Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KU Football Adds 5 Transfers: Jahlil Hurley, Lyrik Rawls, Cam Pickett, DeAndre Harper & Laith Marjan

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Lance Leipold in Kansas landed five transfer portal commits over the weekend. We break all down all their games and what they mean to KU football trying to return to a bowl game in 2025. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. What's happening? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you that every day is catching each and every show. And we are anywhere you get your podcasts. We are on YouTube where you can like and subscribe. On today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks, we are breaking down KU football's five latest transfer board commits. The way this is going for Lance Leipold, there might be six or seven

Starting point is 00:00:48 by the time you listen to this. Who knows? But a great start in the portal for Lance Leipold and company. We're going to break it down. They have two on defense, including a former top 50 recruit nationally, brought in a new receiver

Starting point is 00:00:59 for Jalen Daniels to throw to, an offensive lineman to try to protect him, and a new kicker into the program officially. We'll break that all down on today's episode of the show which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel new customers can place a $5 bet and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet just visit FanDuel.com and you can get started today I feel like we always start with the offense today we're going to start with the defense KU's two additions, which I think is fine because you're

Starting point is 00:01:27 adding a Big 12 transfer. You're adding a transfer from Alabama who's a former top 50 recruit from the high school level. So let's get into that and we'll get into the scouting reports of all the players and what it means for each position room. The first addition, and this was the first one that made it public and announced, Lyric Rawls, which is a great name to begin with. If there's like a music company that can get him sponsored with some sort of NIL, great. He is a 6'1", 210-pound safety from Oklahoma State, so used to playing in the Big 12. He's originally from Marshall, Texas, visited Lawrence earlier last week

Starting point is 00:01:59 and was, I guess, blown away enough to commit to be a Jayhawk. He was rated as an 89-graded three-star out of high school, which almost puts him at the four-star level. Once you're a 90, that becomes a four-star, so about as high of a three-star as you could be. Took a red shirt in 2021 in Stillwater, then played 12 games in 2022. He started three games in 2023 and looked like he was on his way to having a breakout season, having his best season.

Starting point is 00:02:24 Then he had an injury, missed the rest of the season. He played 12 games in 2024 where he was listed as a redshirt junior. But I do believe he will be able to get a medical redshirt for that 2023 season. So even though, you know, again, the listing had him as a redshirt junior, I believe 2025 will be the first of what he can have two years at kansas he'll just have a decision to make after 2025 before his career 27 games played you're talking 67 tackles two and a half tfls a sack six pass deflections uh two interceptions the fourth fumble he had a 64.2 pff grade this season and 220 snaps which you know that 60 to 69 range basically means you're

Starting point is 00:03:03 you're that average level starter which is you know, that 60 to 69 range basically means you're that average level starter, which is, you know, good enough. You're averaging, you're bringing in an average level starter from another conference. But I think there's, you know, and that is helpful to have those types of players. But I think there's a reason you could expect even more. If you look at it from the perspective of he was having maybe his best season, you know, the year before, and then he had the injury that caused him to miss the season, that means he was playing this year coming back from a season and an injury the year prior which means to me i would think he's going to be even more comfortable in 2025 even though he'll be you know learning a new scheme and everything that i would expect plus another year you expect growth from players at the

Starting point is 00:03:37 collegiate level he mostly played as a box safety but a decent amount at free safety played some in the slot um Out of reference, what I think is interesting, if you look at the PFF grade, 64.2. Marvin Grant was a 65.1. I thought Marvin Grant was solid this year, so you're around that. OJ Burrows was a 64.8. Taylor Davis was a 61.6. But here's what I find very interesting. Even though this guy could be used as kind of a box safety, I think at times Oklahoma State wanted to use him more as like a linebacker safety type. But he had a 69.7 coverage grade this season. OJ Burroughs had a 60.1 as a coverage grade as a safety. Marvin Grant was a 59.9 and Taylor Davis was a 54.6. So if you view that as gospel, and again, it's maybe less snaps than some of those guys, and it's only on five targets and 100 coverage snaps. But if that were the case, he would wind up being the best cover safety that KU has. And that was a bugaboo for this Kansas team this past season. Like you had the corners on the outside, but you didn't always have the safety coverage and the linebacker coverage over the middle and now you look at the safety room for ku right i think the idea here is that lyric roll is going to play the boundary safety is what ku

Starting point is 00:04:49 calls it which is basically what i've always thought of as more of like the strong safety type if you're more of a general term there um but maybe ku ends up playing dk mcdonald a three safety lineup right and then you kind of have a box safety uh a strong safety which is i guess maybe a little further back of of a box safety type and then you have kind of a free safety in there too and maybe because rolls does have that coverage ability maybe he can play some free safety maybe he plays some box safety maybe he can play some as the boundary safety maybe he's a little bit of everything but he's going to get on the field i think at a good rate you also have taylor davis coming back who got a good amount of playing time as a redshirt freshman.

Starting point is 00:05:25 I'd imagine he'll get a lot of playing time this year. Jalen Dye, Devin Dye, both back for the redshirt senior season. I think both of them were kind of dealing with injuries through the season, didn't perform maybe to the level that they were hoping for, but they had to deal with those injuries and maybe back for more. And then can a guy like Mason Ellis, who might be the best athlete in that room, can he get more playing time as a redshirt junior? Can Damani Maxson, after having a redshirt season,

Starting point is 00:05:46 like he's somebody who can hit you, could he work his way into the rotation? You got a couple true freshmen coming in there too with Darian Jones and Brandon Schmelzle. But I think I look at it right now, and if I'm looking at it, okay, if there's going to be three safeties who are playing the most, my assumption at the moment would almost be Taylor Davis,

Starting point is 00:06:02 Lerick Rawls, and then one of the die brothers with maybe the other one being uh you know rotating in there between those uh but then again maybe like devin die is is the guy who plays uh the free safety the best right like maybe all those other guys are more box safeties and boundary safeties that makes that competition a little bit different okay they also added to the corner room with jaleel hurley and this is a the biggest one if you're looking back to like high school recruiting rankings and and maybe using that to indicate like who has the highest potential and it's not like jaleel hurley is somebody who you know was in college for four

Starting point is 00:06:34 years and you know hasn't played a ton despite being a highly recruited guy he was a redshirt freshman this season and he didn't play a ton in alabama so uh julio harley he is a six foot two 175 or 170 pound corner i think pff lists him at 185 pounds but alabama's website at 170 pounds and um came into alabama as a top 50 recruit in the country um i mean again this is not top 50 corner this is not top 50 db top 50 overall player in the recruiting class, right? Those guys don't end up at KU very often. And then in the odd chance that they do, like DJ Warner, they ended up hitting the portal after you, right?

Starting point is 00:07:13 This is a very big get. And you're talking about with Julio Hurley. He's originally from Florence, Alabama. He was rated an 87 transfer by 24-7 sports. So he redshirted his first year in Tuscaloosa then this season he appeared in three games he it was only 19 snaps uh Western Kentucky the Missouri game and the Mercer game and in those 19 snaps he graded out solid on PFF 65.6 overall 62.8 in coverage he had one tackle on the season he wasn't targeted in coverage so it's a very small sample size you

Starting point is 00:07:44 can't really take away too much from it but again you look at a long in coverage so it's a very small sample size you can't really take away too much from it but again you look at a long lengthy corner clearly he's a good athlete if he's rated that high as a former high school recruit this is somebody who i look at similar like when ku took demarius mcgee who was a former highly recruited guy from lsu we saw demarius mcgee a little bit this year but the difference there is demarius mcgee is what like five nine five ten jaleel hurley is like six foot two and also demarius mcgee even though he's a highly recruited guy is a top 200 recruit jaleel hurley is a top 50 recruit right so i think there's a very big get and the way that kansas has you know done a good job with the that corner position seeing

Starting point is 00:08:21 mellow dots and and kobe bryant what they've done you know even in past iterations of coaching staffs it always hasn't been pretty for the candidates football program but they've tended to develop corners at a pretty high rate and he just adds to a really good corner room like if i were projecting the starters right now i'd probably go with demarius mcgee having the veteran experience and jaylen todd but who's going to be the third corner is it going to be jameel croft who i think is very talented he'll be redshirt sophomore is it going to be jaleel hurley who will a redshirt sophomore as well? What about Jacoby Davis, Austin Alexander, Andre Gibson? You got Chris McCorkle coming in there as well.

Starting point is 00:08:51 I think there's a real good opportunity for Hurley to compete. The way I view it, honestly, the guy I feel most confident in is going to be a starter next year is Jalen Todd. I think those No. 2 and No. 3 corner positions, which No. 3 is still going to get on the field a good amount, are really up for grabs. I think mostly probably between McGee, Hurley at this point, Croft, and then if there is a breakout from one of those other young guys,

Starting point is 00:09:15 Davis, Alexander, Gibson. But, you know, he could make an impact this year. He could make an impact down the road because then even if Demarius McGee starts this year, he's a redshirt senior. So he'd be gone after the year. And then you're talking about a guy that you have two more seasons even after 2025 and is a former highly touted guy. So Kansas continuing to make you feel good about the corner room for the future and kind of how it's all set up for them even after Jordan Peterson left. Let's get on to the offensive additions for KU. Offensive tackle and a receiver in Cam Pickett.

Starting point is 00:09:45 We're going to discuss those next, what they mean to their position rooms on Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook, because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win. The FanDuel Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place.

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Starting point is 00:10:36 Continuing on on our show, a little transfer portal chatter here. KU picking up five commits over the weekend, two on defense and one on special teams. Again, by the time you listen to this, maybe it's even gone up. I'm recording this on a Sunday night and who knows, maybe there's an even later Sunday night one that we'll have to talk about on a later show this upcoming week. So offense, Cam Pickett, he is a receiver transfer from Ball State. That's kind of like with Kenny Pickett. I don't think there's any relation here. Nor it's like with a quarterback receiver do you want your last name being pickett probably not but anyway

Starting point is 00:11:08 this is a good receiver he is a six foot 194 pound receiver redshirted in 2022 after joining ball state did not play in 2023 um according to fog.net 24 7 sports he uh is going to try to get a medical redshirt for that season so theoretically he was listed as a redshirt sophomore this past season but if that gets cleared he would really be a third year freshman which means he'll have three seasons with you if you're kansas so if 2025 2026 and 2027 should he get the medical redshirt cleared now so this season he had 49 catches for 528 yards and two touchdowns he was also used as an all-purpose guy 17 rushes for 170 yards so really good uh in those situations with two more scores um if you look at all-purpose yards to take into account rushing receiving

Starting point is 00:11:57 return yards he had 828 all-purpose yards this season and ended up being third team all-mac so this is a good receiver um the one maybe question here is how is it going to translate to the harder competition obviously um he did have two games against power four opponents and they did not produce at a very high level he played against miami which obviously was one of the best teams in the country though the defense was a little bit suspect and he played he played against the Vanderbilt team, which was a solid Vanderbilt team. In the two games combined, he only had four catches for 48 yards. So that'll be something that he has to adjust to. But again, if you're talking about basically what was a freshman in one sense for Ball State,

Starting point is 00:12:39 the fact that he produced and even had a couple catches in each game and that he's going to continue to grow continue to get better continue to learn now in the Kansas offense be with Jalen Daniels like those are good things so that'll be important and when you look at the receiver room like that is a very important position for Kansas to hit on in the transfer portal because there's a lot of opportunities there when you lose LJ Arnold Quentin Skinner and Luke Grimm that's a lot of snaps that's a lot of production not just this you lose LJ Arnold, Quentin Skinner, and Luke Grimm, that's a lot of snaps. That's a lot of production, not just this year, but over the past really two, three years if you're Kansas. And you have a lot of freshmen coming in with Jaden Nickens, Tate Nagy, Bryson Hayes, and Jackson Cook.

Starting point is 00:13:17 But how much are those guys going to be ready to play right away? With Keaton Kubeka, he's been in the program a few years. Is he going to be ready to go? It seems like the coaching staff likes him, but he hasn't made a bunch of catches in his career. We've seen very limited playing time for him. Doug Emelian's a guy that I've liked some flashes of, but again, we haven't seen a ton of it. So there's real opportunity for receivers to come in and get a big target share and produce at a very high level, but also to make an impact on this team and i think um

Starting point is 00:13:45 you want to build a receiver room with guys who can do different things and that's what i like here so like doug amelia and i view is kind of like he's your slot receiver that can run good routes he's got quick feet stuff like that he can quebec is more of your like outside receivers kind of a big body guy like you can block on the outside he can do a lot of different things for you uh with kim pickett he gives you an option of somebody who you can just get the ball in his hands right like um that's kind of what kansas has been missing over the past couple years we added a little bit with trevor wilson but also um you know there were other things that maybe kept trevor wilson off the field a little bit more with pickett you have that all-purpose

Starting point is 00:14:22 guy you can give him a receiver screen you can give him a jet sweep you can give him a little bit more. With Pickett, you have that all-purpose guy. You can give him a receiver screen. You can give him a jet sweep. You can give him a little slant and watch him run. He can play on the outside. He can play on the inside. So really like that addition, and I'm sure Jalen Daniels will too. The next addition on the offense is DeAndre Harper. He is a 6'6", 305-pound left tackle from Northwest Missouri State. I guess we don't know for sure he'll be a left tackle at Kansas, but that's what he was at Northwest Missouri State, which is a Division II out of the MIAA. Obviously, Kansas has had some success going from Division II players. You had Shane Bumgardner, who was a rotational player this year. More success, obviously, with Dominic Pooney was what he did on the offensive line. But with Harper, he is originally from Omaha, Nebraska.

Starting point is 00:15:01 He was a second-team All-State pick at Omaha North High School. Ended up going to Northwest Missouri State, and he started at left tackle as a true freshman. Northwest Missouri State was 6-5. The MIAA is always really good at football. So, honestly, just impressive to start as a true freshman there. So, he'll be a true sophomore in 2025, and I think it gives you a lot of options if you're Kansas. If this kid performs and carries over his stuff right away,

Starting point is 00:15:28 then you can be like, okay. Because right now, if you're projecting the offensive line starters, you obviously, you know, Bryce Foster at center, Kobe Baines at guard. Who's going to be the other guard? Is it going to be, you know, Amir Herring? Is it going to be a DK Stearns? I think you can have another year. Is it going to be Nolan Gortyka? Is Gortyka going to be a tackle, right? Like, what are you going to be a DK Stearns? I think he could have another year. Is it going to be Nolan Gorchika?

Starting point is 00:15:45 Is Gorchika going to be a tackle, right? Like, what are you going to do there? And then at the tackle spots, it's like, okay, I think it's going to be Calvin Clements. Who's going to be the other tackle? Will it be Gorchika? Or will it be like James Livingston? Or will it be somebody like this?

Starting point is 00:15:57 There is enough opening, you know, he going to compete for being the other starting tackle. And if he ends up being good enough to be the starting tackle, transferring over right away, great. and you still could have three more years out of it if he needs a year to develop and you know it takes a little bit of time making that jump up and you're still only in your second year of college and you need to add weight and muscle that's also great because he still has a red shirt available you could red shirt him and then you'd still have three more seasons after that or if it's kind of an in-betweener which maybe that

Starting point is 00:16:23 would be the best situation for kansas that he's good enough to work his way onto the two deep and be the second string you know left or right tackle but you only want to make sure he gets in four games so he can both be on the two deep and be there if you need him but also going to preserve that red shirt like that's great too and you're at a point now where you lost enough on the offensive line where you don't just need starting level offensive linemen. And to be clear, like, it's hard to know with, you know, there's not like PFF data, for instance, on Harper. Is he going to be good enough to come right away and play? Is he going to take some time to develop?

Starting point is 00:16:57 Either way, you need more bodies in that room. You need more depth in that room. And the beauty of Harper is you're not only getting that but you're also getting future play right in theory even if he's not good enough to get on the field in year one you're getting multiple years out of it that he should be able to get on the field down the road and again if he does get on the field and he is good enough to do it right away then even better so you still have to probably add a couple more offensive linemen and just get more bodies in there and more impact players but I think a good. And I was really impressed with some of the highlights I saw of DeAndre Harper. Again, it's going to be a much better competition,

Starting point is 00:17:31 but it doesn't mean players can't make that jump because we see it all the time from FCS players, from D2 players, that they're able to make that jump and still be productive players at the next level. Let's finish up. KU officially added a new kicker. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show

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Starting point is 00:19:18 Okay, so KU, we brought this up on a recent episode. And again, thank you. If you're an everydayer who catches each and every show, then you already heard us talk a little bit about Leif Marjan, which I think is the way that you pronounce it. He is a kicker. He spent a couple of years at East Carolina, transferred to South Alabama.

Starting point is 00:19:36 Now he's transferring to KU. He will be a senior in his final season for KU. So it'll be a one-year thing, kind of like when KU brought on Seth Keller. And the thing with Marjan is he's got really good numbers, but it's not just really good numbers of hitting a bunch of short kicks. He's got some distance. So 16 of 17 on the year for South Alabama, four for four on kicks between 20 and 29, six for six on kicks between 30 and 39, six for six on kicks between 40 and 49 his lone miss came 50 plus

Starting point is 00:20:06 he had a long of 49 and that is so important because if you're talking about uh uh you know i think there are times where kansas maybe should be a little bit more aggressive on some fourth down tries but they're typically not like you look at the ranks of of where kansas is compared to the other big 12 teams in fourth down attempts over the last couple years like they're at the bottom so if that's how you're going to play if you are going to play a more conservative style you better invest in a kicker because if that's what you're going to do you better deliver on those points and so it makes sense to go out and prioritize a player like this who if he can have the same success he had last season and bring it over to KU then you're going to have a weapon at the kicker position.

Starting point is 00:20:46 And obviously, the Seth Keller transfer worked out. He had a really good year for KU. There was a little bit of a rocky finish to it, which I don't think was all him. Some of the kicks maybe were too low. There were some blocked PATs and blocked kicks down the stretch. But I think if you were ranking the potential of the kickers, or what they had accomplished coming in before KU, of all the transfers they've added and stuff, this would probably be the top one. thought you know Tabor Allen did a decent job this year he did a good job he wasn't somebody who could be necessarily a weapon but he did a

Starting point is 00:21:12 good job in what he was asked to do he wasn't going to go out there and be kicking 45 yard field goals consistently but I think with Marjan you get a little bit more of that weapon from the kicker position at least that'll be the hope for KU all right that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. See you later this week with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KU Football Adds 5 Transfers: Jahlil Hurley, Lyrik Rawls, Cam Pickett, DeAndre Harper & Laith Marjan

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