Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PORTAL FRENZY: Kansas Faces Roster Chaos - Key LOSSES & EARLY ADDITIONS for Lance Leipold's Jayhawks

Starting point is 00:00:00 Some key players left. KU got five commitments. The visits are wild and wacky. Trying to keep up with all this transfer portal stuff for KU football can be crazy. But we're going to keep you up with it right here on this episode of the show. You are Locked on Jayhawks. Your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:27 What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And thank you that every dayers catching each and every episode of the show. Thank you so much for making the Lockdown Podcast Network to the number one sports podcast network. On today's edition, we're breaking down the transfer portal, departures, additions, commitments, visits, offers, everything to get you in the know about what happened over this wild first weekend of the transfer portal for Lance Leipold and KU football. Before we get into any of that, today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code Locked on College for $20 off your first purchase with Game Time.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Okay, so let's start right here. So just working chronologically, KU gets some extra losses right before the portal opens up. Tyler Mercer, big loss there, projected starting center. Trey Lathen, potentially your best player coming into 2026 at linebacker. Carter Lovuski, a long-term developmental tackle player. Jaden Doss, somebody who brought in last year from Nebraska to potentially be a future piece at the receiver room for you, Dylan Brooks, a guy you brought in that the high hopes for is a former high-end four-star recruit from Auburn, who just had to deal with some injury stuff.

Starting point is 00:01:34 And then Joseph Sip, who figured to play a huge role once Lathen left is one of your starting linebackers, now he's gone. So you end up with all these holes. You end up with holes at lineback. You end up with holes with young players in depth and on the interior of the offense line at center. And overall now, the losses for KU sit at 23 guys, higher than we're used to seeing for Lance Lidepooling company, the amount of impact guys when you look at John John Kamara and

Starting point is 00:01:57 you look at Trey Lathen and Tyler Mercer and, you know, potentially David McComb, if you're looking at future value, same with, I guess, like Harry Stewart, you look at the Domani Max in there, Lyric Rawls is a starter for you, just a lot of potential, you know, reps and, I don't know, value that KU lost over these past couple days and weeks of the portal opening up. And since we've already seen Jamil Croft pick Charlotte, we've seen John John Kamara pick Wisconsin. Maybe he just wanted to reunite with Jeff Grimes, but, you know, we finally started to see the moment where, okay, things are finally turning and we're finally getting the positive news. Part of that is just based on how the calendar is you can't get the positive news when the

Starting point is 00:02:43 portal isn't officially open yet, right? And so we saw some of the players start to post on social media, or maybe you didn't see, that basically just graphics of basically saying that they were going to be back for 2026. He saw it from Isaiah Marshall and Jalen Todd and Ameri and Ameri. hearing and all these guys resigning. So it looks like the big losses are over for KU. That is the good news that it does suck. Some of those guys you lost, but at least it was, you know, at least it didn't continue. At least you didn't also lose this and also lose that and stuff. And then we started finally getting the good news, which was the players coming in the commitments that you added. So we already knew that Jibril Conday, which was the D2 transfer from Grand Valley State, who I kind

Starting point is 00:03:21 of like his ceiling what you could develop him into. He committed back in December that at least put you one on the board in a defensive line room where you need more defensive tackles. Then you made a move Sunday afternoon, Sunday morning. Eamon Smalls, another defensive tackle, 6-2-310 pounds from UAB, really good production of 50 tackles for the Blazers, had like a 69 pro football focus grade, like 70 grade and run defense, strong miss tackle rate, strong stop rates, 12 pressures for him. This is a really stellar edition, I think, for Jim Panagos and KU football. that continued on with Kentucky linebacker Landon Watson.

Starting point is 00:03:58 Watson's a big linebacker like 6-1, 240, 245. Had some mixed pro football focus grades, but did have a 65 tackle season in there, some production and experience from Marshall. He'll be a sixth-year player. So you're adding a veteran presence into a room that doesn't have a lot of veteran presences with a lot of young freshmen. So at the very least, you're adding kind of somebody who can potentially be a leader in that room for you.

Starting point is 00:04:20 Then you had Connor Stroh. He's a offensive lineman from Texas, six foot seven. 341 pounds, a absolute mountain behemoth of a man who played left guard and started five games for Texas this past year, played over 300 snaps, 59 PFF grade, but he's young. His final four appearances were his four best, according to pro football focus, all of them have grades over 60s and obviously add some more size and physicality to your offensive line. And when you lost Tyler Mercer that we just went back on, well, maybe now you can move a mere herring to center. Maybe You can put Conor Stro at guard with Tevaki Tuolovato and have some real physicality on that interior of the offensive line, which has typically been so good for Kansas year in and year out under Lance Leipolding Company.

Starting point is 00:05:04 And then the latest commit that we heard from was Jalen Dupree, Dupree, a running back commit from Colorado State, who this past year played nine games, had 102 carries, 5808 yards. So good yard per carry numbers, two touchdowns. He had 12 catches as well. And over his two seasons with the Rams, he had 5.2 yards per carry. he had over 700 scrimmage yards and three scores. And you look at some of the tape, he's somebody who seems to just always keep the pile moving forward and has that good burst through the initial hole.

Starting point is 00:05:32 This was a very strong first, I guess, quartet of additions, five if you count Condé back in December for KU football and Lance Leipold. Now, I don't know that they've found the, you know, like, I don't know that they found somebody as good as losing Trey Lathen yet, but there's still time for that. And, you know, some other losses that you have to overcome. right now you're at a net negative in a couple rooms, but there's still time.

Starting point is 00:05:58 There's still scholarships open that you can be a net positive. And there are a lot of visits that we've seen reported. There are a lot of offers that we've seen reported. So I want to spend more time on that. Let's get into all these players that we've seen reported about visits, break down some of their games, whether we'd like the ad or not. It's well as some of the recent offers. We'll get to all that next and kind of keep you updated on what's going on here

Starting point is 00:06:18 in a ever-changing, ever-moving transport portal for KU. Today's episode of the show was brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook, and Friday's already feel different during basketball season. Fandle's making them even better. Every Friday night before the game tips off, Fandul gives fans a new way to kick off the weekend with NBA Happy Hour. NBA happy hour is your official pregame. It's a limited time window where special offers drop right inside the Fandul app

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Starting point is 00:07:18 Thanks again for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. And don't forget, you can check out the Everydayer Club as well. Do you want an ad-free version of our podcast here? And check that out with the Everyday Air Club. Plus, you get an invite to the members-only locked-on Everyday Air Club Discord server, which includes a group chat just for listeners of our shows. You can check out the Transfer Portal. You can check out our basketball, college football discussions.

Starting point is 00:07:43 We have a conference discussion as well. So check out all of those over on our link, which is in the show notes or it's locked on podcast.com slash every day. I want to get into some of these reported visits for KU and, you know, some of these players breaking down their game a little bit. So you know what to be on the lookout for. Maybe you'll have a favorite or something. The first was DJ Jackson Jr.

Starting point is 00:08:03 He's an edge from Troy. This is a coordinator of Pete Nacos. Six foot four, 262 pound edge. At that size, I'm certainly thinking a strong side defensive end for KU. He began his career, Carson Newman. I believe that's a D2. It might be an FCS. I don't know. Then Coffeyville Community College, and then 13 and a half tackles for loss,

Starting point is 00:08:21 six and a half sacks at Coffeyville. So really productive there. Goes to Troy. He's a rotational defensive end, 22 tackles, five tackles for lost two sacks in 350 snaps. Pro football focus grade, okay, 59.6, his lowest mark in pass rush at 56, better against the run, at 64.5, even at a 71 run grade game against Clemson. So I'm kind of in on this idea in terms of if you want to be like, okay, we're going to make our strong side defensive end like the run stopping guy. And then on passing downs, like on the run stopping downs, we'll rotate Leroy Harris and Dak Brinkley. And then on the pass downs, we'll play Harris and Brinkley and we won't really need the strong side. But then on run downs, we'll rotate a guy we add with Alex Bray. Like,

Starting point is 00:09:07 I can understand that if that's the kind of idea of the role here. But also there's part of me that's like, okay, could you find a even bigger get potentially here? Then again, like bigger fish to fry at other positions. So being budget friendly does have to kind of come into the discussion here, right? And you have to find somebody who fits what you want from your role, what you have available for your money and what they're looking at. Like there's a lot that kind of goes into this now. So I can see it, I guess.

Starting point is 00:09:37 Quincy Davis, New Mexico State linebacker, this Gordon, Michael Swain with fog. Dot net, 6'1, 230-pound linebacker, had 19 tackles as a freshman, than 42 with one tackle for loss this year. Just a 52 PFF grade in the first year. Leveled up to a 73 this year, though, including a 90 tackling grade and a 66 in coverage. Those are good numbers to be at. Some of the target numbers against aren't great in coverage,

Starting point is 00:10:03 but the grade's solid. And he had his biggest amounts of snaps in coverage, which tells you that if you view what the coaches thought of him, it was that, hey, we're going to use your, a linebacker who can help us cover. So it kind of tells you how he's used and how he plays. The biggest thing here that gives me a little trepidation is the lack of tackles for loss, but the biggest thing that gives me positivity, he had just one mistackle last year.

Starting point is 00:10:33 You know, so you're bringing in a very secure tackler, but one that doesn't make a ton of negative plays. He has one career tackle for loss in over 500 career snaps. But again, the mistackle numbers are good. So it's interesting. And what does that all mean at New Mexico? Mexico State compared to what that would mean at Kansas in the Big 12, right? It's also important to mention if you're like, okay, this guy's a rotational linebacker

Starting point is 00:10:53 New Mexico State, why would, you know, wouldn't Kansas want a starting linebacker from a low level? Well, I will say this at the very least, like the two New Mexico State main linebackers, they were good players. I can see the vision for KU being like, hey, we want a linebacker to come in who can be solid and pass coverage and can be a secure tackler. I obviously Watson committed I don't know like part of me prefers Davis to Watson which might sound crazy because I think Watson from a physical standpoint it's probably not really a conversation but I wonder if there's more you can do overall with Davis so I don't know we'll see what what ends up happening there um the next one is a running back jalen Lucas this

Starting point is 00:11:37 according to Jayhawk Slant was previously in Indiana and Florida State he's a five foot 975 pound kind of scat back who can play receiver or running back. I think kind of like a D'Anthony Thomas, I guess. Spent two years at Indiana had 546 rushing yards on 4.7 per carry. He had over 2,000 all-purpose yards, a lot of return yards from this kind of hybrid player. And then he went to Florida State, played a little bit more sparingly in 2024. This past season, he had 27 carries for 160 yards. So a little bit on the ground, a couple carries a game.

Starting point is 00:12:07 11 catches, like a catch per game for 88. and they had 239 return yards. What I find interesting is this on Lucas. He had 38 touches from scrimmage. He only played 89 snaps. So like the ultimate gadget guy of like, he's not always going to play, but when he is, he's getting the football.

Starting point is 00:12:24 But overall, 719 career rushing yards, 456 career receiving yards, 1452 career return yards. And this is not somebody that I would view is, if you add him, I'm expecting him to come in and be the starting running back. I don't think that'd be, you know, smart to expect.

Starting point is 00:12:40 but if you're looking at like what is one way that you can I don't mean to say this to be like that the Jalen Lucas is not going to be an expensive ad I mean to say this from a standpoint of if you add Jalen Lucas does he give you a depth at both running back and receiver where now you have to now you don't have to bring on one extra player like theoretically let's say you're going to have 84 scholarship players if you have Jalen Lucas because he can cover two positions versus having 85 without him does that account for you you know, a nice move here because he gives you depth at two positions for the cost of one player. I guess it's kind of the point here. Plus, he would give you a return man, Manuel Henderson gone, who was your kick returner and had a kick return touchdown this past season. So I think this would be a good addition, gives your return man. It would give you maybe a backup to the slot position for Cam Pickett, but also like a backup that you could use in the running room. And if you do want to be a team who's running some triple option here, like they were even more a couple years ago, you can use him as.

Starting point is 00:13:40 more of the kind of wingback role that's coming in motion or getting a pitch or something like that. So I think this would be kind of a skill specific player. It's not one that would be a headliner for KU, but could be helpful in some other ways. The next one, another ACC player, Boston College linebacker Davion Crouch, that according to Jayhawks' Lamp for the visit here. Six foot one, two hundred and twenty seven pounds. He played only three games this year he got hurt and then he came back for one more because he could at the end of the year to preserve the redshirt, but still play a little.

Starting point is 00:14:08 So 12 tackles, he had a pick six in there. You're prior when he had the whole year in front of him, 77 tackles, two sacks, two force fumbles, and four pass deflections. This is a productive player and a good one. Obviously, you know, you have to, I don't know, are you allowed to check the medicals? Like, obviously, that's something in the NFL and the MLB where it's like, okay, if we sign you to this deal, then you have to take physical and then you pass it. Does that work at the college game too? There's no CBA. So maybe it doesn't.

Starting point is 00:14:35 That's kind of interesting. but 68.4 grade on ProFable Focus in 2024. He had a 70.1 and obviously the more limited snaps in 2025. This is a good player who's been playing at the Power 4 level. This would be among the guys that we've kind of talked about so far. I guess up to this point, this would be my favorite edition. I might have some other players that would usurp it, but I think this would be a really excellent addition if KU could lock him down.

Starting point is 00:14:59 He did miss a good amount of tackles this past year in a small sample size, but again, it is a small sample size. The bigger sample size, if we look at his full career, is a 16.2 miss tackle rate that's a little higher than you might want it. Trey Lathen was only a 6.3 this year, but that was like a really good number. Bengali Kamara was a 30.7, which was like really bad. Other KU starting linebackers have been around that 13 to 15 range. So it's a little smidge higher than you would like. But overall, a good and productive player that I think with KU needing linebackers, I think Crouch would be a really solid addition if you could have it.

Starting point is 00:15:32 I said to this point, he's my favorite we talked about. I don't know, it might be this next guy. It'd be close between these two. Tulane defensive tackle, Trayvon McAlpine, according to fogg.net, visiting KU, 6'3-3-305 pounds. So another big dude up the middle. He has power for experience under his belt. He played two years at Texas Tech. And then he played at Tulane this past year, who made it to the college football

Starting point is 00:15:55 playoff on the one the American, right? He hit 35 tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack, and he was an all-conference player. I've talked about this before, and again, go check out all of our episodes about the guys who committed to KU because we did specific breakdown episodes for each of those players that have committed so far. I talked about this with the smalls, the other KU defensive tackle that they got committed to them. Sometimes pro football focus, I felt like defensive tackles and tight ends don't always get the most reflective of what their games are, If you were just a really good run plugging defensive tackle who doesn't really get tackles for loss, but is always eating up one or two blocks that's allowing your linebacker to make the play, you're not really going to get celebrated for it by the pro football focus grading scale, that you're just kind of kind of kind of be like a steady eddy grade. And that's kind of what McAlpine's pro football focus grade is. It's like 64.6, Texas Tech, 64.8 plane. Those are solid numbers. But it doesn't do justice of how impactful and how good he is.

Starting point is 00:17:02 I think this would be a big time get for KU, especially when you already look at what they potentially have a defensive tackle between commitments and guys coming back like Blake Harold. So either him or crouched to this point, the guys we talked about would be my favorite. Let's get one more and then we'll take a break and finish up with a few more. Louisville defensive back, Corey Gordon. This is according to Pete Nacos.

Starting point is 00:17:21 He's a 6'2-195-pound safety, 261 career snaps between, well, let me clarify, three years at Baylor. one year at Louisville. So he's got a lot of power for games. So he played 261 career snaps between those two stops at box safety, 262 career snaps at free safety, and 523 career snaps at the slot. So he has played all the safety positions, basically, right? Versatile safety, play multiple spots, can play slot safety, which is basically the equivalent of in years past before D.K. McDonald, the Hawk roll was essentially a linebacker slash safety. You could use either one. It could also be like a slot safety.

Starting point is 00:18:02 Sometimes K used to call it like the Cinco roll in different positions. But point being that linebacker safety hybrid in passing downs, Gordon could fill that. He could fill the free safety, you could fill the box safety, strong safety, like whatever you want him to do. And that has some value because it allows you to move pieces around the skies, different things in different ways. You get 53 tackles, three tackles for loss, two pass deflection this last year and a 68.5 PFF grade for Louisville. A year before Baylor, three interceptions and 34 tackles. And every season, he's had tackling grades of 68.8 or higher, which is good because for KU, like Lyric Rawls was a hard hitter and tackler from the safety spots. If you're looking to add someone, like he would bring that in a little bit.

Starting point is 00:18:43 Now, kind of similar to Lyric Rawls, he's at times been a little shaky in coverage. So I think if KU were to add Gordon, it would be a little bit of a Rolls replacement. But I do think there's a little bit more versatility to where you can play Gordon than with Rawls specifically, right? Um, the question for me would be, did letting Rawls go, is that allowing Taylor Davis to move to a more natural position for him, but then is adding Corey Gordon, putting him back to that position where it doesn't make sense. That's something I don't want to do. But if you view Gordon as somebody who can be the role that like Mason Ellis played is the kind of third safety on the field and you think Gordon would be an upgrade there and maybe you move Ellis to one of the other safety roles and Davis to a different safety role and the pieces fit together a little bit better than that does make sense to me. Okay, we got a couple more players who have visited or are going to be visiting KU that have been reported publicly. Some offers that are out there.

Starting point is 00:19:34 Other online reported interest will get to all that next on Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by game time. There is nothing like college football season, tailgates, packed stadiums, being right there in the middle of it, the energy, the bands, the moments you remember forever. It's just like that in college basketball season here in Lawrence with KU. The part that used to be frustrating, though, was the long queues, the logins, the price. jumps at checkout. That's why game time gives the advantage back to the fans. It's the easiest way to unlock amazing college football tickets and experiences in just a few taps. So you can open the Game Time app, look at college football games, college basketball games or NFL games or

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Starting point is 00:20:50 which will be continuing to have. We'll have a preview episode for K-U-T-C-U coming out on late Monday night as well here with Locked on Jayhawks. Other players who have or are going to be visiting KU according to different ports, West Virginia defensive lineman Hammond Russell, and he's a 6 foot 3, 312 pound defensive tackle. Four years at West Virginia,

Starting point is 00:21:09 40 career tackles, five and a half sacks. He's been more of a rotational defensive tackle for the mountaineers the last two over 100 snaps, but under 350 snaps in each of the last three. 63.7 pro football focus grade in 2025,

Starting point is 00:21:25 63.6 in 2024, which was actually his most snaps at 325. This feels like somebody who you would bring in to be, you know, a, your fourth defensive tackle, potentially and give you experience and to be clear, like fourth defensive tackle for KU. That's not like fourth defensive tackle for some other schools because a fourth defensive tackle is playing a lot for KU. They'll rotate five, six, seven guys, right? So I think that would just be, you know, kind of a solid addition is KU is looking for for some more bodies there on the defensive line. Speaking of defense alignment, what about a defense event? Michigan State defensive end, David Santiago.

Starting point is 00:21:59 Six foot four, two hundred and fifty three pounds. He had a season at Air Force where he logs 38 tackles, five tackles for loss, and three and a half sacks. And he transfers to Michigan State this past year where he's a rotational at the end, 24 tackles, two and a half TFL's, one and a half sacks. But he had over a 70 pro football focus grade, both seasons, and he's a strong run defender. And so going back to what we talked about earlier when we were talking about the Troy defensive end, DJ Jackson Jr. I prefer this one over Jackson Jr.

Starting point is 00:22:31 Personally, obviously, it's not always up to KU, but the idea of bringing in a run-stopping, strong-side defensive end who can rotate with Alex Bray, and then you have your past rushing defensive ends on the other side with Harris and Brinkley, and then on past rushing downs, you just make it both those guys, right? That to me is a good idea, and I really like Santiago. He goes up there in that tier with McAlpine and Crouch. Maybe it'd be, you know, those guys are 1A. He'd be 1B potentially, but like I think there's something to his game.

Starting point is 00:23:04 I'll say that. The last one I have here for the visits is Albany tight end Carter Moses. He's a 6'5, 241 pound tight end, 37 career games played at Albany. So experienced player, just had his best season, 27 catches, 338 and 3 scores. Now, Pro Football Focus has never given him a grade above a 60 in a year where he's had more than six snaps, more than 10 snaps, a lot of that is because of some run blocking issues. So, you know, that's something you got to work with. But with Andy Codolnicki coming back, usually works well with the tight ends there. He has a solid pass blocker, actually. So some of the

Starting point is 00:23:41 numbers and a solid receiver this past year. And we know Carson Bruin is a really good blocking tight end. So if you bring on Carter Moses, who can be an experienced player who can catch some passes and you have Bruin as your blocking tight end, that can be a good, you know, duo or tandem that you play with each other there. Now, there's also something set up with MJ Cannon, reportedly, who is a six-foot-three corner, but he's since committed to Cincinnati, which sucks because I literally had written in my notes before he picked Cincinnati. We were going to talk about him here with these other kids, and I was going to tell you

Starting point is 00:24:12 that he was my favorite player that we talked about today. So that stinks, because not only did he not pick KU, he picked another team in the Big 12, MJ Cannon 6-3 Shutdown Corner. Now, there's some other offers out there as well. There's a defensive, a D2 tight end in Minnesota, Duluth, Luke Denicki. We talked about him in a recent episode. Awesome receiving tight end, definite take, if they can get him. Wayne State Offense Alignment, Trezell Jenkins.

Starting point is 00:24:35 He is more of a developmental piece that you'd be looking to add to the offense line to kind of, you know, come along like you had the idea with some players in this past year of the offense line. 6-6-326. He played 10 games as a part-time starter as a front-time starter. freshman. You take it for depth in development, which I'd imagine it is. And then the other guys that there's been other like online reported interest of more so just like the, here's the schools that have reached out to show interest. And it's like 20 schools or something. So you don't

Starting point is 00:25:02 actually know how close KU is to cracking that egg, so to speak. Purdue receiver Armad branch, which at least tells us that like, okay, KU is looking into some receivers. Same with Syracuse receiver, Darrell Gill Jr. And then continue to look at tight ends for KU. East Carolina a tight end, Javante Connor. And the last one here is Michigan State Defensive Back Justin Denson. So a lot of players that are out there with interest. As I'm recording this, there's probably more that are going to pop off.

Starting point is 00:25:30 We're going to continue to keep you updated here with Locked on Jayhawks. Players that commit, we're going to do episodes on that, breaking down the player, what they're bringing to the table, what it looks like for the position group. So make sure to check out those different videos here. And we'll also be talking to get you basketball throughout the week. Obviously, the TCU game. So we'll get to that on our next episode as well.

Starting point is 00:25:48 you next time for another edition of Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PORTAL FRENZY: Kansas Faces Roster Chaos - Key LOSSES & EARLY ADDITIONS for Lance Leipold's Jayhawks

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