Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football News: Seth Keller, Jaden Hamm, Kenny Logan Jr.

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

Catching up on the latest Kansas Jayhawks Football personnel moves and decisions, from the transfer portal losses to addition of kicker Seth Keller from Texas State to the high school ranks with Eudora High School tight end Jaden Hamm decommitting from Arkansas for KU to the return of Kenny Logan Jr. Plus, a What If Wednesday: What if KU lost to Texas in 2016?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.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.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!NHTSADrive high, get a DUI. Click HERE to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked On Jayhawks, going to be going over some of the latest personnel news for Kansas football, from the addition of a new kicker to a local in-state recruit to Kenny Logan returning, where things are at, where some of the players are leaving out of the program, and a what-if Wednesday on today's edition of the show. 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 on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 on KLWN in Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. Subscribe to the show. Give us a good review if you could as well. We're also on YouTube, which you can subscribe to, and hit us up in the comments section if you have any questions

or anything you want to talk about. Same goes for on Twitter, at DJohnsonRadio. On today's edition of locked on Jay Hawks. We're going to be taking a look at some of the newest player news for Kansas football. They head into the bowl game next week in the Liberty bowl against Arkansas, but the transfer portal opened up a few weeks ago.

We saw KU land their first transfer. Now at the time of recording, we have a couple to talk about. Now, who knows? I'm recording this on Tuesday. It's going to come out on Wednesday. Maybe somebody else is going to commit between then and now. So if that happens, we'll talk about it on a later episode. But a couple big additions, and then also a guy coming back with Kenny Logan. So we'll talk about that.

We're going to talk about who's kind of in and out of the program, maybe a possible key target who's out there right now, and then we'll get to a what-if Wednesday on this edition of the show. Let's start right away with some of the player news of players coming into the program for Kansas. The first would be Seth Keller. So Seth Keller is a kicker from Texas state and Kansas had all sorts of kicking issues this season. That was the case last year, last year, they were last in the big 12 in field goal percentage. And this year wasn't much better. They, at the end of the year, Jacob Porchilla ends up getting, uh, I guess benched, uh, however you want to call it, for another kicker at the end of the

season. And Kansas just kind of had struggles there all season long with missing field goals that who knows how much it could have changed any of the individual games, but certainly you can point back to moments where it was very deflating that you did not make the field goal and you know excuse me you never know how many like kickers are really going to be in the transfer portal that's not really a position you traditionally think of like oh you know there's a bunch of kickers out in the transfer portal it just I don't know it doesn't sound like so you didn't know how much Kansas was going to be able to kind of add competition or somebody who could come in and be that guy right away. And in arrives Seth Keller from Texas State.

He is second in Texas State history in career field goals made. He was all Sunbelt honorable mention and second team in the 2021 season by different publications. And over the course of his career at Texas state 37 of 43 on field goals, he had longs of 48, 48 and 49 each individual year that he was kicking there for three straight seasons with Texas state 92 of 93 on PATs. Those are huge improvements from what you have. I you know you're talking like 85 percent on field goals whereas recently the past couple years you've been sitting around 65 percent that is a huge improvement for what you could get from the kicker position something that clearly was a problem for kansas this year you would you identify it you address it you go out and make the

move he was a 2022 burlesworth trophy nominee i don't know how many guys get nominated for that but you know kansas's kicker wasn't wasn't nominated for that so you get an upgrade there uh as far as the expected individual role we'll be doing this for for any i guess new players that kind of commit from here on out you're expecting him to be a starter right off the bat this isn't something where hey you got to come in and learn the scheme and learn the play no kick the ball hit it through the uprights, right? It's a complicated thing in terms of getting it done, but it's an easy thing in terms of the schematics, the side of it where it's like, well, do I do this? It would obviously be very disappointing if KU brought in this good

kicker after having these troubles this year and he didn't end up being the starter. KU's really struggled there. But also because this isn't a position where, you know, with the linebackers, it was like, okay, he brought in Eric Gileard and Lorenzo McCaskill. And it was like, well, those guys didn't really end up being starters, but they still played a lot. They still rotated in, played over 200 snaps. That wouldn't be the case if you're not the starting kicker, right's not like oh well you know Seth Keller if he comes in he gets beat out

oh well you just used up a scholarship on a kid who's not going to play because you only play the one kicker realistically unless you know it's very rare that like a guy gets injured or whatnot so the expectation is that he's going to come in and be a starter and that would be kind of the expectation there as far as the team impact you had to have a better kicker this offseason. You went out. You were able to find one. You got one with experience. He's done well in the past.

I wonder what KU's record would have been this year with, say, for instance, Seth Keller, with better kicking. You know, you could go back through, obviously, the 5-0 start. You're not going to, like, toil with that, really. Then you think to the TCU game in the first loss, they missed like a 35 yard field goal, but they still would have at that point lost by four. Now, maybe it keeps up momentum because I think at the time Kansas had taken a lead and they missed the field goal.

And that was an opportunity to maybe step on the gas a little more. Maybe that affects the game's momentum, or maybe if the kick goes in and then you get the holding call at the end, but that didn't happen anyway. So I don't know if that impacts the game. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. I'm trying to think of other, some of the other close losses, like let's see, Oklahoma and Baylor, you probably still lose regardless of who the kicker is. The K state game probably still lose regardless of, of who the kicker is. Um, so now you're kind of looking at the Texas game, which, you know, still lose regardless of who the kicker is. The Texas tech game is, is certainly interesting.

Uh, you miss, I think a couple field goals and again, a game that if you just add two field goals, for instance, to the score, it doesn't change it, but it's about the momentum. So maybe you could argue between Texas tech or TCU, the field goal keeps the momentum going a little bit and maybe you win one more game. But, you know, Kansas had troubles with it all year and it would certainly make things a lot better. The next latest addition for Kansas is Jaden Hamm, who is a tight end from the high school ranks. And he was originally committed to Arkansas. So this adds a little bit more flair, I guess, to the Liberty Bowl with Kansas-Arkansas. We can call it the Ham Bowl now, which it was a little disappointing.

I mean, listen, you want good talent coming to Kansas, and that's the case for Jaden Ham. But a little bit of a disappointment, maybe just a little, that you didn't get a kid named Ham playing for the Razorbacks, right? I on it just worked itself out nonetheless he decommits from Arkansas and he actually he had an official visit to Kansas I think it was on December 16th decommitted on the 18th committed to Kansas on the 19th that must have been one a hell of a visit for Kansas so props to the KU staff for making him feel welcome. But I'm sure they always kind of stayed along on him. He's a tight end from Eudora High School.

It's kind of like Calvin Clemens. Like they stayed on him even through the process, even after he was committed to Baylor to where when he was ready to decommit or maybe had changed his mind, you know, they had been there kind of the whole way through. So give the Kansas staff credit on that. But he's class of 2023, three-star recruit, top 700 national recruit. I always say top 1,000 football for KU.

That's going to be one of their usually top four, five, six, seven recruits in a given year. He's one of the highest-ranked recruits for Kansas this year, no matter where you look. He's a top 30 tight end on the 24-7 sports composite. He is a top 10, ranked the number six player in the state of kansas which gives you two top 10 players with jay hammond and calvin clements both kids who decommitted from another power five school and ended up coming to you very big deal both in terms of bringing good players in in terms of being able

to flip kids and in terms of just the local recruiting scene, both showing up and showing that momentum and showing that you care about it. Expected individual role right off the bat. I don't know. It's going to be tough to see the field right off the bat. Maybe you can fight for a rotational tight end spot. Maybe be a special teams player right off the bat. Of course, you never really know who's going to leave.

Like we don't know what players might transfer out from Kansas at this point because I'm sure you'll see some more of that after the bowl game. So it could open up more time. But as of right now, you look at the tight end room, Mason Fairchild, Jared Casey, Trevor Cardell, Tevita Noah. I'm still in on Will Huggins long term. I don't know why. I haven't seen anything on field, but I'm there.

But Ham is super talented, so he could beat out any of those guys. But right away, it's going to be tough to crack the field consistently. But that's in year one. He could play in four games. He could redshirt, or he could be, maybe works out to be that third string. But following 2023, so if Mason Fairchild comes back next year, which I think that seems to be the expectation for that extra year, then he would graduate after 2023. Then after 2024, Jared Casey and Trevor Cardell, I believe, would graduate.

So you could be looking at him at that point being a rotational tight end, 2023, 2024 starter, and maybe a star in 2025 with the way that Kansas uses their tight end. So certainly his role could really add to over the next few years, which is really exciting. As far as the team impact, Kansas legitimately, I mean, not hyperbole here, they might have one of the best tight end rooms in the entire country next year. It won't be ahead of like Georgia, who just has these super freaks coming out at the tight end position each and every year. But it might be one of the top 10 best in the country next season.

When you look at Mason Fairchild, second team, all big 12 player who had similar stats to the guy who was on the first team. He'll be coming back for a super senior year, again, if that's the expectation. Jared Casey, who probably should have got some sort of All-Big 12 awards as like an H-back, fullback, something. He should be coming back. If Trevor Cardell, Tavita Noah, who are talented guys, Will Huggins, and then you add a top-notch recruit at the tight end position, this is going to be a loaded tight end group for Kansas,

which is great because it allows you to play a lot of different formations, and Kansas certainly likes to utilize the tight end. All right, in just a second, we're going to talk about Kenny Logan returning to the fold for Kansas. We're also going to get into some of the two that have gone out for KU so far this year. But first, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by BetOnline. BetOnline.net is your number one source for sports

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Bet online will enhance every day you watch sports. BetOnline, where the game starts. Okay, finishing up some of the player stuff. Kenny Logan is coming back. Not in addition for Kansas, but in some sense it is because you didn't know if he was going to come back or not. Yesterday we had a KU football media availability. And one of the questions that was asked to Kenny Logan,

I think it was from Jordan Guskey from the Capitol Journal, was responded by Kenny basically saying like, he came into this season expecting it to be his last at Kansas. And, you know, you're talking about a guy who was a first team all big 12 preseason pick. He was all big 12 the season before. So I'm sure his expectation was, I'll do that again. And then I'll go into the NFL draft and get drafted.

Had a good season, but didn't have that season of what maybe he had last year, or maybe he was expected to that could have maybe led to that jump. And also you see things growing now, and I'm sure he gets NIL money to stick around. And now he can come back for next year and maybe next year's team bringing all these starters back can make a jump to being, you know, an eight or nine win team. And then you can have that season and then you can go and become an even higher drafted player than maybe you would be this year. I saw an article in The Athletic from Dane Brugler, who's the athletics like NFL draft guy. And he said Kenny Logan is KU's best draft prospect that's eligible in the bowl game coming up. I don't know if Jalen would be ahead of that

or somebody else, or like Devin Neal. But with Kenny Logan, clearly he's on NFL draft radars. So if you have a good season next year, you're probably looking at somebody who is drafted. But he announced late last week that he was coming back for another season as far as his expected individual role continued starter uh you hope that he can make that step up to being you know back to to where he was first team all big 12 it's going to help you out on that back end because again good year but but

maybe not everything that he would have wanted this season individually. But you look at that secondary now for Kansas, assuming everybody comes back, because again, you never know what the transfer portal. You could have Kenny Logan, Marvin Grant, OJ Burrows. That's your top three safeties back next season. And then you could have Kobe Bryant, Mello Dotson, Kalen Girvin, your top three corners back for next season. Having experience in the secondary is always good.

And, you know, for Kansas, that could be a very experienced, well-played secondary, guys with a lot of talent that you're really excited back for next season. But also from the team impact side, Kenny Logan can be a leader on that back end. We've seen that. He has been a rock for this Kansas program ever since Lance Leipold arrived,

being one of those guys who bought into the program and kind of got other guys bought in as well, not knowing if, hey, like Emmitt Jones is not going to be the interim guy and it is going to be Lance Leipold. He's a good player. He gives you another good starter. It also helps your depth because, in theory, if you have a better starter in front, everything gets pushed down.

And he just embodies a lot of what the program is and what they're looking for and he gives you an even better chance at competing for seven to nine wins next season he avoids you having to go into the portal and finding a key impact safety and then learning the scheme super quickly and having more knowledge of in in the system yet another season to have an even better year obviously very very big very big return that Kenny Logan is coming back. Okay. We're going to get to who's out here in a second. I did want to do a quick aside here.

I know some people have been kind of rumoring or wondering about if Jalen Daniels would chase a big NIL bag elsewhere and transfer out. I know some people were rumoring, Oh, UCLA, they just brought in a transfer quarterback by the way, from somewhere else, or that he'd go back home to Los Angeles or go back home to the West coast or that, oh, UCLA, they just brought in a transfer quarterback, by the way, from somewhere else, or that he'd go back home to Los Angeles or go back home to the West Coast or that

maybe there was some, I don't know, unhappy portions of his inner circle with that he returned to the action, but or maybe too soon before they thought he should. I would just say this, like I'm sure Jalen wanted to play. So even if, you know, family members were like, Hey, we don't know if you should play. Maybe you should sit out. We want to make sure you're healthy and okay. If he's like, I'm going to play, you can't blame the KU coaching staff.

Nonetheless, not saying that's true or not. I just know a lot of people have been kind of, you know, chatting about that and, and wondering if that's the case, but just don't worry about it, man. Number one, he now has a deal with Wendy's. They're probably paying him a good amount for that NIL deal with all the Kansas players. Number two, he just got his mom a car for Christmas.

KU's boosters and businesses are taking more than enough care of him, as they should, as being the star quarterback on a team that has made it back to a bowl game. Number three, he keeps mentioning next year unprompted or waiting or wanting to win a Big 12 title is his goal. Number four, Kolnicki and Lance Leipold are coming back. Number five, even if it did happen, no need to worry about it. Why would you stress about something that might not happen, right? Like, that's like me stressing every day that like, oh, an asteroid is going to hit the earth.

Like it might, but like, why am I going to stress about it and just worry about it each and every day? So don't worry about the Jalen Daniels stuff. Just assume he's going to be the starter next year. And that would be my full on expectation. Now, as far as players who have left the program, some players pick in other schools, Eric Gileard picked Connecticut.

So he is just addicted to going to the school who is number one in basketball that year. UConn's number one in Ken Palm. Kansas wins the national title in basketball. Stephen McBride goes to Hawaii. I think he could do good things over there. Always a talented kid that Kansas could never really get more out of. And Kansas certainly looking for help in the portal from the receiver position after losing Mccbride and and trying to get another

player even though a lot of their receivers played very well jared paul going to appalachian state so the reverse davante graham kansas to app state and case and wiseman visiting colorado which i mean he might still end up coming to kansas so that's not you know for sure he's out but certainly if you take a visit to colorado with deon sanders and that stuff going on now, you almost feel like, oh, which way is that leaning? So we'll wait and see on that one, and we'll talk more about it if he does end up decommitting and picking Colorado or another school, but that certainly is notable.

One possible key target who seems to be maybe getting closer to a decision or visiting different schools, I don't know, that I keep hearing a lot about on the Kansas front. Like I said, I'm sure they're going to be looking at receivers. I'm sure that they're going to be looking maybe at offensive linemen. You lose Dominic Poonie on the inside, although he did already bring in Logan Brown after bringing in Kobe Baines. I'm sure they're going to be looking at linebacker,

obviously interior defensive line going to be key, maybe add another secondary going to be looking at linebacker, obviously interior defense line going to be key. Maybe add another secondary piece. They already got their kicker, but defensive line. What I mentioned, Gage keys is somebody who keeps popping up. So he just visited. He's a defensive lineman for Minnesota, like six, five, 280 pounds. He can play on that interior for you. He's a former three-star recruit, played in eight games this past year at Minnesota as a third-year sophomore. I was told by somebody with kind of the Minnesota side, he can play both the three-tech or the five-tech.

He's got decent speed, some solid pass rush moves, needs opportunity and some growth, could struggle with strong, quick offense tackles, but I feel like everybody would kind of struggle with that. Yeah, certainly would be a nice pickup for KU if they can get him, but that's just one name of many that I'm sure Kansas is kind of targeting right now.

All right, in just a second, we're going to get on to our What If Wednesday here. First, we got to take a quick break on our podcast side with Locked on Jayhawks. Finishing things up on this edition of the show with a What If Wednesday. This was inspired by Frank Saunders on Twitter who had an idea for What If Wednesday. What happens if KU loses the game to Texas in 2016?

So remember, the 2016 game was the one where David Beatty is the coach versus Charlie Strong at Texas. I think it was deontay foreman maybe who like ripped off a long receiving touchdown to open the game for texas and it was like uh-oh here we go that kansas team had just one win coming in texas was five and six they needed the win to go to a bowl game and then kansas just battled back texas ended up having six turnovers matthew wyman hits the game-winning field goal in overtime after Shane Buchel throws the sixth turnover with an interception in the first overtime drive. So if Kansas loses that

game instead of winning, what happens? Obviously, it had no impact on like, oh, who made the playoff or Kansas going to a bowl game. But I guess I start here like charlie strong for texas i don't know if he's fired or not he's fired like right after that game one for the embarrassment of losing to a one-win kansas team or two wins at the end of the game um and two because they didn't make a bowl game but if they win that game and avoid that loss and make a bowl game maybe he gets one more year maybe he survives to the next season and if that happens the college football ripple effect is insane so Tom Herman ends up getting the the Texas job he was the hot candidate from Houston does he get a different job you know um I remember there was a lot of rumors of Tom

Herman to LSU and I can't remember if it was that season or another year but uh whether tom herman you know where he goes certainly impacts a lot of this other stuff and if he goes to lsu does ed orgeron ever get the job at lsu and if that doesn't happen does joe burrow ever go to lsu and if not where does joe burrow go and does joe burrow ever blow up into what he is now you know what i? Like that's certainly a wild side of it, but also like who's to tell where the, the ripples stop. What if Tom Herman just stays another year at Houston and then West Virginia has to either fire or keep Dana Holgerson and he sticks around for another year. Now he goes somewhere else or he stays at West Virginia.

I don't know. There's so many ripple effects with how that could have affected things. If Tom Herman doesn't go to Texas and where is Steve Sarkisian now? All these questions that would have happened. Also, if Strong survives that year but gets fired in 2017 instead of 2016, does Texas, because that next offseason was the year that A&M made the big splash for Jimbo Fisher, Scott Frost got hired away from UCF to Nebraska, Chip Kelly gets hired, Dan Mullen gets hired to Florida.

Does one of those coaches, like does Texas make the big splash to hire Jimbo Fisher if they're looking for a coach in 2017 instead of 2016? Or do they get Scott Frost instead? Or Chip Kelly or something, right? There's so many ripple effects for how that could have changed things. From the Kansas perspective for if they lose that game instead of winning. That was year two of the David Beatty era. So he went 0-12 in year one. And if they lose that game, he now goes 1-11 in year two.

I guess it's an improvement. But now you'd be looking at 1-23 through two years, which, yeah, I guess it doesn't look that much better if you say, well, it was 1-23 versus 2-22. He went just 1- 11 in year three. He did get a year four. And I wonder how, I mean, how a good amount of that was KU wasn't investing as much in the football program, whether it was just the low salary to David Beatty, current administration, maybe not putting as much as much emphasis on it as much as we've seen from guys like Doug Gerrard and Travis Goff be able to do with the program. So maybe it wouldn't have mattered, but I almost feel like David Beatty got that fourth year with the idea that, yeah,

they showed a bit of progress in year two, winning the second game, winning a big 12 game, beating Texas. If you don't have that Texas win to lean back on and you have two wins in three seasons, I don't know if he ever does get year four. I just don't know. And I don't know how that affects things. If it's sped up the timeline to where Jeff long and less miles would have just gotten hired a year earlier at Kansas. I don't know if it would have been a completely different coach, but one thing I will say,

let's say that it led to a completely different coach coming in there for Kansas. And the Les Miles, Jeff Long thing never happened. I mean, first of all, think about the ripple effects there, right? Does Snoop Dogg ever happen, right? But one thing that has helped this Kansas team along to get to a bowl game, and I do think Lance Leipold and his staff deserves a ton of credit for even the players that carried over for developing them better. And like, remember the stories about how, you know, Kansas under previous regime wasn't

like having required weightlifting. Now they do like there's, there's a lot more that this staff has done in terms of X's and O's. When you think of Andy Kolnicki,olnicki from player development to strength and conditioning to develop the players that were left to them from the Miles era that I think the Miles era would have done so they're in a better position with this staff than they would have been with the last staff if you just gave them the same amount of time developing the players but you also owe it to that staff that this team has Kobe Bryant, Kenny Logan, Mello Dotson, Jeremy Robinson, Luke Graham, Lawrence Arnold, Jalen Daniels, and I'm sure many, many more, right? So again, a lot of those players have developed because of this current staff, but also you don't have the chance to develop them without those ones. So maybe in some weird way,

weird twisted way, a Texas win helped lead to this, which is a bowl game in the Liberty bowl against Arkansas. All right. Fun one. Thanks Frank for that. If you have anything that you want to do for what if Wednesday or anybody listening to this, you have a question or something you want us to talk about,

hit us up. You can find me on Twitter at D Johnson radio. You can also hit us up in the comment section on YouTube. If don't forget to subscribe to the show, you can find us anywhere. You find your podcast or subscribe on our YouTube page. That'll do it for today's episode. Have a good rest of your day.

See some of you on rock chalk sports talk later today. Bye.