Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - EXODUS: Top Kansas Commit JJ Dunnigan JUMPS SHIP After K-State Loss | Can Leipold Salvage the Class?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The hits just keep on coming for KU football and Lance Leipold. A few days after losing to Kansas State, they now lose their biggest recruit from the city of Manhattan, Kansas. 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. a little bonus episode for you as J.J. Donegan, a four-star commit KU's highest rated recruit in the class of 2026 has decommitted from Kansas, says the bad news, keeps on rolling in for KU football, especially anything that is touching the area of Manhattan, Kansas right now. I'm going to break down why this is such a big deal and what possibly went down here as well as trying to find a little bit of hope and trying to find at least some possible silver linings, hopefully for this, if you are KU football. Let's get started right there.

Starting point is 00:01:01 Who is J.J. Dunnigan? It was a huge deal when KU landed this kid. He committed to KU during the, I think it was during the Under Armour All-American game in which I'm pretty sure he had like an interception in it. And he was somebody who local kid from the city of Manhattan, Kansas, goes to Manhattan High School. And obviously the timing of this, he was just visiting KU over the weekend. He's got a bunch of visits set up. I think it's a Colorado and like Miami is some of those. It seems like other schools kept recruiting him.

Starting point is 00:01:29 And he kept taking visits. It seemed like even after the KU commitment. So kind of this whole way through was felt like how really committed was this? And like, I don't know. I'll be completely honest. Like even as it was happening, there was a part of me that was like going to be a little bit surprised if he actually did wind up in Lawrence. So I don't know that this is the biggest shock in the world necessarily, but it certainly hurts. And in the fact that it comes right after the Kansas state loss, again, it might be about these other schools.

Starting point is 00:01:54 It might be about these other offers and maybe a monetary thing that these other schools are able to get to. Who knows? But the timing of it happening on the Monday after he was in town for them to lose to Kansas State when he goes to Manhattan High School where there's probably a lot of K-State fans, he probably heard a lot of his friends and people at the school giving him trash talk. I don't know, man. Again, like maybe the other reasons were the reasons why he was eventually going to decommit from Kansas. But the fact that it happened right now, I can't help but think that it didn't at least speed up the process of what happened over the the weekend and stuff like that. Like, again, he might have ended up decommitting regardless of what happened on Saturday, but I don't know. I feel like that would kind of certainly be the case. At least you would think, right? Just add kind of all that up together.

Starting point is 00:02:40 But very talented player who could be playing two ways at the collegiate level. Now, certainly if he came to Kansas, that was going to be the case. If he does end up going to a bigger school, I don't know. Will they have him be doing that if he's playing, you know, at a Michigan or Miami? If he goes to Colorado where he's visiting, then certainly we've just seen them do that with Travis Hunter. so maybe that one would kind of make sense for him too. But 93 rated four star, he was top 100 on the 24-7 sports ratings in the country coming

Starting point is 00:03:07 out of the state of Kansas. And this is a really good recruiting class in state for KU. It's a solid recruiting class overall in the class, 2026 for KU. But the crown jewel of the class was done again. So the fact that you lose him in the commitment, it certainly does hurt. And there's no way of getting around that of like, I'm not going to, you know, when I make the silver linings, it's. not going to be like, oh, well, you know, you're better off of, no, you would have been better off

Starting point is 00:03:31 of JJ Dunnigan in the recruiting class. I don't want to make that confused. He's a very good player and would have probably been good enough to hit the field right away as a true freshman at Kansas. So from that perspective, it certainly hurts and being backed up by the loss on Saturday, it certainly hurts even more for the KU football program. So let's take a look at the overall class where things are at and where we maybe can find a little bit of silver linings in this. This bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. NFL seasons here, and we're on that sports equinox right now where you got everything going on at once. Fandwell has an offer you don't want to miss.

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Starting point is 00:05:59 right now, right? And I guess the question is with kind of the tailspin here, are you going to lose other play? That becomes the question. Like if this isn't just a, if this is a trend, if this is the start of a trend, it's a big problem for KU. If it's a one-off, they're going to be just fine. And here's my handy-dandy sports research. If you're watching on YouTube, I'm going to try to explain some of this. But basically, Kansas, this. year with 19 commits they have two in the top 500 um the most that they've ever landed in the 24-7 sports era is four in the top 500 in one class but that was the class of 24 people um the most top 600 recruits they've ever landed and this is according to the 24-7 sports

Starting point is 00:06:37 composite is four of them um with uh or five of them excuse me again that class of 2010 they have four of them in this year's class and then you look at top 1,000 commits the most that KU has ever landed in class is 13, and that's with a class of 32 people. This year, right now they have 12. So even without done again, they're still bringing on a lot of quality here. You look at the percentage of the class that is top 1,000 commits on the 24-7 sports composite. Right now for Kansas, it's 63%.

Starting point is 00:07:08 The previous high that KU has ever brought in is 53%. That was actually last year's class, the class of 2025. The second best, 52% in 2024. And it's even better this year. This is the astounding one to me. If you look at the 24, forget the ranking, you know, are you a top 1,000 commit? Are you a top, I don't know, like, you know, 1,200 commit or you top 800 commit or whatever? Just in terms of the pure composite grade, because some classes are made better than others.

Starting point is 00:07:36 Some class, like you might have a grade that's, you're the 950th player. Another year you might have a grade that you're the 11th hundredth player, just depending how good that class is. Well, when you look at it, this year, 18 of the 19 commits for kids. on the 24-7 composite are a 0.8600 or higher. That's 18 of the 19. That means 94%, almost 95% of the commits for KU in this class are that range. And the importance of that the previous high that KU has ever brought in in one class is 82%. That was the class of 24.

Starting point is 00:08:09 So point being, Dunnigan is a huge loss. He would have been the crown jewel of the class. He would have most likely been, you never know, but most likely been your best player in the class. Um, the class is still a really good one compared to past KU standards. So that is kind of the, the beauty of that at the very least. Um, and I still do think there's some good players in it. And I want to get to a guy Hunter Higgins that I think is, uh, making himself a big fan favorite among KU football.

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Starting point is 00:09:43 But if they can keep the rest together, you're sitting good. And one guy who's kind of making himself a fan favorite, Hunter Higgins after the game, I think somebody, like, quote, tweeted something about the, you know, the, all the visitors that were in town for KU. And I think somebody was like, oh, like all these guys are going to decommit now after watching that. I think Hunter Higgins quote tweeted that, who Hunter Higgins is a very, he's a high ranked three star, nearly a four star, Kansas kid, very talented defensive end who KU really wanted, other

Starting point is 00:10:14 schools really wanted, and KU was able to land. And he kind of quote tweeted that. I was just like, we're committed to Kansas, basically. And then he posted this one as well. It's a picture of him wearing, you know, Kansas uniform on the visit and the photo booth and stuff. And he says, can't wait, this is on X or Twitter or whatever, can't wait to bring glory to the name on the front of the jersey. I love this state. I love this family.

Starting point is 00:10:35 I love these coaches. I love these fans, rock chalk. So in a time where you were in desperate need of, you know, some leaders. to kind of step up and help you retrieve this stuff. I think Hunter Higgins is making himself a fan favorite, right? Because it's one thing to stay committed. It's another to be this publicly outward about it like Hunter Higgins is that could help, you know, somebody else stay committed to this as well.

Starting point is 00:11:02 Like that's kind of the big question here, right? Of are they able to keep this altogether? And having a guy like Hunter Higgins doing what he's doing, who is one of your better players in this class as well, like that's going to go a long way. And especially because he isn't in-state kid when, you know, that's part of this Donegan recruitment, potentially losing him as well is also the idea, or I guess losing him as well, is also the idea of, you know, you're losing an in-state recruit when this has been as good of an in-state recruiting class as you've had. So the fact that Higgins is on board and also

Starting point is 00:11:30 like that's going to get people all over it too. Like he wants to play for the front of the jersey. I'll just say this. Like I think Hunter Higgins is going to be a very popular jersey. You might have made yourself some extra NIL money off jersey sales when you do eventually wind up in Lawrence. So certainly it'll be. interesting to monitor the rest of the recruiting class for KU. Like I said, if this is a blip on the radar, they're going to be okay. But I think just the timing of everything with after coming after the case they loss certainly makes it worse than it was. Like if this would happen after, I don't know, like they beat UCF or they lose the Texas Tech, I don't think there'd be

Starting point is 00:12:02 as much panic in the streets. I can understand why there is. And again, if there's another shoot or drop, then to me that starts to signal a trend and an issue. But until that happens, it's just an unfortunate thing that Kansas is going to have to deal with. But I still think they're going to be okay in the class of 2026 in the long run. 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. We've got a preview episode for the KU Fort Hay State game.

Starting point is 00:12:27 We'll have a postcast after the game as well, and catch you next time on L.O.J.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - EXODUS: Top Kansas Commit JJ Dunnigan JUMPS SHIP After K-State Loss | Can Leipold Salvage the Class?

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