Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Guaranteed Rate Bowl Reaction: Career Records, Standouts + Portal Update

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

More recap and reaction to the Kansas Jayhawks football team's 49-36 victory over UNLV Rebels in the 2023 Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix, AZ, from standouts on offense and defense like Jason Bean, Luke Grimm, LJ Arnold, Calvin Clements, Mike Novitsky, Cobee Bryant and more to takeaways from the game and some career record watch for players like Devin Neal and Kenny Logan. Plus, a transfer portal update with offers out for KU and Lance Leipold's team as the offseason has begun.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedon and use code lockedon for a first deposit match up to $100! Daily Fantasy Sports Made Easy!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.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)a Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, more takeaways from KU's bowl win over UNLV in the guaranteed rate bowl and the latest transfer portal news for the Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Johnson, you can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere that you get your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the action. We are breaking down more takeaways from the guaranteed rate bowl for KU, players that stood

out, career numbers that stand out from the game after a day to re-watch and dive into some of the pro football focus numbers. We're also getting the latest transfer portal news, offers out things to watch for KU football now that the offseason has fully begun with the Transfer Portal closing on January 2nd. Obviously, it'll reopen later in the year and nothing is ever, I guess, set in stone. But anyway, we'll get to that on today's episode, which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150.

If your team wins, visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started. So performances of note for KU football. We're going to start with the offensive side of the ball, move to the defensive side, and then finish up with the transfer portal news. Some interesting career numbers at the conclusion of this game. Jason Bean finishes on some career lists at KU, which I think is very fitting for what this meant for him this season, this bull win.

You go back to last year, and it felt right with how the season finished there for Jason Bean. So he finishes seventh in passing yards all time at Kansas, finishes second in passing touchdown yards all time at Kansas, finishes second in passing touchdowns all time at Kansas, and only behind Todd Reising there. This season gave him the 10th most passing yards in a single season for a KU quarterback, along with being tied fifth in passing touchdowns for a single season to total him up with two seasons that he'd be in the top 10 on that one. And when you're talking legacy here, I don't think this is going to get Jason being like

in the ring of honor or anything like that. You didn't have like an all big 12 or something. Obviously you have the bowl MVP. It's not going to be enough to do that, but it certainly will have him be remembered in KU war, right? I kind of made this, I guess, analogy metaphor on Rock Chalk Sports Talk the other day. 2021, when you went 2-10, but you started figuring things out, it was kind of like you were digging the hole. Then 2022 was when you were starting to set the foundation. This year, the foundation has been set. It has been complete.

And he will always go down in that. And, you know, in the same way that you might remember Jason Swanson or Brian Murph for their big bowl games in 05, or, you know, you think back to Desmond Briscoe or Todd Reese in 08 or keep to leave in the orange bowl in 07, that'll be the same thing with Jason Bean. And it is unfortunate because the ring of honor thing, like if Jason Bean would have started his career at Kansas or if Jason Bean would have, I don't know, just always had the starting gig, right? Like let's say he doesn't get hurt in 2021 in the K-State game,

which allowed Jalen Daniels to come in and finish the year strong. Does Jason Bean, is he just the starter over these last couple years? And what does that look like? What are the stats he puts up? Does that make him a player that makes it to the ring of honor so cool for him to finish Devin Neal now ranks fourth in career rushing yards he is just 764 rushing yards behind June Henley for first all-time at Kansas so there's a chance he could break that by the middle of the season next year as long as he can stay healthy. He's also third in rushing touchdowns in the KU career

with 33 of them, only eight behind June Henley for first. Again, if he comes back, which I know we talked about this in the recap yesterday, there was the Pete Thammore report that he's coming back. Certainly seems like, I don't know, maybe a little weird hasn't been confirmed by him. Maybe they're just waiting to craft the right message and kind of release that, but I guess do keep an eye on that. But nonetheless, if he does come back next year, should shatter those records. He also has the fourth best rushing season with 1280 rushing yards this year and is second for rushing touchdowns after he tied Brandon McAnderson in this one, just one behind June Henley.

So unfortunate that he couldn't get in the end zone for a second time to tie that or three times to try to break that record. Luke Graham and Lawrence Arnold actually are pretty high up on some of the receiving record stuff. And with him coming back, he's going to have a chance to really climb some of the boards. And especially because he's had a great connection with Jalen Daniels, who be the quarterback next year.

Graham has 126 catches that ranks ninth all time at KU. He has 1,782 receiving yards that ranks 10th and he's 600 yards from passing Kerry Meyer. So he's got a real chance to pass that 800 yards would get him past Stephen Sims, who is in second at KU all time. Des Briscoe has a big lead in first. It would kind of take a lot to get up to there. But with his three touchdowns on Tuesday night,

he also has 17 career receiving touchdowns, putting him into a tie with Bruce Adams and Willie Vaughn for fourth and just one behind Kerry Meyer. So Sims top two there is only two in front of Luke Grimm. So he should be able to move in the top two. He's 14 behind Des Briscoe, though, so it might be harder to move any further than that. LJ Arnold is also on those lists.

His 121 catches are one away from being tied 10th. He has 1,859 receiving yards, puts him one spot ahead of Emmett Edwards for seventh all-time at KU, and his 13 receiving scores tie him ninth with Marcus Henry. Now, as far as some of the standouts in this game from some of the pro football focus scores, backed up kind of what we saw too. The team aspects, good pass blocking game for KU, which makes sense. He only got sacked once.

Not great run blocking game. Again, makes sense. Under four yards per carry, only a 55 run block grade as a team. Great receiving game, right? That adds up. The receivers took over the game. As far as individual standouts for the offense, interestingly enough, KU's four highest graded players were all receivers.

The three starters that you would expect, Luke Grimm, Lawrence Arnold, Quentin Skinner. The fourth one was Trevor Wilson. He only played like three snaps, but he had the one catch. So he ended up in the top four off a tiny sample size too. Mike Nowitzki, which this is something we thought coming into the game, you know, he dealt with injuries all throughout the year and had kind of a down year compared to where he'd been the last two years. I don't think that's necessarily performance indicative or something he was doing wrong. I think he was just playing through more injuries this year than he was in the past. And he was a warrior to play through it. And with the time off for the bowl game, I wondered if you were going to see his best game of the season. Well, he didn't have a great run blocking game, but I think he had his best pass blocking game of the

year. 84.5 pass blocking grade. Michael Ford and Kobe Baines were both at an 81.5. So your interior offensive line did a great job pass blocking. How about Daniel Hyshaw, 79.4 pass block grade and about a handful of pass block snaps. Armaz Reed-Adams, he certainly had a lot of penalties he had to deal with. Some of them maybe a little overzealous from that officiating crew, but he ended up with 74.9 pass block grade, which on first watch I thought it would be a little lower than that,

but good for him for holding his own as right tackle there. And then Nolan Gortica actually came in for a little bit. That was good to see. He had a 74.5 in a few snaps and pass blocking. The O-line did struggle a bit more in run blocking, and actually KU's three highest graded run blockers were receivers in Douglas Emelian, Quentin Skinner, and Luke Grimm.

KU's highest graded run blocking lineman, you might be wondering, Calvin Clements. There's only 65 run block grade. So that's about an average starter. I think the PFF grades, it's like 90 plus is like a lead of the elite. 80 to 89 is like all-star level good like really good 70 to 79 is you know anywhere from above average to good starter right you can be high 70s and that can be like all conference even mid 70s can be kind of like all conference 60 to 69 is is more of like average starter so if you're at 65

that's basically dead average right and i know that doesn't sound like a huge compliment like calvin clements was was dead average in his run blocking grade, and he had a 62 pass block. So he's basically average overall for the game. I know that doesn't sound like a huge compliment, but when you have a true freshman, true freshman, usually with linemen it takes two, three years to get on the field. And for him with his body and potential,

true freshman making his first start, still able to reserve the red shirt because this is a bowl game. for him with his body and potential, true freshman making his first start, still able to reserve the red shirt because this is a bowl game. To be average in that situation is actually really good when you grade it on a curve and factor that into being like, what can this kid become?

So the sky's the limit for Calvin Clements in the future. And I think that was kind of impressive and certainly a big takeaway from this game because you look into next year, Dominic Poonie obviously gone, opted out of this game. Bryce Cabledew, I'd imagine, should be back. So that should occupy one of the tackle spots.

But Cabledew, they tried playing him at left tackle in the spring. He actually asked the staff to move back to right tackle. He was uncomfortable there. Which tells you that it's not just going to be like, okay, they'll move Cabledew over to left tackle next year. Certainly, I wouldn't think so. That means competition between Calvin Clements and Logan Brown. And who knows if Logan Brown would have been healthy, he got injured kind of midway through the year. Maybe Logan Brown would have been the one getting this start. And so we'll see how that competition goes. He'll be coming off

an injury. Maybe that hurts him, but you will have some talent there. We'll see if they add anyone in the portal too. We're going to continue on with our defensive performers, standouts, career numbers that stood out from the guaranteed rate bowl for KU, then to the latest transfer portal news for the KU football team. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Buying tickets to your favorite event should not be stressful. GameTime is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for sports, music, comedy, and theater near you.

They have killer last-minute deals, so you can have fun, and you shouldn't have to worry about it. KU basketball's next game is happening at the T-Mobile Center. They're going to be playing against Wichita State, and if you don't have tickets yet, I don't think you need to worry too much because you can go to game time. You can go hang out in Power and Light and then just check out the game time app. You can buy the last-minute tickets. Right now you can get $51 go to game time you can go hanging out in power and light and then just check out the game time app you can buy the last minute tickets right now you can get

$51 tickets on game time and plenty more and if you use our promo code you're going to get $20 off plus you get to see the pictures of the tickets it's a hassle stress-free process download the game time app create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account redeem code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account, a redeem code, LockedOnCollege, for $20 off. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Thanks for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks.

Thank you to the everydayers tuning in each and every episode. You can find our recap from the Guaranteed Rate Bowl against UNLV. We'll have a KU Yale preview on tomorrow's episode, anywhere you get your podcasts, and on our YouTube page. On to defensive takeaways, career numbers, pro football focus grades that stand out from the Guaranteed Rate Bowl for KU. Let's start with some of the career numbers. Not as much on the offensive side as here,

but Kobe Bryant grabbed an interception. That was the ninth of his career. That moves him into a tie with John Koenig. And how about Charles Gordon for eighth all-time at KU? There was that video going around, I think, from Giff Hawk, who tweeted out Charles Gordon. Last time KU played UNLV was in Lawrence, and Charles Gordon had a big punt return.

And it was hilarious because he gets into the open field, and he points at the punter and then jukes him to the ground. It was amazing. Charles Gordon, great player. So moves him into a tie with both konick and gordon for eighth all time uh if he does come back for another year which we're waiting on that it's it'd be very hard to get to first and interception especially with the way that teams avoid throwing at him ray evans has 17 of them just absolute beast and what ray evans did there especially at a time where people were not throwing the ball so that's incredible he had 17 uh second though was akib talib at 13

he would be in striking distance of that and if you're kobe bryant like that would be a big mark if you can get to what akib talib had i know talib you know had to do it in three years but still that would mean something absolutely uh kenny logan meanwhile made nine tackles that gave him 383 for his career he already had the most by a defensive back passing Dr. Death. That was the nickname of the DB he passed. How cool is that? But the nine tackles moved him into fifth all-time for any player at any position for KU in career tackles.

He's only behind Willie Plus, Nick Reed, Rick Bredesen, and Joe Dineen. So a cool list to be on there for Kenny Logan. And I guess going back to the Jason Bean discussion with, uh, will this guy get into the ring of honor? Um, will that happen for Kenny Logan? I guess becomes a discussion. He had more all big 12. I think he was like all big 12 honorable mention twice once as a kick returner once as a safety i think he was all big 12 second team twice and one of those years he was also all big 12 first team on like the ap team as opposed to the regular team does that collection does the the career leader in in tackles as a db does that get him on there? I don't know. It might be close. It might be close,

but if he does, you know, really cool because of everything he's done, but I don't know. It's going to be tough, certainly. I guess going back to that question, other players that are departing, do they have a chance to get on there? Well, like Mike Davitsky, he's earned some All-Big 12 awards. I don't know. It'll be kind of interesting. I think certainly players that could be on next year's team will have the better argument for with guys like, you know, Devin Neal. And we'll see what happens with some of these receivers. If any of them, you know, breaks out and has that huge season. Maybe Jalen Daniels, if he puts it all together health wise.

Anyway, I didn't want this to devolve into Ring of Honor talk. But individual standouts for PFF, we'll get to that. But first, the team standouts, they had solid run defense. Makes sense. They were under 100 yards rushing. Poor pass rush grades. And actually pretty good coverage grades. There were different points where UNLV hit big passing plays.

There were different points where, I don't know, UNLV averaged, I think, 8.3 yards per attempt, which is a good number. It's not like KU was at, a lot of time this year, nine or higher yards per attempt, which was consistently top three in the Big 12. So it's a good number. It's not like a lead of the elite, but it's a good number. And you saw some of the big passing plays. But I think a big reason why is because you weren't able to get a pass rush.

Coverage on its own was actually okay. They're 71 grade as a team. But individual standouts here here Craig Young had an 87 grade to lead the way overall followed by Jason Gilliam so how about the Hawk position really standing up for KU and that's important seeing Gilliam play well because he's gonna be the likely predecessor for Craig Young next season and actually Craig Young played under 30 snaps in this game um I think maybe it's a bit of you know passing the torch and seeing what Gilliam can do in a bigger role. And you expect him to just come in and pick up where Craig Young left off.

But a great finish for Craig Young. He had a big TFL on kind of the jet sweep. He obviously had the interception on the pressure that was forced by Patrick Joyner. Really good game for him to finish. And he'll have a shot playing in the NFL especially because of his athleticism and size and ability to play a lot of different overall though KU's six highest graded players on defense and seven of the top eight were all the basically defensive backs I mean if you count the Hawk position as a defensive back which in a lot of ways it is then that would be the case

and the top four are essentially safeties. Like honestly, the Hawk position is probably closest to being like a box safety. It would be the best way to like describe it from a traditional sense. And if you view it that way, top four were safeties with Craig Young, Jason Gilliam, Marvin Grant, and Kenny Logan. And then Kalen Girvin rounded it out at number five. Girvin had that really nice tackle in the open field on a quick out on like a third down that got him off the field. So the DB is just kind of taken over and you go into next year too, and you expect the DBs to be a strength once again. Now, as you'd imagine, the defensive line didn't grade super well. The interior of the defensive line actually graded out okay. You basically had five guys graded between a 61 and a 66. We go back to the pro football focus scale, that doesn't mean that

anybody had an outstanding game. But if you're basically saying you're rotating five defensive tackles, you have five guys who are at least average starter quality. That at least gives you something to work with, that you have depth of average starter quality. It's not the best thing in the world, but it's definitely not the worst. And having that many guys that can do it was good between Caleb Taylor, Keenan Caldwell, DJ Withers, who I thought had a couple nice flash plays, Tommy Dunn, and then Devin Phillips, who's actually the lowest graded of those five. But the defensive end spots didn't grade out super well.

Joyner had himself a couple nice plays. Hayden Hatcher had a couple nice plays. Dylan Brooks, who you might be counting on to make a big step next year as a former four-star recruit who is still looking to put it together. He only had a 34 grade on pro football focus. And then the linebackers didn't grade out super well. Tywon Berryhill only had like 30 grade. So he finishes as the lowest graded linebacker in the Big 12 this year.

And I do think he had to deal with some injuries earlier on in the season. So maybe that hurt some of that in the Big 12 this year, and I do think he had to deal with some injuries earlier on in the season, so maybe that hurt some of that in the aggregate, but obviously at this point, you would have hoped to see kind of gradual improvement there. J.B. Brown, who's usually a thumper, missed three tackles, so you don't normally see that on that end, so not the greatest from those positions, but good DB play, and by the way, in terms of some of the best, obviously Kobe Bryant had the big interception in the sack. Mello Dotson was targeted five times. He gave up just two catches for 16 yards.

So he was really good. Craig Young, part of the reason he was graded so high, he was targeted four times. He gave up just two catches and one yard. He had the best NFL passer rating against, followed by Mello Dotson. All right, we're going to get to the latest in the transfer portal for KU football

with this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. As the weather gets colder, the NFL offers stay hot on FanDuel. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's 150 bucks if your team wins.

If you've been thinking about joining FanDuel, there's no better time to get in on the action. The app is so easy to use. There's a wide range of betting options, including spreads, player props, over-unders, and more you can get in on some future action. You can get KU to win the national title or to make a Final Four or to win the Big 12. If you're buying that the Chiefs are going to figure it out with Patrick Mahomes,

I don't know if I'd make that bet, but you can get them at a little higher odds than they're used to to win the Super Bowl with some of those futures. So visit fanduel.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season. FanDuel, an official partner of the NFL. All right, latest in the transfer portal for KU football. Again, the deadline here is January 2nd. So we're going to find out if anybody leaves. Obviously, players can leave again. Like I think the next one would open in the spring, maybe on that one.

And then you have summer's summer possible departures as well. But this will be a good look into because I think some guys like obviously the big one. You lost Gage Keys. You lost Tanaka Scott. You could be losing Austin Booker to either the portal or the NFL draft would be kind of the big one there. But some guys probably want to play the bowl game first before they make a decision to go to the NFL draft or make a decision before they transfer out in some cases to get an extra game of tape possibly. So this will be the true test over this next week. Who's kind of staying and who's going.

From KU bringing in perspective, you know, part of how they handle who they're going to bring in is dependent on who's going out. They've kind of talked about before that they want to bring in as many high school kids as seniors graduating. And then the rest of it is just, okay, if we lose this guy in the transfer portal, let's bring in one of those in the transfer portal, right? We in the transfer portal let's bring in one of those

in the transfer portal right we lose the receiver let's bring in a receiver we lose the tight end right and and you're trying to balance out and obviously they're flexible enough like um i don't think that originally they were going to bring in like a safety but when devon die became available and it was the right fit and the brother of one of your players and he's a good player you make it work and then you you're you adjust and you're flexible right you know you have hard rules but they're flexible enough, and that's what you have to do in this day and age to kind of be flexible. So through this notion, we already know Dylan Woodkey is coming to Kansas' defensive end,

but now that Austin Booker's out, they're probably going to bring in another defensive end. And I think they've been from the get-go looking at defensive tackles. They've been looking at linebackers and I think offensive linemen. It would make sense to bring in either a tackle or a center. There's an offer out to Elijah Alston, 6'2", 256-pound defensive end from Marshall. This is going to be his sixth and final season of college football after he redshirted and took a COVID year his first two seasons. In 2023 on a bowl team, he ended up having 45 tackles, 11.5 TFLs, and six sacks. Really good player for Marshall. He also had two forced fumbles, an interception, and a pass deflection.

Most impressive, though, were his pro football focus numbers. This would be one of the biggest gets of the portal for anyone. 90.9 PFF grade, including 69.2 in run defense. So, you know, I don't know, above average to solid in run defense. Only 57.7 in tackling, but a 90.5 pass rush. So this guy is a pass rush specialist. And when you look at what you're losing in Austin Booker, that would be a perfect fit if you could get him.

But it's going to be a long list of shooters. He had 36 pressures, including two in a game against Virginia Tech, Power 5 competition, three in a game at NC State, top 25 Power 5 competition, four in a game against James Madison, Top 25 team before they lost their bowl game, three at Appalachian State, that's a bowl team who played for the Sunbelt title, and three at South Alabama, team who blew out Oklahoma State, also five against UTSA in the bowl game, so big-time performer, too, in their biggest games. He had an 82.5 PFF grade against Virginia Tech, 76.4 against NC State. First career, 19.5 TFLs, 9.5 sacks. But, yeah, Texas A&M, West Virginia, he has a visit to Miami.

The list goes on and on and on of the offers. This would be a tough one to get, but if they could, it would be about as big of a splash as you could have in the portal. Offer out to Caden Woolard, another defensive end, 6'5", 252 pounds from Miami of Ohio. That worked before with Lonnie Phelps. Why not go back to the well? He played double-digit games every year since he was a true freshman in 2021, so he's going to be a true senior with his last year of play in 2024, but we talked about that before. The defensive end spot, you're fine bringing in one of your guys because you have Dak Brinkley and Deshaun Warner who will be true freshmen this year and that just gives them a one-year kind of bridge to get their bodies

right or get adjusted to the game uh in 2023 um Woolard logged a total of 41 tackles 12 tackles for loss nine and a half sacks two forced fumbles and he had two blocked kicks a good special teams player too 78.7 pff grade uh that featured scores of 70 in run defense, 51 in tackling, 78 in pass rush, with 58 pressures. Holy cow, that is a lot, a lot, a lot of pressures. That's over 20 more than Elijah Alston had. So again, his best skill is pass rush, but slightly better run defender than Alston is.

But he had five pressures against Cincinnati. There's a common opponent. One against Miami, Florida. had five pressures against Cincinnati. There's a common opponent. One against Miami, Florida. Eight against Bowling Green. That was a bowl team. He had four against Toledo. Both times he played them. Once in the MAAC championship game.

Three against Ohio. Bowl team. Four against Buffalo. Lance Leipold's former grounds. And in the bowl game against App State, he had two for his career. 14 sacks and four blocked kicks. He also, though, long list.

Texas A&M Mississippi State Minnesota long list of offers and anytime you see the SEC schools get involved it's not just that the SEC and you think of the allure and you know what they've done in football and everything it's the pockets are deep for the SEC schools that becomes very tough to win those battles in terms of NIL because KU is focused on using their NIL on returning guys more than anything. Offered to Keyshawn Elliott. I'm not going to spend much on this because he committed to Arizona State. Linebacker from New Mexico State.

Had a ton of tackles. Young player. Would have had two years. Would have been a nice pickup, but also the pro football focus grades. Only 43 in tackling. Only 44 in pass coverage. So I don't know. That's one more you would be trying to kind of work with that.

He's, I guess, a good athlete and I think kind of a local kid that maybe you could have figured out. And then the last one here is, I don't know if this is the way to pronounce it. Zaree Alexander, it's X-E apostrophe R-E-E, 6'2", 215 pound linebacker from Idaho. He's going to be a sophomore in 2024, three years left to play. He was a true freshman last year at Idaho. He was one of the better teams in the FCS. And he had 75 tackles, four tackles for loss, two forced fumbles. Pro football focus grade of 82.9, 75.5 in run defense, 74.4 in tackling, 90.4 in coverage. And yes, there would be an adjustment moving up to FBS and to the power five, but he had a 93 gate grade against Nevada. He had a 71 grade against Cal and a 71 grade against a Montana team. That was one of the best in the FCS this year is offers from Washington,

Nebraska, UCF, Minnesota, Oregon state, Cal bunch of West coast schools. So that one will be interesting to watch, but certainly K you going hard for linebackers and defensive linemen, and then maybe some offensive linemen in there too. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We will see you next time with LOJ for a KU Wichita State preview.