's a Jaden Harris or something like that.

Starting point is 00:17:46 And if it's more of a nickelback, it could be a corner in that situation, right? Like it could be an E.J. Cannon, for instance, who has seemingly made some gains. It could be, you know, moving a side Gibbs back over there, I think would be the situation. I do think if it was a nickel right now, I would go with E.J. Cannon as my pick, followed by Trey Brown. I think those would be the two I'd be looking at. If it was more of a safety, I'd probably be looking at Mason Ellis. If it's a linebacker, it'd be Gibral Alameen. And then you look at the two corners, Jalen Todd, for sure starter there, still open competition between Austin Alexander, Roman Pearson, Saeed Gibbs, E.J. Cannon, I mean, shoot, if you want to throw Tray Brown in there,

Starting point is 00:18:25 I do think this comes down to Pearson versus Alexander for me. I'm going to say, say Alexander is able to, as long as he's able to stay healthy from here, get back to his starting role, and it'll be him. And then Pearson and Gibbs will be your two backups behind it. But then Cannon and Brown would be the third strings. And like I said, could be your nickel guys as well. Then you look at the safety positions. Again, any of these guys could play that kind of linebacker safety hybrid as well. But if Mason Ellis is there, I think when you look at more of the strong safety role. You're looking at Taylor Davis with like Jaden Harris as his backup. He's had to deal with some injuries in fall camp. Otherwise, maybe he would have had a chance to start. But

Starting point is 00:19:09 it sounds like Davis has taken down that role. And sounds like Davis has been a good leader in the program as well. And then you look at more of the free safety role. That would be Corey Gordon, who should be versatile enough to play any of the safety spots. KU. needs him to. And then I have Kijon and Cummings Coleman in as the backup free safety with Christian Pritchett there as well, who we heard some really good things about in terms of his athleticism. that, you know, I feel pretty good about, if you want to count Mason Ellison, to that six of the KU safeties for playing right now this season for KU. So that's how I see it right now.

Starting point is 00:19:40 Like I said, a couple weeks still to go. Some things could still change for Kansas. But that's where I'm looking at this point in time. All right, let's get to some of the latest news, including some of the KU basketball recruiting news. This is locked on Jayhawks. All right, so today is brought to you by Kalshi. Before the season even kicks off, everyone is making predictions.

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Starting point is 00:20:32 some of these different preseason predictions for college football or the NFL over on Calci. Download the Cali app. Use code locked on to get $10 when you trade $10. Calci, K-A-L-S-H-I trade on anything. 18-plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Calci products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calcci.com slash regulatory. All right, some of the latest news here, and thanks again for joining us on Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:21:12 We're continuing to do some different deep dive for players to check those out as well. But a four-star Antonio Pemberton, who he's kind of the classic Bill'suff Guard, like a little bit smaller guard can really fill it up. And is somebody who kind of has been a, I think a riser, I guess, would be the right term here for some of his recent play in terms of how he's boosting up recruits. ranking rankings. So he has a long list of schools he's going to be visiting. It's like seven schools. Kansas is one of them, though, August 28th to August 30th. So the start of the school year, that'll be his second visit after he visits Tennessee. So keep an eye on that one. Meanwhile, A.J. Store, former Jayhawk is a new school as part of this potentially could have another year with the Wisney versus NCAA. Well, he's going to UNOV if he does get that another year. So that'll make nine schools in nine years for AJ Store. Just on. Unbelievable. Unbelievable, man. Meanwhile, for KU Soccer, they were originally ranked 15th in the preseason rankings. They started 2 and O, including a 70 victory over Missouri State that jumped them up to number 12 in the most recent rankings.

Starting point is 00:22:20 They got a big one next. Thursday, 4 o'clock central time. They're at number 19, Ohio State. That'll be a really good litmus test to see where they're at at the start of the season. And then the last bit of news I wanted to get to here, John Rothstein tweeted this out. he said sources seat and hall transfer stephan pain has committed to new mexico state pain's pursuing a fifth year of eligibility now if you would remember um stephan pain is somebody who we did a deep dive on and i am very high on because like nagee hines got paid a bag to go to yukon and to be there starting center i like nashe hines you look at some of the analytics and the numbers on him good player you know who was starting over nage hines and splitting the minutes with him stephan pain so if hines

Starting point is 00:23:03 is seen as this good player and you look at some of the numbers on pain like he's not very efficient on the offensive end he's not going to you know get your punch of points from the center spot really really good rebounder really really good uh rim protector and defender i'm like how did this guy only end up at new mexico state i don't know if this was just the case of like he just you know does he does he have a connection there or what but like i'm just looking at that going man this guy i think would have came in and a starter for k you you're telling me that because if he's going, it's one thing if he's going to, again, like Yukon, for instance, it's like, okay, they probably paid him a good amount of money to go there.

Starting point is 00:23:39 You tell him he couldn't have outbid New Mexico State for Stefan Payne, but then again, you look at it. Okay, you only two scholarships remaining. You're probably holding them right now to see what happens with Trey White and Melvin counsel. And so that is unfortunate because Tafon Payne's probably sitting there going, hey, I can't wait. I got to figure out where I'm going and get enrolled in classes.

Starting point is 00:23:57 So it could just be a timing thing, but if it wasn't a little disappointing, that there wasn't anything with Kansas there. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And we'll see you next time on another edition of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - DEPTH CHART WARS: Ballard or Marshall & More Kansas Jayhawks Football Depth Chart PREDICTIONS

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