Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Mello Dotson Will Return for Kansas Jayhawks Football in 2024 to Lead a Strong Cornerback Room

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas has some good news for the football team for 2024. Mello Dotson is coming back for another year for the Jayhawks. 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 and Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making it locked on Jayhawks, your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere that you hear podcasts.

Starting point is 00:00:40 Find us on our YouTube page, too, where you can like and subscribe to the show. Thank you to every dayers out there tuning in to each and every episode. You can catch our Missouri recap on the other day's episode. We'll get to an Indiana preview later this week, more KU basketball content later this week. But today, we're talking about KU football because Melo Dotson is back for 2024. We're going to discuss the ramifications of that, the KU football quarterback room for next year, impact for the team overall, and overall kind of roster tracking as we're hitting kind of the beginning of the offseason

Starting point is 00:01:08 as you're still waiting to play your bowl game here. This episode of the show, though, is brought to you by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com slash lockedoncollege and use code lockedoncollege for a first deposit match up to $100. Daily fantasy sports made easy with PrizePix. So the official announcement from Melo Dotson, the $100 Daily Fantasy Sports Made Easy with Prize Picks. So the official announcement from Melo Dotson, he took to Twitter, and it was, I guess it was, you know, it wasn't like a,

Starting point is 00:01:38 I guess leaves open to interpretation and how you want to view it, but I think it makes sense with where you want to go with this. So he just tweeted back for revenge is the full tweet. Just three words, back for revenge. And then a highlight clip, a video highlight clip of his highlights from the season, right? Return pick sixes and interceptions, all sorts of stuff, right? I guess if you want to get like all conspiracy-ish, you could just say, oh, well, he didn't say I'm coming back

Starting point is 00:02:02 for another year at KU. He just said back for revenge. Does that mean that he's going to come back to college football and enter the transfer portal it's like well i mean i guess anything's possible like especially in today's day and age with nil and transfer portal where you're gonna i let's let's not go down that road though let's not go down that road he's coming back to ku for 2024 unless you know something else that happens and we'll approach that if we get there I am under the assumption based on this he is coming back to KU for 2024 and uh obviously this is a huge deal for KU because he was an excellent player this season and you get him for another year uh so

Starting point is 00:02:36 Mello began playing in 2020 the COVID year got real time real playing time as a true freshman in the last year of the uh Les Miles regime And then he became a starter by year two. I don't even know. He might have even started some games as a true freshman. I can't remember. But was basically a full-time starter come the back half of the season for year two in 2021. Full-time starter in 2022. Full-time starter, obviously, this year in 2023.

Starting point is 00:03:00 So basically a starter for you the last three seasons. That'll make 2024 his fifth season of college football, which would be his last because he'd taken advantage of the COVID year, which he was given because of that 2020 season. So you have somebody who will be an experienced player, and obviously in the secondary, having that experience very much helps. Obviously, he had an unbelievable year this year for Kansas, and I thought he's gotten better each and every year that he's been at KU so far.

Starting point is 00:03:28 And I thought this year was, you know, that, that next level up. And I think specifically over the last half of the season, you look to the Oklahoma state game that happened kind of midway through the year, Oklahoma state, I think targeted him, targeted him in that game like 11 times. And he was credited for giving up like nine or 10 catches. And so that wasn't, you know, maybe his best moment, right? Like you're going to have bad games throughout the season.

Starting point is 00:03:50 Everyone is. And I don't know, maybe that was more of a scheme thing. Maybe it was this or that. Maybe it was just whatever. But from that point on, like he was nailed and really overall in the season, he was great for it. He was, he was unbelievable. The season you got from 44 tackles, three tackles for loss, one sack, 13 pass breakups, four interceptions.

Starting point is 00:04:10 He was a pick six. Wound up with two pick sixes. He had a 79.1 pro football focus grade overall, which that was second among all defenders on KU. Austin Booker was first. Melo Dothan was second. Kobe Bryant was third on KU. Austin Booker was first. Mello Dotson was second. Kobe Bryant was third on KU on pro football focus grade. And also, if you sort pro football focus grade among qualified corners

Starting point is 00:04:33 for the Big 12 Conference, number one, Mello Dotson. Number two, Kobe Bryant. So by one metric, Mello Dotson was the best corner in the Big 12 this past season, and he's coming back for another year. Now, you hope that Kobe Bryant comes back too, and obviously for Melo, you probably hope he comes back too to a certain degree because, you know, it's got to be kind of nice.

Starting point is 00:04:56 Like sometimes Kobe's on the number one receiver, sometimes Melo's on the number one receiver. Sometimes, you know, those guys get to get the number two receiver and feast and whatever it is, right? So that's got to be kind of nice. But the pro football focus grade for Mello Dotson here included an 80.3 run defense grade. So he was, I mean, and I think that shows up when you watch the tape.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Like, he was a very active run defender, as was Kobe Bryant. Even though both those guys are not, you know, Clyde Edward Dallaire or KJ Adams in terms of their muscular build. They are willing and they are tough players to get in there and make a tackle and run defense. And that's reflected in the PFF run defense grade. He also had an 80.6 pass rush grade. That's very limited snaps, but I thought that was kind of interesting. And a 78.2 coverage grade on pro football focus.

Starting point is 00:05:43 He was targeted 64 times. That was the most on the team. But he allowed an NFL passer rating against of just 72.9. That's a really good number. You might be wondering, what is a NFL passer rating of 72.9 get you? Here's what it gets you. Mitch Trubisky has a NFL passer rating of 72.7. So that's basically what that is.

Starting point is 00:06:01 Zach Wilson is a 73.8. Tyson Bajent is a 71.4. Zach Wilson is a 73.8. Tyson Bajent is a 71.4. Daniel Jones is a 70.5. So essentially, anytime quarterbacks were thrown at Mello Dotson, he was turning them into Mitch Trubisky. That is a win for the defense. And so much so that Mello was even named College Football Network All-America third team.

Starting point is 00:06:21 He was All-Big 12 honorable mention. Probably should have been on one of the first two teams, if we're being honest. And oddly enough, he wasn't on at least the second team on that or the AP either, but more on that here now. Because he's going to come back, obviously trying to accomplish a lot more and boost draft stock and do all these things. But getting more decorated, I hope it's something in his cards.

Starting point is 00:06:45 Now he tweeted this today too. He said, I probably won't even talk on here no more. I ain't like how they did me, but I know how the game worked now. And he gave out like a tweet earlier about being blackballed, and I think deservedly so. I think there was a week where he had like a pick six, and he wasn't like pick 12 defensive player of the week, and it stemmed back to that.

Starting point is 00:07:03 Then he wasn't picked in some of these awards, which kind of ridiculous. So I can understand from, from his point of view, but I think that's what it goes back to the initial tweet where it says back for revenge. You might be wondering, okay,

Starting point is 00:07:14 the back four, I got it. He's back for another year. What is the revenge that he's talking about? I think this is the revenge that he, and I think Kobe probably feels the same way because both Kobe and Mello had unbelievable seasons that they deserve to be recognized and deserve to get all sorts of awards out of it and they they've had some award right Kobe first team all big 12 and Mello this third

Starting point is 00:07:35 team you know college football network all-american and all big 12 honor mention so those are some awards but it's not quite the awards they deserve for how good they were like they deserve even more awards than what they gotten and so you see that chip on his shoulder. So he's coming back with that chip on his shoulder too, which you look for him to have that big season. But it is also a chance for him to boost his draft stock, get one more year of tape out there, get one more year of notoriety out there. I think if he went to the NFL draft this year, I feel like he would be an NFL draft pick. I know there was talk that NFL scouts were watching him even in the spring,

Starting point is 00:08:11 both him and Kobe at the corner position. So I think he would have been drafted into the NFL this season. But, you know, maybe if you go from, I think he's listed 6'1", 190. Maybe you go to 195 or 200. You have another good year. Maybe you even improve on some things. Maybe we're talking about a guy who can work his way into being a top three-round pick in the NFL,

Starting point is 00:08:30 and that would be so cool. It's always fun to see these kids go off and get to make a real living here if that is afforded to them, which I think is going to be an opportunity for Melo Dotson, especially if he does have a really big year in 2024, just boosting off what he already has done here in his career in 2023. So I'd imagine that Melo is going to get taken care of here from an NIL perspective.

Starting point is 00:08:52 From there, it's an opportunity to kind of leave even more of a legacy than he already has, continue to build this program for KU, boost his draft stock, continue growing as a player. And from the KU perspective, it's always good to return good players. It's a very simple thing. But in today's day and age of college football, player retention is as important as anything. I mean, as big as recruiting is, as big as scouring the transfer portal

Starting point is 00:09:17 to bring players in, player retention is as big as anything in the world. And now we wait to hear from Kobe Bryant. Kobe can have all sorts of decisions too, right? Kobe can go to the NFL. Kobe could enter the portal and probably, you know, make some money with NIL. But I think Kansas is probably going to pony up some good money for him and NIL to stay in Kansas too. So it'll be decision time for him. And either way, you feel a little bit better now that, you know, even if Kobe does go to the NFL, it's like, okay, well, you have Melo Dotson back, but wouldn't it be cool if you did have both back for one more year in

Starting point is 00:09:46 Lawrence? All right, we're going to continue on with what this means for KU, what the cornerback room could look like in 2024, and just kind of overall roster tracking in the early portions of this off season, even though we haven't even gotten to the bowl game yet for KU football. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience.

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Starting point is 00:11:11 So if Kobe is back, then you have Kobe and Melo are just the automatic starters, as they were this year, right? That becomes the thing, and you kind of pick up where you left off from this year, right? And then the rest of the corner positions and rest of the players there, you're kind of competing for those third and fourth corner spots, which this past year were occupied by Kalen Girvin, who was your super senior, and Quinton Lassiter, who made a nice couple of interceptions early in the season. And, you know, there is real playing time there, even for the third and fourth corner.

Starting point is 00:11:44 Obviously, when you play teams that, you know, if you're going to run four or five receivers out, like there's going to be time out there. Both Lasseter and Kalen Girvin had over 200 snaps this past season, and they nearly combined for about 550 snaps. So even if Kobe and Mello are both back, there is still real opportunity for those next corners to, you know, get playing time and make an impact there. And that'll be kind of the discussion now if kobe does come back um do we see a younger player who's maybe further down the depth chart go to the portal especially with three incoming corners in in the freshman class like does that create something where that happens uh i don't know i guess it wouldn't shock it'd be shocking at all. Now, if Kobe doesn't return,

Starting point is 00:12:27 then Melo becomes the one returning starter there. And then that competition that you would have for the third and fourth corner spots now just slides up. It becomes competition for the second starter and the third and fourth corner spots with a lot of guys there. And KU definitely has a ton of talent in the cornerback room for those other spots and to have for the future of this program, because even if Kobe does come back, right, Mello is coming back. Okay. Even though Mello is coming back, 2024 is his last year.

Starting point is 00:12:54 So you still have to plan for 2025 and beyond. Even if Kobe comes back, you know, Kobe gone after 2024. So you have to be able to not just develop those backup spots and possibly have to emerge one of the starting spots this year, but you want to be building for those 2025 and beyond years for when those guys are gone. And you're talking Demarius McGee, who will be, I believe, a redshirt junior next season, former transfer from LSU, former really highly recruited kid. And he's someone I think could turn into a really good player for you. BJ Dilworth, he was one of your high, I think he actually was your highest rated recruit

Starting point is 00:13:26 in the class a couple years ago. Redshirted his first year, got a little bit of playing time this year. He's someone who I've heard very good things about, whether it was in spring ball or some of the offseason stuff, that he could be somebody to watch in the future. And then you have a ton of either freshman or redshirt freshmen assuming these players redshirt since they didn't play more than the required games jameel croft super talented kid jacoby davis another super talented kid both those players were really highly recruited for you as freshmen and kind of waited under the wings of some of those older corners this year and then

Starting point is 00:14:02 you have the three corners coming in, Jalen Todd, Austin Alexander, and Andre Gibson. That's a really good corner room overall. So I think overall you feel really solid about this room, both in terms of the now and the future, because you look at 2024, okay, that is a lot of – I mean, with Gibson, Alexander, Todd, Croft, Davis, like that could be five players who are either freshmen or redshirt freshmen. But if McGee steps into this bigger role,

Starting point is 00:14:29 if Dilworth steps into this bigger role, that's a redshirt junior and redshirt sophomore potentially, right? You have Mello Dotson, who will be a fifth year player. You could have Kobe Bryant, who would be an experienced player too. You have that nice blend of both and then you get to 2025 and it's like, okay, that could be a senior Demarius McGee. That could be a junior BJ Dilworth. That could be sophomore years of all these young corners or freshman years

Starting point is 00:14:48 of all these young corners. You feel like you're built pretty well at this position, both for 2024 and for the future years to come. But you know what would make it even better? If Kobe Bryant did come back. So I feel really good about where the defense is at and where the corner position is at with this move coming in. And this certainly feels like a nice piece to the puzzle to have with,

Starting point is 00:15:09 with Miller Dotson back in tow. Now it's overall, when you look at the defense, you still have to stop the run. You still have to get good play from so many other spots, right? I mean, you look at the corner position and it's one of those tough positions where like you can have unbelievable coverage but if your pass rush isn't getting there like eventually if you have to cover for seven seconds then prime durell revis prime deon sanders eventually you're going to give a guy open it's

Starting point is 00:15:37 just it's it's so hard to do so like sometimes it can be a thankless position in that way and sometimes um it can be a position position where you are a little bit dependent on some of the other positions to a certain standpoint. But if you're loaded at the corner position, which you feel very talented at, I mean, seriously, if Kobe Bryant comes back for KU, it will seriously feel like to me KU has a chance to be one of the best corner units in not just the Big 12, the entire country. Like seriously, that,

Starting point is 00:16:06 that's kind of what we're talking here. If he comes back, if he doesn't come back, I still think it'll be a really good unit, you know? So if you have that confidence in your corners, if you have that guy like Mello Dotson, right? If you have some of these other guys, it gives you more confidence to blitz. It gives you more confidence to send numbers in the box to stop the run. It gives you more confidence to do a lot of different things on the defensive side of the football.

Starting point is 00:16:28 And that's so important for a defensive coordinator to have. And so with Melo Dotson, it's not just that. You get the big plays. You get the pick sixes. You get the plays that can shift the game into your way. And so when you look at the defense as a whole, it's hard specifically just to be like, okay, this move makes the defense this, because there's so many other positions that have,

Starting point is 00:16:52 I guess, questions or decisions that still need to be made right now. Like Jeremy Robinson will have a decision. Austin Booker has a decision. Like, you know, a lot of like, what are certain players going to do on the defensive line? Does anybody else transfer out? Like at the linebacker position, you lose a lot of production there and a lot of starts and games played. You lose Kenny Logan, right? There are a lot of things you have to replace or overcome, but this is a great start for what the defense can possibly be for next year.

Starting point is 00:17:18 And if the defense, you know, does come back in tow and you get some of these big players back in addition to Mello, like an Austin Booker and Kobe Bryant and stuff. The defense took a huge step from last year to this year. There's no reason you can't take another step coming into next year too. And that would be pretty exciting in the new Big 12 without Texas and Oklahoma. I'll get to the overall roster tracking. What has gone down in the early portion of the transfer portal

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Starting point is 00:18:33 with code lockedoncollege for a first deposit match up to $100. PrizePix, daily fantasy sports made easy. So overall, what does the early offseason look like for KU I know technically we're not in the offseason because it's not off the season yet we still have the bowl game upcoming here in a few weeks but with with the way that the portal opens back up at the beginning of December this becomes kind of a mix of the offseason and in season unlike really any other sport like uh like imagine in in the NFL it was like okay now we're gonna play like a game in the NFL, it was like, okay, now we're going to play like a game in the middle of March after some of this free agency. Or like in the NBA, they're like, you know, okay, yeah, everybody just signed on July 1st.

Starting point is 00:19:12 Now we're going to play on July 8th or something. It'd just be very weird. So as far as players in, they haven't added anybody yet. As far as players out, Will Huggins is transferring out of the program. He is a 6'7", 250-pound, fourth-year sophomore tight end. I thought he was going to be a stud coming out. I mean, you look at the body, and he was a really good player in high school from the local area.

Starting point is 00:19:35 Never really cracked into the lineup much. I know he had to deal with some injury stuff, and that's always unfortunate when that happens. KU also has had a really good tight end group, right, like Mason Fairchild, multiple All-Big 12 or All-Big 12 big 12 honorable mention pick at the tight end position. We know what Jared Casey's become. Trevor Cardell is a possible player next year. Could be a big breakout player with more playing time, right? You even have guys like Jaden Hamm and Tavita Noah on the roster. Carson Broon, who's going to be coming in. It's a really good tight end position.

Starting point is 00:20:04 So I could absolutely see Huggins going to the next school and doing really well wherever he does end up going. And that is always something when you see a player who transfers away from the program and does well elsewhere. You feel good for them. You're happy for them. But also you're like, oh, man, why didn't that happen at KU? This is just one where it's just you know tough when you look

Starting point is 00:20:26 at the injuries and trying to get on the field with the tight end room but uh then you have Reese Thomas he was a preferred walk-on receiver so who knows maybe he would have eventually earned a scholarship or something but uh those are the two uh right now so it hasn't been a lot so far like I said no three has come in so far but it's a tight balance of numbers they were actually able to I don't know if they quite did get all the way to the full 85 scholarships because of the ncaa rule they've had the past couple years where it's more like basketball instead of what football was forever was you can only bring in 25 guys in that given class but over the past two years they were like

Starting point is 00:20:59 more like basketball where it's like hey if you have this many open scholarships just fill them just use them and we'll see'll see what the numbers are specifically. So I don't know if they fully filled the 85 or if they were like 83, 84, something like that. It's hard to tell in football. They don't have like a thing on the roster that says there's players on scholarship, there's players not, right? And I think part of that's on purpose from coaches because they like

Starting point is 00:21:20 to kind of control the narrative from a certain standpoint. But it is a tight balance of kind of the numbers of – because they are full, it's almost like a really busy bar or a really busy club. It's like one in, one out. You know what I mean? So it's more about retention than anything. And that doesn't just apply for college football in general, like you want to retain your players.

Starting point is 00:21:39 It really applies for this KU team because you look at how good they were this year, eight and four season, chance for a ninth win in the bowl game. And you have players who are kind of on the borderline of being able to, do I go pro? Do I come back? Like some of these decisions, do I transfer? Do I come back? And you have a lot of good players with that opportunity. It becomes even more about retention this year than a lot of other years, even previously. So we will have a targets episode. There are a bunch of players that KU has offered.

Starting point is 00:22:04 It seems like more so on the defensive side of the ball. They're very much, it seems like going D-line and linebacker have been the two that they're kind of looking at. Looking at a few tight ends, maybe because Huggins leaving, looking at some offensive linemen. So those are the positions it seems like they've been active in, just in terms of like who they've offered to this point in time. But we'll get into specifically who they've offered, the targets, and more about them, detailed stuff later in this week right here on Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page, or you can like and subscribe to the action.

Starting point is 00:22:36 We'll see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks, getting to a KU basketball show on tomorrow's edition with our biggest positives and negatives for KU Hoops through 10 games.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Mello Dotson Will Return for Kansas Jayhawks Football in 2024 to Lead a Strong Cornerback Room

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