Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Lance Leipold IS COOKING in the Class of 2026: DE Hunter Higgins Commits to Kansas Jayhawks

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Hunter Higgins, one of the top players in the state of Kansas for the class of 2026, is a Jayhawk committing to Lance Leipold, who's cooking in the class of 2026. 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 going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Thank you to the everydayers catching all our shows. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts. And find us on YouTube where you can like and subscribe. We've got a bonus episode for you today. As Lance Leipold right now is really getting things going in the class of 2026 for KU football. The latest commit is Hunter Higgins,

Starting point is 00:00:51 a class of 2026 defensive end who's a three-star, four-star, depending where you look, who is a local kid, too, in the state from Mays South in the Wichita area. So we're going to get into a little bit of that,

Starting point is 00:01:04 the class of 2026, the future defensive end room, what Higgins brings to the table, all that and more on today's bonus episode of the show. So Hunter Higgins, he is a three-star, four-star, depending where you look again, Mays South High School. He committed to Kansas over his other finalists were Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Also had offers to Kansas State, Oklahoma Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Also had offers to Kansas

Starting point is 00:01:26 State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, and more. This was a very big deal for KU to land this kid. He becomes the fourth commit for Kansas in the class of 2026, where I think it's very fair to say early on this class looks awesome for Lance Leipold and company. Obviously, you've got to keep it together. You've got to keep recruiting these kids. You've got to keep recruiting other kids and round out the class. But this is an unbelievable start for KU. And they're cooking, I guess you could say, in two ways. The first is in state. So of the four commitments for KU now in the class of 2026, three of them are from commits Wichita area, and one is from Manhattan of those three in the state of Kansas. And obviously, the player from Manhattan and J.J. Dunnigan, like typically you would imagine, the guy from Manhattan would go to Kansas State. I know with Wichita, it is a little bit split up. You get some people who are fans of KU, some people are fans of K-State, some are fans of Wichita State.

Starting point is 00:02:19 You get a little more diversity in terms of who fans are rooting for. But I don't know. Under my impression, it seems like for the players that are coming out of Wichita in the past, I would say more of them seem to end up at Kansas State than at Kansas. But it feels like Kansas is starting to make inroads in that way, and this becomes your second recruit or commit in this class from the Wichita area. You've also had commits in past classes, too, from the Wichita area. You've also had commits in past classes too from the Wichita area now as well. Now, the second reason why you're cooking isn't just that this is clearly showing that you are, you know, the hard work you have put to try to improve in-state recruiting seems to be really paying off at this point. But the second is just

Starting point is 00:02:59 you're just cooking overall, like regardless of where these kids are from, plus your fourth commit who's from the West Coast, it looks to be a pretty good class early on like jj dunnigan is an 88 graded three star how the 24-7 uh grading scale works is once you're in 90 grade you become a four star so he's almost a four star and there's been some talk that that dunnigan could even be moved up like soon when when they do their updated rankings because of strong play. So maybe he even ends up an 89 or a 90 graded four star. Who knows? As is, like Donegan would already be the fourth best, fourth highest graded recruit of this year's class for KU.

Starting point is 00:03:35 Then you look at Lenny Brown. He has offers to Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, like pretty much a bunch of big 12 schools, West Coast schools. And he's somebody who is seen as being a good player that you have in tow. Now you have Higgins, who's an 89 graded three star by 24 seven sports. He's literally one notch away from being a four star in the class. Jalen Mason's unranked right now, but like it seems like people are high on what he could be. So, I mean, this is a phenomenal start to the class, I think, in both ways.

Starting point is 00:04:03 And let's get into what exactly Higgins brings to the table, as well as the future of the defensive end room. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Wayfair. After the holiday hustle, there's nothing like giving your home a little TLC. And, you know, one of the things about the holiday season is you might feel like you're all over the place. You might feel like you're messy, and you just want to kind of get back to your space and have it refreshed.

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Starting point is 00:05:02 Every style. Every home. All right. W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. All right, continuing on this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks with Hunter Higgins, the commit who is going to KU. Let's get some info on Higgins. He's listed at 6'5", and depending on what site you look at, between 240 and 245 pounds, which, I mean, that's a good size for already being in high school being a junior

Starting point is 00:05:25 in high school right um when we talk a lot about the strong side defensive end position at ku that's a position that is is probably a little more behooved for players who are 250 255 260 the fact that he's already 240 245 has another year of high school ball and would have time with you makes me think he could easily be a future strong side defensive end for you that he'll have enough you know muscle and weight to be able to do that but he is an 89 graded three star on 24-7 sports which means he is as close to being a four star there as possible he comes in as the number four player in the state the number 27 edge rusher across the country and 24-7 composite lists him as a top 450 national recruit. I say all the time, if you're getting top 1,000 national recruits if you're Kansas, that's a good place to be.

Starting point is 00:06:11 You're getting top 500s, that's a much better place to be, right? You look at rivals, he is listed as a four-star on rivals. He's given a 5.8 grade and a four-star over there. So, you can call him a four-star, that is totally accurate um on three also lists him as a 86.6 87.6 excuse me graded three-star who is the number five player in kansas 43rd ranked defensive lineman and a top 400 player nationally so like this is a very big gift for ku whether it's in state or not but obviously it is in state and that i think adds even more to this right because it feels like you're building a momentum there now as a junior at maize south he totaled 43 tackles 11 sacks seven more tfls which for some reason on his max props profile normally sacks count tfls too so technically he should have 18 tackles for loss but nonetheless

Starting point is 00:07:01 that was on his max props profile which had him playing eight games. That's incredible stats for a defensive end in eight games. Now, the highlights I watched, which I was only able to find highlights from his sophomore season, which made it even more impressive for me because I came away very impressed from what I watched. And that was when he was a sophomore. I could only imagine what he was doing as a junior. I can only imagine what he's going to do next year as a senior. But from the highlights I watched, seemed like a very instinctive player who was super aware in the running game, had a, I think, good kind of like power shedding, swim move, and good strong hands, it seemed like.

Starting point is 00:07:34 Did a good job of chasing runners and shedding blocks. I was really impressed with, I know, obviously, the highlights show he had, or the stats show he had 11 sacks this past season. I was really impressed with the run defense, too. And again, those highlights become even more impressive when you figure what he could be this next year in the 2025 to 2026 academic year for him when he'll be a senior.

Starting point is 00:07:54 So let's get to the future of the defensive end room where he could peg into all that and find early playing time. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode of the show today is brought to you by Rocket Money, which can help you find any subscriptions you forgot about that you were paying for twice. This is Locked on Jayhawks. grow your savings. It brings everything together in one place, whether it's subscriptions, your spending habits, or even the goals you want to hit this year. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. Plus, they have their subscription tracker where you can cancel services you're not using, and they have their goals feature where you can automatically set aside money for your future.

Starting point is 00:09:05 No more stressing about budgeting every month. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com slash locked on today. That is rocketmoney.old grabbing another high-end recruit in state in Hunter Higgins what does the future of the defensive end room look like well you look at the 2025 season when Higgins will still be a senior in high school uh Justice Finkley who you just brought in check out that bonus episode if you haven't already from Texas uh Dean Miller who uh was your sack leader this past season they're both seniors so they'll graduate and those are your two probably projected starters in 2025. So you look at 2026 when Higgins will join, already you're going to have a competition for who the starters are going to be.

Starting point is 00:09:32 Now, there is a chance that Dean Miller, who's a former Juco guy, could he get an extra year or something with the whole Diego Pavia thing? Entirely possible. We'll wait and see on that. But then you look at 2026. Sueing Miller and Finkley are gone.

Starting point is 00:09:45 Dylan Brooks at that point would be a redshirt senior by job would be a redshirt junior and then you would have this group of freshmen and redshirt freshmen Adrian Hawley Garrett Martin Dak Brinkley Caleb Redd who would all be basically sophomores or redshirt freshmen at that point in time and then you fast forward another year in 2027 Dylan Brooks would be gone by job would be a senior at this point you'd have a second year player in Hunter Higgins like i don't know how it's all going to sort out because there's a lot of talent in the defensive end room but i do know this hunter higgins is a very good player and i would not be betting against him to you know not get playing time at some point in his career now does that come in in year one does it come in year two does

Starting point is 00:10:21 it come in year three i don't entirely know but i do know also that kansas rotates their defensive end so even if you're you're in year two the second string defensive end you're going to get a good amount of playing time right um and i think that's what you're doing here if you're kansas you are stacking up talent over the long term with holly martin brinkley and red and i guess jobe to a certain extent who is a year older than some of those guys but um that you're basically saying, hey, we're going to have a good depth of players that we're going to be able to rotate and constantly have good players. But also we're giving ourselves multiple bites at the apple, so to speak, that one of these

Starting point is 00:10:52 can hit as being like this all big 12 level defensive end. And I feel really good about the future of that defensive end room. You had Higgins, you had Finkley. I feel good about the current and the future for the defensive end room right now for KU. That'll do it for this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Chad Finkley. I feel good about the current and the future for the defensive end room right now for KU. That'll do it for this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Don't forget to check out our full episode today, which was a preview of the Kansas-Iowa State game, which you can find anywhere you get your podcasts or on our YouTube page. And we'll be back tonight as well to recap whatever happens in the Kansas-Iowa State

Starting point is 00:11:19 game. And obviously, if there's more pruning news, we'll get to that too. So this has been Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for joining us and see you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Lance Leipold IS COOKING in the Class of 2026: DE Hunter Higgins Commits to Kansas Jayhawks

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