Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Lands Two Transfers: Auburn Edge Dylan Brooks and Nebraska QB Mikey Pauley

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

Lance Leipold and the Kansas Jayhawks football team got some good news on Monday as former top 150 recruit and Auburn transfer and defensive end/edge Dylan Brooks along with former Nebraska and Blue Valley Northwest Quarterback Mikey Pauley are headed to Lawrence. How both will fit in for 2023 and beyond, and what's next for KU?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsToday's episode is brought to you by Birddogs. Go to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege and when you enter promo code, LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, a little bit of football. KU gets a couple of commits from the transfer portal, Dylan Brooks and Mikey Pauly to the edge position and quarterback position. Let's discuss how they fit in, what it means, and how big of an impact they can have on this season for KU. 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 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 wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also like us, subscribe to us, and find us on YouTube. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be going into a little KU football transfer portal news. Dylan Brooks, transfer from Auburn.

Mikey Pauly, transfer from Nebraska, land at KU. Normally, I mean, shoot, man. You land transfers from Auburn and Nebraska, you're KU football, that would be like the biggest deal in the world, but it's just kind of, you know, a bump on the log, so to speak. Not that it's not important, but with how this football program has started to turn things up and turn things around, and that's a good thing. Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Bird Dogs. Go to birddogs.com

slash locked on college. And when you enter promo code locked on college, all one word, all uppercase, they'll throw in a free custom Bird Dogs Yeti style Tumblr with every order. So Dylan Brooks, Mikey Pauly commit to KU. Let's start with Dylan Brooks. He's kind of the headliner here with Pauly. I think he might be on a preferred walk-on position and I don't know what his situation is going to be with because he's also

um he's a baseball player at Nebraska and a good one at that so I don't know if he's going to be playing baseball KU which certainly that would help them but I think there is an NCAA rule about whichever sport happens first that's the scholarship you have to be on I think that was a rule that was added because Miami was like adding people to their football team with extra scholarships on like track and field scholarships uh so they ended up you know making that rule and everything uh nonetheless with brooks this comes in a position of need for you had a lot of injuries at the defensive end position during spring ball he's a six foot four 235 pound edge he's a transfer from auburn originally from the state of alabama he was a four-star recruit coming out of high school

ranking number 118 nationally and the number eight edge on the 24-7 sports uh rankings for the class of 2021 redshirted his first year then he appeared he still appeared in i think a game his first year but you can you know appear in up to four games obviously redshirted his first year. Then he appeared. He still appeared in, I think, a game his first year, but you can appear in up to four games, obviously. Redshirted, then played nine games in 2022. He had six tackles, a sack, fumble recovery, very limited kind of playing time there. So he's going to be a redshirt sophomore. That gives him three years left of play,

and he'll be immediately eligible. So you get maybe some immediate help here, and you get somebody who can help you long-term. Now, the thing is, I think he came into Auburn. I think the high school recruiting thing had him listed at like 227 pounds. And I think you look at his Auburn profile, he got up to like 232. I think now he's enlisted as like 235. So that's going to be the big thing. Can you add more weight to him? Obviously, KU was able to be very successful with Lonnie Phelps on the line, and he was playing at about 245. But that's still a 10-pound. Could he add 10 pounds? Yeah, probably.

But is that going to happen this year, or is that going to happen over the course of a year or two years? And that seems to be something that was a bit of a struggle for him at Auburn, trying to add that weight a little bit more. But you get him into a you know good strength and conditioning program although auburn probably has a good one too right being in the sec and you would think that you know over time he should be able to add at least a little bit of poundage but how much can he get up to 250 can he get up to 240 right there's going to be kind of a difference there

in how they work about it but obviously the talent is there for you to be able to have potential this is the uh recruiting profile from charles power from 24-7 sports tall with a big frame and long arms has room to fill out considerably once in a college strength program quick and explosive off the ball shows the ability to transition speed to power and overwhelm offensive linemen at the point of attack flexible off the edge dipping with bend as he rounds the arc plays fast and tracks down plays in pursuit with impressive speed, disengages from blocks, and looks to embrace contact. Also shows his athleticism by dropping into space as a linebacker

and contributing on offense as a wide receiver. Will need to continue working on his tackling and finishing, plays relatively low competition and should see an uptick in production as a senior with continued improvement. Projects as a senior with continued improvement projects as a multi-year starter at the power five level with upside to be an early round nfl draft pick so all that stuff sounds great for you and that's back in his high school when why he was listed as the top 150 recruit kansas doesn't end up with a lot of those players specifically as linemen right

like sometimes kansas will end up with oh this guy was a former top 150 you know like we saw it before with the the weiss era specifically like uh just McKay the receiver from Oklahoma or you know bringing on a couple quarterbacks like a Jay Keeps or a Dane Crist right but it's rare you see it with the line whether it's offensive line which you did with like Logan Brown or now defensive line um here with Brooks so in terms of the pro football focus numbers, you're talking about him playing 140 snaps last year at Auburn. So kind of a limited sample size, but also, you know, it's not just like 30 snaps where it's a very, very limited sample size and didn't rank out too well. He, uh, among the, there were 40 players, 40 players who at least logged one snap for the Auburn defense last season and Brooks ranked 38th

of the 40 players on pro football focus grade with a 53 grade he did have nearly an 81 grade as a tackler so that was a positive he was a 58 pass rusher so that was better than his 53 where he really struggled was against the run just a 46 grade as a run defender and part of that kind of makes sense you're talking about a guy who was 235 pounds in the sec right like you're going to get kind of road graded there now keep in mind auburn plays a little bit of a different defense than what what kansas is probably going to be asking him to do uh first of all the um you know you look at offensive lines in the big 12 versus the sec like they're obviously your oklahomas of the world and texas the world that have those sec type of lines but a lot of lines are going to be a little bit smaller a little bit lighter than those sec lines um but at auburn they were playing a lot of like

three down linemen so whether it was a three four or like i don't know going into like some of the three three stuff that we see kind of popular in college football to where he's either playing in like a 3-4 as an outside linebacker or he's playing as the down lineman as like being the defensive end in a 3-4 is a lot different than being the defensive end in a 4-3. In the 3-4, you need to be more firm. You need to be stout against the run a little bit more. In the 4-3, you know, there is a little more wideness to it and they're, you know and it's just kind of different where you're lining up. One, you're going up against guards and tackles. The other one, you're basically just going up against tackles.

So it's a little bit different there in how he'll be used at Kansas, and I think that's beneficial. If you're 235 pounds, it doesn't really work as a 3-4 defensive end. If you're 235, and maybe he wasn't fast enough or athletic enough to play outside linebacker, which that's the progression from 4-3 defensive end to 3-4 outside linebacker. You have to be more mobile. You have to be more athletic. So he was kind of caught in between those.

He wasn't big enough to play 3-4 defensive end. He wasn't maybe athletic enough, even though good athlete, but not athletic enough to play outside linebacker. When you come to Kansas, it's a better fit because you run a 4-3. And now your athleticism and your size are less of issues because of the position you're being asked to play here as opposed to at Auburn. So for that standpoint, you could see the numbers going up here. You're also talking about, yeah, the pro football focus grades weren't great, but he was an undersized redshirt freshman playing in

the SEC. Sometimes that's just going to happen in a conference like that with as big and athletic dudes as there are. You're kind of banking on another year of development, though. Will that be this year? Will that be in the future? I don't know. For someone who's clearly seen

as having high potential, like, I mean, top 150 recruit, right? Like, clearly the potential is in there. Can you get it out of him? And I think you're also banking on slightly lighter weights of offensive lines in the Big 12 than the SEC. You're banking on more opportunity leading to growth, more snaps leading to improvement there. You're banking on him fitting your four down lineman defense better than that Auburn three down line. And then you're

banking on him having multiple years to where he might not just be helped for you this year, he might be helped for you next year and even in a year after that, which is obviously a positive. Now, Mikey Pauly, he comes in, as I mentioned, sounds like the ultimate, like New York name, like, Hey, Mikey Pauly, you know, we had some spaghetti at Mike Pauly's house. Um, Mikey is a six foot three, 195 pound quarterback transfer from Nebraska. It's funny. I remember I broadcasted some of his basketball games when they played against some of the Lawrence schools at Blue Valley Northwest. And I think he was listed at like 6'5 or 6'6,

which I don't know which one is true. Nonetheless, he's a big kid. He's a powerful kid. I was surprised when I only saw the listing at 195. I think he's more than that. But he's a baseball player, too. We'll see if that helps out KU baseball. You know, that would certainly be another positive there, right?

But he was an all-state quarterback at Blue Valley Northwest. He, like, threw for nearly 2,000 yards, ran for, like, over 1,200 yards, kind of a power runner type of quarterback as that big kid. They crushed Derby in the state title game, which Derby usually does that to other teams. So that was obviously a notion of, like, okay, clearly they have some really good players, and Mikey Pauly was a key among that he got listed as a three-star quarterback number 89th quarterback in the class of 2022 went to nebraska uh didn't play so i don't know if he

technically took a red shirt or not i feel like he probably did so i would assume he's a red shirt freshman with four years left to play but i guess worst case he still has three years left either way you have multiple years left with him now as far as the scouting report he's big strong athletic kid he runs really well he seems to be a good leader seems to be a good competitor as i mentioned i saw him be very mobile and be both of those things when he was playing on the basketball court um the stats when you're looking at the numbers show he needs to refine his accuracy a little bit like you're talking about in like the the 50 for a completion percentage but big strong arm there's potential there and even though he's a preferred walk-on like i don't think it'd be shocking if he even beat out like maybe one of

your scholarship quarterbacks to like a ben easter's or something to eventually be third string let's get into the role though next with locked on jayhawks. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by Bird Dogs. You know, I just got my Bird Dogs in the mail. They sent me some. And first of all, they sent me a Tumblr as well, which that's great. But the fit is awesome. I had never had Bird Dogs before. I'd heard about them from other places, but I'd never pulled the trigger on them.

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Okay. So the role for both of these players, let's start with Brooks. Jeremy Robinson feels like a lock to start at one of your defensive end spots. Okay. So that position is taken care of who's going to start the other defensive end spot.

It could be Brooksoks it could be i don't know that i would expect that going back to a conversation we had a week ago a lot of times it takes time and and something that we said then was you know you look at lorenzo mccaskill coming in that late and it took a toll on him like clearly he was very talented but maybe between not being as great in past coverage and taking a little longer to learn the playbook because you just arrived so late, he ended up being more of a rotational linebacker than a starting linebacker, like you might have thought when he came in. Meanwhile, you have a guy like Kobe Baines who you brought in late, and he didn't really play until the end of the season, but because he has multiple years, now you're going to get something really good out of him and so i kind of uh questioned whether it made sense if you're gonna add anybody during the summer should it be players that are gonna have multiple years so that you're covered in case it does take them longer than just the fall camp to understand everything with the team and that's the beauty here for brooks he does have those multiple years that you know ideally you do want him playing a real role on this team and if he ends up being that good to be a starter that's great because that means he earned it and you're looking for help there but at the very least he's depth this year

and gives you someone with high potential for future years which is obviously very important but the other defensive end starting spot some of the options i mean patrick joiner would make sense he's an experienced guy um better pass rusher than a run defender but he was hurt all spring but if he's healthy he's in the competition for that uh starting defensive end spot but you know i i don't know maybe it makes more sense to have joiner because of the pass rushing ability that's not as good as the run defense to be more of a rotational dn that you bring on pass rush situations nonetheless hayden hatcher he gives you hustling an older experienced player the want to he's trying to make that jump forward still

trying to add weight and stuff like that um is he the type of player where it's like okay we we kind of we've seen it before we know you can be a useful player or can he make that jump to being like a big 12 level starter that's what he's trying to work on and get going so he's in that competition austin booker he has all sorts of potential after transferring in from minnesota but is it going to take him more time i think he could be a really good defensive end for you but is it going to take till next year right and I think that when you look at it Brooks Joyner Hatcher Booker that represents with Robinson you're likely top five defensive ends maybe I maybe I should add on Davion Westmoreland he's kind of an unknown here but seems right around this range we saw him him playing, you know, working his way up with, you know,

the twos and occasionally mixing in there with the ones with the spring game. So maybe he works in there as well. And if you want to include him, that gives you six players with Brooks, Joyner, Hatcher, Booker, Robinson, and Westmoreland. So that gives you basically a three deep at both defensive end spots. Now, who would win the starting spot next to Robinson? Again, I don't know I feel like a lot of those guys are on pretty equal footing which means it's just going to come

down to fall camp I know that's not a sexy take or anything like that but I think that's just kind of the truth of the matter and then you have that group of players that has potential and are still progressing whether it's working on the body adding weight just getting the experience at the power five level like your Tony Terry's of the world who joined during spring baller who transferred in last year from the juco level and is still adding weight and stuff like that so uh it just adds to your defensive end group and then even then you know you're looking at the defensive end spot like you're gonna play four guys at minimum if not five if not six obviously if there's injuries that adds to those fifth or sixth guys playing even more but ku said before like if they have they have 12 good defensive linemen, they'll play all 12.

They're going to rotate guys in. They're going to keep guys fresh. However many useful bodies they have, they're going to play them. So it'll be interesting to see how Brooks kind of comes in. But yeah, I think the ceiling on his first season at KU is a starter. I think the floor is he's second or third string D end, but then he becomes a future starter for you. Right.

So I think those are kind of the two outcomes somewhere in the range of that they're looking at there for Pauly. He's going to come in. You expect him to be a starter, right? Oh, I'm just joking. No,

obviously Jalen Daniels is going to be the starter at the quarterback position. Jason beans going to be the backup, right? So the ceiling on Mikey Pauly in year one, can he beat out Ben Easter's for the third string position? Now, the thing that I think in the short term, I would still be leaning to the side of,

I kind of expect Ben Easter's to be that third string. Maybe not, but Ben Easter's has been in the system now, seems to be a smart quarterback. That's part of why Brent Dierman wanted to bring him on and did for KU. And for Mikey Pauly, going back to the idea of, like, you look at Lorenzo McCaskill and it took a little bit longer of time there to get to know the playbook and everything. Well, now imagine you're doing that at the quarterback position where you have to know where everybody is going in one of the more complicated offenses in college football

with Andy Kotelnicki. Okay? Good luck doing that in just the fall. So from that standpoint, I think that I would probably view Mikey Pauly outside the top three of that depth chart, at least to start the season. But maybe we get to week six.

Maybe we get to week eight. Maybe we get to just next year in the spring. And by that point, even though Pauly is coming in as a preferred walk-on, like I wonder if this is one of those things where it's like he's a preferred walk-on for a year and then gets a scholarship or something I don't know but the talent is there I think there's almost more physical talent with Pauly than Easter's like bigger kid better runner maybe a stronger arm Easter's probably the more accurate player um so it wouldn't surprise me if Pauly eventually

usurps him and if he does usurp him next, let's say Jalen Daniels goes pro after this season. Then at that point, you're left with Ben Easter's Mikey Pauly and the incoming Isaiah Marshall. And if Pauly usurps Easter's for next year, even if it's not this year, then you're talking about the starter is either at that point, Pauly or Isaiah Marshall, unless you bring on somebody else. But I think no matter which way you look at it having Paulie gives you kind of coverage here I mean he's a Kansas kid uh you're talking about like he's used his free transfer now um whether he is someone you view as being having the potential that you can coach up to being a future starter or just somebody who is a future QB depth piece like that is so important to have we've seen it the past two years with Jason Bean.

Just having a guy who could stick around for a few years and feel like you have a competent backup, even that would be super important. And you think that there is more potential beyond that for Mikey Pauly, but at the very least, it's nice to kind of have coverage there with what he can bring from kind of a physical skill set. All right, let's finish up. What's next for KU football?

Where do we go from here? That next on Locked on Jayhawks. So what is next for KU football? I guess it still wouldn't be shocking if they added an even more defensive line depth just because they still are continuing to go for it. And one way to look at Brooks is that he could be more of that long-term answer at defensive end. again you don't know is he going to be a starter this year is he going

to be a third string this year right like is he going to take more time is he going to need to add more weight and experience and stuff it might make sense at this point like probably wouldn't make sense for ku to bring on another um like i don't know unexperienced or, if you're going to bring on another D lineman, maybe it does make sense to bring on somebody who, even if it's only one year left, would be more of like a, for sure, top two defensive end on your depth chart at that point, just to try to help you out a little bit more this year and give you more of a sure thing, but that wouldn't shock you. Maybe you even look at receiver, which we've kind of talked about before. If they can get like a, a good receiver with the ball in his hands, yard after catch, stuff like that, speedy guy.

I think that would intrigue them, but I think they're being very nitpicky and choosy with who they would go after there. Honestly, not sure how many scholarships the KU has left at this point, but I just know this, it is very, very tight. And that's obviously another importance of Mikey Pauly coming in as a PWO. Obviously it's helpful with him being an in-state kid. So you're talking about him getting, you know an in-state kid so uh you're talking

about him getting you know uh in-state tuition and stuff like that and then who knows if i i don't know no i like with with ku basketball every player on the roster is getting some sort of nil money i don't know if that's the case for k football or if it's just like a certain amount of players but you would think that paulie's going to be just okay there. So what's next? I would probably most circle looking for another defensive player. Like, what would shock you if they brought in a defensive lineman or a linebacker or something like that? But I definitely think this is not – this isn't like KU basketball where it's like, oh, they have all these spots to fill

and they're just going to be wild and heavy and it's like KU football. They kind of have to be choosy here because there aren't a lot of scholarships to go around. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks we're gonna have uh some stuff on trey johnson released his top six ku is in it still gonna get to some deep dives with like arthur kaluma and later this week still get deeper into the kevin mcculler decision nba draft combine is going on so uh that obviously gives us more to look at and do some of those decisions and some of those deep dives of those upcoming players but that'll do it for this episode of locked on jayhawks you can find me as well rock chalk sports talk monday through friday from three to six on klwn and lawrence

and you can find locked on jayhawks wherever you get any of your podcasts or on youtube make sure to subscribe to the show hit the like button until next time later