Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Lands Commit From Class of 2025 3-Star Tight End Joseph Skipworth

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas football adds an all-around tight end for the class of 2025. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can give me a follow on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio Your team every day. who is a three-star tight end who committed to KU earlier this morning. Going to get some info on Skipworth, scouting report, what it means for KU in the class of 2025, and the future at the tight end position, because KU does have a lot of seniors on the roster at the tight end position. Don't forget, you can check out any of our shows.

Starting point is 00:00:57 Thank you to the everydayers who already did that. And make sure to check out our Rock Chalk Round Ball Classic episode earlier today. That event happening this weekend goes to a great cause. So please check that out and find a way to help any way that you can. All right, let's start here with information on Joseph Skipworth. He is a three-star tight end from Milton, Florida, and out of Pace High School. He's listed at 6'5 by all four major recruiting sites, 24-7, Rivals, ESPN, and on three. The weight varies, though, between 205 pounds and 220 pounds.

Starting point is 00:01:32 Definitely was more of a, I don't know, I guess body-wise, like a big receiver, you could say, at the high school level. So he's definitely going to be in the Matt Gildersleeve add-some-weight program. But he's got the frame to take it at six foot five to certainly add on a lot more weight. And he certainly plays up to a big size. He is an 86 graded three star on 24 seven sports. He is a 5.6 graded three star on rivals. And then he is unrated by on three and ESPN at the moment. I I've always wondered this. Why is rivals scale on a scale of like, I don't know, like what does 5.6 mean? Is it out of like seven? I don't know. That's a question for another day. Anyway, apparently, Skipworth took two official visits last week between SMU

Starting point is 00:02:20 and then he visited Kansas. He had two more scheduled with Tulane and Boston College and then he actually just yesterday got an offer from Mississippi State out of the SEC but I guess the KU visit that was enough for him to commit obviously it wasn't immediately on the trip it wasn't you know the day right after but it was close enough right after that makes you think it was obviously a good enough visit to do that. You do wonder if after the Mississippi State offer came, did KU put even more of a hard press on him, or was it just he needed those few days of reflection? Either way, Skipworth ends up committing to KU. One thing that seems to be apparent is recruits really like Jeff Grimes, who's the new offensive coordinator coming over

Starting point is 00:03:05 from Baylor and before that BYU. And before that, he was a longtime assistant and position coach at some SEC schools and stuff to where you could see that recruiting background coming into play. And he's also the tight ends coach as Grimes for KU. In the article from Jayhawk Slant and John Kirby, he had some really glowing things to say about Jeff Grimes and mentioned that was a big reason why he committed to KU because of what Grimes brings to the table. And I think it's just an interesting juxtaposition to Andy Kotelnicki, who was the previous offensive coordinator for KU.

Starting point is 00:03:36 AK was a great play caller. He was a great play designer, though I do think that Matt Lubick, who's now at Nevada, he had probably just as big of a part in the design part of it. But anyway, Andy Kotelnicki wasn't really known for the recruits he was bringing on. When he left, the only guy that he was one of the primary or secondaries on was Carson Bruin, who was a tight end. He obviously stayed committed. He wasn't as much in the recruiting game.

Starting point is 00:04:03 Grimes, it seems like you're going to get more out of the recruiting game. Now, it remains to be seen how much you get out of Grimes compared to Kotelnicki in terms of the offensive play calling and stuff like that. But lots of recruits have been raving about Grimes and Leighton Cure who came in, which is obviously an added bonus for KU. So let's talk more about Skip Worth, his scouting report, what it means for KU, and the future of the tight end position on this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, we were brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs.

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Starting point is 00:05:14 Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Continuing on, more info on Skipworth and a scouting report, and then we'll talk about what it means for KU ku their class 2025 in the future at the tight end position so according to his max preps page skip worth last season had 11 catches for 240 yards and five touchdowns as a junior he wound up with 359 all-purpose yards obviously stats are only so helpful at certain positions in high school because it's going to depend on what a team is doing. Like typically, if you're a good running back, like you're going to put up numbers no matter what at the high school level, but specifically

Starting point is 00:05:52 like at tight end. And you see this sometimes with receivers too, you might be at a school who, yeah, it's a smaller school, or maybe they're, you know, running triple option or speed option. And you don't get as many chances to showcase that. Like Jaden Ham, for instance, who was highly recruited kid that was previously committed arkansas ended up coming to kansas he's uh going into another year here at ku as he continues to develop for the jayhawks program he was at a eudora team that was running like a flex bone you know or option or something so you're not going to put up as much of stats and you almost have to from the camps and the, I don't know, some of the other stuff and the limited tape you have kind of project based off that. And I think you see some of that with Skipworth that you really like a lot of what

Starting point is 00:06:35 that tape looks like. He also averaged over eight points and eight rebounds per game as a basketball player, which I always think playing basketball is probably super beneficial for tight ends. I feel like there's a lot of skill set there that kind of coincides. And from watching his high school video, the brief, you know, I guess film that I saw, the things that stood out to me were the dude does have some speed. Like there was one highlight where he is like an up back and kick return. And he actually there were several highlights of him catching the ball and is the up back and kick return and returning it for at least you know 10 15 yards but there's one where he scores a touchdown and he just like speeds by everyone you don't see that from six foot five tight ends very

Starting point is 00:07:13 often um the other thing that that stood out was it seemed like he had again kind of limited tapes you're not getting you know 40 catches in a season but it seemed like he had a good sense of zones like meaning that he would get open he would find an opening in the defense and then he would kind of slow down before running into a new zone to make it so that he was not running the quarterback into a pick like that is so important for tight ends and and receivers who are going to be over the middle of the field when you get open you almost just kind of drift and just kind of hang there. And you don't just continue to, oh, I'm open. Let's continue to sprint into this next zone, which is not going to be open anymore. And I don't know, maybe it was just the happenstance of the plays

Starting point is 00:07:54 that were shown on the film, but it seemed like that was kind of the case, which makes me think he's got a good feel for the game. But honestly, the thing that I might have been most impressed with in watching the film was the blocking. Like, continuously blocked through the whistle. This is a guy who has some, I say this in a positive connotation way, because I think it can be a good thing in football, a nastiness to him when he is blocking. You know, I mentioned only 205 to 220 pounds, depending what you're getting at. I'd imagine if you're Matt Gildersleeve, you want to get them to 235, 240, maybe even 250, I don't know, whatever the body can kind of take there. He's only going to get better at it, but what you can't teach is the aggressiveness and the mental side of it. You can make him even more physically strong. And that has to be really exciting for when you're projecting this kid out because he

Starting point is 00:08:46 was consistently blocking through the whistle. He had a bunch of pancakes. He showed so much competitiveness in the blocking game. I think he's going to turn into eventually a really good blocker with KU. I think he's going to be a really good all-around tight end down the road. Love this pickup for KU. All right, let's talk more about what it means for Kansas, the class of 2025, and the future at tight end on this episode of the show. First, we were brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. It's a winner-take-all time in the NBA and NHL, and FanDuel's giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own.

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Starting point is 00:10:04 We talked with voice of the Jayhawks, Brian Haney, about the event, how you can support these seven families who have had to deal with some shortcomings with children in terms of some awful diseases they've had to go through. And you can really help out in what is an awesome week of events to certainly help them out with. So check out that episode anywhere you get your podcasts and on our YouTube page. Okay, so what it means for KU in the class of 2025, he becomes the sixth commit in the class. I'd imagine we're going to have a flurry more over the next week, two weeks, month or so, because they're going to continually bring on visits.

Starting point is 00:10:38 I've talked about how they like to get this stuff wrapped up as much as they can in the summer. He is an 86 graded three star, which is actually tied for the lowest recruit KU has gotten to this point. Technically, not that it matters much. I don't know that there's that much of a difference between like an 86 and 87 and 88 and 84, whatever, like it's going to mostly matter about development and all that stuff. I don't bring that up to say, and honestly, I'm, I'm higher on Skipworth than, than that grade indicates. The reason I point that out is because I think it's, it's kind of interesting, funny, whatever, I don't bring that up to say, and honestly, I'm higher on Skipworth than that grade indicates. The reason I point that out is because I think it's kind of interesting, funny, whatever you want to say. I changed the drag down menu to 10 years ago in 2015 out of comparison. An 86 graded three-star for Kansas would have been tied third best for the KU class 10 years ago,

Starting point is 00:11:23 the 2015 class. And that was in a class of 24 commits. It would have been tied third best. Now it's six of six. If I go back five years, if I go back to the class of 2020, it would have been tied fifth in a class of 28 kids. One that featured LJ Arnold and Kobe Bryant as 87 and 88 graded guys. And now it's six of six.

Starting point is 00:11:43 It's just pretty crazy to me. Like you knew Lance Leipold and his staff when they came in, they were going to be such an improvement on KU, and they have been in development, in player improvement, in game day experience, all that sort of stuff. I don't know that I expected them to recruit at this high of a level as they continue to do. Now, as far as at the future of the tight end position,

Starting point is 00:12:04 Trevor Gardell and Jared Casey graduate after this season. You're also going to graduate to Vita Noah, and then DeJuan Hanukkah could graduate, or he could get a medical redshirt and return for another year. So you're losing either three or four guys there just to graduation alone. But that means the 2025 group is going to be, I guess, redshirt junior Leighton Cure and Quinton Conley, redshirt sophomore Jaden Hamm, redshirt freshman Carson Bruin at that point, assuming he redshirts this year with the option for Hanukkah, which means as a true freshman for Skipworth, you're in competition there to possibly be even tight end three. Realistically, maybe you need a year of development

Starting point is 00:12:39 under Matt Gildersleeve to get the body up to par, but I think the target year for really making a big impact, probably 2027. By that point, you're going to be heading into your third year of college. Maybe you've been a rotational player in year two. Maybe you're redshirted in year one. Year three, maybe you get on the two-deep or even start because at that point, you're talking about him being a redshirt sophomore. You're talking about Cure, Conley, Hanneke, and the current guys all gone.

Starting point is 00:13:03 At that point, only Jaden Hamm would be a senior, which we'll see where that development goes. But overall, you've layered this position nicely. Wouldn't it be great to add one more and add maybe a five star local kid who happens to play tight end as well? That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere

Starting point is 00:13:19 you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. Back at it later in the week for a Football Friday episode of the show on LOJ. See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Lands Commit From Class of 2025 3-Star Tight End Joseph Skipworth

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