Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Re-Evaluating Kansas Jayhawks Football Class of 2021 + What's Right/Wrong About KU's CFB 25 Ratings

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

Re-evaluating the class of 2021 featuring Devin Neal, Tommy Dunn, DJ Withers and more for Kansas Jayhawks Football and how it's impacted the 2024 'Hawks. Right and wrong ratings for KU Football in EA Sports College Football 25 from Michael Ford to Cole Ballard, Daniel Hishaw and more. Plus, 41 days away from Lance Leipold's squad facing Lindenwood and what that means for the lienbackers with Cornell Wheeler and JB Brown as well as Jeff Grimes play-calling, running the football and tempo for the offense.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM and add a big win to your summer bucket list!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)

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, re-evaluating the Kansas football class of 2021 that helped made up this team and looking into the ratings of College Football 25. Who's overrated? Who's underrated for KU? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Lock on podcast network, your team every day. Hey, what's up? I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me at D Johnson radio on Twitter. It is Friday. That means it's a football Friday episode of locked on Jayhawks.

Thanks for making locked on Jayhawks. Your first listen every day. Thank you to every dayers tuning in and catching each and every show. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We're reevaluating the class of 2021, which is headlined by Devin Neal. How has it impacted this team for KU? We're going to look at where EA College Football 25 went right and wrong on the ratings for Kansas, and we are officially 41 days away from the opening KU football game against Lindenwood. We'll discuss what that number signifies.

This episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. We're going to start with the re-evaluating of the 2021 recruiting class uh every dayers already tuned in and saw the re-evaluation of the class of 2020 recruiting class and how that ended up being an a plus obviously we're grading this on a scale of where kansas is right if you were grading it on a scale of to alabama then you know it's it's not

winning national championships so it's still a little bit different. But this is a Kansas show for Kansas fans. Anyway, so now we're going into the class of 2021. And class of 2020 was the last, like, Les Miles class. This technically was the last Les Miles class in 2021. It was basically the Emmett Jones class because he helped kind of keep it together when he was the interim head coach. And this became kind of the first class of freshmen that the Leipold staff was developing. So this was kind of the transition hybrid class between those ones. And when you're going through, it's a class of 21 guys. It was ranked 63rd in the country on 24-7 sports and

63rd on the 24-7 composite. Again, 21 enrollees from Devin Neal, DJ Withers, Damarian Alexander, Conrad Hawley, Edwin White those are your five highest rated on 24-7 sports then you get down to Jason Gilliam, DK Stearns, Magic Rector, OJ Burrows, Keelan Robinson, Corey Robinson, Mason Brotherton, Trey Staley, Devontae Wilson a lot of names you might not have heard on the field right now Tommy Dunn, James Wright, Tanaka Scott, Cameron Dabney, Larson Workman, Ben Easters, and Reese Thomas. And then he also brought in 13 transfers. But we're not talking about the transfers.

We're just leaving this to the high school recruiting level of things. So let's go to our different categories. Let's start with this. Best offensive player, duh, Devin Neal. He was your highest rated recruit in the class. He was a 91 overall on 24-7 sports. He was a top 250 kid in the country, top 15 at the running back position, number one player from the state of Kansas.

Obviously, the local kid was so good at Lawrence High and came over, and he was good right away for Kansas, enough so that, you know, they're starting like Velton Gardner that first game that year, and pretty soon Velton Gardner transferred away after that, and it was like apparent that like Devin Neal was going to kind of be the guy. So Devin Neal obviously has turned into a really good running back for KU, right? He is a little less than 800 yards away this season from breaking the Kansas all-time rushing record.

So pretty successful. He's been the best offensive player in this group. What about best defensive players? I think you have three good options here. There are three main options, I guess I would say. I mean, maybe Jason Gilliam will have a big season this year, and he's played kind of well in some rotational opportunities, but it's really down to three guys, DJ Withers, Tommy Dunn, and OJ Burrows. So with Withers and Dunn, those guys were basically quasi-starters a season ago, played a lot of snaps

for you on the interior of the defensive line. And then you have OJ Burrows, who's been a starter for you for a couple of years at the safety position, logged a ton of snaps. I think you would have to say OJ Burrows here because of the fact that if you look at the total career, what they've given in terms of just the amount of snaps played and games started, games played over the course of their entire career, it trumps what Withers and Dunn have done, who just kind of got into the rotation a season ago. But if we're talking who is going to be the best player from that group for this upcoming season, you could convince me it would be one of DJ Withers or Tommy Dunn, because I think

they're going to make a leap. Now, OJ Burrows in a senior season, I think you could have a really good season too. And I've said before, like I could see this being a four or five interception season for OJ Burrows. So you have some good options there, I think you could have a really good season too. And I've said before, like I could see this being a four or five interception season for OJ Burroughs. So you have some good options there, all of which could be starters on this year's team. I mean, Burroughs projects as a starter. I think one of withers are done projections to start at the very least, maybe both end up starting in the end and then it's a two for two. But those would be your best defensive player, best diamond in the rough. Who was a player that was maybe not ranked as high in this recruiting class for KU, but ended up being a nice diamond in the rough. Let's go back to OJ Burroughs.

Like I said, I mean, you've gotten really good production from OJ Burroughs in his three seasons at Kansas. And Burroughs was somebody who, he plays as a freshman in 12 games, more of a kind of rotational safety. Then he's playing a ton. He's starting games as a freshman in 12 games, more of a kind of rotational safety. Then he's playing a ton. He's starting games as a sophomore, ends up with a couple interceptions, and then this past season as a starter as a junior. He's played in a ton of games for KU, 38 games played coming into his senior season here. And he came in as an 84 grade, a three-star.

He was not in the top 100 at his position. Part of that was because the size only came in at about 5'9", 167 pounds, but the dude just has good instincts and kind of knows where to be and is a good coverage player. And he's been able to ride that to a really good college career that he can put a stamp on this year. So you've gotten a lot out of that. When you look at where he ranked among those KU recruits, let's see, six, seven, eight, nine, he was the ninth best player. He's been one of the top five out of the class. Tommy Dunn also applies for this though, because if you go even further down the list, you get to Tommy Dunn, who was like the 14th highest rated player in that class for KU. And

he's also been a top five player out of the class for KU so far. 83 graded three-star. He was just inside the top 200 at his position. He was just outside of the top 250 in his own state. Now that's the state of Texas, which is just bonkers from a football perspective and everything, but both of those have been really good diamonds in the rough. Anytime you're talking about the middle to back end of your recruiting classes, producing starters, like you're doing something good with that level of player. What this category player who I thought would work out but didn't I think this is interesting so Tanaka Scott was not rated super highly he was an 82 graded three star you know that puts him in in the bottom five of these recruiting rankings

for what KU brought in on the class even below like where Tommy Dunn was for instance but after he got in the, I guess, building at six foot four, showed some good speed, got some playing time in the early going, it felt like his career was going in a real way. And I always wonder, there's an interesting what if there about, if you remember, there was the whole Trevor Wilson kind of off the field thing, which everybody's moved past and whatnot. But Tanaka Scott was kind of a part of that. And it seemed like there was a tight competition between Tanaka Scott and Quentin Skinner for that third starting receiver role. Now, maybe Skinner wins the job regardless of this happening.

But certainly Tanaka Scott being like suspended for I forget if it was like the first game or the first two games or whatever. And maybe having to make some practice time and maybe losing a little bit of trust from the coaches. Like that couldn't have helped in the competition if it was kind of neck and neck. But there is a what if universe of if that stuff doesn't happen what if Tanaka Scott does beat out Quinn Skinner and all the great plays we've seen from Quinn Skinner are now Tanaka Scott right like how does that change things so that ended up not really working out as much he's since transferred and then Damarian Alexander is the other one he was your third highest rated recruit your top two were Devin Neal and DJ Withers both those have worked out Alexander's the third highest and as an edge player you know a lot of hype six foot five

86 graded three star was just outside the top 50 at his position on 24-7 sports but that one just hadn't uh worked out and then he uh since transferred although I've kind of seen him on social media you know reminiscing about the Kansas days recently what about chance to show it this year I mentioned Jason Gilliam I think uh he's gonna have an opportunity to you know, reminiscing about the Kansas days recently. What about chance to show it this year? I mentioned Jason Gilliam. I think he's going to have an opportunity to, you know, make a bigger impact this year. He could very well be your, there's different like that DB safety linebacker hybrid role. KU has different packages and different positions. Like one of them is a Cinco role, which that one's more of like a coverage guy.

It can be, end up being the same guy. And then one of them is like the Hawk. Right. And so we'll see if, if Jason Gill. And then one of them is like the hawk, right? And so we'll see if Jason Gilliam starts at one of those or something like that. He's going to get on the field a good amount. And he's been a solid player in what he's been asked to do so far. But if he's getting on the field even more this year with Craig Young gone, he has an opportunity to maybe get in that conversation of best defensive player from this class when things are all said and done this year. But overall grade, you look at the starters gained from this recruiting class for KU. You added Devin Neal.

You added OJ Burrows. So that's two for sure starters on this year's team. Now you have possible starters, if not big snap counts, where even if they're not starting, they're going to be like in the two deep or rotating and playing a lot of snaps. DJ Withers, Tommy Dunn, Jason Gilliam. And again, all three of those could end up starting. Up until the transfer, Tanaka Scott was two. He was at least on the two deep there.

And I guess you also added a helpful teammate and recruiter in Ben Easters, who honestly, like, Ben Easters, I feel like, is going to be a future assistant coach at Kansas or something like that. Anyway, obviously, you didn't know this at the time, but because you wound up with Jalen Daniels in the class before and then Jason Bean as a transfer coming in this offseason, it actually kind of worked out well that Easter's was more of a program guy for the benefit of what I just mentioned because he's been helpful

on some of the recruiting visits as being kind of a host and being part of the program and being kind of an extra assistant coach in the huddle and stuff like that like you ended up having your two guys you needed with JD and Jason Bean so if Ben Easter's would have been good but not as good as those other players he probably just transfers away so it kind of worked out that he's a program guy but anyway the grade here you know as much as we have talked about some of these players that have hit like Devin Neal's been unbelievable there's a lot more misses in this class than like in the class of 2020, for instance. And that's in the class of 2020 was seven less commits than the class of 2021 had. So in total, only four of

the highest 14 graded commits on the class of 2021 by 24-7 sports are in the two deep or projected two deep and just five of the 21 are in the two deep overall um so yes you have a superstar in Devin Neal you have up to even four of your starters on the defense this year you know at the very least two or three and in the case of DJ Withers and Tommy Dunn I think there's another level that both of those players can get to that would you know uh what if one of them becomes an all-big 12 level player and then all of a sudden if you're Devin Neal who's an all-big 12 level player and one of them's an all-big 12 level player it does raise this a little bit but until you get some more breakouts from like one of Tommy Dunn, DJ Withers, Jason Gilliam, OJ Burrow, something like that.

I think you'd have to give this class in retrospect, like I'll give it a B minus. The Devin Neal edition was an A plus on its own. And those guys were good pickups in DJ Withers, Tommy Dunn, Jason Gilliam, and some of those other guys. But overall, a lot of misses there. Names that we never heard hit the field. Names that transferred early. Names that, I mean, I don't remember, like, Trey Staley at all.

I don't remember that really being a thing, not to, like, pick on a guy. But, yeah, so B- overall, but we gave it an A- for the class of 2020, B- for 2021. Obviously, Lance Leipold and company continue to develop, and this one has opportunity to move up based on some of the performances this season. Let's now evaluate the KU football ratings on EA sports college football 25. What was right?

What was wrong? What was too high? What was too low? What was overrated? What was underrated in just a moment? This episode is brought to you by game time, an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball, which makes getting tickets faster and easier.

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and check out what some other teams that KU is going to be playing or another team that you might be interested in is up to in the off season here. So we're talking to KU football's ratings on EA Sports College Football 25. Overall, KU 21st is the team, the rating top 25 in the game as a team. But what about the individuals? Well, I think what they nailed, I mean, the stars, I think they nailed pretty well, right? With Jalen Daniels, Kobe Bryant, Devin Neal, like those guys got rated very well. I think they kind nailed I mean the stars I think they nailed pretty well right with Jalen Daniels Kobe Bryant Devin Neal like those guys got rated very well I think they kind of nailed some of that stuff I thought they nailed Michael Ford and Marvin Grant I thought both of those coming in were going to end up being a little bit underrated now after they announced

they were using pro football focus to help them with the ratings had an inkling that you know maybe Ford and Grant would end up being better than I initially thought, but I still wasn't expecting an 87, but I think well-deserved. Marvin Grant had a huge impact on the defense last year, and I think he's going to have an even bigger one this year. Michael Ford was a top five guard on Pro Football Focus a season ago in the Big 12 among all guards, left guards, right guards combination.

So I thought those were deserved. I was worried that Jared Casey being a kind of backup tight end h back like um when he's called upon he makes plays but it's not like he's going out there grabbing 40 passes in a season because ku we've talked about this before balances out the football and stuff and you're kind of a second string tight end and a lot of times you're making the big uh key block on a running play or something like that so i was worried that he was going to get underrated, but he was an 80. So I thought that was nice to see there. What they messed up.

Well, this was the big one. Daniel Hyshaw was only rated a 79. That on its own, I think should be higher. I thought he should have been in like the mid 80s. You're talking about somebody in Hyshaw who I think if, if Devin Neal would have just gone pro at the end of last season, I think we'd be talking about, you know,

the big 12 is loaded at running back. So it's not like he would have been picked like all big 12 first team or something like that, but we'd be talking about that. Yeah. He's got a good chance at the end of the year to wind up on, you know, an all big 12 team in a running back position because of the way Kansas is

going to want to run the football under Jeff Grimes. And because of the talent he's shown, he just hasn't had as many opportunities with Devin. So I thought that should have been higher to begin with but what made it even weirder is that Savion Morrison so Daniel Hyshaw has like over 900 career rushing yards in his time at Kansas Savion Morrison has like 200 and I don't know if that just goes back to recruiting ranking or what like I like Savion Morrison but there is no way he should be rated higher than Daniel Hyshaw. So that was certainly very weird that he was an 81 and Hyshaw was a 79.

If you flip them, I think that would be a little bit more agreeable, right? I would still have Hyshaw a little bit higher, but I think I'd at least be better off with that. I hope this isn't a mess up, but I was not expecting Bryce Foster to be as high as an 86, which is KU's second highest lineman, which seems high for a new player who's going to have to, you know, make a quick transition after not being around for spring ball. Not to say he can't get there because I think his potential is as high as anybody on the offensive line, save for maybe Logan Brown.

Maybe it's just up there with him, but that's going to be tough to kind of live up to just in terms of the ease to get over. And then Shane Bumgarner being a 78 seemed a tad high, given that KU made the move to bring in Bryce Foster. I guess maybe that just shows it. If Bryce Foster's that good in 86, why would you not bring him in? But clearly, it didn't seem like Shane Bumgarner was tracking toward being the starting center, even without Bryce Foster, that it might have forced Michael Ford to move kind of out of position. But what's interesting to me, Bryce Cabledew, who's been a multi-year starter for you at right tackle and has played pretty well and played really good last season. He's a 79, Bumgarner's a 78. Like I feel like there should

be a little bit more distance between those two. Okay. Who did I think was underrated? Well, the entire receiver core. I thought this would happen just because the KU receivers don't get the individual accolades and the individual stats because there are three of them that share the football because they're tight ends that share the football because KU likes to run the football because KU's quarterbacks run the football because KU is not a team who snaps the ball a ton. They're usually in the high 50s or low 60s in terms of snaps versus some of these other teams are running 75, 80, 85 snaps in a game. So just in theory, they're going to be underrated by the stats. But if you look at the impact, it's certainly up there. LJ Arnold at an 84, I thought

that could have been like an 87. Luke Grimm at an 82, I thought that could have been like an 84. Quentin Skinner at a 77, I thought that could have been like a mid-80s, something like that too, right? So those I thought were certainly underrated. But Skinner maybe the most because at least those other guys cleared 80s. Skinner should definitely be 80 or above. Have you seen some of his ridiculous highlight catches? Anyway, J.B. Brown as a 77. Cornell Wheeler as a 78.

Maybe this is fair to put them there now because they're going from being rotational linebackers to now like full-time starters possibly this season. And they'll have time to adjust those ratings. Same with like the defensive tackles, basically mid to high 70s. Tommy Dunn was only a 74. Maybe those are fair based on what happened last year coming into this year. But if you're telling me, will all those players be better than that this season? I think I would take the over because I am expecting big jumps from a lot of those guys. And then the last one here, I thought they did Cole Ballard dirty, only a 60 overall. So Isaiah Marshall was like a 70 in this, which I think is fair. I think Isaiah Marshall is going to be a really good player.

But it seems like it's a very tight battle for who's going to be the backup. And part of what could go into that is that, you know, you want to redshirt Isaiah Marshall. So like, if it's the last game of the season, when he's had even more time in the system, maybe Isaiah Marshall becomes the backup, right? Because you can still play four games and redshirt. But if it's the first week of the season, maybe it's for sure Cole Ballard, because you want to kind of preserve that redshirt if you're talking about the backup there. But point being, like, it seems like those two guys are kind of neck and neck. And I thought Ballard did enough last season that he should have been like right at where Marshall is,

even if Marshall has like a bigger potential possibly, but yeah, I think he's at least better than a 60. I'm not saying he should be like an 80 or anything like that, but you know, at least give him a high 60, like 70, something like that.

Can we do that for my guy? Cool. All right. Let's continue on at 41 days away from KU Lindenwood. You might feel like it's zero days away. You might have already played, I don't know which FCS team it has plugged in for Lindenwood on the KU schedule on the game. You might have already played it.

You might have already smashed the opponent. But let's talk about what's going to happen in real life or what that number signifies in just a moment. Thanks for joining us on Locked on Jayhawks. Again, you can check out everything going on on our Locked on Podcast Network. Check out Locked on Big 12. Check out what's going on with the rest of the conference. We're 41 days away from Kansas versus Lindenwood

in the season opener for the Jayhawks. It really feels like we're in college football preseason now, right? You got College Football 25 out. All the preseason magazines are out. We're going to actually have Phil Steele on with us next week. So be on the lookout for that right here, anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. All right. Rich Miller had 41 solo tackles a season ago, and Craig Young had 41 total tackles. But the interesting part here is both are now gone. And going back to those linebacker ratings, Cornell Wheeler at a 78, JB Brown at a 77. I think very highly of both those players, both very talented players. I think the question for probably both of them comes down

to probably more so for JB Brown here, how they're going to do in coverage. Now, J.B. Brown is athletic enough to be a good coverage player. But both of them I feel good about in run defense. And I've talked about this before. Obviously, Kansas has a good back end. Maybe you lose a little on the pass rush. But if you can be better against the run, you set your defense up that they're in more manageable situations to manufacture pass rush if you can stop those runs on early downs. And I think those linebackers are going to help with that. Kansas also had 41 carries as a team in two games last year individually, Oklahoma

and Kansas State. Furthermore, six of the games featured 40 or more carries with a high of 51 carries in the game that came against Central Florida. Why am I bringing this up? Well, I'm curious how that cross compares to Jeff Grimes, the new offensive coordinator. How much can we expect them to run the ball? Okay, so again, six of their games, 40 or more carries. There's two at 41 and then the high of 51. Jeff Grimes, they only had three of their 40 games last season at Baylor. I'm sorry, three of their games where they had 40 or more carries at Baylor last season. But that's because Baylor's offense wasn't very good. I think at one point they had like five freshmen in the two deep.

And so they weren't getting first downs. They weren't getting extra plays. They weren't moving the ball. You can't run it as much, right? Especially if you're down in games too. But if you go back to Jeff Grimes in a good year, so let's look at Baylor in 2022, which they were a more decent team in 2022. They had seven games with 40 or more carries, which know, a more decent team in 2022, they had seven games with 40

or more carries, which again, one more than KU had last year and a high of 59. And then if you go back to Grimes year at Baylor, when they won the big 12 in 2021, so when they had a really good year, they had nine games with 40 or more carries. So three more than KU had last year. And how did they, I guess, one way that shows you that he likes to run the football, which that'll be good for Devin Neal and everything like that. But also what I found interesting, I didn't realize this. So Kansas was 121st in the country in plays per game last season at 63.3 plays per game. Baylor was low-key 19th at 74 plays per game.

Now, again, you're down in some of these games. Maybe you're having to run hurry up at the end of games. Maybe that's boosting the number. But I'll be interested, does that mean that Jeff Grimes is going to run more plays per game? I don't think Lance Leipold wants Kansas to be top 20 in the country in plays per game, but does it go up from 63 to 67 per game, right? And if there's four extra plays, could that mean a few more stats for some of the Heisman candidacy or some of the Ward candidacy

of some of these receivers and Devin Neal and Jalen Daniels and some of these guys? And I think that would be kind of exciting, especially because KU's offense is really good. So that would actually behoove them a little bit more, especially if the defense can improve. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our podcast anywhere

you get your podcasts with Locked on Jayhawks, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll be back for it on Monday. Barring any breaking news over the weekend, get back to some KU basketball. Who is KU's future starting point guard post one? And again, be on the lookout for next week. We'll have some Phil Steele action. We've got our trivia event going down at Johnny's this Sunday,

so it should be a lot of fun at Johnny's West in Lawrence. We'll see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.