Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - JAYHAWK OVERHAUL: Lance Leipold’s Portal Strategy REVOLUTIONIZES Kansas With Plenty of Added Size

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks football overhaul their roster with over 25 transfer portal additions, spotlighting Lance Leipold's accelerated strategy to beef up the trenches. Can the infusion of size and athleticism—headlined by standouts like Corey Gordon, Daveon Crouch, and Nik McMillan—catapult KU into Big 12 contention or a bowl game in 2026? Derek Johnson breaks down KU’s recruitment frenzy, analyzing defensive line upgrades, linebacker room revivals, and the search for game-changing skill position talent. Explore key themes such as the push for bigger bodies, remaining scholarship targets, and intriguing portal visits. Stay tuned for insights on outgoing Jayhawks’ destinations, surprises in the eligibility battle, and the enduring impact of these bold moves on KU’s football future. 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! GametimeToday'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. WayfairGet last-minute hosting essentials, gifts for all your loved ones, and decor to celebrate the holidays for WAY less.Head to https://Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.  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) Stay up-to-date on the Kansas Jayhawks every day, as Derek Johnson of Rock Chalk Sports Talk on KLWN, the flagship KU station in Lawrence, brings you analysis and the latest on KU with the Locked On Jayhawks Podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOJayhawks?sid=YouTube Locked On College Conferences, HBCU, Basketball & More 🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnCollege #KansasJayhawks #CollegeFootball #CollegeBasketball Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a pretty incredible transfer portal hall for Lance Lightbuilding Company, the volume, the speed in which they've done it, some of the key players they've added. We're going to break it all down, recap everything that's happened so forth, the themes of this class of editions, and more on this episode of the show. 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. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And thank you for making Lockdown

the number one sports podcast network. On today's episode of the show, we are going to be breaking down KU Football's portal commits and the themes of the edition so far, the visits and offers that are still out there, departures of players picking new destinations and what it can kind of tell us about,

you know, some of the players that they lost. Before we get in any of that, today's episode of the show is brought to you by Fandul. College football playoff is up to the title game and Fandual is the best place to get into the action for the playoff finale. So visit Fandual.com to get your cultural football playoff profit boosts every game day with Fandual. Okay, so let's just start here. KU is now sitting on at least as I'm recording this, it changes seemingly every hour.

25 transfer portal commits. If you counted Matthew Gill, the punter from Australia, who it's I guess more of a high school recruit. I guess it would go into that than transfer. then it'd be 26, but 25 right now. And the speed at which they have filled this with all the holes they had is pretty incredible. I mean, I can only imagine the long nights in the office for the KU coaching staff and credit to the coach's wives for probably dealing with these past couple of weeks and everything. But here is just a quick rundown of everything that KU has added so far. So they've bolstered the defensive line.

David Santiago, transfer from Michigan State, who can be a strong side defensive end, previously. was at Air Force Solid Edition there. You pick up a couple of defensive tackles in Trayvon McAlpine and Eman Smalls, who come in as a, you know, defensive tackles and can play the nose tackle and both productive players at the American Athletic Conference level. Really liked both of those additions. You added Jibril Conday back in December as a Division II transfer for maybe an upside swing coming in from D2.

Then you added some really large men to the offensive line. Connor Stroh, who started some games for Texas. Triselle Jenkins Jr., more of a long-term piece coming over from D2 at Wayne State, but somebody who has the D1 body, Nick Morrow, who's 6'8, has played a lot of left tackle snaps at Cal, and then Kaysen Carpenter, who has played a lot of snaps between Tulsa and Oklahoma State to come in potentially as a center. So they've really beefed up along the lines of scrimmage here.

Then you look at the linebacker rehaul that KU has had, Davion Crouch, the biggest name on board, the transfer from Boston College was a team captain. I was watching a little bit of his film. I watched one of his games against Louisville back in 2024 when he was healthy. And he looks pretty athletic. I don't know. Bengali Camaro wore number one.

Davian Crouch was wearing number one. I'm not saying he was Bengali Camara athletically. But like there were there's more athleticism than I thought kind of coming into it, I guess, right? And that was kind of impressive. So I'm excited to kind of dive into a little bit more there. But he's one of KU's best portal edition so far. Geron Willis, a transfer from South Carolina,

who's played a lot of special teams for them. Quincy Davis, who had some really intriguing pro football focus grades from New Mexico State. And how does that level up at KU? Landon Watson, a former highly recruited player who has bounced around a few different schools and looking to make his mark here. He had a productive year a couple of years ago at Marshall. And then Jibril Alameen, who just was at Marshall,

and had a productive year there. So you have completely rehauled the linebacker room after losing basically the entire linebacker room outside of a couple freshmen in there. Then there's the defensive back additions. Jaden Harris comes over from Georgia. Before that, he was a starter at Miami. Christian Pritchett, more of a special teams guy at Georgia Tech. Key John Cummings Coleman was getting big playing time for Iowa State as a redshirt freshman

this past year before a season ending injury. He'll be one to watch. Roman Pearson comes in. is a six-foot-two corner from Ball State before that Bucknell and has had some collegiate success. Elijah Cannon, kind of a long-term intriguing option transfer from Mississippi State. And then the most recent was Corey Gordon. Gordon figures to be one of the best transfer additions for KU and the portal as well,

the transfer over from Louisville. And obviously, you kind of compare some of these guys to the guys you lost versus the guys you gained. I do think this is an upgrade for KU over layer crawls. then you look at the offensive skill moves. Jalen Dupree is a running back from Colorado State. Rams fans were sad to lose him, and that should tell you a little bit about, you know,

what kind of kid he is. And he's one of those running backs who just, he just chugs along and keeps you on schedule. He's got a good kind of burst through the first 10 yards, not the most explosive, but he's going to just be a solid runner for you, which seems very much up Lance Leipold and how they want to identify.

themselves as an offense alley. Then you brought in the thunder. Yassine Willis a 235 pound back to try to be a battering ram for the offense to potentially pair with Dupree and maybe one of these young running backs the KU has. Nick McMillan is one of the other biggest portal additions for KU so far. The transfer from Buffalo was a first team all-max selection and put up bonkers numbers over the final six games of the season. It's kind of just an all-around complete receiver. You added a couple tight ends in there, Jalen Butler and Carter Moses. Both of them, the pro football focus grades, a little more sour on, but you can see some of the positive traits in each of them that the KU coaching staff would have liked. And obviously with the success that the KU staff has had with developing tight ends,

with scheming tight ends open, you figure both those guys could have their best seasons collegiately at Kansas. And then you have those specialists coming in, mentioned Matthew Gill, the punter from Australia. We don't have a ton on him. Martin Connington, who, you know, missed a few more kicks than you would like, but he was a redshirt freshman, former highly recruited kicker, showed his potential by hitting a 50-yarder. He could potentially be the solution for KU at kicker for three years. Yvreno Montefort, who is a transfer long snapper,

was at Cal before that was part of the Notre Dame team that made it to the college football playoff championship game. So that is a lot of quick summarizations of these players that KU brought on. If you want any individual breakdowns, we've done 10-minute episodes, on all of these players. We combine the specialists into one 10-minute episode, but everybody else, we have done 10-plus minutes on an individual breakdown episode. And we're going to try to watch some film and do some more stuff with that down the line on some of these players.

But what are the themes of this class so far? I think one would be the emphasis on the line of scrimmage. Obviously, Kegu has added a lot to a lot of different positions. But when you look at who they added first, that tells me that those were the priorities. I get it. Sometimes you might not be able to get a certain player in for a visit to later or whatever. but like you would think some of the first players you have visiting and are trying to get committed are some of your first priorities just from a standpoint.

But like again, you look at, you know, making Cory Gordon that edition. Like that's one of KU's bigger additions and that was later. So it's not a rule for everyone. But in general, that feels like a thing. And a lot of those guys were linemen for KU. And it feels like an emphasis on getting bigger just in general was a big thing for Lance Leipold and his staff, right? That's obviously true on the line.

look at the offensive line now. Connor Stro's 6.7.340. Nick Morrow's 6'8, 315. Calvin Clemens was already like 6-6 as a starting line. Triselle Jenkins. I mean, you might as well just be Tree Jenkins because he's gigantic. Six foot six, three hundred and thirty pounds. Like you added some real size to the offensive line.

The defensive line, you look at McAlpine and Smalls, both big dudes who look the part. Like they are going to fill the hole and be every bit of what KU needs for some extra beef on the line of scrimmage. You even look at some of the like db editions. Corey Gordon six foot two. Roman Pearson has a corner is six foot two. You look at the running back additions. Jayland Dupree and Yacine Willis are both bigger backs, especially in the case of Willis. So this has been a theme all offseason for KU. I don't know if it was intentional or if it's just the players that they happen to line up that fit with them and fit into their budget and players they liked. But it feels intentional to me. It feels like they're saying, hey, we weren't big enough

last year and we want to get even bigger this year and play a little bit of bully ball. And I love that idea from Lance Leipold and company. So what still needs to be potentially added for KU? Well, they're at a point right now where I have them in the low 80s for scholarships right now, which means at any point you could be done. Right. Like there is no rule that you have to play. I think at the very least KU probably wants to play with 85 because that was the scholarship limit before rev share. So they probably want to at least get to. to that 85 number, right? So you're probably looking at adding a couple more from here. But from that on, like, if you want to play with 85 or if you want to play with 90, like,

you're good with either of those numbers. Obviously, there becomes a certain number where the dollar figures the number that starts mattering, where it's like, do you have any more budget to tap into to go to 90 guys versus going to 87? Are you better off, you know, paying somebody a little bit more to be a quality 86th guy for you than paying an 87th and an 88th? Like, those are questions you have to operate. But, I think they could probably use one more starting level linebacker unless Trey Lathen returns. So as of right now, even though there was the tweet out from Trey Lathen that he was planning on entering the portal, he hasn't officially enter the portal.

So that's going to be on watch all week long because he has till Friday to officially enter the portal where he's back with Kansas. I think they could use a speedy receiver. I like the size that they've added to the running back room. I'm sorry, he's a speedy running back. I like the size they've added to the running back room, but you probably need somebody who's explosive and can kind of get a breakaway here or there. And then probably one more receiver for the two deep, whether they decide to get a starting level receiver or somebody who can just be, you know,

confidently on the two deep. I think that'll be interesting with how that fits into the budget for KU. And then you look at lesser needs at this point. Like these are depth pieces. Like maybe you could use one more offensive line depth piece. Maybe you could use one more defensive tackle if it works into the budget. You could probably always use more depth at any of these positions, including corner and safety. So maybe you add one more guide either of those, right?

Do you bring in a developmental pass rushing defensive end? You know, we can be a long-term guy because KU seems to have their kind of top four or five set, right? And do you bring in like a veteran quarterback for more depth? I don't think I'm expecting at this point, but like, you know, maybe the right situation lines up. Maybe it's a juco player just to give you another kind of. body in the room there. But yeah, I think those at this point are the needs left for KU. They have dwindled down.

It is very fine. And we're at the point where, you know, probably the additions left are on one hand. All right. Who are some of the other players that have visited or been offered for KU that at this point of time, either haven't picked KU or aren't committed and are still out there for the Jayhawks. Plus, we're going to break down a little bit on where some of the current J.Hawks are, were current in 2025, are going to be playing in 2026.

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So just hit us up in the show notes or go to Lockdownpodcast.com slash Everydayer. Okay, so who are some of the recent visits for KU? Devon Dozier is somebody per Colton solely of the Oklahoma. And I don't know if that visit actually happened or not. He just mentioned that KU would be one of them. He was talking about it because Oklahoma was one of the teams that he was visiting. So he was two years at Arkansas, then one in 2025.

at Appalachian State. He's a 6'4, 205-pound wide receiver. He had just two career catches for Arkansas, but then had a nice year for Appalachian State, 20 catches for 448 yards and five touchdowns. So it's a big play receiver. 83rd percentile nationally in EPA per target, 72nd percentile nationally in yards per target,

though just 17th percentile success rate. So he's not like every down consistent guy, but he's kind of like a, you know, I can make one. or two big catches a game type of guy. And, you know, for KU, that's probably a good thing, right? Because you feel like you have a little bit of the reliability in Nick McMillan. You feel like you have some of the reliability in Kampickett,

maybe even like Keaton-Khek and Kato. Dozier could be your big play guy. I would like that as in addition for KU, especially a bigger body receiver, who's 6'4 for young quarterbacks to throw it up to in the red zone. Then you have Jack Lairor, another giant on the offensive line, 6'7, 285 pounds. This according to Chris Hummer for the Kansas visit. He's played guard and tackle for Stanford since 2021. He's going to be a graduate senior in 2026, but over a thousand career snaps for him.

His last year of play was 2024. He because he, I think he was hurt in 2025. He had just a 55.6 PFF grade on a bad Stanford team, but he did play 6993. He was the team starting left tackle for two games, left guard for eight games, and one more appearance off the bench, even one game off the bench at right tackle. So very experienced player that could help you with your depth on the offensive line because he would fill a lot of different holes to me. This would be kind of your swing, sixth man in the offensive line that would just help you

in a lot of different areas. Then there's some offers. Jeffrey Manns the second was a Jucco defense tackle that I liked, but he picked Arizona State. Jamal Wallace is a 6'3-3-313 pounder from Tennessee defensive tackle. He'll be a red trainer, seven tackles. in nine career games played. So he would kind of fit the billing of some of these other transfers KU's added that, you know,

Geron Willis, Christian Pritchett, guys who are coming from power universities that are looking for maybe a little bit more playing time or maybe they got, you know, pushed out or squeezed out of their current school because they want to open up spots. And they're just looking for another power for opportunity, right? So you had a 59.1 PFF grade in 78 snaps.

And if he can be a cheaper edition for your fifth or sixth defensive tackle, obviously the depending slash there is how good Jibril Conday is, then great. And, you know, like that could be an upgrade in snaps for him, right? You're playing 78 snaps this past season for Tennessee. Even if you're the fifth defensive tackle on KU, because of the way they're rotating, sub guys in, KU's fifth defensive tackle last year in terms of just the fifth most snaps plate, was 186. So that's more than doubling your snaps.

Then we have, I don't know if it's Racken or racing Delgatti. Great name there, but six foot three, 300 pounds center from Cal Poly. over 1,300 career snaps with a 67 PFF grade for him. And 2025 had a 62 in run block and an elite 80 grade in pass blocking at center. But he ended his visit without committing. And then KU added Kason Carpenter, the offensive lineman from Oklahoma State who can play some center. So you wonder if those things are connected that maybe he's going to pick somebody else. But that would be a good addition.

Then there's Dera A. Adiemi, who is a 6'7 lineman who is actually a defensive line. lineman for two years at Bucknell. Then he became an offensive lineman in 2025. Limited snaps. He had good pass blocking numbers on pro football focus, not the best run blocking numbers, but honestly kind of amazing.

He just got on the field at all after making that transition. So maybe kind of a depth developmental piece that you could potentially have there in him. And then there's also been some reported interest, Leland Smith from San Jose State as a receiver, but he picked UCLA. You have Collins Atchampong, who's a defensive end.

like 6'7, that'd be adding more size for KU, defensive end from Bowling Green. And then there's some other ones out there that seems like KU is still looking for potentially a starting level receiver from some of these schools, maybe again looking for, you know, one of those other defensive tackles potentially. So the names are still coming. It's just slowing down a little bit.

The number of commits is going to slow down a little bit here for KU. The roster is finally looking more set. And the beauty of this now, because we just have the one transfer for portal period, right? We're not going to be talking all Springball about, hopefully this guy stays after he took all your starter reps in Springball when you could have developed this other player. So anyway, we do know some of the new locations of some of the former Kansas Jayhawks

who are going to be on new teams in 2026. Let's get to all that next. It's a little bit of an interesting situation with the Die Brothers and Dean Miller. Today's episode of the show was brought to you by Wayfair. The New Year's here. And it's the perfect time to reset your routine, refresh your space. If you're spending more time at home, you might as well love how it feels and it looks. That's why you should turn to Wayfair.

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Locked on college basketball to get you ready for, man, March is going to be here in what, like seven, eight weeks? KU's got to figure it out anyway. Okay, KU players who have left in the situations they've gone to, what does it tell us? And then kind of an interesting thing with the Dye brothers and Dean Miller here. So let's start here. Kenne and Nene went to North Dakota State.

Then you have some other FCS transfers down for KU. Andre Gibson goes to Northern Area. Arizona. So you lose a couple players there, but when you're losing them to the FCS level, again, the FCS level can be a good level. KU brings on guys from D2 and the FCS, right? But it makes you feel like, it's like, okay, well, maybe you missed on the evaluation at a high school, so that's not good. But theoretically, did you have the chance to get a more productive player in the upcoming season out of the portal with that scholarship spot? Yes. So then you get Logan Brantley and Harry Stewart to Boise State.

That'll be very interesting because Boise is one of those group of fives that typically, you know, punches up a little bit more to see what they do over there. Tyler Mercer goes to Oklahoma States. You basically make a trade of one of their centers for Tyler Mercer and obviously reunites with his former North Texas head coach. I wonder if looking back with Kansas going five and seven and he's watching from afar and he's watching a lot of his former teammates at North Texas nearly make the college. ball playoff nearly win a conference championship win like 11, 12 games. If he was watching it from a far going, I made a mistake and I want to rejoin, you know, that situation. I wonder if that's what happened.

The biggest loss so far, both in terms of the school he wound up in and that we've mentioned to this point, John John Kamara goes to Wisconsin. So, you know, that obviously tells you that, you know, he had the eye of other teams and everything, though it doesn't end up with Jordan Peterson at K-State, which I think a lot of people were fearful of. So interesting there. And then you get Jaden Ham to Arkansas State. Graydon Grimes goes to Appalachian State.

Corey Stewart, Florida International. Joseph Sipp goes to Florida Atlantic. So some of the group of five schools there getting some love. And the SIP one is interesting because I believe he wanted more money from KU. I don't know if this was before Lathen left or after. And it was like, hey, you better. Is that a situation of overplaying your cards if you wind up at FAU because of it? I don't know. Maybe FAU has a bag that they're able to pay at some point of the time.

Just kind of a thought. I don't know. Maybe he wants to be, you know, you can probably go be the star at FAU. But anyway, story for another day. And then Lyrich Rawls, he goes to Arizona State. So that'll be interesting because now KU will play him this upcoming season. They'll play him in London. It's not a little bit of intrigue to that game.

And, you know, if I were KU, would I be throwing the football to the man he was guarding? I mean, you have to worry about that dude. getting a concussion because they might get lit up, but they also might not get touched. And then you have David McComb who goes to Miami of Ohio. And that one is interesting because, you know, when he entered the portal, a guy who was seriously going to be in the running for KU's starting quarterback. And who knows? I mean, again, I talked to some people that thought he was the best of the returning

quarterbacks for KU. The fact that he winds up at Miami of Ohio tells me that it wasn't a money thing. If this was a pure money thing and he wanted more money, from KU, which maybe he did. He changed his agents and maybe he did want a little bit more money. But I don't think it was just about the money. I think it might have been a little like maybe at Miami, Ohio, he feels even better about getting the starting role. Maybe he feels like he wasn't getting fair opportunities. Maybe he didn't get along with like the coaching staff in some way. Whatever it ends up being, he goes to Miami of Ohio. And I'm sure the idea for him is ball or you

then try to work your way back up to the power level. We'll see if it works out for him because I really did think that he was going to have a chance to be the starter for KU. So it would be very interesting and kind of track that one for years to come. And then the last bit of news here is the Die Brothers. So Devin and Jalen Die and then Dean Miller as well all entered the transfer portal. Right now they've exhausted their eligibility, but there's another one of these suits to kind of going around about, are the Juko year going to count at all? Because right now we're in a situation where it was just one Juko year did not count to your NCAA.

a eligibility. But if we get to a point where all the Juko years don't count, then those guys would still have eligibility. And potentially, they could just be entering the portal to just keep their eligibility going and then they could come back to KU or they can pick another school and try to figure it out from there. And this is something that would be very interesting to watch because it doesn't just have reverberations on KU football, on Big 12 football, on college football. It has reverberations on college basketball and it has reverberations on KU basketball. Melvin Council is somebody where if they just say, hey, your Juko years don't count at all to the NCAA years,

counsel could have another year for KU. I think KU basketball fans would be pretty supportive of that as well. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find a show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And we'll see you next time for another edition of L.O.J.