Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - National Signing Day: Kansas Jayhawks Football Has its Best Recruiting Class in Over a Decade

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, it's National Signing Day around college football. KU is bringing in arguably the greatest class they've ever had in the recruiting era. We're going to discuss why, what puts together the class, what sticks out, who probably gets on the field first, and plenty more on this National Signing Day 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. I'm Derek Johnson.

Starting point is 00:00:36 You can hear me as well Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere that you get your podcasts, and you can also like and subscribe to us on our YouTube page. On today's episode of Locked On, we are going to be talking National Signing Day for KU football, 17 commits signing in tow for KU.

Starting point is 00:01:00 It is an unbelievable recruiting class for KU, the best ever registered in the 24-7 era by a few different ways of looking at it. We'll get into that and some individual breakdowns on some of the players coming up on this episode of the show. First, we are brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150.

Starting point is 00:01:23 If your team wins, just visit Fanduel.com slash locked on to get started today. All right, so we're breaking down the KU recruiting class. This was a class that KU did a ton of work to get together in the offseason. They had 16 signees or gather commitments, I guess, over the course of, you know, really the summer months and some of the off-season stuff, they were able to put together this really special class. And they did all that work in the off-season that allowed them to, over the course of the season, not have to worry about it. But you still had to worry about re-recruiting the guys, still making sure that you're, you know, staying on them and making sure they want to stay committed and, you know, doing all sorts of those conversations. They did a great job with that. And then boom, all want to stay committed and doing all sorts of those conversations.

Starting point is 00:02:05 They did a great job with that. And then, boom, all of them stayed committed and all of them signed their national letter of intent. Most notable of that, Deshaun Warner, who's your number one recruit in the class. We'll talk more about him later in the show. And also, we're going to have a bonus episode that just details him because I want to have a separate episode for the guy who is now the highest rated high school recruit KU has ever gotten in the 24-7 sports era so we'll have a bonus episode of that that you want to tune in for but he had offers from like Michigan and Ohio State after

Starting point is 00:02:33 committing to KU a guy like Harrison Utley had offers from Oklahoma after committing to KU and they were able to stick with all those guys and get all of them to sign today on National Signing Day and then you got a bonus today when Graydon Grimes ended up being your 17th commitment. You were only going to have 16, ended up going with 17 because of Graydon Grimes, who was the son of Jeff Grimes, your new offensive coordinator. Grimes, Graydon, I guess I should say, was originally committed to Baylor as a tight end, three-star prospect. He now flips and picks KU. And because KU doesn't really have

Starting point is 00:03:08 a need at tight end, he was listed as a defensive end in KU's announcement that he picked KU. He's like 6'5", 246. I think there might be some potential to play him at defensive tackle in the future. It will just depend how much weight they can kind of add to them. But overall, this is arguably KU's best recruiting class of the past decade plus, and at least since 24-7 sports in their composite has been tracking recruiting rankings since 2010, especially if you look by quality, not by quantity. So when you look at it, there are a lot of past years, and I have this graphic I'm going to throw up if you're watching on our YouTube side of things, I'll tweet this out later if you're listening on the podcast version, but basically KU has had a lot of other classes in the past that maybe had more

Starting point is 00:03:54 commits in tow. Like you look back to the early 2010s when the transfer portal wasn't as rampant, you're bringing in 24, 32, 25, 37, 30 kids in terms of the number of commit. And some of those end up maybe blue shirting or gray shirting or some of these different other terms. Nowadays, you're not bringing in as many. So, you know, when you look at the overall ranking, like the 2011 class for KU finished ranked 40th in the country. This one right now is at least at time of recording is 46th on the 24-7 ranking system.

Starting point is 00:04:22 So it's not quite as highly ranked up as that one. But that 2011 class had 32 commits. This one had 17. So like when you look at the quality of player that KU was bringing in over just the pure quantity, this is the best class ever. I have a bunch of different ways that I've sorted this out. When you look at top 500 players on the 24-7 composite, KU has

Starting point is 00:04:45 five commits who are in the top 500. You go back to 2010 when 24-7 sports started, the most they've ever had was four, and that was in a class of 24 kids. You look at the top 600 kids, KU has five. Again, that's tied for first. You look at the top 800 kids, KU still has five of them there. You look at the top 1,000 kids, KU has 10 top 1,000 commits in this class. The only other year that they've had more since 2010 is 2011 when they had 13. But guess what? They had 32 commits that year. So if you look at the percentage of KU's commit, top 1,000 commits, it blows everything else out else for this class of 2024 58.8 of KU's commits so basically almost 60 percent of KU's commits are top 1,000 commits so among the ones you're

Starting point is 00:05:39 getting you're getting really high quality players the second most that KU's ever had since the 2010-24-7 sports era is last year when they had 43%. And even then that is a huge jump, about 15-16% up from where it was here. The next highest you have to go to is all the way back in 2011 when it was 40.6%. Beyond looking at this as how many are top 1,000, because KU has a couple other kids who are just outside the top 1,000. What if we look at it from the measuring because you know some years some classes are created different some years classes are better or worse than others where you can have a kid one year who's ranked 900th the next year he might be ranked 1100 so what if we go by the rating well 24-7 sports their composite has a rating system and the rating

Starting point is 00:06:22 system is basically a combination like right like deshaun water for them is a 92 on their specific ratings, but their composite is putting together their 92 with whatever on three and whatever rivals and ESPN and all these sites put together. And it creates basically a, I don't know, a decimal of their average recruiting, you know, grade, so to speak. So the number that's been kind of the cutoff here that shows, you know, some of the higher level recruits KU has gotten in a given class is 8,600 or better, 0.8600 or better. KU, 14 of their 17 commits this year are a grade on the composite of 0.8600 or better. That's a percentage of over 82% of all of their commits are graded basically an 86 or higher on average, right? Between all the different recruiting industry sources.

Starting point is 00:07:11 The second highest that KU has ever gotten is nine at a percentage of 64%. That also was last year. And then the next highest, you have to go back to eight in 2010, that was only 33%. So from 2010 to 2022, KU had never had a year where 35% or higher of their commitments in a given class were graded 0.8600 or higher on the 24-7 composite. You've now had back-to-back years where you've had 64 and 82% with this one taking the cake and the overall ranking of 46th is unbelievable. But even then that doesn't even do it justice because again, a lot of these other classes in the country are bringing on 20, 22, 25 kids, 30 kids, you're bringing on 17. And these are high level pickups that are going to make an impact for you down the road. So this is an unbelievable pickup.

Starting point is 00:08:05 If you go just by average rating, KU has a 87.51, I think, on the 24-7 composite. In the new Big 12, that only ranks them behind, like, Colorado, Texas Tech, UCF, TCU, and Utah. And we know this staff really develops. And, by the way, I guess shout-out to some of those coaches who did such a good job here with recruiting some of these players. Jordan Peterson had five primaries in this class with one secondary. Chris Simpson, three primaries with one secondary. Jonathan Wallace, three primaries. Scott Fuchs, two primaries in the secondary.

Starting point is 00:08:35 Taiwo Onotolu had three secondaries. Brian Borland, three secondaries. Jim Zabrowski had a secondary. And I guess Jeff Grimes would get a primary. So bottom line, you have now put together because as we're going through those numbers and sharing how unbelievably great of a class that this is by quality, you saw a lot of the numbers last year were a lot better than previous years too. So now you have this unbelievable staff at coaching and developing and you're bringing in higher level talent than we've seen in quite some time in Lawrence. That is a heck of a combo and really exciting years to come for KU.

Starting point is 00:09:07 Let's break down position by position what KU is getting here. Who hits the field first to finish up with this episode of Locked on Jayhawks? First, we are brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. As the weather gets colder, the NFL offers stay hot on FanDuel. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150 back if your team wins. If you've been thinking about joining FanDuel, there's no better time to get in on the action. The app is so easy to use. There's a wide range of betting options, including spreads, player props, over-unders, and more.

Starting point is 00:09:40 You can get futures on the college football playoff. I think Michigan's going like 220, Alabama's around there. Washington's like six, seven to one right now. You can get futures on the college football playoff. I think Michigan's going like 220. Alabama's around there. Washington's like 6-7-1 right now. You can get futures to win the Super Bowl. Chiefs are not as high as normal at this point in time. Still not overly overwhelming odds, but you can get in on that. Patrick Mahomes

Starting point is 00:09:57 is an MVP if you think he's just going to kill it these last three weeks and people don't want to give it to Brock Purdy. You can bet on individual games including the Yale game coming up on Friday. So visit fanduel.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season with FanDuel, an official partner of the NFL. What is KU getting positioned by position? So all these rankings that I'm about to go over are 24-7 composite rankings

Starting point is 00:10:22 just to save time so I don't have to say it each and every time. Let's start with the quarterback position. One of the front liners of the class. Anytime you bring on a quarterback, Isaiah Marshall is top 900 in the country there. He's a six-foot, 205-pound dual-threat quarterback who led his team to the Detroit state title, or the Michigan state title, and being from Detroit, you continue to establish this pipeline. He's the possible future of the quarterback position, you know, post Jalen Daniels, right? And who knows, maybe if Jalen gets injured again next year, would it be Isaiah Marshall?

Starting point is 00:10:51 Would it be Cole Ballard? That'll be an interesting backup battle next season. And then 2025, David McCombs comes in. That becomes an interesting battle with those two young, you know, stud quarterbacks. But Marshall is a hard runner. He's a fast runner. He's got a very accurate arm,

Starting point is 00:11:05 good arm strength downfield. I wouldn't quite describe it as live an arm of Jalen Daniels, but really good player. Expect him to be a stud in the future for you at the quarterback position. Running back position, two players coming on. Harry Stewart, who is a top 700 overall. He is 5'9", 215 pounds. He is a solid one-cut runner, kind of the similar, like Devin Neal I would describe as a one-cut runner. I wouldn't describe him the same way as Devin Neal, but it's like that same trait. He does have a little Daniel Highshaw to him

Starting point is 00:11:33 in some of his breaking tackle abilities. Again, not quite that strong. It almost is kind of a mix of like Devin Neal and Daniel Highshaw. I don't mean that from a standpoint. I don't want to get people's hopes up that he would be the best of both worlds. I'm saying kind of somewhere in the middle there. He is the faster of the two backs if you look at, like, high school track times. But it was interesting.

Starting point is 00:11:51 When I watched the highlights and stuff of both these players, I came away more impressed with Red Martel's speed on tape. But then I went and looked at the high school numbers, and, you know, Stewart was definitely faster in some of the, like, 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and stuff like that. Martel is a 5'9", 205. He's a top 1000 player. I think he's a little shiftier than Harry Stewart is.

Starting point is 00:12:13 He stops and starts better. I'm a bit more in on Martel. Maybe that's competition thing. Martel played a level of high school football. I think with Stewart, he has more of the physical tools. So maybe if you get him with good coaching staff, which KU has, maybe he unlocks those more and maybe his potential is higher. But I like both these backs that KU is bringing in.

Starting point is 00:12:31 And if you go watch some Red Martel highlights, there's this one where he does this incredible jump cut, which jump cutting is such an important part of KU's offense that I really think he's going to work at KU. When you look at the offensive line, a lot of players coming in. Carter Lewerski, he is top 1,000 overall. He projects, I think, to be an offensive tackle. He's 6'6", 275, so you got the big frame on you already. He is KU's second highest graded on the composite of the offensive linemen, so you get him in. Then David Abagian, he is top 900. He's your top-rated offensive lineman by the composite, 6'5", 285.

Starting point is 00:13:09 At 6'5", I think the idea here, obviously that gives you a frame that you can play tackle. I think Abagian would be more of your swing guy. You bring him in, maybe play him at guard and tackle. He has a couple of those guys. Kobe Baines can play guard or tackle. Dominic Poonie could play guard or tackle, which we saw over his career. Spencer Lavelle probably in that same notion can play guard or tackle. Dominic Poonie could play guard or tackle, which we saw over his career, right? Spencer Lavelle probably in that same notion can play guard or tackle.

Starting point is 00:13:29 I think that's how I view David Bajie in here. He'll be kind of a swing guy, can play all over. Kene Anene, I believe is the proper way to pronounce it. He is top 2,000, 6'5", 275. He's more of not as explosive as an athlete, but he's got a good frame. He has a really long wingspan. Maybe that means he can play tackle. He's really smart though, too.

Starting point is 00:13:50 Maybe he ends up being your future center or something like that with some of those smarts. But I think because of the length, maybe he does look at guard or tackle. But again, I think he's more of a swing guy that could maybe play kind of all over for you. And then you have Harrison Utley, who is a top 1100 overall, 6'3", 290. At 6'3", you would kind of think maybe an interior guy, but really impressive because he's from Norman, Oklahoma, and he picked KU. Then Oklahoma came calling being like, no, we want you.

Starting point is 00:14:14 He stuck through and grew up a fan and everything, stuck through with his commitment to KU. He has a mean streak to him. He's a good athlete. Harrison Utley, I think, is going to be one of those players KU fans are really going to grow to love. Tight end, Carson Bruin, you bring on. He is top 1,100, and Bruin is 6'6", 241. I think Bruin probably underrated a bit because he was playing at Iowa, where you look at some of these Midwest states with Iowa and Kansas and stuff, and maybe

Starting point is 00:14:40 they're not as, I don't know, hyper-focused in some of the recruiting rankings. And also he's playing like defensive end where he was like an all-state defensive end, so he's playing on a team that's not throwing a lot on the offensive side of the ball. I think he's going to be a stud-blocking tight end, but he's a good athlete at 6'6", 241. Maybe he ends up being another Mason Fairchild in a couple years here down the road with development for KU,

Starting point is 00:15:02 but really impressed with what he brings to the table. Defense side of the ball, you have the edge position, which is where Deshaun Warner, your top player in the class, again, will have a bonus episode just detailing Deshaun Warner. So we'll get more into that coming up in another show here on Lockdown Jayhawks, but he's your number one in the class. Top 300 overall, top 150 on just the 24-7 sports rankings, 6'3", 215. I think he goes by DJ. Dynamic, dynamic speed rusher. He is very, very impressive. Dak Brinkley is top 350.

Starting point is 00:15:30 He is number two in KU's class. 6'3", 220. He's a long-armed athletic edge rusher, too. So you have two of those types of guys coming in that can be speed rushers and just incredible athletes. And they're going to look to add weight on both players, probably get them up, you know,

Starting point is 00:15:46 20, 30 pounds each. So maybe that, I don't know. We'll see what that means in year one and everything, but I think both guys project out as possible. All big 12 level guys, if they can hit that can be dynamic rushers and having both of them

Starting point is 00:15:58 allows KU to kind of hit the portal for just one year guys this year, which we saw with Dylan Woodkey the other day, check out that episode. If you missed it, KU bring it on Woodkey and uh uh die from the transfer portal and then grayden grimes is the other one here who again he was a tight end when he committed to baylor but sounds like he's going to be more of a defensive alignment now he might move to the interior um i guess it's possible he adds weight he was listed as a 6'5 246 pound defensive end

Starting point is 00:16:24 but that's similar to like Harreld coming in, who now is a defensive tackle. So I think along the defensive line, you look at him there, and he had some good defensive tape at high school. He was playing kind of both ends. Linebacker, Ja'Cory Stewart. He is top 1,100, 6'2", 16-pound, speedy linebacker who can play kind of that off-ball role.

Starting point is 00:16:43 I think this year Rich Miller was more like the Mike linebacker, Tywin Berryhill more of like the weak side linebacker. I think Stewart would maybe profile into that role a little bit, but he had like a big pick six in his state title game and stuff, so maybe that shows you that he's got some potential in pass coverage too, which is always nice to have as a linebacker. Jonathan Kamara, who goes by John John six foot three 205 visible athlete you figure he profiles him to take in that hawk position for Kamara where Craig Young is played and Jason

Starting point is 00:17:13 Gilliam will be next year and stuff um because Kamara at 6'3 205 he's got linebacker hitting skills he's all over the field he's like like a heat-seeking missile. He actually, not this past year, the year before, played cornerback in high school. So that shows his coverage skills. He should be really able to play that Hawk position for you. Speaking of cornerback, KU's got three good ones coming in. Austin Alexander, he's a top 500 overall player, 6'1", 170 pounds. He's a playmaking interception corner with great instincts.

Starting point is 00:17:44 Doesn't that sound like a lot of KU's corners that we've seen have success with Melo Dotson and Kobe Bryant here over the years that he's a guy who could, you know, take one to the house on a pick six, but a really, really good corner. And I was talking to Kevin Flaherty from 24-7 Sports on Rock Chalk Sports Talk the other day, and he mentioned that he thinks he is of the 24-7 sports recruiting era. So again, since 2010, that he is the best high school recruit corner that they've ever gotten. And he was like, I know Kobe Bryant, what he's turned into. And I know what some of these other corners they've had drafted have turned into.

Starting point is 00:18:18 Coming out of the prep level, he thinks Austin Alexander would be the guy to beat in that conversation, which speaks very highly. Jalen Todd is a top 500 player overall. He's 6'1", 180 pounds, good frame, played all over the field. So he's definitely someone who, again, top 500 recruit. I mean, maybe Todd and Alexander are your future Kobe and Melo, right? And then Andre Gibson, don't sleep on him either. Top 1,100 overall, 5'10", 180 pounds. I think the beauty of this, he has good speed.

Starting point is 00:18:44 He played some nickel early in his high school career. He's a good return man. Don't sleep on him either. Top 1,100 overall, 5'10", 180 pounds. I think the beauty of this, he has good speed. He played some nickel early in his high school career. He's a good return man. So maybe somebody you look at as being a possible kick returner, punt returner down the road, good with ball skills. But, I mean, the way you look at it, like if he was good in the nickel at one point and maybe a little more undersized compared to the other two, maybe that is your starting corners in two, three years, right? Alexander and Todd on the outside.

Starting point is 00:19:03 Gibson is kind of your nickelback. You have one safety coming in, Damani Maxson. He's top 500 overall, 6'1", 180 pounds, hard-hitting safety. I remember when he committed to KU, there were some KU comps about Mike Lee, but maybe with even a little bit more athleticism or speed to him. That's an exciting comp because KU fans love Mike Lee, and he would hit the brakes off of you. But I think maybe if there's more speed or athleticism,

Starting point is 00:19:26 maybe even better in coverage a little bit. So Max, and certainly somebody who profiles to be a future safety, but I don't know if he profiled to be more of the free safety, strong safety type, because good hitter and he's got pretty good frame there at six foot one. So actually if you can add even 20 pounds on him, then maybe more profiles and do well.

Starting point is 00:19:44 All right, let's have a discussion. Who's going to hit the field first among these players here with Locked on Jayhawks? This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by LinkedIn. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to have as many top-tier candidates as possible to interview, which is why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help you find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. LinkedIn isn't just another job board. They have a vast network of more than a billion professionals, which makes

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Starting point is 00:20:43 Who's going to hit the field first for KU? Well well I think ideally with the way this staff works it they don't really ever want guys coming in and hitting the field right away as a freshman outside of like minimal play right like if you're playing on special teams or you're playing you know maybe rotating into a couple games here or there where you're playing 10 snaps in the game like that's fine and it's not that they don't want the guys it's also not indicative that like if a guy's not good enough like if he's good enough he'll get on the field they're all about competition and earning what you get so you know that's not to say that it won't happen or can't happen it's just hard and ideally with the way that Matt Gilderslee puts in

Starting point is 00:21:18 work and the way they want to add weight and development to the players before they hit the field a lot of times you're not going to see these players hit the field until the earliest year two, a lot of times year three, and then maybe even year four for some guys into the mix. Now maybe if Austin Booker, Jeremy Robinson, one of those two would both go, maybe you do see a few snaps here and there with Deshaun Warner and Dak Brinkley on the outside. Those could be the ones where I think those would make sense if they kind of hit the field first for you.

Starting point is 00:21:47 Maybe Isaiah Marshall makes a bit of sense if Jalen Daniels does suffer a bit of another injury, but would they go to Cole Ballard first? Would they go to him? I don't know. That would kind of remain to be seen there. So those would be the ones that we point to if Devin Neal were to go pro. Running back is a position that I think makes more sense

Starting point is 00:22:03 that a freshman could get on the field right away, but we'll see if that does happen with Devin Neal. So those would be you know, running back is a position that I think makes more sense that a freshman could get on the field right away. But we'll see if that does happen with Devin Neal. So those would be the ones that I would most point to. With offensive line, it's really tough to get out there. With tight end Carson Bruin, you have all those guys. At corner, you have a bunch of guys in that room, whether it was a couple guys who redshirted this year who are going to be really good or, you know, your guys who are returning. So I think those would be the ones you look at that have a chance to get on the field this year um but when you look at it for 2025 i i think both warner and brinkley like you start as

Starting point is 00:22:35 early as then and be like okay those could be rotational players by then if not like starting by 2025 or 2026 so those would be the ones that you immediately look to and then isaiah marshall again like jaylen dans has one more year. KU graduates. And then maybe it's Isaiah Marshall takes over the reins in 2025. So those would be the ones that I'm looking to the earliest, but all of them could have impacts at different levels at different point in time for KU.

Starting point is 00:22:56 I don't know for this episode of locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere that you get your podcast, including with our YouTube page, where you can like subscribe to the action. We'll have a bonus episode later that more details Deshaun Warner, the highest graded recruit that KU has ever gotten from an individual perspective. We'll be back later this week to talk some more KU football and also get to a KU basketball Yale preview with LOJ. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - National Signing Day: Kansas Jayhawks Football Has its Best Recruiting Class in Over a Decade

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