Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PORTAL LEIPOLD: Nebraska Transfer Jaidyn Doss Joins Kansas Jayhawks WR Room Over K-State Wildcats

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks Football lands Nebraska Cornhuskers transfer wide receiver Jaidyn Doss over rival Kansas State Wildcats. Will Doss reshape KU's receiving corps for returning quarterback Jalon Daniels?Derek Johnson breaks down the Jayhawks' latest addition, analyzing Doss's potential impact on Lance Leipold and Jim Zebrowski's offense. The discussion covers Doss's impressive high school career, his playing style, and how he fits into KU's current receiver room along with Emmanuel Henderson and company. Johnson also examines the Jayhawks' recent MLB draft success, highlighting the program's remarkable turnaround under coach Dan Fitzgerald after Brady Counsell, Alex Breckheimer, and Derek Cerda were selected in the 2025 Draft.Discover why Doss chose Kansas over K-State and how this transfer could elevate the Jayhawks' passing game. Can KU's receiving corps become a force in the Big 12?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Kansas has a new receiver, a transfer from Nebraska in Jade and Doss, and he picked the Jayhawks over the Wildcats of K-State. It's a big deal for KU. We talk about it on today's 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. What is going on? Derek Johnson here at D Johnson Radio on Twitter. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts, including on YouTube where you can like and subscribe to the show. Hit that subscribe button. Trying to get up to 4K for the start of football season coming up week zero. We're a little over a month away and KU football is gonna have a new weapon

for Jaylen Daniels to throw to. Jaden Doss, who's a transfer receiver from Nebraska. And on top of being a big 10 player that transfers into KU, also pick KU over K-State in the end. So that always makes the recruitment a little more interesting for KU. We'll take a look at his game, the receiver room, and also some MLB drafted Jayhawks. Just gotten to the MLB draft and some history being made by Dan FitzSheldon Company that we'll talk about with KU Baseball. Let's get right into it with Jaden Doss. So the news of the day, Jaden Doss, he is a former highly

ranked, I guess you would say local recruit. Normally, I think of local recruit is Kansas kid, but like, you know, Missouri is close enough. Originally goes from high school to Nebraska, and was with the Huskers the last two seasons entered the transfer portal late, you might be wondering how that's possible. Well, there's a new rule that was created by the house versus the NCAA settlement. And DOS went into the portal as a designated student athlete,

which I don't totally understand it, but it's like it's one of the players grandfathered into the new hundred and five player roster limits. You're allowed to do that, I guess. The settlement also allows for a new portal window, which DOS obviously entered into so he's able to make it work that way and because of that he will be immediately eligible this isn't a situation where it's like oh he's entering too late so like what does that mean for his eligibility don't have to worry about that now and he'll officially be a Kansas Jayhawk and coming

to Lawrence it sounds like the word is that he's going to be I mean, this was from Jayhawk slant, I guess, now rivals on three, whatever you want to call which one of those three, but they sent out a tweet and it mentioned that he plans to enroll next week. And john Kirby always does great work there. So enrolling next week, even better. Right. And I think the quote was given there. It feels like a fresh start and I'm hungry. And I think the quote that was given there, it feels like a fresh start and I'm hungry. He was originally a class of 2023 recruit. He was, like I said, local-ish from the state of Missouri, went to Raymore Peculiar High School, and he was an 89 graded three-star out of high school, according to 24-7 Sports.

And how that scale works is a 90 is a four-star. So he was about as close to a four star recruit as you could possibly get he was a very highly sought after high school recruit and he was top 650 nationally in the 24 seven sports composite we've had a lot of conversations in commitment you know episodes where we've talked about you know the meaning of when KU has gotten top 800 top 500 top 1000 recruits. And DOS is somebody who was a former version of one of those he's

gonna be a redshirt sophomore in 2025. So that means he'll have three years left of eligibility three years left to play for KU and Lance Leipold. And he stands at six foot 195 pounds. So he's not like the biggest receiver in the world, but he's not the smallest either. He joined Nebraska after his time at Raymore Peculiar High School in which he had over 2000 receiving yards

over three seasons. The stats kind of went down from sophomore to junior to senior year. I don't know if he was dealing with injury stuff over the course of his high school career as it went on, or if there was other stuff like was he playing other positions that prevented some of the receiving numbers to go down. I don't entirely know what went on there, but still for a high school varsity career,

over 2,000 career receiving yards, and the highlights look pretty darn good. He had some really good return touchdowns. Looks to be kind of like, at the very least, I think something you'll be able to fall back on here is if DOS never cracks the rotation as a receiver, which I think he will, but if he never does, you might have a return specialist here

and a pretty good one. Honestly would not shock me. Like it's going to be tough for him to come in. Like if he's joining next week and you're talking about the season, the week zero being August 23rd. So if he's joining next week and you're talking about the season a week zero being August 23rd. So if he's joining next week, he'll only be around the program around the team for a month. It's going to be hard to

probably get immediate playing time if you're him like maybe he can crack the too deep a few weeks into the season maybe he can like remember Kobe Baines Kobe Baines will now be a starter on the offensive line for KU this year he joined Kansas from Louisville as a transfer. I want to say it might have even been like a week into fall camp the first year that he joined the team. He ended up cracking, I think, the two-team by the end of that season.

Maybe it was like the middle of the year around a bye week, end of the season, something like that. And then he ended up being kind of like a part-time starter the next year and really a full-time starter last year. So maybe that's the path for DOS. Like maybe he cracks the too deep at some point in the next couple of seasons, or I'm sorry, in the next, you know,

the first couple of weeks of the season. Then by year two, he's maybe a starter or at the very least on too deep. And then by year three, you know, his final season, he is for sure a starter, maybe, you know, one of the top receivers on the team, right? That would be kind of the slow play progression, but who knows, maybe he is that good of an athlete and that good a player that we can pick things up right away.

And he does end up on the field really early on. I do think the one area that I look at and say, I do actually think he did on the field early enough, as soon as honestly, the very first game is as a return man, because it's a little more complicated when you're running offensive plays when you're the receiver. Where do I block? What route do I run? What's the route tree here? What are the

audibles? There's a lot more that goes into that than just the kick returns. Or it's like, okay, catch the ball, follow your blocks. This is where they're blocking and score touchdown. Like a lot of the kick return stuff is the return man. Same with punt return is a little more instinctual, it feels like then a fully drawn up play. Like, yes, you are drawing up where guys are trying to block and maybe the path where you're trying to go. But for the most part, it is kind of an

instinctual thing. And he has those instincts, you see it on the high school film with him being returned. So it would not shock me if he's on the field very early in his time at Kansas from a return standpoint, but really good yard after catch receiver, you see that from his high school film. Because of that, I would imagine he'll be somebody a candidate to be used on like reverses and screen passes, which, you know, Jeff Grimes sort of love that. I don't think they'll use it as much as Jeff

Grimes did, but they still will use it. And I think that Yak comes in in the form of like, he has really good agility, really good quickness, really good kind of phone booth quickness, that you would call it ability to like, you know, break a tackle in a phone booth, so to speak. And he actually has good like ability to bounce off of tackles like arm tackles, some good strength and balance in his body to kind of stay up. I also was impressed when watching some of his his receiving stuff in terms

of his ability to come back to the football. That's something where sometimes receivers might just wait for the football to come to them. And that could be on like an under thrown deep ball, or that could be on like a hitch route or something that is waiting and the DB jumps in front of them and picks it off. He did a good job like running back to the football. I was impressed with some of that stuff. I would say he has the potential to be a really good route runner because he has really good quickness seems like

he has good footwork out imagine he could be a really good route runner. I would say he's a fast player. I wouldn't say he's going to be the fastest on the team or one of the few fastest on the team, but he's got good speed. I would say he's more quick than he is fast. Very good agility, very good quickness is how I described that. But honestly, he reminds me a little bit of like a a different version of Trevor Wilson, like there's never going to be a 100% comp because you're not that exact player. I think Trevor

Wilson had a little bit more straight line speed and acceleration. I think DOS looks like he has more quickness and short area quickness than Wilson had. But I think there's some similarities there in terms of being like a five foot 11, six foot type receiver who can really beat you on a deep ball, but might be playing from the slot, might be a return man a little bit here or there. But also keep in mind me saying that DOS is a,

I guess you would say a higher potential version of that. When you look at DOS recruiting profile, he's a near four star recruit. Trevor Wilson was not that. He went you look at Dawson's recruiting profile, he's in your four star recruit, Trevor Wilson was not that he went to Buffalo out of high school. So if you're talking about a version of Trevor Wilson, with hopefully, you know, not, hopefully better hands on part return, I guess you would say, and higher potential like that, that could

be a very good outcome for KU and all of this. And you look at his time in Nebraska, there's not like a ton to speak to. In 2023, he had two catches for 20 yards with a long of 16, that was in 79 snaps. Ends up redshirting that year because he only plays the max of four games. Then in 2024, he actually got moved to defensive back. And so there will be a bit of rawness

getting him back to receiver, I would imagine, but receiver's kind of his natural position. And that's I'm sure why he's transferring he wants to get back to playing receiver. So I think the idea here is Kansas is going to use him again as a receiver where he was his first year there. I should also mention this, this was from Alan True at 24 seven sports. This was the scouting report that he wrote up on DOS back when he was in high school it said, looks almost like a running back on the hoof productive

player since his freshman year and has played in state title games and big games play a variety of roles from outside receiver to slot and play in the backfield and take handoffs. And I find that interesting too, because you look at Emmanuel Henderson, who I think could be KU receiver number one this year, very fast player was a former high school running back. And so it feels like maybe KU is starting to shift to are they looking for more of these receivers

who are kind of running backs in receivers bodies or receivers and running backs body. I don't know, whatever way that would work. But it also says also experiences return man shows good short area quickness, which allows them to separate as a route runner above average breakaway speed and good elusiveness can take short passes and go the distance for anywhere on the field will

likely continue to be used in a very varied manner in college. Good not elite measurables, but has all the tools to be a productive college player. One that an offense will have a lot of options how to deploy. It also mentions he ran a 11.36 100-meter dash. The junior long jumped to over 21 feet. So good athlete, good speedy receiver. How does he fit in? What does the KU receiver room look like right now? That next. Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by

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Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on college for $20 off first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account, and write the code locked on college for $20 off first purchase terms apply again create an account code locked on college. He's joining us on this episode of locked on Jayhawks Jaden Doss officially is the newest Jayhawk and he is the newest Jayhawk receiver that will be thrown to by Jalen Daniels and company so he becomes the 11th receiver on scholarship I guess

in the receiver room, I guess Bryce Cohoon, I don't think he's on scholarship, but walk on which is still grandfathered in at this point in time. But I think you look at the starters right now, like Emanuel Henderson, he brought in from Alabama, that's the guy I'm expecting to be receiver one, I think you look at the combination of Bryson Canty and Levi Wentz, like one of those two is probably a starter, the other ones probably still rotating and playing.

And then the slot receiver is either Doug Ameleon. If you go with the experience and the guy who knows the system or Cam Pickett, if you're going with the guy who, okay, he's a newcomer, but maybe has a little higher potential. I think Ameleon maybe more known for being like the route runner. I think maybe Cam Pickett more known

for being like the yard after catch guy and somebody you can throw quick plays to and he can make something happen. So I think both of them will play. But then you have Keene, Rebecca, who really impressed the coaching staff as a true freshman, how to deal with some injury stuff, I think last year, so to be interesting where he figures out in the two deep, then you have that that group of four incoming true freshmen, Jaden Nickens, very talented, Bryson Hayes,

very speedy local kid, Tate Nagy, the local kid recruits son of Matt Nagy, who is transitioning from quarterback to be kind of the crafty slot receiver. And then Jackson Cook, who is kind of your speedy big outside X type of receiver from Georgia, I believe. So that's the room that he's walking into. And there isn't a lot of certainty there. KU lost a majority of its production from a season ago. So that's the room that he's walking into. And there isn't a lot of certainty there. KU lost a majority of its production from a season ago. So it's not impossible that DOS could come in and be somebody who is on the

duty, be somebody who is playing games right away for KU. Now it'd be interesting to see how KU uses him, you know, as being somebody who's really good yard after catch. And again, he's a fine size at six feet, but he's not the biggest guy in the world. Do they use him as a slot receiver? If that is the case, he immediately goes in competition with Emelian and Pickett, which, you know, it feels like those guys

would have the upper hand right now, but you look at it long-term, Emelian's a redshirt senior. Pickett's a redshirt junior, and then you would have him coming here with Doss, who is gonna be a redshirt sophomore. So he could represent somebody as, you know, maybe he gets on the field a little bit, rotates in here, there, you use him in the return game. And then when a million graduates, he's on the two deep for sure with picket at that point in 2026. At the slot spot if he is used on the outside, and there's a real chance he's used all over right, like, he can be a flexible receiver that you use at multiple spots. And that can be really impactful and helpful for an offense. If you have guys

that are pliable to play different spots, which I think he is when he's being used as an outside receiver. I mean, again, you look at it with Canty and Levi Wentz. Even if those guys wind up ahead of him as transfers coming in because they, you know, maybe had a little bit more time, although I guess that's not the case with Canty who is having to join late, but you look at those both. Those are redshirt seniors, so you know, even if he gets fit into the position that those guys are,

OK, well, maybe in 2025 again, it's more rotational. Maybe you're getting some return snaps. And then come 2026, both those guys graduate. If KU feels good about how he's performing in practice and behind the scenes, then they won't feel as needy to be having to go out into the transfer portal and bring in a starting receiver. They can just be like, no, we feel like DOS is going to fill

that spot, right. And then he could be a starter there as soon as again, 2026. And then you look at that other spot, Emmanuel Henderson, again, he's a senior. So that's another departing receiver spot. So the way I look at it, I kind of view it as like, I don't know how much we're going to see any of the freshmen get on the field right away. Like I'm sure KU wants to red shirt most of, if not all of them.

And if that's the case, then you're looking at really Henderson, Canty, Emelian, Wentz, Kubeka, Pickett, and then the addition of Das. That would be seven receivers that you're kind of rotating for three spots at all given times. Now, one thing that does kind of matter in all

this, I don't know that KU is going to have as like you look back to a couple years ago when you had Mason Fairchild and Jared Casey, and then you had Trevor Cardell as a third like KU felt really good about their three tight ends. KU might end up feeling good about where their tight ends are, but there is a little bit more uncertainty there. And if there's more uncertainty there, does KU steer into saying, okay, we're gonna play less formations with two tight ends, we're gonna play

more formations with one tight end and use an extra receiver a little bit more often. And then there's more snaps at receiver to kind of go around for those guys. But I kind of look at that the competition like, to me, Henderson probably ends up as your number one. And then it's really a competition from there for those other spots. And Doss is somebody I would toss into that competition. Again, it makes it a little bit difficult that he's joining late, but so is Bryson Canty. And Doss clearly is somebody who's very talented that I think will be a rotational receiver this year.

And like I said earlier, would not shock me if he ends up being your starting kick returner and punt returner. But as we went over a lot of those new additions that you brought in via the transfer portal, again, Henderson, Canty, Wentz are all seniors and Emelian who's coming back as a senior. So even if DOS ends up being more of a rotational receiver, even if he ends up being your wide receiver five, six or seven this year, that could end up being receiver three, receiver two, receiver four on next year's team, or the season of improvement, he could be the go to option on the 2026 team for whoever's thrown to him, whether that's Isaiah Marshall,

Cole Ballard, or David McComb, or I don't know, transfer quarterback, whatever ends up happening there, right. So I think DOS, the this year role is more rotational, but I think the future is very bright. And I think that's part of the reason why KU is bringing him in, thinking, okay, we got three years left with this kid to be like, hey, if he can contribute this year and he does come in and he looks that talented right away

and he ends up earning a starting spot on this year team, awesome, that's found money. But if not, we feel good about developing this kid who's got a lot of talent and turning him into something that could be really helpful for us in 2026 when we're going to be losing Jalen Daniels. We're going to be losing a lot more of these receivers to where we're going to need a lot of replacing production. And we'd like to line it up to where we have guys who have been in the system, to where we have guys who know what's expected of them and that we know what to expect of them in terms of possible production and we know what to think of them that we don't have to go out in the transfer

portal like we did this past off season and like you know if you have to go into the transfer portal in a given off season and bring in one or two receivers like fine sure whatever but you know does Kansas realistically want to every off season have to bring in four transfer receivers or I guess right Henderson Cantyett, Wentz and DOS technically makes five. Do they really want to be in a situation next offseason or just an offseason in general where they're having to bring in five players for one position group?

Again, that that's part of the portal that you're going to lose players and you have to adjust and you do have to like the portal is reactive to a certain standpoint that you're reacting to what your roster has, what positions you feel good about, where you feel like you can get good players in, where you can find that value. And so that is, you know, part of it that it is kind of a moving answer. You can't just definitively say this or that. That's how the portal works. But realistically, I'm sure if you ask Lance Leipold, hey, would you like to every off season have to bring in five transfer board receivers? He would probably say no, it'd be kind of nice if we had some returning talent. It'd be kind of nice if we had some more continuity

It'd be kind of nice if we only had to bring in I mean ideally you never have to bring in anyone from the portal and just all your high school recruits are the best players ever But like, you know Ideally, we only have to bring in one or two receivers in the transfer portal and the other guys we feel good about and how they're progressing How they're developing and that we have the guy next, you know, kind of lined up to be that next player for us there and that just might be Dawson and so important to get players like this who are talented players, but still have years of eligibility left and so

he kind of becomes a tweener of he can contribute right now. But he also represents a future piece just like those four incoming freshmen that you're going to be having coming in for fall camp. All right, let's finish up here on Locked On Jayhawks with a little on KU and the MLB draft. Dan Fitzgerald continues to, I don't know, break records or open new doors for KU baseball.

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Again, you can check out Locked on College Football or Locked on College Basketball for your second listen every day. Okay, so the MLB draft saw three Jayhawks taken in the MLB draft. In the 10th round, we saw Brady Council go to the Arizona Diamondbacks, kind of a utility infielder I guess you could say, a really good f fielder had a good bat for KU this year. Then in the 16th round, Alex Breckheimer got picked by the St. Louis Cardinals, he is a pitcher. And then Derek Serta

in the 17th round goes to the Chicago White Sox. And I believe Breckheimer and Serta can have another year back at KU, if they want to. So it'll be interesting to see what their decisions are. The fact that they're taken later in the draft, those, maybe that's indicative that, you know, the teams aren't that confident they're going to stay in the draft or maybe they can pluck them away. But usually if you're going a little later in the draft, you might not get as big of a contract. Then again, that'll maybe draft is weird.

You have these like slot bonuses where like a team can draft someone earlier in the draft. And then even like they draft the 50th best player in the draft with the 20th overall pick because they know that player is going to demand less of a contract so that you can use more contract later in the day. It's all it's a weird funky situation. So point being, we'll see what happens there. But that would be a big if you got both of them back. But here's what I find really interesting with all this.

First of all, it's always cool to see, you know, the players that lead to success at a school, at a program, go off to get drafted and go off to have success. And we need more Jayhawks in the MLB to join guys like Ryan Zephyrjohn, right? We need that to happen, right? It's just cool to kind of watch. So you look at it and. The.

Three players drafted this year for KU add on to the this actually amazing to think about that last year they had six players drafted off their team, right? You think of this one having all this success in the world, but you know you could argue a couple of their best players were not draft eligible, so still six players drafted in the year before three in this one. That means these last two years of the Dan Fitzgerald era, KU baseball has had nine players drafted into the MLB draft. You go back to, I guess, the pre Dan Fitzgerald days.

The last time that KU even had a player drafted was 2019. That was Ryan Zephyrjohn, who, again, is doing well with the Angels now in the MLB draft. But you have to go all the way back to 2019 for the last time KU had a player drafted in the MLB draft before these last two years, which they've had nine total. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 2017 to collect nine players drafted between 2017 to 2023. So KU has had as many players drafted in the MLB the last two seasons that they did dating all the way back from 2023 till

2017. That is how much Dan Fitzgerald has changed this program. That is how much talent that Dan Fitzgerald has infused into this program. It is a big deal and the beauty of this is it's going to keep coming. They're going to keep turning them out and you could make an argument that they're going to start getting even more draft picks based on the talent they're bringing in and the talent that they're cultivating and the players that they currently have on their

roster. And just a really cool reminder where Dan Fitzgerald took this program from to where it is now and the success that he is building at Hoagland ballpark in Lawrence. I don't know if for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And again, don't forget to check out Lockdown College Football, Lockdown College Basketball and make sure you subscribe right

here on our YouTube page. Even if you only listen on the audio side, subscribe on our YouTube side. It doesn't hurt anything, but certainly helps on our end of things. And we'll see you next time for another edition of Lockdown Jayhawks.