Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football In-State RECRUITING DOMINANCE continues: 3-Star WR Tyren Parker Picks KU

Starting point is 00:00:00 The good times keep rolling in the class of 2026. Tyron Parker, another in-state recruit for KU Football and its lightbulb and company. on Podcast Network, your team every day. Sup, Derek Johnson here. This is a bonus episode of Locked on J-Hawks because Tyron Parker, a three-star recruit in the class of 2026 in-state kid, has joined the class of 2026 for KU football and Lance Leipold. And we're gonna break it all down,

Starting point is 00:00:39 what it means for the class, what it means for the future of the receiver position, Parker's game, all that and more on today's bonus episode of the show. Let's get right into it. Tyron Parker, he is a three star receiver in the class of 2026 from Tecumseh, Kansas and out of Shawnee Heights High School. Again, three star recruit.

Starting point is 00:00:58 And he chose Kansas over offers from Kansas State, which is always a big one, Iowa State and Oklahoma State. So a lot of other big 12 beef, a lot of other big 12 brass in on that one. And obviously the Kansas State one is the one that sticks out because this continues kind of the, I guess you would say, in-state dominance that Kansas is having so far on the trail in 2026, right?

Starting point is 00:01:22 Most other years it's Kansas State having that in-state dominance, but Kansas is really building something. The question will be, is this class of 2026 starting something for Kansas that's gonna continue year in and year out? Or is this just one class that Kansas is going to dominate? Either way, it's a good thing for Kansas.

Starting point is 00:01:38 Obviously you hope it's more of the starting of something momentum in state. But you look at now, Kansas having 12 commits in the class, and a lot of them are in the state of something momentum in state. But you look at now, Kansas having 12 commits in the class and a lot of them are in the state of Kansas. There are 11 players that are ranked right now by 24 seven sports in the state of Kansas. And for KU coming into this commitment,

Starting point is 00:01:58 they already had six of them committed. Well, Parker becomes the seventh commit in the class just from the state for KU. So you have Kaden Snyder, who's listed as number two. These are by 24-7 sports rankings. Hunter Higgins, four. J.J. Dunigan, five. Josh Galbraith, six.

Starting point is 00:02:13 Nate Sims, nine. Parker, 10. And then Jalen Mason, the quarterback and at number 11. There's also three others that are uncommitted, Ian Premmer being the biggest of them all, the four-star tight end from Great Bend. And the one guy who is committed that did not pick Kansas is Ed Clemson, where it's like, okay, I mean,

Starting point is 00:02:36 you can understand like a kid picking Clemson, you know what I mean? Like obviously a very good school and obviously a free state kid, I'd imagine Kansas is gonna try keep recruiting him as much as they can in the same way that Calvin Clements obviously a free state kid. I'd imagine Kansas is, you know, going to try keep recruiting him as much as they can in the same way that Calvin Clements, a free state kid was committed to Baylor and they kept on him and eventually be committed and picked Kansas.

Starting point is 00:02:51 Like who knows if that ends up happening or not. But point being, seven commits in the top 11 in the state of Kansas. And right now Kansas State was zero. Again, it's not something we're used to seeing and it's pretty cool what they're doing. You look at the overall class of 2026 for KU. I mean, they're already ranked fifth before this commitment. Actually, this is the 13th committee, excuse me.

Starting point is 00:03:10 They ranked fifth in the class in the 24 seven sports rankings. Now, you look at some of the average ratings of KU's class compared to those other teams or, you know, in that top seven or so. Like it is different. Like once those other schools get more commits in terms of quantity, Kansas will drop there. But could this still end up like a top 40 class or top 35 class?

Starting point is 00:03:28 Maybe it will. Like that would still be a huge deal for Kansas. And I mean, you look at the level of recruits, right? We talk about all the time, can Kansas get these recruits who are 86 or higher? That's pretty much all of them to this point in time. And when you look at Tyron Parker, that kind of becomes the thing with Parker as well.

Starting point is 00:03:48 And so it's 13 commits in the class for KU. You have a loaded receiver group, which we'll get into a little bit later with three receivers as part of the class. And just seemingly a majority of your class is going to be done before we even get done with spring football. I mean, I don't know how many kids KU's gonna bring

Starting point is 00:04:07 in in the class. Obviously you're losing another load of seniors at the end of this year. So you'd imagine it's gonna be in the high teens. Maybe it closes in on 20. I mean, certainly you've left yourself with a lot of time to fill out the rest of the class, but this is an unbelievable job by KU.

Starting point is 00:04:20 Not just to get a good recruiting class, but to get it done by this point in time. It just allows them more time to really hone in on other things. It allows them more time to hone in on just the kids that are already committed to keep recruiting them to try to make sure they stay in tow. Let's get into Parker's game though, and that future receiver room for Kansas. This is locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:05:46 I guess you could say if you're an everydayer. Thank you already tuning into it with a KU basketball portal target already that could be visiting this week. And we broke down his game and also talked a little bit about KU's top recruit for basketball. Darren Peterson scoring 58 points against AJ DeBansa and BYU commit there. Okay, so more on Tyron Parker.

Starting point is 00:06:05 He is a six foot three, 185 pound receiver, plays defensive back and receiver at Shawnee Heights High School. And last season as a junior, he put up 50 catches for 946 yards and 11 touchdowns. He was, that's in nine games. So that's over a hundred receiving yards per game as a junior. And he averaged 140 all receiving yards per game as a junior and he averaged

Starting point is 00:06:26 140 all-purpose yards per game pretty good stuff there 24 7 sports lists him as an 86 graded 3-star as an athlete But seems like everybody's kind of pointing him being a receiver and again the number 10 player in the state Rivals lists him as the number 8 player in the state of Kansas in a five point six graded three star. When you watch some of the tape, I think he shows a really good acceleration in the open field. We're going to get into a little bit on the receivers you have brought in. I don't think he's as fast as those guys, which I mean, that's that's not saying like a bad thing.

Starting point is 00:06:59 Tyron Parker, I think, still has good speed. But, you know, you have those different versions. I always think from like the video game perspective, right? In the video games, you have, you know, I think it has good speed. But you know, you have those different versions. I always think from like the video game perspective, right? In the video games you have, you have, I think it's speed, agility and acceleration. Like those are different types of speed. Speed might be like right away. How fast you can get to your top gear. Acceleration might be once you get to your top gear, how fast you going.

Starting point is 00:07:18 Agility is more of like your, you know, can you juke by a guy like a quick feet sort of thing. I think his acceleration would be his best skill among those three if you were looking at it. Maybe it's because of the long legs, being 6'3". He runs really hard when he gets the ball too. And I think because of the 6'3 body, the acceleration, he's a really good deep ball receiver. He also makes some jump ball catches as well,

Starting point is 00:07:41 where he has good focus on the ball and is able to use that frame to go up and get a ball over a guy and does a good job kind of boxing out in that way. So I think combination of all those things, I view him as being that really good deep ball receiver. And you look at most of the highlights, if you watch some of them, it's deep balls or it's screen passes. So I'll be curious to see what the usage is at Kansas. Like, is there a full route tree there? Is it just he's being asked to do those things? Because those are the easiest way for his offense

Starting point is 00:08:05 at the high school level to proceed like that. That kind of remains a question, but according to his huddle profile, he runs a 4, 4, 9, 40, a 10.9, 100, and a 49.8, 400. I want to say Savion Morrison was a 10, 7 guy, and he was obviously probably on the faster end of KU players. I don't think he was the fastest player,

Starting point is 00:08:22 but he was on the faster end. So, you know, a little slower than what Savion Morrison ran in the 100, but also you're talking about a 6-3 frame, right? So pretty fast with the 6-3 frame. And when you count for the height, I think maybe a little bit of Quentin Skinner here, right? I mean, you could look to the fact that, hey, Quentin Skinner is this tall receiver that I don't view Quentin Skinner as being like the most agile receiver, but had good acceleration downfield. And I think Tyron Parker has that good acceleration downfield. He is a good deep ball threat. I think there could be some similarities between kind of those players and maybe even in how Kansas ends up using him. Let's talk more about that future receiver room, as well

Starting point is 00:08:59 as the other KU receiver commits that they have in tow now for the class of 2026. other KU receiver commits that they have in tow now for the class of 2026. Thanks for joining us on this bonus episode of Lockdown J-Ox. We'll have a Kansas-Colorado preview coming at you on tomorrow's episode. And don't forget to check out our episode earlier today talking about Darren Peterson and Nana Awusu-Anane, a KU basketball transfer portal target from Brown. Okay. So KU has three commits in the class of 2026, the play receiver, Nate Sims, who's graded in 87 by 24 seven sports, Corbin Glasgow, who's graded in 87,

Starting point is 00:09:31 and now Tyron Parker. And when you look at it, I think the common theme here is speed. With Parker, he's not as fast as these other guys. He's a fast player overall. Sims though is an absolute burner. I think he's listed to like 435 40. Corbin Glasgow has we talked about some of his 100 meter dash numbers like faster than guys like

Starting point is 00:09:51 McCall Hardman and stuff like that and what he was able to do. So he's a burner of all burners. Parker though the difference between him and Glasgow and Sims. It's interesting you have the fastest guy was Glasgow but he's also the smallest. Then you have Sims, who was the second fastest, and he's also the second, like biggest, I guess you would say. And then Parker is the slowest, but again, still fast overall, and is the biggest body.

Starting point is 00:10:16 So like you have these different skills that you can use from the different receivers, and it's almost like, okay, Glasgow can be your jet sweep guy, and you're in the open field return guy, and your screen guy, whereas almost like OK, Glasgow can be your jet sweep guy and you're in the open field return guy and your screen guy. Whereas with like Parker, he can be your downfield threat

Starting point is 00:10:29 and like your jump ball guy. And then with Sims he can be, you know, kind of a mix of all of it. But the fact that all of them are still fast, give them opportunities to make plays in the open field and do different things for the KU offense. And even you know,

Starting point is 00:10:42 run the ball on reverses or jet sweeps. And I think that's a really cool thing that kids adding all this speed to the outside and the receiver room in what they're going to have. Now you look at the future of the receiver room, you look at this year's team, Henderson, Canty, Amelian and Wentz. Those are all seniors. They'll be gone by 2026. And you have four incoming freshmen for this year's team with Nickens, Hayes, Nagy, and Cook. And so you look at it between those four freshmen and these three that will be coming in in 2026. Really that group of players is going to be in hard competition to determine do any of the young guys get on the field in 2026, and then really who's going to make progress in 2027 and 2028. And you look at the future of the

Starting point is 00:11:24 KU quarterback position, right, with whether it's David McComb, Isaiah Marshall, Cole Ballard, whoever it ends up being post Jalen Daniels. These are gonna be the guys that are gonna be these star receivers, right? It could be any of the players in this class, it could be any of the players in class 2025,

Starting point is 00:11:38 that could be those star targets for that next KU quarterback to throw to and to develop trust over these upcoming years with those quarterbacks. And that could be Tyron Parker, that could be one of these other guys, but you're throwing darts at this thing. And if one ends up not hitting

Starting point is 00:11:52 or one ends up having injuries, one ends up being a good player, one ends up being an all big 12 player, you have a lot of options you can go to and a lot of different types of receivers too, right? Like if we mix in this class of 2025, you have maybe more of a slot guy in Tate Nagy. You have more of your kind of all around like bigger body

Starting point is 00:12:08 receiver who can make jump ball catches in a guy like Jaden Nickens who kind of joins Tyron Parker in that area. You have the speedsters in guys like Bryson Hayes and Corbin Glasgow and Nate Sims. So you're building a receiver room that has different characteristics that you can use in different packages that you can use in different roles that you can use for different routes and kind of build the best offense that you can use in different packages, that you can use in different roles, that you can use for different routes and kind of build the best offense that you can

Starting point is 00:12:29 based on the role that you need those guys to play. But also you have guys that because of their speed and their overall ability could just develop into great overall receivers too. And Tyron Parker certainly joins that group. All right, that'll do it for this episode bonus show of Locked on J-Ox. Check out all our other shows as well. You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts as well as on our YouTube page. See you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football In-State RECRUITING DOMINANCE continues: 3-Star WR Tyren Parker Picks KU

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