Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Tacks on Transfer Pickup in Former Iowa State Guard Darrell Simmons Jr.

Episode Date: January 15, 2024

Kansas Jayhawks football and Lance Leipold added a transfer portal pickup addition in Darrell Simmons Jr., a guard from the Iowa State Cyclones. What Simmons brings to the table, his impact on the KU offensive line, will he start or Kobe Baynes, and what's next for the offseason?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInThese days every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. That’s why LinkedIn Jobs helps find the right people for your team, faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply.Jase MedicalEmpower yourself when you purchase a Jase Case, providing you with a personal supply of 5 antibiotics that treat 50+ infections. Get yours today at jasemedical.com and use code LOCKEDON to get $20 off your order.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelRight now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED when you place a FIVE DOLLAR BET. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.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.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 bonus Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas football adds an interior offensive lineman, Daryl Simmons, a transfer from Iowa State. 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, though, Nick Springer is holding down the fort

right now on that. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks, we're talking KU football's latest commit, Darryl Simmons Jr., a transfer offensive lineman from Iowa State. We released an episode that we put out on Sunday night

and scheduled for Monday morning about Lance Leipold returning, so check that out, and Devin Neal and some of the latest offseason stuff with Javier Derrett committing from North Dakota State and some of the latest stuff you've been doing in the portal. And then pretty much quickly after that, Darryl Simmons Jr. announced that he's going to be committing to KU. So I wanted to talk a little bit about that. First, let's start with Darryl Simmons. This was kind of right before the buzzer.

You get him in as a last-minute weekend visitor. He ends up announcing to KU. I wonder if he was waiting to hear about the Washington stuff with Lance Leipold. But that obviously cleared itself up, and he's staying at Kansas and right before the buzzer in terms of classes now start this week. So you can bring him in and get him ready to go and have him under the guise of the university to get him into spring football. More credit to the staff, honestly, like thinking about the recruiting on this, of getting somebody to commit despite being at a visit during the weather this weekend. Like think about that.

As cold as it is, like imagine going somewhere and the weather is negative 10 degrees and you're like, do I really want to be here? Obviously, he was at Iowa State though, so it gets cold there too. But still, more credit, more power to the staff for being able to do that. Six foot three, 320 pound, big interior offensive lineman, originally from East St. Louis, then went to Iowa State. He'll be a sixth year senior in 2024, so experienced player. He has one year left to play in what you're bringing in. And he, as far as his college career, he redshirted in 2019, his first year at Iowa State.

Then as a redshirt freshman in 2020, which was the COVID year, had really recognized, I guess, awarded season. He was second team freshman All-American by the Athletic. He was an honorable mention All-Big 12 player playing right guard in that 2020 COVID season. 2021, he was the full-time starter at right guard. 2022, he started all but one game at right guard. And then 2023, this past season, he moved over to left guard and only appeared in five games, ended up losing his starting spot. For what it's worth, this season, he had a 60.6 PFF grade. I've mentioned this before, the scale 60 to 69 is basically an average

starter. So kind of a low-end average starter, what you're looking for as far as that grade, it was a small sample size, 142 snaps. He graded as a 60.5 run blocker, a 54.5 pass blocker. And that would mean that, okay, maybe more of a run blocker, but I'll tell you his career numbers here shortly. And that would actually insinuate the opposite. Out of comparison though, Michael Ford graded out a 73.9. Kobe Baines graded out a 63.6. So you're about in range with what Baines did this year. Armage Reed Adams, who you lost to Texas A&M, is a 61.7. So if you're viewing this as an Armage Reed Adams replacement, you're not that far off in PFF grade. You can also view it as a Spencer Lavelle replacement if you think that he's going to be coming off the bench. We'll talk about the offensive line impact here in a second,

in which case you would view that as an upgrade. Lavelle was a 58.2, but that was also even smaller sample size. Over the course of his career, 40 career games played, over 30 career starts for Simmons. Very experienced player. You never say no to added offensive line depth, especially experience like that. He's had over 2,500 career snaps at the Big 12 level. Mostly have come at the right

guard, mentioned this last year, came all at left guard. I do wonder if he's better on the right side, and maybe that's what contributed to him having more of a down year and losing that starting spot in that maybe Iowa State was like, we have to play you here, and that just wasn't as good for him. And I know it sounds like, oh, guard, left guard, right guard, what's the big difference? I mean, some guys can make that transition, and it's all the same some guys are very you know right hand dominant left hand dominant right foot dominant left foot dominant whatever like Bryce Cablew for instance in the spring this past year they tried playing him some at left tackle and he actually approached the staff at one point and was like I just I can't do this this is not adding up

for me I need to be at right tackle and they moved him back and he had a solid year right tackle for KU so maybe KU will use him more in his preferred position I would assume at right guard here's his four-year PFF grades though outside of just this year this is in order from freshman year to this past year 61.0 59.4 64.4 and 60.6 so pretty collectively he's in that low-end starting level player to a middling starting player, which is fine because he might start, he might not, but either way, you have more competitive, capable players, I guess, that you would put in here. And actually, up until this year, he's been a better pass blocker every season than he was a run blocker by PFF grade, including a 69.9 pass block grade in 2022.

So certainly something of interest. Let's get into what this means for the offensive line group. Will he be a starter? Could he be a rotation player? Discuss that here in a moment on Locked on Jayhawks. First, we are brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The NFL regular season is wrapping up, but there's still time to get in on the action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right

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way to find popular parlays and more. Visit FanDuel.com slash LockedOn. Make your first bet on the app. Fan, the best way to find popular parlays and more. Visit Fanduel.com slash locked on. Make your first bet a lap. Fanduel, official partner of the NFL. This impact of Daryl Simmons Jr. on the offensive line for KU. Well, first of all, we went over some of those PFF grades. And I will say, Iowa State's got a great coaching staff and everything. And they've done wonders with that program that has been pretty dormant

until Matt Campbell and everything arrived. I think Scott Fuchs is one of the best offensive line coaches in the conference and in the entire country. And so maybe you can get even more out of him than before. Maybe he can take that jump into being an even better player from here. As far as when you look at the offensive line, we can mention some of the offensive tackles that you have with Clemens and Cable Dew and Brown and Livingston and stuff, but this guy I think is more of an interior offense lineman. He's going to play the guard

position for you. So you brought in Shane Bumgarner, which we talked about on an earlier episode of Locked on Jayhawks, so check that out as part of Lance Leipold coming back or I guess staying at Kansas. But the guard position, you're looking at Michael Ford, who was one of the highest rated guards in the Big 12 this past season on PFF. You have Kobe Baines, who will be a redshirt junior, former Louisville transfer, played pretty well this year. And then you've got some guys who can maybe fill in as backups. Nolan Gorchika, kind of like a swing player.

Maybe you can move him all over. Like DK Stearns. You have a couple freshmen coming in that maybe could play there, but you don't really want to get freshmen on the field at the line position, like Harrison Utley and Kene An Nene, Hank Kelly or Redshirt Jr. You were looking for more depth, though, on the offensive line because you're looking for eight guys that can cover those positions. You want five good starters, and you want three guys who can come in off the bench at minimum. You'd prefer to have even more than that, obviously, but at minimum

three that can cover the different spots for you. And right now you feel like, okay, off the bench, who are the guys you trust the most, right? Like James Livingston might jump into that. Nolan Grichika might jump into that. Dre Dorian might jump into that conversation of being in that trusted number. You don't know. But right now it's the starting five, which I would estimate at this point in time, Calvin Clemens, Bryce Cablelew at the two tackles,

Michael Ford, Shane Bumgarner at guard and center, and then one of Kobe Baines or Daryl Simmons Jr. at the other guard position. So you look at it as one of those two. They'll compete with each other. You hope they push each other, and iron sharpens iron there and makes them a little bit better. Then whoever loses out on that job between Baines and Simmons becomes one of your swing guys, right?

With Baines, you can play him at one of the guard spots. You can play him at one of the tackle spots. When we looked this past year, KU basically played six offensive linemen for five starter spots, right? Because it was Baines and Armage Reed Adams who were kind of rotating into different positions. You could use Reed Adams as a tackle. You could use Baines as a tackle. Baines would come off the bench at points. Baines would rotate in here.

Same with ARA. So you're kind of looking all over the place with what you were able to do there and get all those guys' collective snaps. That's kind of how I view it with Simmons Jr. and Baines, that even though one will technically be the starter, I think both will seriously play a real role on this team. And the other can kind of be a swing guy. Maybe it makes more sense for Simmons to be right guard, which I think Ford was playing left guard. So that works out. And then Baines does have the ability to play guard and tackle maybe more than Simmons. So maybe it makes more sense for Simmons to be starting

there. Either way, that would give you your first guy off the bench with one of them. Your second guy off the bench, I'd feel comfortable with Logan Brown, assuming that everything works for him coming back from the injury that he suffered. So then you have two, and then you're looking for a third guy you can trust. Well, I think Nolan Gortyka has had some good ball, whether it was in the practices leading up to the bowler, that it started to progress in the right way there. That makes you feel good like he can be the third,

and he plays a bunch of different positions. Like I said, I think James Livingston is starting to make strides too. So maybe he would add him into the fold and then you got a bunch of the freshmen and some of the other key returners there too. But either way, I think you're looking at yeah. Baines and Simmons competing for that starting spot.

Loser of the job will still get a lot of playing time though, either way for KU. And I think when you add in Scott Fuchs with maybe moving him, maybe having him play his more, what seemed to be a more natural position based on the PFF grades of right guard. I think this is going to be a good year for Daryl Simmons Jr. And for adding him to the mix for KU.

Let's finish up here with the final, I guess what's to come with the transfer portal for KU as we get ready for spring ball here with this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Jace Medical. You know, obviously we come to this show to talk sports and escape some of the crazy realities of life. But can we just talk for a minute about preparing for real life? According to the FDA, pharmacies are running out of antibiotics like amoxicillin right in the middle of the worst flu season in over a decade.

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Go to JaceMedical.com and use offer code LOCKEDON to get $20 off your order. Well, so this was a nice last minute ad for KU. The start of the semester starts up. That's going to make it harder to add more players. Now, you can start new school a week late or something if they're able to add somebody in late and everything, but you want to add as much as you could before spring ball. I think KU is still looking for a defensive end, another one that they can add to. They already added Dylan Wootke, but after you lose Austin Booker, probably looking to add one more, specifically somebody who can be more of a pass rusher type.

I think they're still looking to add maybe a linebacker, but outside of that, with adding those two linemen that you did this past week with Bumgarner and Simmons, you might feel good about where the offensive line is. And obviously you'll reevaluate everything by the end of spring ball. You'll feel like, okay, where did we have injuries? Where did we, you know, get not as good at production as we thought we might have? Where did players not take a step up as much as we hoped they would as far as young guys?

And you'll adjust from there and maybe add a few guys. But for the most part, you know, we look back to some of the additions that KU has made after spring ball in the summer. Harder for those guys to get on the field, right? They didn't have as much time with the playbook or getting to know the we look back to some of the additions that KU has made after spring ball in the summer. Harder for those guys to get on the field, right? They didn't have as much time with the playbook or getting to know the system or getting to know the staff and kind of working through some of the competition. It becomes a lot tougher for those guys to get on the field, which is why it was important to add, you know, a player like Simmons who could end up being a starter at this point in time. You still need some stuff, but the number has definitely dwindled in what exactly you do need. I think Kansas is in a pretty good spot in majority of their positions, even though they will still need maybe a few additions.

And maybe they can get somebody in in the next week or so and still be a part of spring ball and everything like that. So we'll be on the lookout for that. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, though. We'll be back tomorrow for a KU Oklahoma State preview. Thanks for tuning in to the show. Find us anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show.

Later.