Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Adds '24 RB Harry Stewart to Bolster One of Program's Best Classes

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

Lance Leipold and the Kansas Jayhawks football team added yet another class of 2024 commitment - their 4th in 3 days - with top 600 Nationally ranked running back Harry Stewart from Texas. What it means for the future of the running back room with Devin Neal, Daniel Hishaw, Johnny Thompson, Red Martel and more. And how it adds another piece to one of KU's best ever football recruiting classes currently being developed by the staff.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege and when you enter promo code, LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas has another one for the class of 2024 in football. Harry Stewart becomes one of their two best recruiting prospects coming in for the class. We talk about him, what it means for the running back group, and again, continuing to build an unbelievable class for KU on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Eric Johnson, you can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KL klwn in lawrence thanks for making locked on jayhawks your first listen every day we are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts

you can find us on youtube as well like and subscribe to the show and on today's edition of locked on jayhawks we're talking harry stewart the latest commitment for the class of 2024 we just had an episode yesterday talking about the three commitments KU got from over the weekend. They had another one in tow. Who knows? Maybe there's going to be more that join them eventually down the road, too. It seems like, you know, the commitments are flying left and right for KU these days. So looking forward to that and what it means for the running back position with the second best recruit now in the class of 2024 per the 24-7 sports rankings and the class of 2024 overall.

First episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Bird Dogs. Go to birddogs.com slash lockedoncollege, and when you enter promo code LOCKEDONCOllege, they'll throw in a free custom Bird Dogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order. So KU gets a hold of Harry Stewart, a class of 2024 running back. He becomes the fourth commit in tow just over the past few days from that mega visit that KU had over the weekend. We talked about the three on yesterday's episode. Check it out if you missed it. And now Stewart becomes the most recent. Yesterday, you had a corner come in and Alexander, who became the top

recruit for the class by the 24-7 composite for the rankings. Stewart becomes the second best recruit in the class now for the rankings, which has already become a very successful class for KU. He's a 5'10", 205-pound running back from Centennial High School in Frisco, Texas. He's the number 35 running back on the 24-7 sports rankings. When you put it together with the composite rankings, he's number 45. He's also the 575th recruit nationally. That makes him, as I mentioned, KU's second highest ranked commit, only behind Austin Alexander. I always talk about top 1,000 recruits are a big deal for KU. Usually you might only land three, four, five, you know,

top 1,000 recruits in a class at least over the past, you know, 15 years in KU's time. But you're reeling them in. And this kid obviously top 600, an even bigger deal. He had offers from a lot of good schools at the Power 5 level. Baylor, obviously most notably among them, competing with them in the big 12 coming into their own state and getting them away from their Boston college, Cal BYU, now a big 12

school among many others. Here was the scouting report from Gabe Brooks, who did it for 24 seven sports, typically hits the hole with purpose and makes good use of his size. He also mentioned that he hasn't officially measured, but that he does look all of the 5'10", 205 pounds, regularly breaks arm tackles and shows above average contact balance, fairly light on his feet and displays enough wiggle to make the first defender miss in space. That's a lot of the time how running backs are going to be judged. Are you going to make the first defender miss right sometimes you can only block so many guys or sometimes you do block it perfectly but if you

can't make the first guy miss it might be a five-yard gain which you know still is going to be beneficial but that one missed tackle could change it to a 10-yard gain to a first down to maybe even a touchdown right so that's a big big uh factor for all good running back step also has flashed second level creativity to elude multiple defenders to extend big plays can be dangerous as a one-cut runner with good north-south juice and i think that's important because when you look at a lot of what this system when you are using the wide zone and i know ku hasn't always done that here in the first couple years because maybe it just hasn't been as successful to start off from what they were doing at Buffalo they adjust to the talent they have

you're doing the speed option stuff like that last year but if you are going to use some of those wide zone concepts even for just a few plays a game or if you are going to staple down on that in the future being a north-south runner who's a good one-cut runner that's so important because basically you have to follow the hole find the hole to the outside and then make that one cut runner. That's so important because basically you have to follow the hole, find the hole to the outside, and then make that one cut based on a read that the running back is getting into the defense. So you have to have a good one cut running ability. And you know who is a good one cut running back? Devin Neal, right? I think sometimes the one cut runners, maybe they don't get as much flash as the guys who are like juking everybody out or as much flash as the guys who are running people over, but it's just as viable of an option because just having good vision knowing men to make good cuts

and being able to burst through after that cut makes you really successful again look at devin neal that's a lot of how you would describe his game so uh that's obviously a good thing there for for gabe brooks uh he's also in this scattering port capable pass catcher strong verified speed in multi-sport capacity a sub 11 second 100 yard dash a sub 22 second 200 yard dash he has a track and field background so he's got track and field speed at texas which are in the state of texas which is a place that you have to be very fast to do well in in track and in football and he has done well in both those areas. This is the last little blurb from Gabe Brooks.

I'm just kind of picking and choosing from some of the stuff that he said there. Traitsy back who possesses coveted size slash speed verified speed combination among the top backs in Texas high school football's 2024 class with development upside derived from size and speed combo projects as a power five prospect who could become a multi-year starter with a ceiling beyond the college game you are getting a fast athletic strong high potential running back here that goes into a system that loves to use their running backs and when they have good ones have opportunities whether it was at buffalo or now here with kansas with your devin ne of the world, have an opportunity to make a big impact and put up big production and have award types of seasons. And that's really exciting. And obviously, you know, you really build things

in the trenches and you need the good quarterbacks, but you got to have the good skill players too, especially if you want to play the speed option game. And we always hear, you know, the importance of having multiple backs in ku system andy kodelnicki in year one talked about the pair in the spare idea that you want to have a good pair of running backs and a spare behind them so you're constantly looking to keep that running back room loaded and boy is it pretty loaded right now and it looks like it's going to be pretty loaded for the foreseeable future with the addition of harry stewart in addition to what you already have johnny thompson coming in this year the guys that are currently on the roster that could have multiple years left you already

had a running back recruit in Red Martel who's one of your top high school recruits for this upcoming class I mean you could have a really exciting running back room like you already kind of have over the past few years but you'll continue that kind of lineage down the road I want to talk more about that running back room what this means means for 2024, what it means for the future beyond that, what it means for the recruiting class at that position. First, though, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Bird Dogs. Bird Dogs make you look good. They're that dress short type of feel or at least the look on the outside

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for a free Yeti style tumbler. You won't take your bird dogs off. We promise you that. All right. On to the running back position. Thoughts now with the addition of Harry Stewart to the group. Stewart obviously becomes a really talented back, but you've got some other really talented backs in there too red martel committed to the program johnny thompson just came in and is joining the

team for this upcoming year as a true freshman you have current guys like devin neal and daniel highshaw that are you know really explosive and talented savion morrison former four-star recruit who uh you saw some flashes from last year can you have a bigger bigger role this year? You have a lot of promise in that room. Dylan McDuffie, you add in, is a guy who's had real college production. There's a lot of talent in that running back room and in the future of the running back room. Obviously, with the class of 2024 having Red Martel under commitment and now having this kid under commitment with Harry Stewart, you probably

feel like they're going to be done recruiting the running back position for the class of 2024 um now what does this mean for red martel will red martel view this as like oh you're bringing in another running back uh i'm gonna decommit now or does it maybe insinuate at all that ku isn't totally certain that red martel was going to end up signing on the dotted line for KU? Those are both possibilities. But also, like going back to the Andy Kotelnicki parent, a spare comment, KU plays multiple running backs. There were when Daniel Hyshaw was healthy last year and he was having a really good start to the year. But you think back to the West Virginia game in Morgantown, both Devin Neal and Daniel Highshot each had 10 carries and they both had good production.

Right. So realistically, you're going to be playing more multiple running backs, meaning that it's not that big of a deal. If you bring in two in the same class, like both are probably still getting a playing time if they work out to be good enough to deserve that playing time. Right. So I don't think it's that big of a deal but yeah maybe it does mean something more at the very least i i would expect that ku wouldn't want more than two running backs in a recruiting class now come 2024 when both martel and stewart would be freshmen at ku you would be looking at a running back group that uh dylan mcduffie would be gone after this year so that's one of your top four or five running backs, whatever you want to say. Because I think with Neil, Hyshaw, McDuffie, Morrison, Lachlan,

those are probably your five running backs in some order. Maybe you want to throw Johnny Thompson. So those are your top six in whatever order you want to go with. So McDuffie is going to be gone. He'll graduate at the end of the year. Devin Neal will have a decision to make. If Devin Neal has another productive season, another good year, he's going to have a decision to make if Devin Neal has another productive season another good year he's gonna have a decision to make whether he goes pro or not and you know even

for running backs like a lot of times they'll just go pro because they do have such a limited tread on their tire for the length of their career that they're going to be able to have at the professional level just because that position lasts a little less so it wouldn't be shocking if Devin Neal went pro at the end of the year based on what he's already produced if he does it again this year as a junior and you know KU takes another step forward and he gets that notoriety and limelight with him but he could be back or he could be gone who knows uh Savion Morrison and Torrey Laughlin I believe are both redshirt juniors this year that would mean both would be redshirt seniors come 2024. Daniel Hyshaw is a redshirt sophomore due to a redshirt in the COVID year.

He still has two years left. So come 2024, he would still be like a junior technically at that point. And then you have Johnny Thompson, who would either be a sophomore or a redshirt freshman at that point in time. So come 2024, when you add both Martel and Stewart, you'd still have a pretty loaded running back room. Again, McDuffie would graduate, and that would leave possibly some opening for a bit of playing time, a bit of carries. But overall, you could still potentially have a senior Devin Neal, senior Savion Morrison, Torrey Laughlin, junior Daniel Hyshaw, second year of Johnny Thompson to where it's going

to be tough to get that playing time maybe right away. But if Devin Neal does leave early and goes pro, then you have a competition for the starting running back. At that point, you think with another year in between, then you have a competition for the starting running back. At that point, you think with another year in between, Daniel Hyshaw's the guy, but you never know how he's going to respond to this latest injury, right? Like, you never know how guys are going to come off of stuff like that, let alone like a dislocated hip.

Like, that's not an injury that we have a huge track record of guys for. Like, usually it's more like knee injury type stuff. So you don't know how that's all going to work. But I think the real year that you're looking at all this making a big impact on ku is 2025 and beyond so once you get to 2025 you're talking about devin neal's gone at that point savion morrison dylan mcduffie tory lachlan all gone so that's four of your your current top six daniel highshaw at that point could be back for what would be his like sixth year of college

at running back if he has a good enough year in the next couple years maybe he goes pro because he sees the tread on the tire thing and you know he's already had some of the injuries that he's had to deal with but maybe you have Hyshaw back as a starter come 2025 beyond that though the depth would be open you would have Johnny Thompson with multiple years left you would have year two of Martel and or Stewart at that point so you'd have those four guys competing for really your top two, top three spots, or maybe even your starting spot. And if high Shaw's done with football by that point, then it is the three guys. And then once you get to 2026, you're looking at Thompson, Martel, and Stewart as your top three running backs in some order based on who beats out the other one in those different battles throughout the offseason.

So you are looking at somebody who, right, there is a very clear path to, like, when you would get playing time, when you would potentially be a starter moving forward. But it's nice that you have, I mean, as we're going through here, you get to 2026, then you can get to 2027 and be like, well, that could still be, you know, another year with one of these recruits in the recruiting class talking about that

you feel like your blueprint your plan for the running back position is pretty well covered all the way from this year all the way for three four five years down the road and that is very exciting to cover that up at a position that you know gets a lot of publicity, gets a lot of notoriety, and you have a lot of talent there, and you seem to continue that trend moving forward. I want to finish up here with Locked on Jayhawks with what means overall for the class of 2024, because we talked a little

bit about this on yesterday's episode, that it is just brimming with talent, that there is a surplus of talent from what we're used to seeing in Lawrence coming in with one of these KU football recruiting classes. And I want to dig even more into that as KU now has another commit, another really good one with Harry Stewart. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

We'll come back later this week. And as I've been talking about, there's some plans to do some deep dives on some possible KU basketball transfer targets. I don't know if they're done or not. We'll eventually get to maybe some of those players that are still out there and kind of deep dive into their game and what they can bring. But KU football just keeps bringing in recruits.

So totally cool talking about that too. And that is the case today. Harry Stewart, class of 2024, running back, commits to the program. He becomes the ninth commit to join the recruiting class for KU in 2024. Again, the fourth from just this past weekend. So Lance Leipold's absolutely cleaning up there.

He met with the media the other day and talked about how they try to be as honest as possible with these players. They tell them about the shortcomings, things that they're still trying to improve on, whether it's certain facility stuff or whatever. They tell them the honest thing about what your playing time's going to be, you're coming them the honest thing about you know what your

playing time is going to be you're coming in to compete like you're not going to be given anything they're honest with them they're forthright they're truthful with it i think that helps in a lot of these recruiting battles um that you're not getting like a phony message that's coming in you can honestly see it and you have a consistent message with all your coaches that comes from you know having a good leader a good ceo in lance leipold that That comes from having a good leader, a good CEO in Lance Leipold. That also comes from having continuity as a coaching staff, which Kansas has. But he has the ninth commit. Last year, I think Kansas brought in

14 high school commits. I believe only 13 of them ended up making it to campus, technically. Like Jacoby Davis, I think, is gray-shirting. So Davis will join Kansas eventually, but it'll be after uh this upcoming semester i think jameel croft is yet to arrive but leipold said that the plan is for him to arrive at some point shortly here so i don't know what the holdup is there but yeah that would give you 13 of the

14 nonetheless kansas is not going to be at a point where they're bringing in 20 25 men recruiting classes anymore because of the transfer portal right they're going to bring in 12 13 14 15 17 somewhere in that range high school kids and then they're gonna they're gonna supplant the rest of the roster with the transfer portal because that is such a valuable good option at this stage of the way that college football and college athletics is kind of gone and they've gotten good players to further cement building the roster that way um so they are getting closer to being done than you might think with nine commits. Like it's not like they're only a third of the way there. That means that let's say they only had last year's the 14 commits. They only got five to go.

So they can be a little selective. They can be a little picky, which I think is probably good at this point in time. And you're more so going for the guys. Like if you have a couple of guys who want to commit at a position, you can maybe then at that point be like, okay, this is the one we really want though um that can be a good thing uh it's also funny because when you look at how good this recruiting class is and how many you know top 1,000 recruits or whatever it matches up with like any past Kansas recruiting class and that's with them only having nine players and that's with them only probably getting to a 15-man class

whereas you look at past years where Kansas has brought brought in five six seven top 1000 commits and they might have a 25 man class so the quant the quality of player even if you're not bringing as much quantity the quality of player has been unbelievable for this class upcoming of 2024 stewart gives kansas their seventh top 1000 commit for the class of 2024. That is the most that Kansas has had since 2014, which was a class led by Daniel Wise. It is the most 12 of them in a two year span because they had five last year, now seven for five in the class of 2023, seven now for the class of 2024 in over a decade. And it goes further back than that, but there's only so much data that you can find on that stuff. And now, too, you look at it.

And if you go back there, there's this cool little tab you can go to on 24-7 sports that shows the top rated recruits. And it's not by their ranking that year. It's not by like you were 200th, you were 300th. It's by your grade. So it's like you'll notice on the composite they might be like a 86.08 or a 91.12 right and so it's based on that and it shows all the top recruits all the top commits that kansas has gotten in the 24-7 sports you know recruiting era which goes i don't know 2000 i think there's database on stuff to like 99 but i think with the rankings themselves it only goes back to like the

mid-2000s and uh if you get rid of the juco players if you just look at the players who were high school commits nine of the top 50 ku football high school recruits over the last three classes so the class of 2022 the class of 2023 which are going to be your incoming freshmen and the class of 2024 which is your next year's freshmen nine of the top 50 have been in the last three classes you have alexander who just committed to you the other day he's eighth stewart who just committed you know here he's 18th jayden ham calvin clements two of your local in-state kids who committed late in this past year's class their 20th and 25th brian dillworth who seems to be you know soaring up and

and you've heard good talk about him in the offseason with ways that he's improved in the secondary he's 34th red martel who's committed for 2024 he's 44th isaiah marshall your possible quarterback of the future he's 45th jameel croft who we just mentioned him he should be joining here you would think shortly he's 47th um jacoby davis who had talked about gray shirting he's 48th and then saraz bunkum who joined early at the semester for spring ball and will be a freshman this year he's 49th so you have lance leipold here who is just cleaning up and recruiting that wasn't what he was known for when coming in it was known for development and game management and some of those other things that now you're recruiting at a really high level maybe a higher

level than we've seen kuU football be able to do, and that is just unbelievable how many dividends that's going to pay off. Now, obviously, there's pressure. You have to perform well this season. If you come out and you have three and nine, how many of these kids are going to decommit? There is pressure to keep building, keep doing what you've been doing. Make another bowl game this year.

Keep these kids committed. Keep them in tow. You're still going to have to fight off certain recruiting battles with other people. But this is a heck of a start for KU football, and it just keeps getting better and better by the day. All right, that's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back later this week. As I said, probably going to do a basketball deep dive. But again, if more stuff comes up like this, then we'll get to that as well.

You can find us anywhere you get any of the podcasts. You can find us on YouTube as well. Like show if possible helps us out subscribe if you could too that's also positive on our end and uh we'll see you next time with the hawks