Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - How Lance Leipold's Additions of TE Keyan Burnett, DE Caleb Redd & WR Levi Wentz Impact KU Jayhawks

Starting point is 00:00:00 The portal hits keep on coming. Three more additions for KU football on land, fly, pull, the tight end, former four-star on edge who was highly recruited, and another receiver for Jalen Daniels to throw to. We break them all down on today's episode. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. And you can find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, a bit of a bonus episode here. KU football, three more transfer portal commits. They're up to, I think, like 15 commits now in the portal class. This has been an awesome class so far.

Starting point is 00:00:56 Obviously, KU had a lot of scholarships and opportunities to do that. So you hope that it's more quality than just quantity at the end of the day. But it seems like they're doing a pretty good job to this point in time. And we're going to break down the three newest members, Keon Burnett, tight end transfer from Arizona, Caleb Redd, an edge defensive end transfer from Kentucky, and Levi Wentz, a wide receiver transfer from University of Albany. We're going to get into all of their games,

Starting point is 00:01:20 the tight end edge receiver rooms for KU and what this means for the 2025 team and moving forward as well. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. You can download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime. So let's talk about Keon Burnett first. He is a tight end who stands 6'6", 248 pounds. I mean, that's great size right there. Transferring from, it still is weird to me to say transferring from Arizona

Starting point is 00:01:51 is transferring within the same conference. That is the case here. He is going to be transferring within the same conference here, coming from Arizona. So he's originally from Anaheim, California. He went to Servite High School, which typically is like a really good high school program. And I don't know if there was any previous relationship or knowledge of each other with him and Jalen Daniels, obviously both being from Southern California. They're not directly with each other, but I don't know.

Starting point is 00:02:21 Maybe there's some familiarity there. But he was a former top 250 nationally ranked recruit, was a basketball player and a football player. Obviously, you think of that, you know, helping a lot of tight ends, four-star recruit. And so he comes into Arizona, true freshman in 2022. He appears in nine games. He starts one game.

Starting point is 00:02:37 Then in 2023, he starts two games with 13 appearances. And then 2023, or I'm sorry, this this year in 2024 he has eight games played um so that'll make him a true senior in 2025 i don't think there's anything you can work with there to make it any less than that um but he went from six catches for 44 yards his first two seasons combined to having a really solid year this year 18 catches catches, 217 yards, and a touchdown. He had two games with five catches this season. He had another game with three catches. All three of those games with three or more catches came against Big 12 opponents.

Starting point is 00:03:16 And again, if he would have ended up playing in all 12 games, those stats would have probably looked even better. You're probably looking at closer to, I don't know, 25 catches, 30 catches, somewhere in that range at that point for maybe 300-ish yards, which would have looked like KU's leading tight end receiver from a season ago. And he wound up with strong pro football focus grades, 73.9 PFF grade this past season. That was a 71.5 in the receiving game. That was a 76.7 in pass block and a 74.3 in run block. So you have a guy who's willing to block.

Starting point is 00:03:45 You have a guy who's a good athlete, and he has good size. I look at him as being somebody who could – he was good this past season. I think it would really break out in the Kansas system and with Jalen Daniels. And, you know, I look back to this past season, and I think in the Jeff Grimes offense, it was a little bit different, the usage of the tight end in the passing game. I think it was a little bit different, the usage of the tight end in the passing game. I think it was a little bit more with Andy Kotelnicki. I think with Jim Zebrowski,

Starting point is 00:04:10 it'll probably be somewhere in between, right? Like maybe it's not to the level that Andy Kotelnicki liked to use him, but I think it's going to be more than the Jeff Grimes, right? And when you look at it too, like obviously KU, we're going to talk about adding Levi Wentz. Right now, maybe you still do have some questions about the receiver room.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Maybe it makes sense for KU to have some sets where they do have two tight ends, three tight ends on the field. They are throwing more to the tight ends to kind of make up for that. And if that's going to be the case, okay, I feel a lot better about the tight end room now. Because you look at it and Sean Hanneke coming back for another season like he was in line to be your starting tight end a season ago during spring ball and like I think Sean Hanneke can be a good player but the big question for Sean Hanneke I don't think is necessarily like how good of a player I guess was he it's how good can you expect him to be coming off an Achilles injury a season ending achilles injury

Starting point is 00:05:05 those things are very difficult to come back from now the good news for him is i guess time would be on his favor in that case because if he did get injured in the spring by the time we get fall of 2025 you're talking about 18 months right it's not a guy who suffered the injury in season but still a lot of times those guys coming back from those injuries i know different position but with quarterback like kirk cousins hasn't looked the same so far this season. That's a really hard injury to come back from. Now, Kirk Cousins, like 35 years old, Deshaun Hanneke is what, like 23, something like that. So it is different.

Starting point is 00:05:34 But like basically what I'm saying is if Deshaun Hanneke comes back to the guy that he was before the injury, then you have two starting level tight ends, in my opinion, with both these guys in Keon Burnett and Deshaun Hanukkah. You'll probably see both of them on the field a lot, and both of them are good receiving tight ends, I think they can be. But if Deshaun Hanukkah coming back from the injury, it takes him time to reacclimate or he's not quite as explosive, I still think he'll be a very useful player for KU. But then maybe at that point in time, you expect Keon Burnett to be the number one and Hanukkah to be a guy that you can rotate in as kind of the number two. It still leaves a role,

Starting point is 00:06:14 like who's going to play that Jared Casey role, that kind of H-back, fullback type role? Would that be a job for Leighton Kier? Would that be what Keon Burnett can do? What about a Jaden Hamm, who will be redshirt sophomore, or Carson Bruin, who will be redshirt freshman? What about a Quinton Conley, who has seemingly gotten some good reviews as a former walk-on? I don't know if he still is, or has earned a scholarship at this point in time. But Leighton Cure, I think becomes interesting there too. But I feel good about the tight end room now, because I really like Keon Burnett.

Starting point is 00:06:42 And now it basically puts less pressure on the Deshaun Hanukkah thing coming back from the injury. That was going to be a lot of pressure on a guy coming off an Achilles injury. Now you're like, oh, we have two starting-level tight ends, and I think Leighton Cure after a year in the program, because he was coming off a season-ending injury the year before. So I think it's good to expect Leighton Cure to take a big jump this year, too, that I feel pretty good about the tight end room, and that's even before if there are any jumps

Starting point is 00:07:07 from the young guys with Jaden Hamm and Carson Brew. Okay, let's get to our next player, which is Caleb Redd, and then we'll get to Levi Wentz from Albany as well. This is Locked on Jayhawks. And this episode of the show is brought to you by Rocket Money. Did you know Rocket Money can help you find any subscriptions that you might have forgot about or that you were paying for twice? It happens to a lot of people.

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Starting point is 00:09:29 What time is it? GameTime. Thank you for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And don't forget, we do have a preview for that KU Brown game, which is coming on Sunday. We released that on Friday. So make sure to check that out if you haven't already and get you ready for KU's final non-conference game

Starting point is 00:09:48 before the start of Big 12 play. All right, our next transfer pickup for KU was Caleb Redd, who is going to legally change his last name to Caleb Crimson, but there will be an extra, I don't know, this is a stupid joke. I don't know why i'm continuing with this nonetheless caleb red he is uh going from uk to ku kentucky to kansas he's a six foot three 232 pound edge um the reason i say edge here is because for kentucky they're playing a three four and so he was playing outside linebacker for them for kansas you're playing four down linemen so he becomes a defensive end so basically he's just on the edge um 6-3-2-32 though probably looking at more of a

Starting point is 00:10:32 weak side defensive end so you know this is something we kind of talked about definitely feels like they have more guys in the running for that weak side defensive end spot than the strong side now maybe with another offseason like there's a player or two that can add more weight or can morph into that strong side defensive end because he lost her top two with Jeremy Robinson and Dylan Woodkey from this past season. But in terms of red, he's originally from St. Louis. He went to DeSmet High School and he was an 87 graded three star recruit who was ranked top 20 in the state of Missouri. He was ranked top 850 nationally overall, hit 13 sacks in his senior season of high school. So I think it'll be good that he gets to play D end at KU. I found this kind of interesting on his Kentucky profile. It mentions that after

Starting point is 00:11:19 football, he wants to be a YouTuber. So Caleb, come on the show. Join us on YouTube here where you can watch Locked on Jayhawks. But he wound up redshirting in his lone season in Lexington. Ended up playing two games. He had a tackle against Ohio in four snaps. Good Ohio team. And then he played eight snaps against Murray State. So not really much you can take away from the freshman season. He's going to be a redshirt freshman, four seasons left to play for Kansas in 2025. So, like, that's been a really common theme from KU so far in this transfer portal class. It feels like they're really aiming for guys with multiple years

Starting point is 00:11:55 and not just multiple. I mean, especially you think about the guys on the line of scrimmage, you've gotten a lot of guys with three, four years left under their belt. And I think that's a really smart thing from Lance Leipold and company. I mean, it just is in general, if you can get them into your system a little bit more. But also when you think about it, like obviously there was a mass departure of a lot of talent from the 2024 squad before we get to the 2025 squad, you're going to still be losing even some more key pieces after 2025, right mean you think like jaylen daniels and

Starting point is 00:12:25 leshawn williams and um levi wentz i guess who you added who we'll talk about in a bit here like doug amelia and uh both those top two tight ends we just talked about with keon burnett and deshawn hannika bryce foster decided to come back colby baines um on the defensive side like dean miller although that one could get weird because this whole Juco thing, which we'll talk about it another day. But like, I think four of your top five defensive tackles, both your linebackers that you added with Kamara and sit like you, Jason Gilliam. I could go on and on and on. There's more seniors on the roster.

Starting point is 00:12:57 There's going to be a bunch more players that leave after this season too. So the fact that you're getting in transfer portal players now that can both help you this year and can add to your future seasons is crucial and a really smart job about what KU is doing right now. which you think of as more like the pass rushing the defensive end and obviously both are but like strong defensive end is is more of you think of like the the run stopping guy right more of the powerful guy a little bit more weight to him and so right now you look at it and ku has uh let's see six seven seven defensive ends on the roster um you're looking at the two incoming freshmen adrian holly and garrett martin either one of those could end up being a strong defensive end um maybe one is weak side maybe one

Starting point is 00:13:51 is strong maybe uh whatever uh but either way whatever path either of those go hey you're probably not wanting to get them on the field right away as true freshmen it's very difficult to do on the line of scrimmage right we? We even saw as difficult it was for DJ Warner, who was an incredibly highly rated recruit, right? So even if they are both in that position, it's not to a level of like, oh yeah, but they're going to be playing 30 snaps every game. If that does end up happening, that's, I guess, either a bad thing that like some other stuff ended up like in bad injuries or whatever, or that's like a great thing because they were just so good that you couldn't keep them off the field. But like it's not expected.

Starting point is 00:14:28 So then I look at it and it's like, OK, Dean Miller is, you know, all throughout his career, it's been add weight. And he did a good job adding weight from last year to the year before. But I think the idea is like he is the weak side defense event. He is the starter there. He's going to continue doing that. Dak Brinkley, like he's been looking to add weight. And so I think he's more of the weak side defensive end, tooley like he's been looking to add weight and so I think he's more of the weak side defensive end too with Caleb Redd at 232 pounds is that a guy

Starting point is 00:14:50 you could add like 20 pounds to but even then like I don't know I think ideally you want your strong side defensive end around like the lightest 250 you probably want him at least 260 right so I think Redd profiles more as being the weak side defensive end and in some ways it's kind of a replacement on your depth chart uh for what dj warner was which was more of a weak side defensive end right um the two guys that that maybe you have questions about here one of them for me is dylan brooks could dylan brooks be a strong side defensive end now he is coming off a season ending injury as well and so it's like what can you totally what can you fully expect from him coming back this season right um former highly recruited guy he hasn't really shown it on the field and obviously that wasn't you know his fault this

Starting point is 00:15:34 year getting the injury but he came into last year 240 pounds so coming off rehabbing a season-long injury is he all of a sudden going to balloon up to 260? Probably not. So that leaves one guy for me that I view as being like, okay, I don't know that I viewed you this season as a strong defensive end. I just viewed him as kind of a defensive end that could maybe play either, but it would be by Job. By Job is 240 pounds. At least that's what he's listed by, by KU. But I could have sworn on his recruiting profile when KU landed him last year from Michigan State that he was listed a little bit more than he was in the mid-240s or 250, 252, somewhere in that range. He's somebody who I look at and be like, okay, that dude's strong. I wouldn't be shocked if he could end up getting up to 255 or 260 with chiseled muscle and be that position. But point being, that means there's a lot of competition for the weak side defense event.

Starting point is 00:16:24 So I think Caleb Redd will have an impact on the program. And the question just becomes, will it be this year? Will it be in 2020? When I say this year, 2025? Or will it be 2026? Right? Because you could easily look at it and say, oh, well, Dean Miller is just going to eat up a majority of the snaps at the weak side defensive end this year. And then after he graduates come 2026, then the full competition to start is on between Dak Brinkley and Caleb Redd right like that could be a very real thing but part of it depends too like who is going to be the strong defensive end and how does that kind of competition work out it also tells you that KU needs to add another defensive end in the portal but one that would fit that specific position I think a little bit more but clearly you know defensive line defensive end is a position you're going to rotate guys so even if you look at it this year and go okay well Caleb Redd this year is your second string defensive end or your third string defensive end he's still going to get in

Starting point is 00:17:13 games he's still going to rotate he's still going to play and then the other part of it as I just kind of mentioned with Dean Miller is there was this whole Juco thing with Diego Pavia if he sues the NCAA for more eligibility too and gets his juco years back, then he could be around even longer and then maybe it backs things up with those young guys. So that could get complicated. But again, that's a discussion for another episode. All right, let's finish up. KU has a new receiver to throw to from Jalen Daniels. We'll talk about Levi, not related to Carson Wentz. This episode of the show is brought to you by the college football playoff on TNT.

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Starting point is 00:18:14 11 a.m eastern 10 a.m central time leading into the first matchup smu mustangs penn state nittany lions at 11 central time then the clemson tigers look to upset the Texas Longhorns in a showdown at 3 Central time. That's 3 p.m. Don't miss a moment of the action. Watch the college football playoff presented by Allstate. Live on TNT, TruTV, TBS, and Max. Finishing things up on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks with KU's newest receiver commit, Levi Wentz,

Starting point is 00:18:43 who is a 6 six foot two 205 pound receiver originally from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and he a very interesting story uh he was more of a basketball player in high school um and ended up joining the football team his senior year of high school and goes to old dominion straight out of high school as a defensive back, eventually converts to receivers. Like this, the guy who hasn't been playing football ton.

Starting point is 00:19:11 And I've seen some people kind of being like, it feels like KU is missing out on a lot of their receiver targets, which there might be a little bit of truth to that. That might be a little down on this because you're getting a kid from, you know, a low lower level at fcs that the stats are solid but they don't jump off the page it's not a thousand yard receiver something like that that are worried about what the receiver group's gonna be i'll be honest i really like levi once i am uh

Starting point is 00:19:33 very high on what you could get here and that's part of it the idea that you have a guy who's very raw even though he is a more older experienced player and what that tells me is that there is a higher ceiling you can get him to if you can take him to that next level, whether it's Jalen Daniels, whether it's the coaching staff, that I trust this coaching staff to get the very best out of him. And I think that's going to be a good mix. And so you look at it, he started his career at Old Dominion in the Sun Belt. Then he goes to Albany. He's going to be a fifth-year senior in 2025 with one year for Kansas. Like I said, that's a cool combination to have, that you have an experienced player that also has room to grow. Sometimes you have experienced players who it's like, okay, we know what they are. For better or for worse, we know what they are. I don't think that's the case here with Levi Wentz because he hasn't been playing football for really that long.

Starting point is 00:20:21 So he redshirted at Old Dominion in 2021. He had three games played with one catchshirted at Old Dominion in 2021. He had three games played with one catch in 2022 at Old Dominion again. Then he transfers to Albany at the FCS level, and he appeared in eight games in the 2023 season, which was his first year there. Then this past season was his best year. He goes out this year and he has over 600 yards receiving. He had, I guess in 2023, was 16 catches for 245 in a score, 40 catches this season. And that was in 11 games. That good for 621 yards and a touchdown. I am a little weirded out that he only had one touchdown because he's a bigger body receiver who you see some of those basketball skills at times um where like he wins jump balls and he's got good size at

Starting point is 00:21:10 six foot two over 200 pounds that part of you is like wait how did you only get this guy you know one touchdown was that just like misusage by the coaching staff i i don't know maybe it's good to point out though like their their main quarterback had 10 touchdowns to seven interceptions. And, you know, they basically played three different quarterbacks. So, like, it clearly wasn't the best quarterback situation for Albany. So, like, if you look at it from that perspective, I think everything becomes a little bit more impressive, right? I mean, again, if I'm looking at the total passing yards for Albany, it is, oh gosh, this just says passing yards. There we go.

Starting point is 00:21:49 2,700 passing yards as a team. So like 600 receiving yards, if you're in an air raid offense that has 4,000 passing yards, again, that doesn't seem overly impressive. But when it's 2,700, now you have a little less than a fourth of the team's receiving yards so like that would equate out if you had a 4 000 yard pass or you'd have a thousand yard season you know so that becomes a little bit more impressive when you take that into account too but he had a 300 or more yard games this season so he was able to go off in some games he does have some return kick return punt return stats uh from 2023 as well I don't know that hey you will use him

Starting point is 00:22:26 in that way but as far as the pff grades go he had a just a 55 pro football focus grade in 2023 that's not great 378 snaps but he showed a lot of improvement from year one to year two at Albany he went up to a 69.3 pro football focus grade that's a very solid number anytime you're getting to those 70s or above, which he's right on the heels of, that's impressive stuff. And when you look at why it wasn't up to a 70, he actually, in the receiving game, had a 72.4 grade. So for that specifically, it was good.

Starting point is 00:22:57 The reason it got knocked down a little bit, he only had a 52.5 in run blocking. So that'll be something that he'll have to do better at KU, and he'll have to do better if he wants to get on the field because k who very much prioritizes it but also because ku prioritizes it and coaches it up i'd imagine that number is going to go up in his time at lawrence uh he did play against west virginia this season he had two catches for 58 yards he had a 49 yarder 65.5 pff grade so he was solid in a game against a team that you just played this past season right um what i find interesting is you know i mentioned this with cam pickett who is the other transfer

Starting point is 00:23:31 portal recruit you got uh you got him from ball state and he's a player who's really good yard after catch really good with the ball in his hands he kind of becomes your like trevor wilson replacement like not in terms of i think production i think you won't like you it's different because if trevor wilson would have been on a team this year where hypothetically one of quentin skinner lj arnold and luke grimm would have you know left the season before trevor wilson gets more playing time and that's how i view it with cam pickett cam pickett is kind of a trevor wilson replacement in terms of his play style what he's good at but on a team this year that has more opportunity for if trevor

Starting point is 00:24:05 wilson was on it if that kind of makes sense um then i look at doug amelian as being kind of the luke grim replacement i'm just talking like style of play not necessarily production here right uh being your kind of slot receiver who's going to be a good route runner and dependable right um then when you look at it here with levi went, I think there's – you watch some highlights of him making jump ball catches, making deep ball catches, and you can see a little bit of a Quentin Skinner replacement. But when you look at some of the numbers, I think this is more of an LJ Arnold replacement because you look at it, and on Pro Football Focus, he did his best work. He had his best production between the numbers 10 to 20 yards down the field and that's where lj arnold especially in the 2023 season was at his best was those intermediate routes those deep crossing routes those routes over the middle 10 to 20 yards down the field that he was able to get

Starting point is 00:24:57 the ball in his hands and get open and you know make yards after catch from there that is an area where wentz excelled at this season and so i think from that perspective also six two you know bigger body receiver not as big as a skinner but big like an arnold um i i view him as being that kind of uh replacement in that way to just in terms of again like kind of style of play so the question is can you find somebody who replaces that kind of skinner level player can kind of you know blow the top off the defense that'll be a big question for ku is there somebody already on the roster that you know is going to take a big jump up that we don't know about or one of the freshmen coming in with you know like a jay nickens or bryson hayes who can really fly

Starting point is 00:25:36 for maze or like is i i just don't really know enough about king quebec as game honestly like what type of receiver is he right And what is he going to provide? But I actually really like this addition. And I know some people might be, I don't know. Again, like I said, I think some people, it's not that they don't like the addition. It's that they feel a little underwhelmed by what has happened at the receiver position.

Starting point is 00:26:00 And it does feel like, yes, they have been lacking in the recruiting level from the receiver position. But I do like this addition for KU. 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. And we will be back sometime, breaking news or later next week. You'll find us right here with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - How Lance Leipold's Additions of TE Keyan Burnett, DE Caleb Redd & WR Levi Wentz Impact KU Jayhawks

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