Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - How Addition of West Virginia Transfer Trey Lathan Completes the Kansas Jayhawks Overhaul at LB

Starting point is 00:00:00 On this bonus Locked on Jayhawks, Trey Lathan, the newest transfer portal edition for KU football, how they have overhauled the linebacker position from where it was at the end of this 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, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Bonus episode for you here is Trey Latham, the former West Virginia linebacker, is now a Kansas Jayhawk. We're going to be breaking down his game, how Kansas has overhauled their linebacker position of a unit that certainly wasn't considered a strength for KU this past season and what that can impact for KU this season in 2025,

Starting point is 00:00:47 I guess this upcoming season, and the 2026 season, as well as he's a possible multi-year player on this bonus episode of the show. So let's get into it. On Lathan, he is a 6'1", 226-pound linebacker, originally from Golds, Florida, who spent three seasons at West Virginia. One of them was as a redshirt, which means he's going to be a redshirt junior come 2025, his first season with Kansas, and he'll have two seasons left to play, which that's always an added bonus when you're adding somebody out of the portal. He came into Morgantown as an 88 graded three-star player, so

Starting point is 00:01:21 highly rated three-star recruit on 24-7 sports. Again, redshirted that first year in 2022, still did play the four games he could and recorded six tackles along the way. Then he had five games played in 2023 with 27 tackles, a tackle for loss, and two pass breakups. But this past season was by far the most he has played, 13 games, most snaps that he's played 13 games most snaps that he's played most production that he's put up 79 tackles nine tackles for loss two sacks and a forced fumble and obviously west virginia ended up being a team that made it into a bowl game uh this past season um but i'm not sure uh they're viewed as one that you know had this uh elite defense is is what you say, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't be a good defender if your team isn't a great defense or anything like that. Lathan certainly

Starting point is 00:02:11 had a good game in the game against Kansas. That was one of his two games this season in which he had 10 tackles. He had 10 tackles against Texas Tech. He had 10 tackles against Kansas. What I find interesting, if you look at the similarities between Texas Tech and Kansas, both those teams have really good running backs that they like to get the ball to. And if we're looking at what best describes Trey Latham's game, I think it is being this aggressive downhill thumping running back, right? Or I'm sorry, thumping linebacker that's going to hit the opposing running backs. And so to that notion, you see two teams who had stud running backs. He had a bunch of tackles. That seems to make sense for me, as opposed to being a linebacker who is going to thrive playing in space against a team who wants to air out the football, so to speak. So he also had three tackles for loss against Pitt. That was his best game by that number. Now, the pro football focus grades don't necessarily love Lathan. He was listed as a 50.1 overall. That is not a great grade on pro football focus. Sell the time. If you're in that 60 to 69 range, that kind of puts you in line with being an average starter, right? this past season linebacking was not necessarily their uh their forte their best position i guess would be one way of putting it and you know um they had a couple guys with with taiwan berry hill

Starting point is 00:03:32 and cornell wheeler who i think in cornell wheeler's case like it was a bit about uh where the injuries kind of put him but those two guys kind of rated around here in terms of grades on pff so you look at pro football focus in the Big 12, the lowest rated linebackers among the ones that qualified by snaps played. Tywon Berryhill was last. He had a 43.9 grade. Cornell Wheeler was, what, third to last? He was in the bottom four, was Cornell Wheeler, with a 53.9 grade.

Starting point is 00:04:00 Trey Lathan was second to last at a 50.1. So, you know, there's not great grades 54.8 in tackling 53 in coverage i will say i always say like take the pff grades with a grain of salt uh i think there's some potential here to be better plus you have multiple years left in the game and i i think there was more to it than just his pff grade here he was a box linebacker most of the time in 676 snaps, but he was basically a three-down linebacker. And the way I view it with Trey Latham being this,

Starting point is 00:04:31 you know, I'm going to hit you linebacker, because, okay, he gave up 18 targets. He gave up 14 catches on those 18 targets for 14.6 yards per target, two touchdowns, no picks. He had a 155 NFL passer rating yet. So he struggled in coverage and what was being asked of him. And I think when you look at his possible role at Kansas, they obviously brought on a couple other linebacker transfers. I don't know that he's going

Starting point is 00:04:55 to be a three down linebacker. And I think that will help him be a better player because you look at it, he was a good pass rusher from the linebacker position um he was a better run stopper than maybe in pass coverage and so i think his role being different at kansas could possibly help him there were some of the pff grades but he did have 65.3 pff grade in 2023 he had a 76 in 2022 obviously those are much more limited snaps uh when you look at his missed tackle rate 17.9 percent um that was worse than cordell wheeler who was at 14.5 it was though better than taiwan barry hill who was at 21.2 it was better than jason gilliam who was at 18.8 but still this is a thumping linebacker who's going to be in year four so he has experience has played and

Starting point is 00:05:36 started at the big 12 level that's good uh he's gonna have multi-years left right so that's also good and it's a position of need for, both in terms of starting level players and depth and the room for 2026. So the question now just kind of comes, how does KU sort out their three linebacker transfers in overhauling this position? Who starts? Who's the best Hawk candidate? And more, let's get into that on the other side of this bonus

Starting point is 00:05:58 episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode is brought to you by GameTime. I love going to live events it can be sports it can be music it can be comedy and whenever it is you can find tickets with game time and it's going to make great memories for you that is that is what game time is all about they're in the memory making business and with game time they've made it even easier to get tickets for your favorite events with their new feature game time picks this feature filters out fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of

Starting point is 00:06:28 tickets with game time picks you can find amazing deals and can even see the view from your seat before you buy them the super deal is particularly impressive it offers great seats at unbeatable prices plus the app's all-in pricing shows the total cost up front with no surprise fees at checkout take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE,

Starting point is 00:06:54 L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E, for $20 off. Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime. All right, continue on. What about the linebacker room now the ku added trey lathan into the room so you also added bengali kamara who was the transfer from south carolina before that pit you added joseph sip who was the transfer from bowling green certainly if you were looking at like the pro football focus grades you would say that sip and bengali kamara have an edge up

Starting point is 00:07:23 here on trey lathan now if you were looking at oh just power five starting experience you would say that Sip and Bengali Kamara have an edge up here on Trey Lathan. Now, if you were looking at, oh, just power five starting experience, you would say Lathan and Kamara would have kind of the edge up on the competition. And even though KU, you know, does kind of play three linebackers, that third linebacker is kind of the hawk role. And there's a chance that maybe that ends up going to more of a safety type. Maybe that ends up going to a Jason Gilliam or a John John Kamara or Logan Brantley or something like that. Or maybe those guys are put into more of the traditional linebacker roles. And DK McDonald, because we haven't seen what his defense wants to do, is playing more of a true 4-2-5 defense where that guy is a safety or is a corner, depending on the down and distance against you. So that basically means to me, because even if you were playing a linebacker at that Hawk role, Trey Latham, I don't think profiles is that.

Starting point is 00:08:06 He profiles is one of your more, you know, Mike or Will linebackers, your standard linebackers, so to speak. I think Joseph Sipp kind of profiles in the same way. I think with Bengali Kamara, I view him as being a good enough athlete that if they wanted him to play the Hawk, they could do it. I think it'd be probably better to play a safety to give you extra coverage skills out there but he would profile the best among sip kamara and lathan would be kamara as playing that hawk role so maybe there's a chance that they do have certain packages where kamara is basically your hawk and then you play sip and lathan next to each other but i think what you're going to

Starting point is 00:08:38 see more likely than not in this linebacker room is and if you want to throw in the returning guys too like tristan fletcher will be redshirt senior. I mentioned Gilliam Brantley, John John Kamara, Jacory Stewart will be a redshirt freshman. You have a true freshman coming in, Malachi Kirby. If you want to throw those guys in to this competition, that's cool too. But realistically, I think you're looking at,

Starting point is 00:08:57 you know, two spots available for three linebackers. And that was kind of similar to what KU did this past season, if you remember, right? it was basically the rotation of Tywon Berryhill, Cornell Wheeler, and JB Brown into two spots and part of that too was the Cornell Wheeler injury but even then like guys are going to get tired you're rotating them around and then your your Hawk linebacker was either Gilliam, Reich, or Marvin Grant kind of depending on the situation if you're Kansas right so if we're viewing it from a standpoint of three linebackers for two spots, I think right now Bengali Kamara, to me, feels like the best linebacker on the team.

Starting point is 00:09:31 I think Joseph Sipp, I kind of like his production and the BFF grades and what that stuff shows a little bit more. But I think in what we saw, there's a lot of snaps available for the third linebacker rotating between those two. So realistically, I think all three transfer linebackers have a great shot of being in those top three spots, which is a complete overhaul to the linebacker position. Now, if you're viewing Latham, if we go back to the PFF grades that maybe weren't great, but I do think, you know, I do view Latham as being a better player than some of those PFF grades indicated. I view Latham as an better player than some of those PFF grades indicated. I view Lathan as an upgrade to Tywon Berryhill. So if you're viewing him as your third linebacker, I think he's better

Starting point is 00:10:09 than what Tywon Berryhill was. So that would be an upgrade for you at the linebacker position. You look at Bengali Kamara and is he going to be an upgrade on JB Brown? I don't know. That remains to be seen. JB Brown was pretty good. I think Bengali Kamara has the potential to be a better overall linebacker in terms of pass coverage and stuff. But is he going to be as good in run defense and pass rushing as J.B. Brown? I don't know. That remains to be seen. But like, I think he can at least get close to that level of production. And then if you're looking at the Joseph Sipp compared to Cornell Wheeler, well, if you're comparing him to Cornell Wheeler before the injury, he suffered in the middle of the season like Wheeler was having a great start to the

Starting point is 00:10:44 season. Maybe it's not. But if you're looking at the overall body of work, which includes Wheeler before the injury he suffered in the middle of the season like Wheeler was having a great start to the season maybe it's not but if you're looking at the overall body work which includes Wheeler having to play through an injury or come back late you look at those PFF grades again he finished bottom four in the big 12 and PFF grade and I expect higher than that than Joseph Sipp so I don't know that I view this linebacking core all of a sudden as being like the best in the big 12 but I actually do view it as overall I do view it as an improved unit from where it was last season because of those three transfer portal additions that you added, with the latest being Trey Latham. Let's finish up here. What is next in the portal and the room in 2026 becomes interesting as well with Trey Latham. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.

Starting point is 00:11:22 The NFL playoffs are almost here, but it's not too late to get in on the regular season action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook, because right now, new customers can finish the season strong with $250 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. FanDuel has so many ways for you to pick up a W. I love betting on which player is going to score a touchdown, how many points somebody is going to have in a basketball game, and they also have bets for how many points each team is going to score. You can get alternate spreads.

Starting point is 00:11:48 You think somebody's going to get blown out or you want to put a teaser parlay together, you can do that at FanDuel. Just visit FanDuel.com to join today. That's FanDuel.com for your chance to win $250 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL and the Locked On Podcast Network. Finishing things up on this episode of the show, and don't forget to check out

Starting point is 00:12:12 our Kansas-Arizona State preview, which we'll have up for you on your Wednesday as well. So does this end the portal shopping for KUL? They definitely need a strong defensive end. I look at the roster, and they have a lot of defensive ends. I don't know how many profile to be that. Seems like they're still going for a receiver, which I find interesting because they've already brought a good amount in. You probably use another offensive lineman, but any of those positions could come post

Starting point is 00:12:38 spring ball, right? I prefer to get them in now because then you get them in the reps in the system and that's better. But if your alternative is taking a player that you normally would take just to take him versus waiting out to spring and hoping a good enough player that you normally would be comfortable offering the scholarship is available, then you have to go with that one among those two. Now, as far as the 2026 room, I think it's very interesting because with Kamara and Sip, they're both seniors. Jason Gilliam, also a senior. Tristan fletcher also a senior now i think fletcher maybe could get another year back with this juco thing so we'll see how that kind of turns out but you look at the the linebacker room for k you in 2026 the beauty of this trey latham move isn't just that it can help you on the field in 2025 it's that it gives you a head start in 2026, right? So that you're not starting over again, just like you were this offseason, where now you have one less guy to

Starting point is 00:13:31 go after. And ideally in 2026, because come 2026, you'll have a redshirt junior Logan Brantley, you'll have a second year Malachi Curvey, you'll have a third year Ja'Cory Stewart as a redshirt sophomore, third year John John Kamara as a redshirt sophomore. Ideally, one or two of those guys will be ready to go and be in the starting lineup at that point in time. And then you'd have a second-year Trey Latham or fifth-year overall in college football. And then you could fill it with maybe just one transfer, maybe two if you want one for depth or to be your future Trey Latham who can be here a couple of years, as opposed to having to add three guys who are going to be your top three linebackers like that would be a much more advantageous position for KU to be in in 2026 and I think that's part of the addition of Trey Latham here that'll do it for

Starting point is 00:14:13 this episode of the show again check out our Kansas Arizona State preview tomorrow check out some of our other content talking KU football talking KU basketball on the airwaves here right here wherever you get your podcasts or on our YouTube page see you next time with LOJ

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - How Addition of West Virginia Transfer Trey Lathan Completes the Kansas Jayhawks Overhaul at LB

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.