Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - NEW COMMIT: Joseph Credit to Kansas Football | Jayhawks Loaded at Linebacker in the Class of 2026!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Seemingly one of the top priorities of the entire KU football recruiting class, Joseph Credit committed to Kansas. He's a Jayhawk. We'll break it down. You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Thanks for joining us here on this bonus episode of Locked On Jayhawks, Derek Johnson here, and thank you for tuning in to Locked On Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page, thank you to the everydayers for catching each and every episode, and I guess for your double day or and catch some of our double shows when that occurs as well. On today's episode, bonus show of Locked on Jayhawks, Joseph Credit, a three-star linebacker has committed to KU.

Starting point is 00:00:49 We're gonna break down why it's such a big deal for Lance Leipold, this staff in everything, as well as his game, the future of the linebacker room for KU and overall the class now of 2026 for the Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, and you can get in on the action with FanDuel over at FanDuel.com. Okay, so Joseph Credit picks KU. He is a big time commit in the class of 2026.

Starting point is 00:01:21 He is a linebacker, somebody who's an 86 graded three star, but seems to be based on the offers that came his way and based on the priority that the staff and other staffs were making him. To me seems like somebody who probably could end up very well being rated higher than an 86 or at the very least will be a diamond in the rough if that is the case. So he picked Kansas over, I guess at the end, his finalists were Kansas, UCLA and Arizona State. And in the end, like that makes a big enough deal that that's the selection there over those two guys on its own, right? Because if it's just over those two in general, Arizona State is the team who just won the big 12.

Starting point is 00:02:05 So you're winning a recruit over a team who's in your conference and won the conference over you. Like that makes it a big deal on its own, right? But also UCLA, a team who made him a big priority, you know, had some recent visits and recruitments and seems to be a team that, I don't know, when you get Nico Iamaliava, probably indicates that you're doing probably pretty okay in

Starting point is 00:02:26 terms of football NIL. So the you know, opportunity for Kansas to get a kid like this who also had offers to TCU Baylor, Houston, Texas, A&M, Texas, Texas, a bunch of Texas schools. He's from Texas getting them out of Texas is a big deal. Also, it offers to Ole Miss, Penn State and others. So it is a big deal that they got this getting like I said, I think the offers might tell you that the rating is a little bit low. And here's what I go back to above everything else. I trust this staff to find diamonds in the rough to develop guys to find on I don't know, like late flight pool has been doing that from his D three days to Buffalo

Starting point is 00:03:03 to now Kansas. And I go back to this was a, if you're watching on YouTube, I'll try to explain it if you're listening on the audio, the form. This is a tweet from Joseph credit from a couple of months ago, like several months ago. And this was a visit that he took a picture of, posted on social media, says thanks to, and it has all the coaches that are there. This is all the coaches that were there for his visit or I guess visiting him. This is visiting him in his hometown and obviously I'm sure they visited other kids and stuff too. This was you know they got their money out of the mileage so

Starting point is 00:03:36 to speak but thank you coach Leipold, coach Simpson, coach Wallace, DK McDonald, coach Samuel, coach Otatulu for rolling deep by the school today and then a couple more like ads with you There is half the KU coaching staff there recruiting him. If that doesn't show you how much KU wanted this kid, I don't know what does. And so if KU wanted him that bad and they were able to get him, it's obviously a big deal that they were able to get him, it's obviously a big deal that they were able to come through with that. And so overall he becomes the 15th commit in the class of 2026 for KU,

Starting point is 00:04:11 a class that was already ranked top 10 by 24 seven sports. Now, again, part of that is some of the schools haven't, you know, grabbed the number of commits that KU has, right? You're getting a little early head start on it, but it is cool to see that you're up there at this point in time. And it just furthers KU getting this class close to done at an early point of the game

Starting point is 00:04:30 where you have more time to focus on other things we have more time to, you know, just re recruit the players that you already have committed to try to stay in tow during the fall and you add a legit guy that that I like that the staff clearly likes in Joseph credit. Let's get to a scouting report in the future linebacker room. This is Lockdown Jayhawks. This bonus episode of Lockdown Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The NFL NBA Playoff in full swing, so are the NHL, and every night delivers highlight-worthy

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Starting point is 00:05:54 He comes in listed between six feet and six foot one, depending where you look, between 205 and 215 pounds, depending where you look. So obviously right there, you look at him being a little more undersized for a linebacker at this point in time, he'll be somebody that they try to add weight to, right? Can you get him up to,

Starting point is 00:06:12 I guess it depends what position as a linebacker he plays. There are times out there where he looks like a safety running around. So could he be a future Hawk player for you? Would he be somebody that you can get up to 225, 230, and he can be an off-ball linebacker, something like that. That kind of is the question there.

Starting point is 00:06:28 But every player, a majority of the players that Kansas brings in, right? This isn't Alabama and Georgia that are bringing in kids who are already 6'5", 3'15", and they're ready to go right away. A lot of times, the reason these kids might be three stars is because you do have to put a year or two of development on their body in the weight room.

Starting point is 00:06:45 And that is no different than a lot of other kids that are coming to Kansas, right? Like maybe a kid like JJ Dunigan, that you probably want to add more weight to everybody, but like maybe he comes in and he's ready to play right away. But for the most part, Kansas is bringing in kids that you're going to either redshirt in year one,

Starting point is 00:07:00 or they're going to be, if they do get on the field, it's going to be special teams here or there, like Akit and Quebeca when he came in year one. So that's be, if they do get on the field, it's gonna be special teams here or there like Akim Kubeka when he came in year one. So that's no different than a lot of other kids. But anyway, 86 rated three star on 24 seven sports, 5.7 rated three star on rivals. He also, if you look at the 24 seven sports composite,

Starting point is 00:07:18 top 800 nationally and top 70 at his position. He plays at a Perland High School in Texas. I always forget if it's Perland or Peerland. I should probably know that. I lived in Texas for a decent chunk of my childhood. So I guess I lose Texas points there. But anyway, 2023 as a sophomore on varsity, he recorded 74 tackles.

Starting point is 00:07:38 He had six sacks, one interception, which was a pick six and had two punt blocks as well. And that's something you'll see. You go back and watch his junior, your highlights too. He comes in and has a block on, I forget if it was a field goal or a PAT, but gets active in special teams. That'll get you on the field early at Kansas.

Starting point is 00:07:53 And the way that he is kind of a fast, hard-hitting linebacker, I think he will be a good special teams player for Kansas at some point early in his career. But also 2024 in 12 games as a junior of RCD, 78 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and five sacks. And this is from Gabe Brooks of 24 seven sports. I'm not going to read you the entire scouting report. Just picking to choose some excerpts go to 24 seven. If you want to read the full scouting report because they have good stuff

Starting point is 00:08:18 on them there, but it says active run and hit linebacker played off ball. He had a lot of reps as a blitzer from both the edge and inside gaps. He generally stays low with pad level, athletic enough to beat blockers to run game spots in the box. More context to the run game and blitzing than coverage at this point in time.

Starting point is 00:08:38 Projects to be a FPS and Power 4 level, potential every down, off ball linebacker that's good to see there, with athleticism to play the pass, and downhill juice and timing instincts to serve as a situational blitz option. So I went back and watched, I don't know, went back. Anyway, I watched his junior year highlights

Starting point is 00:08:57 that were posted, and you mostly do see him in either pass blitzing situations or stopping the run. You don't see a lot of past coverage situations for him. So that's gonna be something, you know, you're probably gonna have to grow in his game a little bit. But the athleticism tells you that it is, you would think gonna be doable. Like he's gonna have the potential to do it.

Starting point is 00:09:18 But you see a little bit of a, if we're gonna make like a KU copier, a little bit of a JB Brown starter pack. Now, JB Brown, by the time Kansas got him, he had been in college for a few years, and Bowling Green had developed his body a little bit more. Joseph Credit is not quite to the same physical level that JB Brown was at Kansas, but again,

Starting point is 00:09:38 Kansas got JB Brown by the time he was in college for a couple of seasons, right? And so when you see a guy who was really good at scraping, finding the gaps, stopping the run, had no problem coming up and hitting you hard, was a good blitzing linebacker, whether again was through the middle and kind of a delayed blitz or off the edge,

Starting point is 00:09:58 there were certain things that reminded you of Jamie Brown there again, as a younger player starter pack. I also think there were certain things that reminded me a little bit of, to go to the Kansas Chiefs, of a Drew Tranquil type of player. Again, Drew Tranquil is not like the biggest linebacker, but he's fast, which allows him to be good in coverage,

Starting point is 00:10:17 although he kind of wasn't this past year for the Chiefs, but that's neither here nor there, and be a good blitzing linebacker. And I think there's some sort of a mix between those two, if we're talking about local guys, to kind of compare it to that you could. But I think there's a lot of ways you could go with this if you're Kansas, right?

Starting point is 00:10:34 I mean, you could play him as an awful lot of linebacker. If the speed truly is there, do you play him in the kind of hawk position? Or do you use him as eventually a Mike linebacker where you beef him up even more and just say, hey, you're gonna be a really good run stopper and we'll use you in that way? Are you a two down linebacker? Are you a three down?

Starting point is 00:10:49 I don't know. I think I love the athleticism to do whatever. It just depends how it kind of sticks, but love this pickup for KU. So how does he fit in to the future linebacker room? We'll get to that next. This episode of the show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment, it's easy to lose track.

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Starting point is 00:11:52 And again, thanks for joining us here on this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Thank you to the everydayers who already caught our normal episode here of LOJ. So what does the future linebacker room look like for KU now that Joseph Prentitt is aboard? He becomes the second linebacker commit in the class for KU, joins Josh Galbraith, who's a local kid from Lawrence, a super athletic linebacker who honestly might end up playing that more of the hawk role because he's super athletic too. But I think this tells you a couple things. You look at both linebackers in the class, they're dudes who can fly around, they're dudes who are athletic. And so if you're looking at. The prototype or what Kansas is going for the linebackers,

Starting point is 00:12:30 I guess that kind of gives you a signal of what D.K. McDonald is looking for from those guys. So love, love, love the linebacker class of 2026 for KU football coming in. Love both those guys and their ability to, I'd imagine, you know, they can play off each other too because they are athletic and versatile in that way. Now you look at the linebacker room here,

Starting point is 00:12:53 and in 2025, Bengali, Kamara, Joseph Sip, and Jason Gilliam are all seniors. They would graduate. So come 2026, when both Galbraith and you know, your newest commit here and credit coming to KU with Galbraith and, you know, your newest commit here and credit coming to KU with Galbraith, you're joining a roster in 2026 that will have Trey Latham as a redshirt senior, Jacori Stewart as a redshirt sophomore, Malachi Curvi would

Starting point is 00:13:21 be a second year player, John John Camaro would be a redshirt sophomore and Logan Brantley would be a redshirt junior. So you really, you would think Trey Latham would be a starter. And then outside of that, it'd be probably some of the young guys, which ones make moves this year to be the potential players next year.

Starting point is 00:13:38 Maybe it's more transfer portal additions for next year's roster at linebacker. But when you move forward with the Linebacker room and you start talking maybe even 2027 and beyond, you start digging into more of the guys that you've recruited from the high school ranks. Again, Stewart, Curvy, Brantley, Kamara, and now these two in the class of 2026,

Starting point is 00:14:00 where you start to feel like and hope that you get to a point where, hey, the linebacking core, the starting linebackers that we're going to have are guys that we've recruited, built up and developed ourselves, as opposed to where it's felt like right now they've been kind of in this running mode of consistently having to go to the transfer portal to bring in linebackers. If you're able to create your own pipeline, which feels like they're really starting to build up the future classes of those linebackers, if you're able to create your own pipeline, which feels like they're really starting to build up the future classes of those linebackers here and credit becomes the latest in that, then you're able to use your transfer portal time and recruiting and money and spending on

Starting point is 00:14:36 other positions that maybe you've wanted to, but you haven't been able to because you've had to go all out on linebackers here over these past couple of years with, you know, bring it on whether we go back to Rich Miller or we go to Cornell Wheeler or we go to JB Brown or Lorenzo McCaskill and all along the linebackers, the guys this year, you know that they've had to use in the portal. So love this edition for KU football Lance Light Holden company

Starting point is 00:15:04 and seems like they really wanted him. So it's a big deal that they got him. All right, that'll do it for this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get podcasts, including on our YouTube page, where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time with L.O.J.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - NEW COMMIT: Joseph Credit to Kansas Football | Jayhawks Loaded at Linebacker in the Class of 2026!

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