Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Adds New Hawk in Laquan Robinson from Auburn & ELITE punter Finn Lappin

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas and Lance Leipold have a new elite punter and they possibly have a new player to get the Hawk position. Transfer portal breakdown 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 happening? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show.

Starting point is 00:00:34 And thank you to you for listening wherever you are, wherever you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We're going to be breaking down some new KU football transfer portal additions on today's show. Lance Lightfield bringing in an elite punterter i do not mess around with that word and lake juan robinson is a player who could possibly be a hawk player for ku not just a jay hawk it's a position for the ku defense we'll explain what that means and get into that in today's episode plus we'll finish up here uh with a little bit about what are the remaining needs for KU and Lance Lightpool to try to fill in the portal. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime.

Starting point is 00:01:16 All right, so let's talk about Laquan Robinson off the rip here before we get into KU's new elite punter in Finn Lappin. This is Laquan Robinson. He is a safety slash linebacker coming from Auburn. So I don't know if him and Gage Keys were good buddies and Gage Keys put in a good word or, you know, he told Laquan Robinson, like, hey, trust me, like good things are going on around here, like come on out. Whatever ended up happening, I think works out for the best here for KU

Starting point is 00:01:42 and I think for Laquan Robinson. He 6'1", 204 pounds out of Greenville, Alabama. Now that size would probably be more corollary to what like a safety would be. Like Marvin Grant was around that weight. I think he was a little bit heavier, but, you know, that would kind of indicate safety. And he out of high school, out of Greenville, Alabama, went to Holmes Community College for two seasons. And so he ends up at Holmes Community College where he did play the safety position. Over two seasons at Holmes Community College, he totaled 95 tackles, 5.5 TFLs,

Starting point is 00:02:15 seven pass breakups, two interceptions, and a fumble recovery. And that production over the two years was enough for him to be ranked the 15th overall Juco recruit in the country at all positions. So top 20 Juco recruit in the country. Now, you know, some of those Juco rankings maybe are a little bit different now than they were five, 10 years ago before the portal really became rampant to this point in time. But I do think even though maybe there's not as much just depth of talent now at the JUCO ranks than there was maybe 10 years ago because players just bounce around the portal to other teams, it still is. It almost feels like to me it's now becoming an under-recruited area for people to go to because teams are just living in the transfer portal.

Starting point is 00:02:59 And I do think you can find some good talent at the JUCO level because of that, that it almost becomes the money ball, so to speak, right? Like where is value not being placed and can you find some there? So he ends up being ranked that. In addition to that, he was also ranked the number one safety at the junior college level, according to the 24-7 sports composite. So he ends up picking Auburn over other SEC offers like Texas A&M, like Arkansas. I mean, obviously for a guy from Greenville, Alabama, you'd imagine you get to play in your home state and play at Auburn. Probably a pretty cool dream come true for him. There were other schools that obviously offered as well, but those were the ones that kind of stuck out. this past season um and he played in just one game he recorded just five snaps so like i could tell you that he had a 72.6 pff grade and that sounds great but it was five snaps against alabama a and so i don't think there's really too much we can take um from you know the limited amount of playing time that he had this year for auburn he ended up being able to preserve a red shirt because he only

Starting point is 00:04:01 played in the one game so that's good because now that he comes over to kansas he comes in as a um i guess redshirt junior for the 2025 season right he'll be player played two years at juco redshirt at auburn he'll be redshirt junior so that gives him two seasons left for ku at least in theory and what i mean by that is basically um so diego pavia who is this really good quarterback for Vanderbilt, transferred from New Mexico State. Before he was at New Mexico State, Diego Pavia was at the junior college ranks. He ended up suing the NCAA this year for an extra year of eligibility. Basically, the basis of it was that his time at JUCO did not allow him know make nil money because he didn't have the same

Starting point is 00:04:46 notoriety like there's just not that level of um being able to you know make earnings from nil at the juco level that there would be obviously at the division one level and so basically suit them for an extra year of eligibility that the juco ranks shouldn't count and so what is going to be the repercussions of this like that remains to be seen is it going to have an impact on D2 and D3 and NAIA where those players could play at schools for four years there and then eventually come up to Division One and say that, well, I couldn't make NIL in my D2 and you're preventing me from being able to make money if you're saying I'm out of eligibility. So like, I have no idea how that stuff's going to work out.

Starting point is 00:05:19 And we don't need to get into all that on today's episode. But point being, he basically won the case. Now, it was kind of an individual thing for him so it's not that the ncaa has changed the rule to say that now all these juco players you know those years don't count but it basically created the framework and i'm far from a lawyer i'm far from knowing things in the court of law but i do believe that if you have like precedent over something over a court case winning that usually probably is pretty good for other people who if they wanted to sue the ncaa could probably operate under that same argument that cleared diego pavia and again i don't know if it

Starting point is 00:05:57 would be dependent on like what state is is occupying the the you know was this federal thing was it a state court i don't know i don't know how that all works again i'm far from knowing that sort of stuff um but basically it gets to a point where if enough kids start suing the ncaa and they're like hey i want my eligibility and they're winning the cases and the ncaa keeps losing which i feel like the ncaa just always loses in court no matter what it ends up being so like chances are that's going to happen and then all of a sudden the nc double is just like screw this why do we keep you know paying all these lawyer fees and losing all these these battles and losing pr all this stuff let's just make it that's the rule that's the rule now and we don't have to deal with it we don't have to get

Starting point is 00:06:37 sued anymore right until that kind of feels like that is where things are going now again it's not a guarantee and i don't know to what level that's going to mean, because Pavia's situation could end up being different than a player like Lake Juan Robinson. But circling this back in to what Lake Juan Robinson brings to the table at KU, if hypothetically we get to the point where the NCAA is saying, yeah, JUCO years don't count, then in theory, you would be having a player who would technically be a redshirt freshman by just NCAA rules so I think you'll look at it right now if you're Kansas and say okay you have two years left of Lake Juan Robinson but if you end up getting three you end up getting four that's just the cherry on top and you hope that certainly is the case for a team that as many seniors as they lost

Starting point is 00:07:19 or will lose I guess after this graduating year they're going to be losing a bunch more seniors after next season too so I think that'll be very interesting. Now, as far as how he impacts the team, he was a safety at the Juco Ranch, but he was a linebacker at Auburn. He ended up switching over to the linebacker position at Auburn and was part of the scout team. And was that just because Auburn was maybe thin on the scout team linebacker and they needed him to move up was that something where he benefited in playing there was you know what is that going to mean but I find that very interesting when you look at somebody who clearly between where he has played you almost view that as being like a linebacker safety tweener and maybe I shouldn't use the word tweener because I feel like that has a negative connotation and I don't want it to be like I think

Starting point is 00:08:03 that's a good thing for this specific role and this specific fit for KU because Kansas has played this Hawk position. And what the Hawk position is, is essentially your third linebacker slash fifth defensive back. And there are different rules of it for KU. They have different terminologies. Like there are certain downs where they call it a Cinco. And I believe that's when they're playing like a nickel defense typically a nickel defense is when you're playing a fifth defensive back nickel five right makes sense so they call it a cinco and in those more passing downs it typically is more of a db now in maybe more rundowns early downs that hawk position is more of somebody who's going to stop the run more of a linebacker who is more versatile to defend against the pass and

Starting point is 00:08:43 obviously ku felt like they had the best of both worlds when they had Craig Young who had the athleticism of a corner and a safety but had the the size of a linebacker last year or I guess this past year if you want to call it they had to sprinkle a little bit more right in certain situations it was Marvin Grant in other situations maybe it was Jason Gilliam or Alex Wright right so it just kind of depended maybe it was a third corner out there for KU just kind of depended. Maybe it was a third corner out there for KU. It just kind of depended on the situation. But if you have the right player to fit into that, it makes things so much easier. Now, we don't know if Kansas is going to still have a Hawk, right? Because it's a new defensive coordinator.

Starting point is 00:09:13 DK McDonald taking over for Brian Borland. Is it going to be the same? Is it going to be different? We'll see, right? But I do find it interesting that if you look back to what Iowa State has traditionally done, which is where DK McDonald was before Kansas, was before the Philadelphia Eagles, they typically play three safeties. And you probably want your third safety to be, you know, kind of a linebacker safety hybrid in that system. And so again, I look to Lake Juan Robinson. And so we don't know how good he's going

Starting point is 00:09:36 to be. Is he going to be good enough to like start right away? Is he going to be a player that's going to be on the two deep this year? And then we'll be a starter in 2026. Is he going to be somebody who is just, you know, depth and provides a good piece of depth for you in special teams player like we don't know because again there's not a lot to go on in the auburn game but i think based on the juco credentials based on what you're bringing in i think there are some expectations that he could see the field and so when i look at it i say okay this guy would automatically line up for that hawk position right with jason gilliam with logan Brantley, maybe with, with a John, John Camaro, like he would make a lot of sense to put into that position.

Starting point is 00:10:11 And then maybe you're talking about him. If he is, you know, more of the safety role, it'd be more of like the box safety role. I would imagine maybe you move Taylor Davis to more of kind of that free safety role this season. And you end up having like lyric roles and a Lake one Robinson is kind of that free safety role this season. And you end up having like Lerick Rawls and a Lakeland Robinson as kind of your box safeties. And you have like Taylor Davis and the Dye Brothers or something

Starting point is 00:10:30 as kind of your field safeties or something like that. I think it'll be very interesting, but it's a good thing to have that you have a player like this. You can probably plug into the Hawk position should he, you'll be good enough to be a starter for you that you have that prototypical player that you probably want to play if the defense is similar to how it's been under Brian Borland?

Starting point is 00:10:50 All right, let's continue on. They have an elite punter. That should help the defense too. Finn Lappin, let's talk about him next. Our episode of the show here on Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by TurboTax. This is a message from sponsor Intuit TurboTax. Taxes where, you know, dealing with piles of paperwork, you're dealing with frustrating forms,

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Starting point is 00:12:07 Now, the only punter you had on the roster prior to this was Graydon Addison. I believe he's a walk-on redshirt senior. I believe he can be this year. You needed a punter into the program, right? You lose Damon Greaves, transfers over to Colorado, and I think Kansas upgraded at the punter position. Now, this is another Aussie, another player from Australia. He is 5' foot 11 178

Starting point is 00:12:26 pounds from Melbourne Australia he spent one season at McNeese State at the FCS level then entered the transfer portal and now he joins Kansas as well there's been some questions about what the eligibility is because it's only one year of like American college football but I think he was at another university in Australia so like I don't know how that counts all this I mean gosh talk about the Juco stuff how that's gonna work out with the ncaa like no idea on this so he could be a sophomore he could be a senior i don't entirely know at the very least this dude is a stud he wound up with 61 punts for the cowboys of mcneese state uh which is obviously at the fcs level but like and first of all like we've seen so many players come up from the fcs level d2 level

Starting point is 00:13:06 like whatever it is and have success but like obviously the big questions usually when you make that jump is oh are you going to be big enough are you going to be fast enough are you going to be able to keep up with the bigger and better athletes of the world right that's not really a thing when you're moving up from the punting position right like your job is the same sure i guess guys can break through the block a little bit faster to block the punt maybe you have to get it off a little bit sooner but like i don't know that doesn't see you're still punting the same exact football like that doesn't change so i i don't think there's any like adjustment going from the fcs level to fbs level when you're just talking punting maybe you could argue field

Starting point is 00:13:44 goal kicking because the crowds would be bigger and like it'd be more pressure. I don't know, but I don't think there's really much with punting. Anyway, 61 punts for the Cowboys, 46.1 yards per punt. He had a long of 68 yards this past season. And out of reference, you might be thinking, okay, how good is 46.1 yards per punt? Sounds pretty good. It would have finished second in the Big 12 this past season. is 46.1 yards per punt? Sounds pretty good. It would have finished second in the Big 12 this past season. A 46.1 yards per punt would have finished second in the Big 12. It would have finished 11th nationally. All the punters across the FBS, it would have finished 11th nationally

Starting point is 00:14:15 if he were qualified for the FBS. Obviously, he didn't because he was part of the FCS. So this is like not me overblowing this. He was an elite punter this past season. He had eight touchbacks. He had 19 of his punts go inside the 20-yard line. So think about that, 61 punts. Basically one out of every three punts ended up inside the 20-yard line.

Starting point is 00:14:35 He had 21 more fair caught. So he had another, basically a third of his punts are getting fair caught where they're not getting returned at all. And then that doesn't even count for the eight touchbacks. So really half of his punts are not getting returned. He also had 21 punts. So over a third of his punts were 50 or more yards. So this guy has an absolute booming leg.

Starting point is 00:14:54 And I mean, the average shows that in general at 46.1, but 21 punts of 50 or more yards is incredible. And so again, like I expect him to come in and be the automatic starter at the putter position for ku and like if you just want to compare what damon greaves did this past season to what you're getting in fin lappen to show you know what you can get from the punting position here um so kansas finished 13th in the big 12 this past season at 42.3 yards per punt. So that's 13th of 16 teams.

Starting point is 00:15:28 Damon Greaves, if you look at net yards per punt, obviously there were some teams that maybe used two punters for whatever reason. Damon Greaves finished 19th in the Big 12 somehow in net yards per punt. Now that's not all his fault on the net yards. Some of that could be the coverage, right? You go up a long touchdown to tcu like that's not obviously going to help but there also is a little bit of that on the punter like you want more hang times that they don't have as much time to return but you know still that'd be a huge increase for ku up to 46 yards per putt right four extra yards per putt the extra time that you pin them inside the 20 i mean there's

Starting point is 00:16:04 been some fun analytics and numbers talking about you know the the expected points of if you pin a team inside the 10 versus if you pin them inside the 20 for their starting field position like sometimes it can be the difference of one or two points like half a point even of expected points added on if you pin a team at the seven versus you know them having uh the ball at the 22 or something like that and you know it it adds on over the course of the season um and you look at it here going back to the number of 21 punts of 50 or more yards for fin lappen do you know how many damon greaves had in his two-year career at Kansas? The correct answer would be seven. So over 22 games played at Kansas for Damon Greaves.

Starting point is 00:16:50 He had seven punts of 50 or more yards. Finn Lappin had 21 in one season at McNeese State, three times the amount. So, hey, you added an elite punter, and ideally you don't have to use him. Ideally, you have the Colorado game where Damon Greaves' parents came out and they didn't punt at all like ideally you're not having to use them but you want to know when you have to use them you can trust them to pin them deep you can trust them to boom it long if you need that and for i think a coach in lance leipold who you know isn't the most aggressive coach you look at you look at the uh number of fourth down attempts that kansas has attempted over the last couple

Starting point is 00:17:26 of years compared to the rest of the Big 12. Kansas ranks near the bottom in the Big 12. So if you're going to be a more conservative team, you need to invest resources in those players, in your field goal kicker, in your punter, in those things that are going to, right, if you're going to do them more, you better have good ones at it. And I think Kansas has done a good job in the portal of doing this and that. They have the Leif Marjan, the strong kicker from South Alabama. Now you add Finn Lappin from McNeese State as well.

Starting point is 00:17:53 All right, what's still the remaining need list for KU football? We'll talk about that on the other side. Our episode of the show today is brought to you by GameTime, which has a new feature called GameTime Picks that makes getting tickets for events even easier. Filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. I mean, I adore the GameTime app. It's my favorite of the different ticket sites because the interface is awesome. It's easy to work around. It's easy to see where the seats are. You can literally zoom in right on the app itself

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Starting point is 00:19:08 Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest price. Guaranteed. Finishing things up on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, and don't forget to tune in to our Kansas-Cincinnati recap from over the weekend if you didn't already. We're going to be talking a little more Shaquille Moore on tomorrow's episode of the show,

Starting point is 00:19:27 and we'll talk a little more KU football. Then on Wednesday, we'll have our Kansas-Iowa State preview. We will recap that one later in the week as well. So plenty to get to on this week's episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Make sure you're subscribed anywhere you get your podcasts or on our YouTube page. So what is left on the need list for KU? You go down and you look at the amount of transfers that they have brought in. They've covered their bases pretty well all the

Starting point is 00:19:50 way through, but I think there's pretty clear. If you were to tier these out, to me, I think tier one of the needs list would be a strong side defensive end. That would be the defensive end who maybe weighs a little bit more. He's going to be on the strong side of the field so like um makes it more imperative for stopping the run to have that guy you know be a little bit more bulked up and it doesn't mean that it's like 300 pounder but like in some of these years past we've seen that guy for kansas be you know like a malcolm lee or jeremy robinson like players who are closer to you know mid 250s like 260 if you can get up to 265 like great whereas the weak side guy has maybe been more of the guy who you know has been lacking weight like a Kyron Johnson and Austin Booker

Starting point is 00:20:30 that you can get away with that a little bit more and you look across the roster for KU obviously there's still a whole off season to be had for weight gains and for players getting up that total but it's a lot of players who are closer to that you know 240 range where again maybe one or two of them is able to add to that amount or maybe honestly like going back to what is DK McDonald going to do on the defensive side of the ball maybe it is just more of a balanced system with the two defensive ends and and how they play it I don't know that would kind of remain to be seen but I think that would make a lot of sense for them to add that guy because you lost Jeremy Robinson you lost Dylan Woodkey, you lost Ron McGee.

Starting point is 00:21:05 Like those are all guys who could play that position for you. And you know, in the case of, of Robinson and Woodkey gobbled up, like basically all the snaps at that position this past season. And so I don't really know who that guy would be on this year's round. Like by Joe, maybe make some sense.

Starting point is 00:21:19 Like he seems to be a physical, strong guy that you could probably add maybe even a little bit more weight to like, maybe he could play there. I have no idea about the rehab with Dylan Brooks coming off the season ending injury. He was, I think, closer to like the 240 range. But maybe he can add a little bit of weight coming off, you know, the injury that he had. I don't know how that works.

Starting point is 00:21:35 And again, maybe it just ends up being more balanced. But that would be the clear one. And then I think like there's not even a tier two need. I think that's just like tier one. But if you were to add something else, i would say just like another offensive lineman but i also don't really think it makes sense to add another offensive lineman for like depth i guess to a certain standpoint like you can never have enough depth and you know to another standpoint you have all these extra scholarship like you can go above 85 this year because of the new rules so like what does it

Starting point is 00:22:02 really matter and if you add another player who has future value as well like the the lineman you've added so far that can be around for multiple years and that's still a good thing because you're getting them for multiple years but i do think a lot of those guys they added into the program as much as i like the additions and like that they're covering their bases both for depth and long term i do have questions about how many of those guys are going to be ready to maybe play starter-level snaps in year one at Kansas. And so I think it would make the most sense, if you are going to add another offensive lineman, go add a starter-level player. And it doesn't even necessarily need to be an All-American or anything. We didn't see this guy too much on the field this season because I think the guys like Michael Ford and Kobe Baines did a good job locking down those positions. But like Daryl Simmons, you added him from the portal from Iowa State.

Starting point is 00:22:48 He was an experienced player who had been a starter in the conference and ended up being just kind of on the 2D, being like a backup for you that rotated in here or there. But like that type of player, I think if you added him to this year's roster, you would more so view it as like, okay, we expect him to start. So I think that's the type of player that I'd be kind of looking at of like, can you add someone to that level? But besides that, like, I feel pretty good

Starting point is 00:23:07 about where they're at with the numbers of the roster. And you just hope you make it through healthy through spring ball. And if you don't at a certain position, then that's when you go strike at those positions and be like, okay, let's get in more. And obviously you're always at a point where it's like, oh, but if we can add this really good player,

Starting point is 00:23:22 you know, we feel good about where we're at, but this really good player, once come here, you still take them too. 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. We'll be back tomorrow to talk a little Shaquille Moore

Starting point is 00:23:35 for KUMVP and that on the next Locked on Jayhawks. See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Adds New Hawk in Laquan Robinson from Auburn & ELITE punter Finn Lappin

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