Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Re-evaluating the Kansas Jayhawks Football Class of 2020 + What Jalon Daniels Needs for a Heisman

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

Re-evaluating and grading the former Kansas Jayhawks football class of 2020 that has helped build this year's team. Top players like LJ Arnold, Cobee Bryant, Mello Dotson. Diamonds in the rough like Bryce Cabeldue, Daniel Hishaw, Luke Grimm and more. What does Jalon Daniels need to do to be in the Heisman race or win the award. Plus, we are 55 days away from the KU season opener coming against Lindenwood: Darrell Simmons Jr., Cole Ballard and Grimm.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/LOCKEDON 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 football Friday, what does Jalen Daniels need to do to be in the Heisman race and we reevaluate the class of 2020? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio, and you can follow along with the show with Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Anywhere you get podcasts, including on our YouTube page,

thank you to the everydayers tuning in to each and every episode. We've got a Football Friday episode, and we're going to be talking about reevaluating the class of 2020. You know, all the time you think about the current class that's coming in, I don't think we retrospectively look back enough because that's even more important what kids were diamonds in the rough. You might think this kid's a four-star is going to be really good, but it doesn't always work out that way. So we're going to talk about that on the show.

We're going to also talk about what it would take for Jalen Daniels to be in the Heisman race and what he would need to do to accomplish that. And we're 55 days away from Kansas' season opening game against Lindenwood. So we'll discuss the significance of the number 55. First, this episode of the podcast is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off the first purchase. Terms apply with GameTime. So let's start here. The class of 2020 and why we picked the class of 2020. Well, these guys would be going on to whatever would be your fourth year at this point in time, or I guess 2020, you'd be freshman, 21, sophomore,

22, junior, 23, senior, 24 would be your fifth year, which would be either your COVID year or redshirt year or whatever. But basically it's the depths of how far the roster goes back to. Obviously, there might be some exceptions. Anybody who's had a medical redshirt and then COVID, like maybe you've been around since 2019 or something. But I think this gives a good idea of, you know, did you hit on your recruiting class or not? Because especially for schools like Kansas who aren't ranked in the top 10 of these recruiting rankings, like if you're Alabama and you're just reeling in top five recruiting classes like you see the fruits of your labor you go to college football playoffs you produce all these kids being first second

third round NFL draft picks how is Kansas done with this you know I think this is something good that we can look into so we're going to have different superlatives as part of this it was a 28 enrollee class for Kansas in the class of 2020. So obviously a very big class. And that does increase if you're bringing in that many kids, the dark throws you're going to have and the amount of kids that you can have that are good players. So that is something to keep in mind as part of this, because there are a lot of good players, but you can also say, well,

you're still missed on some, but I think the lesson there isn't that, oh, you have to be perfect. You're never going to be perfect on recruiting class. You can bring in 10 kids. You can bring in 20. You can bring in 30. Not every single one's going to hit. In fact, it might be closer to like 50%. I don't know what the actual like number would be, but that's just kind of my kind of take on this. So this was a class that if you're looking on 24-7 sports, the top rated

recruit was Lawrence Arnold. You had Emmett Jones as the receivers coach who had that connection there. He's out of DeSoto, Texas, and was able to kind of reel in a couple kids from the Dallas area. Tywon Berryhill, Krishan Brown, Kobe Bryant were next up in the recruiting rankings. So Arnold was an 88 on 24-7 sports. The rest of them were 87s. Then you had Deuce Mayberry, Keenan Caldwell, Trevor Cardell, Will Huggins were all 86s.

And by the way, I do think it's interesting. This is something we've talked about. And I've seen a lot of KU fans that have been upset with this year's recruiting class, not in terms of necessarily who they've landed so far, but in terms of it feels like they've swung and missed at more prospects this year, guys that they were in the finalists on or couldn't crack into and couldn't get the commitment. But keep that in mind. This year's class has, what, 14 kids committed?

And I think it's like 10 or 11 that are 86 or higher. You had a class of 28 kids in 2020 and you had eight or seven, whatever I said that were 86 or higher. So it's like, you're still doing fine in terms of that. We know Lance Leipold's going to get the best out of all of them. But if you're looking at the best offensive player from this class, you could argue a couple guys here. There's a lot of good players in this class. Like if we go through the list, those are just the highest rated guys. There were some real diamonds in the rough here for KU. Karan Pranti, his first year was certainly a diamond in the rough. You got Armage Reed Adams is an 84. Daniel Hyshaw was an 84. Mello Dotson was an 84. Caleb Taylor was an 82. How about

Jalen Daniels only being an 80, which is the lowest rated three-star. Luke Grimm was the highest graded two-star you could be on 24-7 sports. And then you had Bryce Cabledew, who's been going on another year starting for you. He was a two-star in the building. So I mean, this was a very loaded recruiting class that is really the foundation of your team this year in a lot of ways. I think you could argue Jalen Daniels if we're talking best offensive player from the class of 2020 retrospectively, but I would actually go LJ Arnold. If you're talking about per capita when they're on the field, Jalen Daniels, you know, just is the most impactful because obviously the quarterback in general is going to have big impact, but also Jalen Daniels is really good.

But because he has had the injuries and LJ Arnold has seen the field a lot more, LJ Arnold is the answer here for the best offensive player in my mind from this recruiting class of Arno. Maybe that changes this year with Jalen Daniels. Maybe it stays the same if LJ Arnold has another monstrous season here. And you think back to the big Oklahoma upset, you think about some of the Jason Bean plays, You think about some of the key defensive plays. But I think of L.J. Arnold in a very big way in that game. What about best defensive player? Again, you got some good options here, but I'm going to go Kobe Bryant.

And again, I mean, you could go with Melo Dotson, another corner who's all Big 12 on the preseason team, the first team. I just think Kobe is another step above. So, yeah, Kobe Bryant, to me, it feels like kind of the hands down for best defensive player. He's two-time first team All-Big 12 and was just voted preseason to try to do it for a third time. It's a very short list of guys that have been able to be three-time All-Big 12 at Kansas. What about this category? Best diamond in the rough. So I think there's a lot of guys you can go with here. Honorable mention, I'd give Daniel Hyshaw. He was only

graded at 82 and he's been a very productive back for you Mello Dotson has turned into an all-big 12 player and he was only an 84 on there Luke Grimm as I mentioned was a two-star on 24-7 sports and he's been an awesome receiver Bryce Cabledo you've gotten several years of a starting tackle from Cabledo who is rated as a two-star recruit this is one though that even despite the lack of presence on the field because of the flashes it's jaylen daniels again the quarterback is just so important jaylen daniels is listed as an 80 grade three star and like he chose kansas over it was like middle tennessee and an army right he was previously committed thank you brent dearman for the greatest diamond in the rough that k Kansas football has had over the last decade plus of football.

So, yeah, as Jalen Daniels can say healthy this year, I mean, we're going to have a conversation in our second segment about what he can do to be in the Heisman race. OK, what about this category player who did work out but left? I think two guys really apply to this because obviously there are several guys that transferred out of the program, likeler pearson transferred out of the program after like a year but he never really impacted the program karan pranti was really good as a freshman and that's what i find really interesting here as true freshmen like karan pranti mellow dots and kobe bryant they came into this program i think kobe like was he gray shirted or something like that i i don't remember the exact story there i think mellow might have like red shirted or something like that? I don't remember the exact story there. I think Melo might have, like, red-shirted or something like that. Karan Prunty got on the field, like, right away.

And so if you're talking – you see what Kobe Bryant and Melo Dotson have turned into, these all-Big 12 first-team corners. Kobe Bryant was – or, excuse me, Karan Prunty was ahead of them as a freshman. Now, that doesn't mean he would have stayed ahead of them, right? Like, just because you're ahead of someone when you're all 19 years old, everybody grows differently, right? Like, some guys hit their peak when they're 17, 18, 19. Some guys hit their peak when they're 20, 21, 22. Some guys hit their peak when they're

25. I don't know. It's different for everyone. And he's kind of taken the tumultuous path from here on after this, but I think that would have been better for all parties involved if Karan Pranti would have stuck around and boy, would the KU corner room been even better right now. Armage Reed Adams is the other one. and that one is more of a newer. He just left, but he ended up being a really solid guard and slash swing tackle for KU this past season. A player who I thought would work out but didn't. I think this is an interesting one because everybody in every recruiting class,

you have a couple guys that you kind of come to and you're like, yeah, I think that guy's going to turn into something good. The first one is Will Huggins. I I mean you're talking about this local kid who was he was such a good high school football player six foot seven is a tight end he was an 86 graded player top 10 recruit in the state of Kansas and you know I really thought he was going to be like a really good tight end at the very least I thought he would have like a role on the team and that never kind of came about he had some injuries injuries. KU had some other good tight ends. It didn't work.

The other one is Stephen McBride, and this is a couple ways. I mean, he was an 85-graded three-star, really fast player, but it's also that he got some playing time. It was more of a like rotational receiver role early in his career that made you think there'd be a budding opportunity. Now, he has since transferred and had really good success last year at Hawaii. So more to come from him, but I thought there would be more at Kansas. Chance to show it this year.

Guys that, you know, the recruiting story is still to be told, and to a certain degree it's the case for everyone. Tywon Berryhill, who, Berryhill, again, was your second highest rated recruit. Out of New Orleans, Louisiana, he was an 87 graded three star you know and you look at the two linebackers you brought in with tywin barryhill and krishan brown both those were 87s if you were looking at this class just by position you would almost because you know two of your four best recruits were linebackers you could argue that was your best position you recruited here but that hasn't turned into the case for to you but tywin barryhill

gonna have an opportunity for big snaps this year and just try to take that back. The other one is Trevor Cardell with the injury to Deshaun Hanneke. He's going to be the favorite to be the starting tight end. And he's always had a role on the team, but can he break out and be a good starter on the team? So, I mean, overall grade, this recruiting class was an A-plus in terms of scouting, in terms of development.

Like I said earlier, you're never going to hit on 100% of your class. And I can point out guys that didn't end up really seeing the field for KU, but that's never going to even go look at Alabama. Like they're not hitting on a hundred percent. It's just not possible. You're probably not even going to hit on like 75%. I think the biggest knock you could have on, on this class was probably a guy who called in a bomb threat was, was part of the class. But I mean, you, you, you got Cabledew, Luke Grimm, Jalen Daniels, Mello Dotson, Trevor Cardell, Kobe Bryant, LJ Arnold. That's seven starters.

That's seven starters on a team that was just picked to finish fourth in the Big 12. That could be a top 25 team. That could be a Big 12 title contender this year. That's a third of your starters. And it's not just starters. It's one thing if it's like okay he's a starter because he's just he's he's your best option you have there those are like good starters good players like uh two of them and Dotson and Arnold or Dotson and Bryant were all big 12 first team

Jalen Daniels and Devin Neal like are guys that are good enough to get there Like Graham Arnold and Cable Dew are good enough to get some sort of all Big 12. Like all seven of those guys could be Big 12, first team, second team, third team, honorable mention, whatever it is by the end of the season. Then you add in Caleb Taylor as a rotation player, Daniel Hyshaw, your backup running back, Keenan Caldwell, who could be a rotation D tackle this year. Got a little bit of snaps last year. Tywin Berryhill could start at linebacker, at least rotate in,

as guys who are either on the two deeper in the rotation. So that's, you know, four more. Theoretically of your 22 starters or 44 in the two deep, you got 11 from this class alone. And then you add on Tabor Allen, who is part of this class, does kickoffs. That's another contributor. And that doesn't even account our Marjorie Adams and K and Karan Pranti,

who basically did give you starting seasons each. So I guess you could be viewing it as well on your 44 on the two deep, you, you need to get at least 11 from each four classes that makes up the 44. So you would say that's just right on par. Why isn't an a plus, but now with the transfer portal, that's a separate equation. So back in the day, maybe you needed 15 from each class or something. I don't know. Nowadays, 11 does it very well because if you're getting 11 from one class, you're probably going to get like 10 on your two deep from the transfer portal alone. And then you're just looking at getting the other 20, whatever from the other three classes. So I would say if you're getting 20, 25% of your two deep from just one high school recruiting class, that's really good.

And then again, you add in the impact guys, you add in the star talent, you add in the good quarterback. This class wound up being an A-plus for Kansas overall. The only reason that you could knock it is you did have a lot of swings with 28 guys, and you are missing some impact at the moment, maybe in the trenches outside of like Cable Dew. The rest are like rotational guys in the front seven defensively. But if some of those players step up this year with like Cardale

and Tyrone Berryhill, it's an A++ at that point in time. All right, let's finish up. What would Jalen Daniels have to do to be in the Heisman race in terms of getting that done on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks? First, this episode is brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience. The formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance.

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it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins. Keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusions apply ebay guaranteed fit only available to u.s customers so what would jaylen daniels need to do to be in the heisman race or possibly win the heisman this season let's get the obvious one out of the way stay healthy right and and as much as that is the obvious one out of the way. Stay healthy, right? And as much as that is an obvious one, it's not one that comes easily, and it's not one that you can really predict ahead of time because the injuries – I mean, I guess the one against TCU was –

that was more like on the field. But the ones last year was – that wasn't necessarily like an in-game thing. So obviously he has to stay healthy and when i say stay healthy i think kansas can can play for a big 12 title if jaylen daniels even plays in like 11 of the 12 games 10 maybe you're stretching it just depends on the development of like cole ballard or isaiah marshall whoever ends up being the backup for him to be in the heisman race you need that 12th game you know you need the 12th game of stats, let alone in addition to the impact you have on the team, the team success does matter like, Hey, you would have to win minimum nine games. Everybody who's won the Heisman, they've

won at least nine years. I RG three, they might've won eight games than the ninth in the bowl game. But in the college football playoff era, it's taken making the playoff for everybody except for two guys. So the playoff started in 2014. So that's a decade worth of playoffs. 80% have made the playoff. Now, if Jalen Daniels ends up being that good, there's already a chance that KU could compete to win or win the Big 12. If he ends up being Heisman level good, that's going to increase their chance to do that. And then if you win the Big 12, you're going to college football playoffs. So it kind of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. There have been other guys who did win it, though.

Lamar Jackson, Jaden Daniels, without making the playoff, but both of them put up ridiculously bonkers numbers both years. So realistically, I think, Jalen, you probably have to be in the Big 12 title game. Probably got to win 10 games in the regular season and then stay healthy. As far as the stats for what it would have to look like. So every quarterback since the playoffs started in 2014 that has won the award has had at least 3,500 passing yards.

But more specifically, every quarterback has had at least 4,300 or more passing yards except for Jaden Daniels and Lamar Jackson, who continue to be exceptions here. But you know why? It's because Jaden Daniels added 1,100 rushing yards and Lamar Jackson had 1,600 rushing yards. So basically another way of putting this, if we go by total yards of passing and rushing, you need at least 4,500 total yards. Now that's based on numbers of some guys that played in bowl games or whatever, playoff games. So maybe that number goes down. Let's put it here.

You need at least 4,000 total yards. You need the team success. You need to stay healthy. And you need at least 4,000 total yards. That might be a little bit tougher based on Kansas playing more of a slowed down system. Between 2022 to 2023, Jalen Daniels started 12 games, basically played 11 and a half games because one of those was the TCU game. But that's similar to a season's worth of games, right? So if we just take those 12 games that he started, and I guess keep in mind for the Heisman race, you'd probably, again,

if we're talking about this, you have that 13th game added on with the conference title. So that does help in terms of team success, notoriety, and the extra game for kind of stat padding. But in that span for Jalen Daniels, 2,719 passing yards, 499 rushing yards. So about 3,200 total, 23 passing touchdowns to five interceptions and seven more rushing touchdowns. So like very efficient numbers, very good numbers. 30 total touchdowns, only five interceptions.

You're talking 3,200 yards, and that's in 11 and a half games, right? If you get up to that 13-game mark, for instance, that you could possibly have if all things are going right here, then maybe you are talking about 3,700 yards and, I don't know, 35 touchdowns, the six interceptions, and those are great numbers, and we see the impact of Jalen Daniels. The interception ratio is good, but the yards do have to go up a lot. And that's part of, you know, for Kansas, it's the system a little bit. It's running the football a little bit.

It's playing at a slower tempo that just will make it a little bit harder for him to win the award inherently, which actually kind of makes me think, I know this wasn't the point of the prompt, but I think Devin Neal is actually KU's top Heisman candidate. And I know that might be a little weird because we just see quarterbacks win the award like every year now. And, you know, I guess you get your occasional running back or Devontae Smith or something like that. But it really is a quarterback driven award. But because of the fact that Kansas does have a more balanced offense and because of the injury concerns I do think Devin Neal should be number one on on Kansas in terms of Heisman odds but that's not the case for how the odds sit right now like Jalen Daniels going off at like 30 to 1 on FanDuel so uh but I

do think it is achievable it's just he's got to stay healthy Kansas got to at least go to the big 12 championship game and you got to put up bonkers numbers right but he would have the narrative side on him of like, look at what this guy has helped Kansas accomplish. Right. I mean, that was something that helped RG three, not that he wasn't deserving, not that Jalen wouldn't be deserving. But that story does matter because guess what? You know, it's a lot harder the path that they have gone on,

that they did go on to get to that point. And that does matter. That is a part of it. Right. Okay. Let's finish up here with 55 days away from KU football's opener against Lindenwood. This episode is brought to you by GameTime, an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball, which makes getting tickets faster and easier. Prices on the GameTime app actually go down closer it gets to first pitch.

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L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E for $20 off. Download GameTime today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, finishing up, we are 55 days away from the KU football season opener against Lindenwood on a Thursday night over at Children's Mercy Park where Sporting KC plays. So number 55 on this roster is an interesting player.

Daryl Simmons Jr. transferred in from Iowa State after being a very experienced player, former starter for Iowa State. I think he's going to have a really interesting role with this KU team. Could he be the Armage Reed Adams role where he's playing some guard, he's playing some swing tackle for you? Maybe. Wouldn't be surprising. Could he just start for you at guard um after you brought in Bryce Foster I think expectation would be Michael Ford moves over to guard and then there's a hard competition for

that other spot I think Kobe Baines to me would be the favorite but Daryl Simmons Jr. is very experienced he could win it and then you still have guys like Nolan Gortica who could maybe factor in that that it seems like they're kind of trending in the right direction inside the program. So very interesting role there, but at the very least, it showcases kind of the depth that KU has on the offensive line. Cole Ballard, this is interesting because, you know, we all remember Cole Ballard doing well for what was asked of him.

You're a former walk-on that gets a scholarship like midway through the year. You're having to start big 12 games that are meaningful games. And he gritted it out in real ways, but he still only completed 55.6% of his passes. So there's a 55 in there. And that becomes an interesting question because how much can he improve, right?

You got to get that into the low sixties in today's day and age of college football, if not higher, but that's kind of the bare minimum of what you're asking for and so if the inconsistency is still there if the you know you're not getting as much on the completion percentage can Isaiah Marshall beat him out otherwise is it Cole Ballard's job and I don't know like if you're Kansas does it behoove you more if Cole Ballard wins the backup job this year because then that almost seals in that Isaiah Marshall can redshirt instead of Isaiah Marshall being the backup. And then you worry if Jalen Daniels gets hurt,

like would we still be able to redshirt him? I don't know. So that becomes interesting. Then the last one here, Luke Grimm had 555 receiving yards a season ago. What can he end up with this year? You know, talk all the time. Who's going to be the first thousand yard receiver since like Desmond Briscoe and Kerry Meyer and Steven Sims came so close to I think he had like 900 one of his years

okay he's had some some good receivers through the program even right um guys who have come through and maybe even had 700 800 900 yards whether it was Stephon Robinson Andrew Parchment right the three guys they have now I mean Nigel King Nick King, Nick Harwell, they've had some good receivers, but they haven't been able to get to that mark. I don't know that this is the year. I guess going back to the Heisman conversation, if Jalen Daniels is going to have 4,000 total yards, that would certainly help.

It's just they have to spread the ball out so darn much. But I think Luke Grimm is going to have a very productive season nonetheless. Can he get 600, 700 receiving yards with a bunch of touchdowns and a bunch of catches that he still ends up on an all-Big 12 team? And for my money, he is one of the 10 best receivers in the Big 12 this season, but is he going to have the production to show off with that with the award? It's unfortunate how some of that stuff is kind of voted on, I guess, sometimes, but I can understand it because it's hard to kind of get that understanding

for each and every team, I guess, as you're voting on it, right. Everybody kind of has their team expertise, but nonetheless, very interesting. And we've talked about before that Luke Grimm has that kind of great

connection. Jalen Daniels. I thought it would be for this episode of locked on Jayhawks back on Monday. See you then.