Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Future Size Trezelle Jenkins Jr Joins Kansas Jayhawks O Line Can He Dominate Down The Road

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks bolster their offensive line with the transfer of Trezelle Jenkins Jr. from Wayne State, the son of former Kansas City Chiefs first-round pick Trezelle Jenkins Sr. Standing at 6'6", 326 pounds, Jenkins brings size, versatility, and a promising developmental upside to KU's roster—can Lance Leipold turn this D2 standout into the Jayhawks’ next dominant lineman?Derek Johnson breaks down what Jenkins’ arrival means for Kansas, including his potential roles at guard or tackle, the current state of the Jayhawks’ offensive line, and how his addition fits into KU’s strategy to build bully-ball depth. Key topics include the track record of D2 transfers like Dominick Puni, immediate redshirt expectations for Jenkins, and other roster shuffles—plus insight into KU’s ongoing search for a starting-level tackle and center. Is this the move that solidifies the Jayhawks’ future in the trenches?Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDONGametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.RugietIf you’ve been thinking about taking the next step, now’s the time.Head to https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEto get 15% off your order for a limited time.Rugiet Ready. Feel present. Feel confident. Feel ready.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Already had a Leroy on the team. Now we get a Jenkins on the team. Treesel Jenkins joins the Jayhawks from Wayne State. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, how's it going? Derek Johnson with Lockdown Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

And thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. On this bonus episode of the show, Wayne State Offense Alignment, Trisell Jenkins, whose dad was a former first round pick of the Kansas City Chiefs, he is now a member of the Kansas Jayhawks. So we're going to break down that news, what he brings to the table, what his potential role could be for KU and what the offensive line room now looks like for KU with the addition of Jenkins. Let's start with there with the news.

Tresel Jenkins is a transfer from Wayne State, which is at the Division 2 level. I think this is an addition for KU that they're hoping can probably be a developmental piece in the future of their offensive line. We saw them do this last year in the transfer portal and bring on what, like three or four transfer offensive linemen that came from, you know, maybe smaller schools. I mean, shoot, obviously he just lost one with Tyler Mercer who came to develop year. And then he goes back to Oklahoma State.

But Jack Tanner came from Tulsa. He sat a year after playing a lot there at Tulsa. Antonio Wilson was, I guess that's Juco. I don't know if that counts or not. We got a, oh gosh, who's the, DeAndre Harper coming from, the D2 level as well and sitting in the year trying to develop. So this is something KU is familiar with.

And they haven't had the best luck, you know, developing the high school recruits from the linemen. So it's almost like, okay, let's do this instead. And I think that's a good way of being like, hey, this thing hasn't worked for us. Let's do something else. And Jenkins also continues the theme for KU of very large humans. 6 foot six,

326 pounds. He's going to be a true sophomore in 2026. So that means, three years left to play. But I think the expectation might be, you know, red shirts this year. And then he'd still have three years left to play after this year. And you redshirted him and, you know, get him in his best shape as possible to play whatever position he's going to play on the offensive line.

But yeah, more big people for the KU offensive line, more big people for both lines of scrimmage and overall for KU football as Lance Leipold tries to build this bully ball of a football team. So let's continue on. What is the scouting report on Jenkins? What is the potential position? and what does that O-Line the room look like next? Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Rocket Money. Managing your finances can feel overwhelming.

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He was a 78-rated two-star recruit who then went to Wayne State at the D2 level. So this becomes KU's second Division II edition this year, Jibril Condé, the other, back in December. He logged 10 games played as a true freshman. and he started four of them. That was kind of split between left guard, between right guard. He even played a little bit in like the end of the season

at left tackle rotating in. So clearly a versatile player that KU's going to have some options of what they want to do with. And obviously they'll cross-train them and see the different positions, but we'll eventually see what happens there. Watched a little bit of the highlights, a little bit of the film on Jenkins. And I didn't see the most explosive player

or one that had the heaviest, punch in the world. But I never saw him move back. I never saw him lose ground. I get it. It is highlights. You're going to see the good stuff, obviously. But he just seemed very solid. He seemed very under control. He obviously like, that's the thing. Like if you're transferring up from D2, sometimes it's a question of, okay, like Shane Bumgarner, for instance, who was the backup center for KU a couple of years ago, D2 transfer, who was like a really good D2 offense lineman. He was undersized at the power four level. That's not the case for Jenkins. He has more than enough to play at the power four level.

So I think there is a good, I don't know, amount to work with here for Darrell-Lek-Palsa and the KU offensive line. On three actually rates him as an 85-graded transfer. That's the lowest of KU's additions at this point, but like it's not that far off from some of the guys that like, Andre Gibson, Jamil Croft, Caleb Red, those guys are 85 as well.

So I think this is totally fine when you view it as like an exchange of one of those backups for this backup, where you're now kind of resetting your clock on a year, younger offense alignment that you're hoping to develop into something. And obviously the lineage doesn't hurt either. Like, you know, I mean, hitting the good gene pool, it could be a good thing, right? Like a former Michigan offense alignment who was drafted in the first round by the Kansas City Chiefs, you know, doesn't hurt if he can spark some sort of that development level, right?

And obviously, KU has had success with Division II transfers here. And they felt comfortable bringing guys on. Obviously, like I mentioned in a shame gum garner, that wasn't one that ended up hitting really the field for KU or anything like that. But you look at Dominic Pony. That's obviously the one that we're going to talk to for, you know, KU could not hit on another D2 prospect from here until the end of the time. But we'll be talking about Dom Poonie as the D2, just like we were with David Beatty when we were like, oh, did you know David Badey recruited Mike Evans? All right.

There's your bingo card for you. Okay, let's finish up here with what is the projected role potentially for Triselle Jenkins. And what does that offensive line room look like? Is there more work to be done for KU? Thanks you for joining us here on Locked on Junk. Jayhawks and making us your first listen every day. We've done videos on every transfer portal commitment for KU football so far. There is one that I'm not going to do.

And it's not to be disrespectful to the player, but I'm going to mention it actually right now. I just would straight up have no stats. I would have no idea what to, like I could talk about it for a couple minutes maybe, but I wouldn't be able to give you a full 10, 12 minute video. I'm sorry. It's not, it's just that, you know,

it's the nature of the. position, right? I can't talk about the pro football focus grade or the stats or this, this and that. And that is Reno Montefort. I don't know if it's Monteforte or whatever. I don't know if it's pronounced Rhino either. In fact, I hope it is. I hope it is Rino. Rino Monteforte. He is a 5'7, 210 pound long snapper. Go look at picture of this dude next to these other big linemen. It is so awesome to look at. This dude looks like he would be like the best wrestler on the team. He's a long snapper. He was at Notre Dame a couple years ago when they played for the national title. Last year, he was at Cal.

Now he comes to Kansas. I did not realize there was such a thirst of appetite for a long snapper bouncing around different schools. But again, like I don't have anything to go on. Like I couldn't tell you that I've scouted this guy or that I understand the stats on the. All I know is he was at some of these other schools. KU needed a long snapper. They lost. There's the graduation.

Boom. You got one there in Rhino or Reno Montefort. So good addition there as well. Okay. What about Trise L Jenkins? So Jenkins to me is somebody who you would come in and expect to redshirt, right? play as a true freshman he'll be a true sophomore use that red shirt year um he's got the body that you want you'll get him even in in the best shape of his life to be ready to compete the following season then

obviously with the way the rules are if if jenkins comes in and surprises people and is more ready than you think and you're like hey we can actually use him in the four games we want to and still keep his red shirt then that's great too right um but then you look at it and i think it'll be interesting what k you will use him as in the long term obviously they don't have to figure that out right away, especially if you are going to redshirt him this first year. But the fact that he's played guard and tackle gives you some options of where you want to go. I do kind of view him more long term as a guard just from a standpoint of you look at what's in the pipeline, so to speak, for KU coming up at the tackle position.

So you have Calvin Clements as a redshirt junior. I still think you're looking to add maybe a star right tackle potentially, or maybe you add a good left tackle and move Clements to right tackle. Then you have Jack Tanner as a redshirt sophomore. more. You have some of the high school guys you brought in, Caden Snyder, Caden Moody, Malachi Mills, all guys who can play tackle. Maybe one of them, you know, moves to guard or something. Even David Abasian,

I don't know if he'll profile out as a guard or tackle. It was a leaning tackle when he first came into KU. So we'll see what happens there. But point being, maybe it makes more sense from the guard position for KU. At this point in time, I think that's kind of where we're at with the offensive line. I mentioned needing to add like a starting level tackle. And then from there, like I guess if you can find a, a center to bring in, you do, but I kind of feel like it's going to be a mere Herring moving to center

with Connor Stroh and Tavaki Tuukolovatu is the two guards. But again, maybe you find a good starting center and you say, okay, we're going to go with Herring and the best of Stro and Tuiko Lovatu wins out. And even better, the line will be even deeper and more competitive and better. So I still think a couple bodies that you're looking to add on the offensive line with at least one starter addition here. But this helps you not just, you know, for depth in 2026. This is a a move more tailored to the future for KU, I think is the idea here with Treesel Jenkins. That'll do it for this episode of Lockdown, 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. See you next time on LJ.