Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Adds South Carolina & Pitt Transfer Linebacker Bangally Kamara for 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's bonus Locked on Jayhawks, Bengali Kamara, a linebacker from South Carolina and Pitt, is a Kansas Jayhawk for next year. 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 up? Derek Johnson. You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. And this is a bonus episode of Locked On Jayhawks because Kansas has a new football player for 2025.

Starting point is 00:00:36 That would be Bengali Kamara, a transfer from South Carolina and Pittsburgh. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks 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 YouTube where you can like and subscribe to the show. We're going to get into what went down, some, I guess, of the scouting report on what KU was getting in Bengali Kamara and what exactly it means for KU in 2025 in the offseason

Starting point is 00:01:03 on this episode of the show. Let's start right there. So Bengali Kamara, he is a player who was at South Carolina this past season. This past offseason, he was in the transfer portal as well. And he spent, I guess it was four seasons, four years at Pittsburgh, one of them being the COVID year, and ended up going into the transfer portal, goes to South Carolina. He plays in the first four games, kind of minimal snaps early in the year, but they're starting to ramp up as the season goes on. South Carolina coach is like, hey,

Starting point is 00:01:34 because he was kind of the fourth linebacker rotating in here and there. He's getting play time, but coach didn't want him to leave, said, hey, we're going to give you more snaps. Don't worry. It keeps coming. He was like, no, I don't know if he's battling an injury too I want to reset somewhere else where I'm just like the guy all the way through the season so he ends up entering the transfer portal after using the four games he never took a red shirt that allows him to preserve his red shirt and now he'll be a sixth year player in the transfer portal this upcoming season according to Pete Thamel of espn he verbally committed to ku now obviously a verbal commitment and i guess honestly like any commitment even when you sign on the

Starting point is 00:02:11 dotted line although aren't they getting rid of that i don't know whatever it doesn't really matter in today's day and age because you can just enter the portal whatever and like nothing really matters but um right now he's committed to go to KU. And obviously, I'm sure you still have to deliver on promises like some NIL stuff and yada, yada, yada. But he is a 6'2", 230-pound linebacker who becomes the first transfer pickup for KU of the offseason in an offseason in which I'd imagine there's going to be a good amount of transfer pickups for KU. And so getting ahead of this now, doing one so early in the game, it saves you a little more work from doing it later in the offseason when everybody's going to be solely focused kind of on that.

Starting point is 00:02:51 So that's obviously a good thing for KU. Like I said, he'll be a sixth-year player in 2025 at the linebacker position. He was rated a three-star graded transfer by 24-7 Sports. He was given an 86 grade, although oddly enough, he was given an 89 grade before oddly enough he was given an 89 grade before he wound up at South Carolina and um he actually like we'll talk about the PFF grades played really well that was minimal snaps so maybe that hurts where you're at there but point being like this is a talented linebacker that should help KU so let's talk more about the scouting

Starting point is 00:03:21 report in a moment on Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode is brought to you by 5-Hour Energy, and our friends over at 5-Hour Energy know that being a passionate football fan isn't just a hobby, it's a way of life. It takes a lot of energy to power through all-day tailgates, touchdown celebrations, or an agonizing second overtime, which is why they've created the Stand the Fan 5-Hour Energy Shot with a special flavor called Fan Fuel. The energy shot made just for super fans like you and me the fans who are first in the parking lot and are the last to leave we see you you know what else gave me a bit of jayhawk fan fuel this week this very episode this very moment when bengali kamara the guy we're doing this episode about committed to ku to bolster

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Starting point is 00:04:21 Whatever it is, do it with a five-hour energy. Available on fivehourenergy.com, shipped nationwide. By continuing this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks, what is the scouting report on Bengali Kamara? Well, he began his career as a four-star recruit, according to 24-7 Sports. Goes to Pittsburgh in 2020 for the COVID year, his first year. Played a little bit on special teams as a true freshman. Then played a little bit more, kind of same reserve type of role,

Starting point is 00:04:48 though, in year two, but a little bit more in 2021. At that point, you're a second-year freshman because of the COVID year. And then you start to see real playing time in year three. 2022 with Pittsburgh, 11 starts. He had 49 tackles, seven pass breakups. And then in year four with Pittsburgh, 2023, he had 10 starts. The games he didn't start, he pass breakups. And then in year four of Pittsburgh 2023, he had 10 starts. The games he didn't start, he was injured for. He wound up with over 50 tackles, six and a half TFLs in that 2023 season. Now this past season, South Carolina, four games played. He had nine tackles

Starting point is 00:05:17 before deciding to preserve his red shirt to transfer. So total it all up over his five seasons with really two full seasons of play, 124 tackles, four sacks, eight pass breakups, one interception for Kamara. You look at the PFF grades, pro football focus grades. He graded out as a 61 in 640 snaps in 2022. I'm not even going to give the 2020 and 21. The snaps are low. It's special teams, whatever. But a 61 overall in 2022, which again, the scale there, like 60 to 70 is kind of your average level starter. So you're doing that in your first year starter. Then in year two as a starter in 2023, you expect improvement.

Starting point is 00:05:55 You got improvement. He had a 70 overall on PFF in 2023 and 504 snaps. Obviously, if you're adding a guy who was to that 70 reigns, that would be a big boon to KU in the linebacking core. And then in a limited 70 snaps this year, he was actually an 82 overall grade on PFF. But again, that's limited snaps in certain scenarios. Now, what I find interesting when you look at the specific grades for him from 2021 through 2023, he had a grade of 70 or higher in pass rush. So when I look at that, I say, okay, he's a linebacker that has some pass rush ability,

Starting point is 00:06:30 and he's an athletic linebacker. When you kind of watch some of his game, you watch some of his highlights, and he's a big dude, 6'2", 230. I think there's some similarities there with a guy that you have currently on the roster with J.B. Brown. And I think J.B. Brown's been one of this defense's best players so far this season. Kamara's gotten better every year, basically, in coverage. So like, that's good that as he's gotten more experience, he's done better there. He has had, you look at this year, it wasn't an issue, but again, small sample size. The previous two years, the tackle grades were in kind of the

Starting point is 00:07:02 mid fifties. So really athletic guy able to get there, not always making the tackle. But, you know, I guess, like, you want your linebackers to be good at tackling. But, like, at the end of the day, if you end up being a good team tackling, like everybody gets to the ball, if your linebacker can at least hit the guy where it's, you know, forcing somebody else to be able to make the tackle or slow him down, you'll at least take a little bit of that. But overall, this is just an athletic linebacker that if you're getting his 2023 version

Starting point is 00:07:33 to where the 2024 is just a small sample, he'd still be an awesome addition to the group. That certainly needs it. And we'll talk about what this means for the roster in a second. But what I find interesting here is going to be his usage. So he has over 1300 career snaps between all the stops you've been at. Over 200 of those snaps have come on the defensive line, 875. So a big majority of it as a box linebacker. And then over 240 of that has come as either a slot safety hit, one snap as a corner. So he's mostly been a standard linebacker, but he's definitely shown he can flex out to a pass rush spot. Like we said, like KU uses JB Brown sometimes,

Starting point is 00:08:14 or sometimes into a type of hawk roll you've seen him as, and KU uses that too. So I think a lot of options for how KU can best utilize him. And the beauty of him committing now is that he should have spring ball for KU to figure out what the best way to utilize him is in the spring. All right, let's talk more about his fit on the 2025 team and where he figures to factor into the team on Locked on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.

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Starting point is 00:09:22 We will have a KU Howard recap coming at you later. Check out the KU Howard preview if you haven't caught that one already. And thank you to every dayers catching each and every show already. So what does this mean for KU? I mean, first of all, I think it does show because I think there were rumors going around when KU was originally interested in Big Ali Kamara in the previous offseason that it didn't work out because KU was not in a place where they were really offering NIL in the transfer portal.

Starting point is 00:09:48 I think a big reason why was it was more focused on retaining guys, which I think was the right thing to do. You had a lot of really good players back, really talented players back. I know it's easy to point to now and be like, oh, they're 2-6. Are we sure that was the right strategy? Okay, but at the moment, that was the right thing to do without a doubt. So now maybe that's going to be something that you open up yourself more to. So I'd imagine KU is going to be more competitive with some of this NIL and trades for portal stuff.

Starting point is 00:10:11 And I think it's shown right away here. But also, I don't know, maybe if you're a Bengali, Kamara, maybe you were chasing the money a little bit more that first transfer. And maybe this time it is a little bit more of, hey, maybe I should just find the right fit nil even if it's not i mean we've seen that with like gauge keys you know and it's hard because it's like if you're gauge keys you're making life-changing money to kickstart your your career um it's hard not to accept that and i don't blame a guy for accepting that but also i'd imagine for him he probably would well maybe not be having as much fun because he's not having the season they're hoping for. But in terms of like getting more playing time and stuff, you know, it's just different.

Starting point is 00:10:48 So I don't know. But anyway, if he winds up being the Hawk position, like we said, you might be able to play athletic linebacker. He would be competing with a redshirt senior, Jason Gilliam, redshirt sophomore, Logan Brantley, and then a second year, John John Kamara for being the starter. I think it's better if you use him as a true linebacker in that JB Brown role where he is kind of a linebacker that you can use in blitzes, that you can use as a defensive end here or there, and to where if you are even comfortable a little bit with him playing

Starting point is 00:11:15 Hawk, then you're just even more comfortable with him having to be in standard coverage as a base linebacker to where you feel better about your base defense in coverage. But KU loses a lot at the true linebacker positions, right? Not counting the Hawk position. J.B. Brown is a fifth-year senior. Cornell Wheeler is a fifth-year senior. Tywin Berryhill is a senior. So those are KU's top three at the traditional linebacker core that you would talk about.

Starting point is 00:11:41 They're all gone. So you need help there. I think it makes the most sense for Kamara to play one of those positions right whether it's I don't know if KU uses a Sam or a Will and then the Mike is kind of the middle guy but right I think it just makes sense for him to be one of those two now the beauty of him committing early like I said earlier is with spring ball you get a chance to best figure out what the best position is for him but i'd also imagine losing cornell wheeler the guy was the green dot the guy was calling the plays for the defense like maybe that ends up being bengali kamara and it'd be hard

Starting point is 00:12:13 to do that to have a guy who just joined before fall uh during the summer who's trying to figure out the playbook to be the guy calling the plays to be the leader but you have a sixth year players coming in should be there for spring ball because this commitment came so early in the game maybe he ends up being that guy right and then maybe you end up with a starting lineup of Bengali Kamara at one of the linebacker spots Jason Gilliam at the hawk spot and then your other linebacker spot would either be another transfer portal pickup or if you get a jump from a guy like Tristan Fletcher we've been waiting on that big jump from Logan Brantley. Maybe it's one of your true freshmen,

Starting point is 00:12:47 Corey Stewart, John John Kamara took a big jump. Then maybe one of those guys becomes the third linebacker. But I definitely feel like Bengali Kamara will end up being a starter for this year's upcoming team. And I think on paper right now, I expect him to be KU's best linebacker in 2025. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts,

Starting point is 00:13:05 including on our YouTube show, on our YouTube page. We'll be back for a KU Howard recap. So tune into that right here with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Adds South Carolina & Pitt Transfer Linebacker Bangally Kamara for 2025

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