Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - DISRUPTED: Kansas Reeling as Jon Jon Kamara Transferring OUT, Jayhawks Linebacker DEFENSE Shaken

Starting point is 00:00:00 Kansas just had their biggest loss of the transfer portal season so far. John John Kamara is entering into the portal. We're going to break down why it is such a big deal for KU. This is Locked on Jayhawks. 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 derrick johnson here and thank you for making the locked on podcast network the number one sports podcast network i'm derrick johnson here with locked on j hawkson on today's episode a little bonus episode we're going to be breaking down john john kamara transferring out of the program why it's such a big deal and why i think this is the biggest loss for k u so far in the transfer portal where the linebacker room stands for k u uh and maybe a little bit of what's going on here as well as as is there at least maybe a positive spin?

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Starting point is 00:01:52 This is what he posted on Twitter earlier today. He said, I will be entering the transfer portal with three years of eligibility remaining. Thank you to the entire Kansas Jayhawks organization for everything during my time in Lawrence. And then it has some clips and some of the different, I don't know, measurements and, you know, really good athletic traits and skills that he kind of possesses. This is the biggest loss of the transfer portal so far for KU. They've lost them other players that, you know, I think DeMani Maxen could eventually be a good player for KU

Starting point is 00:02:22 and some other guys who maybe aren't on the too deep or eventually would be down the road. Obviously, Lyric Rawls was a big loss for KU as well. He's a starter of this past year's team that they lose. But I think this is the biggest loss for KU because you're looking at the potential of a player who legitimately has NFL level athleticism here. And you're not able to, as Kansas have those guys very often, right? the raw stats would, you know, not really tell the full tail here. 13 tackles, one and a half tackles for loss, two quarterbacks, hurry, half a sack. The PFF grade is 56.5 in 238 snaps.

Starting point is 00:03:03 So, like, if you're just looking at that, you're like, oh, well, Kansas should be able to find a more impactful player than that in the portal if we're just talking about 2026 standards. And while that is true, if you're comparing it to his 2025 stats, the fact that he was even on the field as a redshirt freshman, and played that many snaps, while, yes, part of that was some of the injuries to guys above of him. But the fact that he was able to log that many snaps at that stage of his career, I think shows the potential in the future that this kid had, especially when the conversation

Starting point is 00:03:33 was the athleticism was always there. When would the, you know, would he just learn the system? And he clearly learned it enough to make you think that, you know, this isn't just losing a player who was rotating in. This is losing a player who theoretically, as soon as 2026, if not 2027 could have been a star for your defense, especially with some of the things that he would provide and be able to do that other guys just aren't able to do on the roster. And the other thing that kind of shows that is the improvement as the season went on for a young player. You look at the 56 and a half PFF grade, that's not very good. But you look at the final four games that he played when you're getting older, you're a young player, PFF grades of 65, 65, 59, and 66.

Starting point is 00:04:19 over the last four games that he played in, again, in limited snaps in those ones, but he's trending out to being closer to a low to mid-60, which certainly is improved from 56 and a half. And then you take into account that that's as a red shirt freshman, then you take into account some of the athleticism. He had about as high of a ceiling as anybody, I think, on this roster. And so when you look at 10 role in 2026, you look at the player future, you look at the potential ceiling, you look at the potential, or not.

Starting point is 00:04:49 potential, the actualized athleticism. This is a gigantic loss for KU, right? If you're just looking at potential role in 2026, I think it depends who you bring back a linebacker. If you bring back Trey Lathen and then Joseph Sip can have another year, then you'd probably be projecting him as the first linebacker off the bench to rotate in for those guys. There's also, at least in my mind, I thought he should have been playing more at that kind of hawk role, which is kind of what makes an Ellis play here more of a safety role, that

Starting point is 00:05:18 third safety kind of on the field, but sometimes would be an extra corner in years past. We've seen it be kind of a linebacker type. I thought he would make sense in that position. I don't know if that would have been something they were looked at more in 2026, or if that was something that they weren't looking to use him as, and that was just misuse

Starting point is 00:05:34 is that part of the reason he's leaving. Another possible reason he could be leaving. Keep in mind, he was part of the Desert Edge kids that came over. Obviously, we saw DJ Warner transferred to SMU last off season. They were recruited by Jordan Peterson. and Peterson, there's some rumors that he is, you know, in the thick of things to potentially be the defensive coordinator at Kansas State, which could you imagine if John John Kamara doesn't just leave Kansas but goes to Kansas State and they have Peterson who's responsible for recruiting a lot of the higher end recruits that KU has gotten in that class of 2024, players who were playing real roles. And on top of it, KU had an opportunity to make Peterson the defensive coordinator and said they waited a year.

Starting point is 00:06:14 He ends up leaving and then they end up with D.K. McDonald. That is a huge swing in this Kansas program for the negative if that ends up happening. But we'll wait and see on that one. But still, when you're talking about sealing with John John Kamara, I think you're looking to the role beyond 2026, right? Whether it would have been, because again, if you do lose Trey Lathen potentially, then Kamara would have been a projected starter for you in 2026. At the very least, though, both those guys, Lathen and Sip, even if they're both back, are seniors. So I think you'd be looking and saying, hey, unless you're moving Kamara to the hawk roll where he could start in 2026, he'd be your first linebacker rotating in in 2026, and then he'd be a for sure starter in 2027, right? And that's when you're talking the ceiling. That's when I think it ties in with the athleticism here. Six foot four, 230 pounds. Like that on its own is freaky for a linebacker of Kansas. He runs and jumps like a defensive back. He's been like KU during the offseason at different points gives out like these like I forget what they call them but they they like speed um how gosh a speeding ticket I think is what they call them um where basically if you like cross a certain

Starting point is 00:07:24 mile per hour that's like really high you get one and John John Camaro like gets them like this dude is is one of the fastest players on the team and he's six four two 30 or was on the team I guess 40 inch vertical benches 390 pounds you just don't see athletes like this end up at Kansas very often and it stinks for KU because you basically developed him for two years. You did the reaping. You didn't get the reward, basically. Again, I don't know why KU didn't use him more in a, like, here's the thing. He was behind those guys a linebacker this year. Did he feel like you should have got even more playing time? Is that part of it too, right? Maybe it's the Peterson part. Maybe he wants to go closer at home. Who knows? Maybe

Starting point is 00:08:03 it's a money thing. You never know why a kid's transferring. But I can't help but think, like, if they're using him more in that Mason Ellis role, especially when Ellis was hurt. I don't know. Is he leaving or does he feel like he's a starter? And I have no idea to the answer to that. Anyway, let's let's get to the linebacker room what it could potentially look like in 2026 and beyond and maybe a little bit of a glass half full. Try to approach on this as well. This is locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play, suddenly everything feels different. That's what makes live betting with Fandual so exciting. You're not just watching the game.

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Starting point is 00:09:43 No idea. This is just me grasping for straws. Like, is there any way that you could look at this as saying, like, what if Kansas was in a situation where I don't know how they do? I know they allocate certain scholarships to certain positions. Do they allocate certain money spends to every position? Or is that just dependent on the player and stuff? Is there some chance in the world that KU needed to spend more money on retaining Trey Lathen so forced John John Kamar to go? Or is it a, you know, it's a playing time thing. Like, did John John Kamara find out that Trey Lathen and Joseph Sip are going to be back? And he figured, hey, they're both seniors. They're going to be ahead of me on the depth chart. I want to go be a starter somewhere as soon as 2026. Again, I don't know if that's what would lead to it or not, but the glass half full of me trying to spin something into like, well, maybe that would be why. I don't know that that's the case, unfortunately, but like if it ends up being the case,

Starting point is 00:10:41 Obviously, if you're looking at just production in 2026, you would expect Lathen to be the better player. The difficulty becomes what's more valuable, two to three more years of John Tom Mara or one more year of Trey Lathen, right? If that is the predicament you're in, but you do look at it and say, okay, if 2026 is kind of a make or break year for this program, you need the guy who's going to help you that year. So if it did end up coming down to one or the other, then I guess that's the situation. Again, that's not totally where I'm at. here's where it becomes scary if you do lose trey lathen now and there's going to be suitors right trey lathen was really good for kansas this year it'd be silly not to think that other schools aren't going to be poaching around and trying to get him to you know leave kansas to come to their

Starting point is 00:11:24 school for maybe a higher dollar amount or maybe an opportunity to win at a higher level right and now if you if you lose lathen in the back of your mind you were sitting there going okay at least sip you know as a player who's in the program even though he's hurt all year but former All Mac linebacker and John John Camaro were there. And if those end up being your two linebackers, like, yeah, that would stink to lose Lathen, but like at least you're covered there. Now you don't have that coverage. And I guess as we look to the linebacker room, like you could say, okay, Malachi Curvey is

Starting point is 00:11:54 a former very highly recruited player for KU, one of their higher recruits in the class. He redshirted. But is he going to be ready to go as soon as a redshirt freshman year? I mean, Kamara played a little as a redshirt freshman. I think he'll be a good player, but is he going to be ready that early? Or is that something where you don't want to count on curvy more till he's a sophomore? Just of credit, I really like him coming in in this recruiting class. Do you really want to play a true freshman linebacker?

Starting point is 00:12:17 That obviously didn't go well with Gavin Potter for KU and I think probably stunted a bit of his development. Logan Brantley's a Redshirt Jr. got some special team snaps, but maybe he can be somebody because I know the staff was high on him when they first brought him in, but at this point it feels like some of that hype has kind of faded a bit. So like if you lose Trey Lathan, you go from, I guess we were at a point where, it felt like this year's linebacker core was better than previous years under landslide.

Starting point is 00:12:44 Some faults, Bengali Kamara struggled with tackling and stuff and they had some injuries as well that they had to deal with. But it felt like going in the next year, hey, you could have John John Kamara and Trey Lathen and Joseph Sipp and this could be a strength of the defense. And now if you don't bring back Lathen,

Starting point is 00:12:59 it's going to be a weakness of the defense. It can still be okay if Lathen comes back, but now you are all eggs in one basket on bringing Lathen back because you don't have that backup plan and you don't have that future plan with John John Kamara. But if you do bring Lathen back, at the very least, you can still salvage this because having Lathen and SIPA seniors, that'd be a solid starting unit.

Starting point is 00:13:18 You'd still have some future with like curvy and credit at the very least for KU. But things, I think, the negotiating table gets a lot more important there for KU and Trey Lathen. All right, let's finish up here. I wanted to touch a little bit on some Big 12 news as Big 12 is getting five. $500 million, but I'm going to tell you why. I don't know that it's a great idea. Next. This episode of the show is brought to you by Aura Frames.

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Starting point is 00:14:58 in our description page as well. Okay, so a little bonus episode for you here. And And there's some Big 12 news as this was reported by Ross Delinger. The Big 12 is nearing a deal with Redbird and Weatherford Capital for cash infusion of as much as $500 million to schools as well as a striking strategic investment partnership, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Don't need to get to the PR crap. Anyway, what is this? Basically, this is a $500 million private equity deal, essentially, that basically this is like a loan, right? this is basically every school doesn't have to take this is how it's being termed but it could if every school did opt into it basically get like 30-ish million dollars infused in their athletic department now the benefits of this for these different athletic departments is that a lot of them are in debt right now as they usher in this new change of nil and of revshed

Starting point is 00:16:04 and stuff, and it's put them behind the eight ball. This would allow them to get flush. The negative, though, this is not just free money. This is a loan. You're going to have to pay back the loan. Typically with private equity, the loan paybacks come with a lot of string matched. It could come with very high interest rates where you end up paying way more than you got in return. It could come with, you know, different decision making and stuff. Like, it's funny, too, because Brett Yormark literally two days ago, let me pull up the exact quote here. Two days ago was like, we're not, we're not messing with private equity. Here's the exact quote from Brett Yormark. We are not in the private equity business. That was on December 9th. We are not in the private equity

Starting point is 00:16:43 business. And then this happens. And here's the thing. I talked a lot about, thank you if you already caught the bonus episode talking about the Utah private equity deal and why I think it's a horrible decision that probably a lot of other colleges and shoot the big 12 here is doing too, right? There's going to be plenty of others that take part in this as well. I hope Kansas does not opt into this. I don't know. We'll see because obviously they have a financial deficit and they're building a stadium so like it's probably pretty appetizing, but like it's just one of those decisions where short term it sounds great, long term it does not. And like getting back to thinking of when private equity gets involved in this stuff, things get more expensive. So like ticket prices go

Starting point is 00:17:24 up. Apparel gets worse, but it gets more expensive. But one thing that I don't think I touched on in that bonus episode, it's only a matter of time if we start. letting private equity run these colleges and run these conferences, the Olympic sports are going to die. And I don't want that to happen. And like that's kind of another part of this. So I'm hoping KU doesn't opt into this, but I would understand if they did from the standpoint of like needing the money at the same point in time, the short term best, the short term decision isn't always the best long term decision, if that sort of makes sense. And I think we're going to learn that pretty quickly with with college sports and private equity it's going to sound great for

Starting point is 00:18:03 Utah it's going to sound great for some of these schools we'll see what happens in 10 years all right that'll do for this episode of lockdown j hawks you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast including on our youtube page where you can like and subscribe to the show see you next time on LOJ

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - DISRUPTED: Kansas Reeling as Jon Jon Kamara Transferring OUT, Jayhawks Linebacker DEFENSE Shaken

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