Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECRUITING WIN: Kansas Jayhawks Beat Out Auburn, Utah to SNAG Top QB Commit Chance Thomas

Starting point is 00:00:00 KU's got a new quarterback, and he's a pretty darn good one. Chance Thomas commits to Kansas. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's going on to on Derek Johnson here? And on today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be breaking down Chance Thomas committing to KU, adding another quarterback commit to the fold for Kansas. We're into what it means for the future of the QB room. the scouting report on Thomas and more. And this is a player who had a lot of great offers. In the end, he chooses Kansas over Utah and Auburn, which, you know, you're talking to SAC school.

Starting point is 00:00:46 You're talking Big 12 school that has consistently been one of the better, you know, top 25 teams in the program over recent years, including this past season. It's a big deal for Kansas to get a kid like this, right? He's an 88-rated three-star recruit out of Southern California. he was a top 750, or at least is right now, nationally ranked recruit, if you look at the 24-7 sports composite. And you look at it, he's a top 30 quarterback in the class,

Starting point is 00:01:14 which, again, like, that is a very good place to be in if you are Kansas. And to where this now puts KU is in a position where they have their first quarterback commit and probably only in the class. It also gives KU their fourth commit in total in the class. And when you look at it with Derek Gonzalez, offensive tackle, Trey Stewart, running back in Dang Tong receiver.

Starting point is 00:01:35 This is one of, if not your best recruit that you've brought in so far. If you look at the 24-7 sports ratings, it would say that Thomas is KU's, you know, highest-rated commit right now. If you look at the 24-7 composite, it would end up being dang Tong. But point being,

Starting point is 00:01:51 this is one of your biggest additions of the class, not just because of the position he plays, which is an important, you know, key to this as well, but because of just how good he is, as well. And I found this interesting to, this was according to Dustin Lewis of Sports Illustrated, but 42 of the top 55 quarterbacks in the class of 2027 have already announced their decision. So the amount of top end guys, and I don't know why the cut off to 55 specifically, but like,

Starting point is 00:02:21 that means there's not a lot left to work with that are uncommitted at this point. And so you were running out of, you know, guys to be that because it just seems like Kansas kind of brings in one QB per class at this point. You're kind of running out of the guys to do that. And you not only as you were running out of options to be able to go to, but you still ended up with a good one. This wasn't just, oh, you took whatever was left. You ended up with a really good one when those options were kind of expiring.

Starting point is 00:02:53 And just in general, I think it's been a nice run of commits for Kansas and Lance Leipold here as they're starting to kind of really piece things together for this class of 2020. which has been slower to get commits than some of the recent classes, but now is shaping up even with the four commits so far to look pretty good for KU. All right, let's continue on with the scouting report on Chance Thomas. Then we'll get into the future of the QB room for KU, where he could figure in next. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook.

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Starting point is 00:04:11 Our chance Thomas is a 6'1, 195 pound quarterback from Western High School in Anaheim. And incredible stats in 2025, you're talking 71.5% completion rate, 3,327 passing yards with 33 touchdowns to 7 interceptions. He also carried the ball 94 times for 734 yards, so almost 8 yards per carry with seven touchdowns there. So those are unbelievable stats all the way through, passing and rushing the ball. Really, really good numbers like all the way through of what you're talking about here, right? Now, Andrew Irvins, who is the director of scouting for 24-7 sports, you can check out the full profile on his 24-7 sports page. But I'm going to highlight a few of the ones that I found interesting here in terms of some of the notes. It's the dynamic deep shot artist.

Starting point is 00:05:04 And I'll get into a little bit of that from what I saw from, you know, watching some of the highlights here. That is very apparent. This is the dude who wants to go deep and push the ball down the field. And that is, you know, I think sometimes you end up with the quarterbacks who get overly concerned with trying to do the right thing and checking down every time. And you're not really pushing the ball or stretching or stressing the defense out. And I think that's kind of the opposite with Thomas. He does stress the defense out with the way he pushes. the ball downfield, right?

Starting point is 00:05:35 Andrew also mentions constantly extending plays with the pocket movement and is a threat to pick up big chunks of yardage anytime he decides to scramble. He's in his element when he has to improvise. That sounds a lot like recent KU quarterbacks and then projects as a potential multi-year starter in a wide open attack that wants to let him create. And that is the beauty of like the KU offense that, you know, as much as there is structure to it with the motions and the different formations and the intricacies of what they're trying to do, there is an element of trying to create in the art form of it when you saw some of the highlight

Starting point is 00:06:08 plays that Jason Bean or Jalen Daniels made over the years for KU. Now, from what I saw over the highlights here for Chance Thomas, like I said earlier, loves to push the ball downfield, which I think is a great thing. Like Jason Bean loved to push the ball downfield and was able to, you know, take advantage of that in a real way. You get him some downfield threats. And, you know, if you start looking ahead to what the Kansas receiver room is looking like, kind of building forward, like you look at some of the guys they brought in in the class of 2026,

Starting point is 00:06:37 whether it was Tyron Parker, whether it's Nate Sims, you look at, you know, dangtong in the class of 2027. Kansas is bringing in a lot of speed into that receiver room over some of the recent recruiting classes, which means if you get a quarterback who can launch it downfield with some guys who can burn downfield,

Starting point is 00:06:53 it feels like that is a little bit intentional for KU to try to create some big plays going that way. And I think, this one's tough for me to like have a full take away from because it is just highlights and you're only seeing the best plays and it is more of a limited sample of the game but i think sometimes when you're watching quarterback highlights you can get enamored with the just what you see on film but how often are you when you're watching the highlight of the quarterback are you seeing the quarterback move off his first read go to a second read or even a third read and throw it to that guy right because on the highlights you're just seeing the good stuff he might just look at the first read the throw and it's like, oh, that looked really cool on the highlight. There were plays on the highlights where he's like, looking to one side of the field, nothing's there, he progresses and goes to the other side of the field and throws it to that guy.

Starting point is 00:07:41 And I just found that really impressive, the processing stuff, which, again, that is kind of a small sample size of highlights, but based on what I did see, it did seem like he has that ability, which is obviously a great thing. Also seemed like somebody who can fit some throws into tight windows when he needs to. He obviously has good speed and quickness. I would describe him as kind of a slippery runner and tough to, you know, get down in the pocket. I think those scrambling skills came really in handy for him because he, like, I guess in watching some of the highlights. Again, I'm not watching the full games of this guy.

Starting point is 00:08:20 I don't have film available for Western high school. The offensive line looked like they at times would struggle, I guess, to say the least. And there were times where he is having to really scramble and make a lot happen for his team. The good news is from the Kansas perspective is like they want to move the pocket. They want to be in a position where, hey, if the offensive line ends up not being as good, can the quarterback still make plays? And he seems to be able to do that. Now, the negative side of all that stuff is like, this dude is pretty small.

Starting point is 00:08:51 Like I know 6-1-195, I would not be surprised if it's a little bit smaller than that. and you always wonder like what does that mean from a durability standpoint right because we did just undergo with jalen daniels some really good highs but a lot of injuries over the course of his career and like here's the thing this is a this is like a this is like a negative but it's also a big compliment when i saw like the film and this dude's making like throws downfield and he's getting like nailed in the pocket or he's like running around and he's scrambling and he's running downfield and he's breaking tackles or he's making multiple guys hit him to have to go down. He's staying strong up with the ball.

Starting point is 00:09:29 Like those things are awesome. He wants to fight for extra yards. He wants to fight for his teammates. He has more strength than you'd think. He has courage to take those big hits. Those are all awesome traits and awesome skills and ones that I would want in the quarterback position, right? But at the same point in time, that means that the KU, you know, coaches are going to have

Starting point is 00:09:48 to kind of coach him to him like, hey, you don't have to do that every time. Like maybe run out of bounds here. Maybe take a slide right here, you know, maybe deliver the ball here so that you're not having to take that big hit because you are a little bit smaller and we don't want you getting hurt, right? So it's almost one of those things where it's like it's a good thing to have those traits, but you just got to reel them in a little bit there. But I will say, like speaking of Jalen Daniels, you see the commit from Southern California, you see people bring up Jalen Daniels and you start to think about it. you're just like, is this just because it's another quarterback from Southern California? Like, is this just the easy comp here? But then you actually watch some of the highlights and you're like, oh, there actually is some Jalen Daniels here.

Starting point is 00:10:33 And then when you look at some of the play type and archetype. So I do find that at least a little bit interesting there. But yeah, I think this is a really good addition for KU. So future of the quarterback room, we'll get to that next. Today's episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. If you've ever opened your bank account and thought, where it all my money go? You're not alone. keep in track of subscriptions, spending, and bills that can get overwhelming fast.

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Starting point is 00:11:33 slash locked on. That's rocketmoney.com slash locked on. Once again, you can join the everyday air club at locked on Jayhawks.jawks.com to get the ad-free version of the show. So Chance Thomas joins the QB fold. And again, it seems like KU brings in one QB per class. it probably means that they're done kind of here. And that's a smart thing to do because it's one of those things where it's easy to be like, well, if this guy ends up being your starter, he could be your starter for two, three years. There's constantly attrition at the quarterback position. Players transferring away, going to other schools.

Starting point is 00:12:12 So like, you know, you could look at it right now and go, okay, well, Cole Ballard is a, you know, junior. Isaiah Marshall is a redshirt sophomore. and then you got Jalen Mason coming in as a true freshman. You got Chase Jenkins, who is like a junior. And you're like, okay, well, if this kid comes into Kansas in 20, 27, all those guys can potentially be back for another year. But realistically, whoever doesn't win the quarterback competition, probably going to go somewhere else to look for that job,

Starting point is 00:12:42 knowing that whoever wins the quarterback competition this year for KU can be that guy for multiple seasons, right? It also gets complicated by the potential five and five rule where they could be the starter for, you know, even longer, potentially, right? Not counting, not accounting for the potential five and five rule thing happening, though. I think I would look at it like this. By the time chance Thomas arrives in 2027, you would say one of those three, Marshall Ballard Jenkins, one of those three will probably be the starting quarterback for KU going in to the

Starting point is 00:13:14 2027 season, right? It could be whoever is the starter at the beginning of this year. It could be if, you know, KU starts the season with a starter and then. somebody else takes over midway or halfway through and they become the guy who knows then you would look at it and say okay maybe it's an open quarterback competition for the number two guy between jalen mason with that year would be in the second year and chance thomas here right and then the other one is your third string maybe one of those two guys of the three quarterbacks sticks around if it is kind of a back and forth thing through the season to be like i'm going to compete in the spring to see what happens here um but realistically that all also lines you up that, you know, if your chance Thomas, it could in a very real way come down to a competition in 2027 with Jalen Mason to determine who is higher up on the, on the, you know, the totem pole to where that's your next starting quarterback in 2028, right? So that's kind of how I view it in terms of the future, the quarterback position. If there is a real chance, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:17 Chance Thomas could be your starting quarterback as soon as the 2028 season. That'll do it for episode of Lockdown Jayhawks, you can find her show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECRUITING WIN: Kansas Jayhawks Beat Out Auburn, Utah to SNAG Top QB Commit Chance Thomas

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