Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks GET JUSTICE: KU Adds Texas Longhorns Defensive End Justice Finkley From the Portal

Starting point is 00:00:00 Kansas is bringing justice to Lawrence. Justice Finkley, a former four-star recruit, former Texas Longhorn DN, transfers to KU. We discuss on today's bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:28 Hey, what's happening? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's bonus episode of Locked On Jayhawks,

Starting point is 00:00:44 Justice Finkley. Unbelievable name. I mean, there's so much you can do with nicknames with the word justice. There's so much you can use with the last name of Finkley. I keep thinking Finkle is Einhorn in Ace Ventura. It also rhymes with Dak Brinkley, so you got Finkley and Brinkley. It sounds like, I don't

Starting point is 00:01:00 know, some weird, like a cop comedy show. It's all great, but he is a fantastic player that KU is adding to the helm and solving their issue of the strong defensive end position. So we're going to break that down, what he means to the defensive ender and what his game brings to the table in Lawrence for KU on today's bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. So Justice Finkley, this one kind of comes out of the blue.

Starting point is 00:01:22 I mean, he was in the portal for a little bit, and it seemed like Kansas had some interest, but it seems like the visit was maybe a little bit under wraps, and he ends up coming to KU. He's a former four-star recruit out of high school, and Lance Leipold continues to do wonders in the transfer portal this offseason. And so for Finkley, he's going to be joining the program in 2025. It will be his senior season, in which he'll be participating here in Lawrence.

Starting point is 00:01:49 And obviously, the importance of this is that he's not only a defensive end, right, that you look at the talent they have now amassed or are amassing on the defensive line and at the defensive end position. But it's also that he's somebody who profiles best into probably playing that strong side defensive end position i'm actually gonna have an episode coming out tomorrow it's gonna be talking about shack more being an mvp biggest questions and strengths for the ku football roster and i talked a little bit about like you know maybe some questions about who's the strong defensive end gonna be because you have questions about the weight of some of these players well all of a sudden justice finkley uh has kind of ruined a little bit of that because he's 250 pounds coming in and figures to be what could be very much a day one starter for you at that strong defensive end position. So

Starting point is 00:02:30 let's break down his game, what he brings to that defensive end room. This is Locked on Jayhawks. And today's episode of the show is brought to you by TurboTax. Taxes was dealing with piles of paperwork and frustrating forms and then waiting and wondering and worrying if you were going to get any money back now taxes is easily uploading your forms to a turbo tax expert who's matched to your unique tax situation an expert is backed by the latest technology which cross-checks millions of data points for 100 accuracy while they work on your taxes you get real-time updates on their progress and you get the most money back guaranteed. And while you go about your day, no stressing, no worrying, no waiting. Now this is taxes. Intuit TurboTax. Get an expert now on TurboTax.com.

Starting point is 00:03:17 Only available with TurboTax live full service. Real-time updates only in ios mobile apps and guaranteed details at turbo tax.com slash guarantees all right continue on who what is the scouting report what is justice finkley bringing to the table into lawrence at ku well so finkley came to texas out of trussville alabama he was part of the class of 2022 as a four-star recruit who was rated as a 94 overall four-star in that class of 2022. He was also graded out as the number 10 edge players. I mean, top 10 in his position. And overall, he was the 107th national ranked player in his recruiting class. I mean, this is a kid who has very high prospect pedigree. And obviously you would imagine that would be the case for somebody who ends up going to texas he is now six foot two 250 pounds so that's good size and that's something we talked about in that strong defensive end position ideally you want those guys 250 255

Starting point is 00:04:14 260 right um and he's going to give you that ability i think robinson was 255 this past season for ku so you know you had five pounds to him, boom, you're right there. As opposed to certain guys you had on the roster, like by Job, who's 240, Dylan Brooks is 240, right? It's a little bit easier for this to happen for a ready-made player. He was graded as an 86 three star by 24-7 sports. I'll be honest though, in kind of looking back at past years, which players have hit, which plays haven't, like, I don't know that there's that much of a difference between like the transfers that are graded on there, like an 86 versus an 88 it feels like it's been you know kind of hit or miss regardless but um he's gonna be a true senior in 2025 so that's one year left of play because he's played three seasons of ball now i will say there was that report what was it

Starting point is 00:04:58 a week or two ago from john rothstein that they kind of floated the possibility of the ncaa just allowing everybody to have five years of eligibility in college sports. And I don't know when that would be actually discussed or passed through possibly. But if that is something that actually did end up happening, then you'd have two years left of him. And who knows if that will or won't. But at the very least, you have 2025 with him. He appeared in 12 games as a freshman in Austin in 2022. He had 162 snaps that year with seven tackles, half a sack, and a 62.1 PFF grade.

Starting point is 00:05:33 That is a sophomore in 2023. He had 14 games played with 14 tackles, two sacks, and a forced fumble. That was his best season, 284 snaps and a 63.2 PFF grade. And again, when you're between 60 to 70 that means you're you're starting level player um so good to see from from an underclassman in austin this past season he had his best pff grade uh but the snaps were down from the first two seasons he played 95 snaps he had six games played five tackles and a 67.3 pff grade so pff grade again getting better a little bit there already it's

Starting point is 00:06:05 at starting level and you know this year going against scc players i don't know if you had to do with an injury something and that's why there was less games played i do know that texas was one of the best defensive lines and one of the most talented defensive lines in the country this season and so you know maybe that could just be it that they just had some extra players that maybe usurp you on on the rotation where you're at and so it's one of those things where it's like yeah you could be like we see this again right like uh the name that comes to mind charlie more like charlie more at kansas is this ninth tenth man and then he goes off to miami and he's one of their two or three best players on a team that makes the elite eight and plays kansas in the

Starting point is 00:06:43 elite eight in 2022 like that that is is kind of what you're looking at sometimes you're just not playing as much because the guys in front of you are really good um this is a strong athletic defensive end that raises the floor and i think it also raises the possible ceiling right i mean if you if you hit on what is perceived to be that high recruiting ranking in a year four from a player like this with more playing time and opportunity than like that raises the ceiling but i also think it raises the floor because it fits you needing that strong defensive end spot and gives you even more depth and what you would think is a veteran competent player into that room and i'm not saying like the the ku is going to be

Starting point is 00:07:19 getting the same type of production because that would be setting an unfair bar because this dude ended up being you know an all big 12 pick and end up being a draft pick in the nfl and everything like that and i'm not saying it can't happen because i think clearly the potential is there but you just don't want to set that expectation right off the bat here um i think there's some similarities and when you brought in austin booker now not in terms of like their game style austin booker was more of a wiry athlete he was a weak side defensive end right with with finkley he's more of that strong side defensive end he's more of like a power athlete so the games i don't know how similar they are in much ways but just in terms of and you could also say the same thing with dylan brooks and by joe i think in how this

Starting point is 00:08:00 relates to those is that you bring in these defensive ends who were at other schools in the case of brooks at Auburn, in the case of Job at Michigan State, in the case of Austin Booker at Minnesota, from power for other schools that maybe didn't get as much playing time, that maybe you're going to have more opportunity with you and have a really good recruiting pedigree that you're hoping to tap into and in the case of dylan brooks that hasn't we haven't seen the results of that yet but you know not all of that is is ku or dylan brooks fault because he had the injury i was by joe but i think he was just a younger player right with austin booker it obviously did work out it was an a plus addition and what you were able to do there and and you could probably toss the by joe comparison to this one uh from being the furthest way because by joe was just a redshirt freshman whereas this is a fourth year player austin booker was a uh like fourth year sophomore i think technically so he was a fourth year player like dylan brooks was you know maybe a two or at this point i don't know like four-year player whatever it is so i think there are some similarities i also think there think there's some similarities into this edition to ku's edition of emmanuel

Starting point is 00:09:02 henderson jr the receiver from alab Again, not in terms of their playing style or anything, they're different positions, but you're talking about an Henderson Jr., a player who comes in as a highly recruited high school recruit who was at a college football blue blood and didn't have a ton of production, but a big reason you can point to that is just because he was behind some absolute dudes,

Starting point is 00:09:20 and so he didn't get as much playing time because you're behind Ryan Williams, who's going to be some future first-round draft picks like that was the case for what you're looking at with finkley here behind some guys who might be future first round draft picks right um so not being on the field is easier to explain and in the same way that i think kansas is taking a home run swing on henderson hoping that he can be the receiver one i think you're taking that home run swing on finkley saying he can be our strong side defensive end number one and maybe have a breakout season and be this you know all big 12 level player like when we brought in Lonnie Phelps and Austin Booker and so I definitely think in the

Starting point is 00:09:54 case of both those guys too with Henderson and Finkley you can probably tie a lot of how good will Kansas be this season you know how close do they get to their ceiling how high are up they on their floor to both of these players and how they perform and how much Kansas can get out of them, how much the coaching staff can tap into their potential into this season? Let's get into that defensive end room, though, next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. And this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime,

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Starting point is 00:11:32 What time is it? GameTime. Finishing things up on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, discussing KU's defensive end room. Now that you have Justice Finkley into the fold as well. So the way I view it is that Justice Finkley to me becomes the guy that I'm expecting to be the starter at the strong side defensive end spot. Obviously, Kansas puts everything up to competition and there will be other guys in the running for that, right? It's not just going to be given to Justice Finkley, but if I'm projecting what is going to end up happening, that's going to kind of be my projection there. And then I think the main guys you would look at in being in that competition,

Starting point is 00:12:06 I was thinking maybe by Joe, get out a little bit more weight, maybe Dylan Brooks back from the injury. I have no idea on the freshman with Adrian Hawley and Garrett Martin, which one you profile as a strong side, which is a weak side for KU long-term. Are they going to be good enough to get on the field anyway? As true freshmen, a lot of times you want to give those guys a year to kind of get their body up to this level level anyway and then you look at the weak side defensive end position and this is actually a position that like i feel pretty good about you have dean miller

Starting point is 00:12:32 if by job or dylan brooks ends up being weak sided said right you'd have one or both of those um dac brinkley who we didn't really see this year but red shirted and was a former highly recruited guy too and i think that's cool because i think brinkley was was graded around the same four star i mean um or i think finkley was right in between what brinkley if you're looking at the 94 grade uh and warner was and maybe he can you know learn some good lessons from him uh but you also have caleb red a former highly recruited guy too who's a redshirt freshman and that's part of this too that finkley can also be a mentor for these younger players and uh you know help some of the young guys come along and maybe add something a little bit to their game that they'll eventually you know in 2026 be ready to go so you have dean miller who was the second team all big 12 player at the

Starting point is 00:13:19 weak side spot if you have justice finkley who i expect to come in and be a solid player for you right away with potential to be even more than that, that's a good start to the defensive end group. And I like the defensive tackle group. I'm really liking this defensive line. And that's before even, like, if you get a breakout from Byjobe or Dylan Brooks or Dak Brinkley or Caleb Redd or something, if you just get one of those guys to break out, that's a pretty salty three-man defensive end rotation. If you get one of them to break out and another one just to be a competent, you know, rotated in backup, like I feel a lot better about this defensive end group for KU. And this front seven could be one of the best ones that we've seen Lance Lightbulb have in his time at KU. I don't know for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you

Starting point is 00:14:01 get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. We'll be back tomorrow to talk Shaquille Moore and a little KU football stuff again. Ignore the question about the strong defensive end stuff, but we'll also be back Wednesday for our KU Iowa State preview. See you then on Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks GET JUSTICE: KU Adds Texas Longhorns Defensive End Justice Finkley From the Portal

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