Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Sec Connection Mississippi St Corner Elijah Cannon Gives Kansas Jayhawks Handful Of Sec Additions

Starting point is 00:00:00 More DB talent from the SEC. Jayhawks had another one. Elijah Cannon from Mississippi State. 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? Derek Johnson here. Another bonus episode, Locked on Jayhawks, another KU commit.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first, second, third, fourth, fifth, whatever listen it is with all these portal commits. And thanks for making the Locked-on Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network. On today's episode of the show, Elijah Cannon is the latest commit for KU. It's another DB from the SEC. So we'll break down what that means for KU,

Starting point is 00:00:49 what it means for this year, what it means for the future, Canon's game, all that on today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Let's just start right here with the news. So Canon becomes, what, the sixth, fifth or sixth player to commit to KU on Thursday. He commits on Thursday. Thursday night. It's been a flurry of commits every night, but this is the most of them all. Lance Leipold and Company are really cleaning up now. And Canons originally from Florida, he then went to

Starting point is 00:01:17 Mississippi State and spent two seasons with the Bulldogs. So he's going to be a redshirt sophomore in 2026. That means he'll have three years left to play for KU to try to develop in the DB room. And this one just adds another defensive back, another cornerback specifically for KU. with some developmental talent. I think it made sense when KU bringing back guys like Jalen Todd and some of these other corners, adding Roman Pearson, who check out that video if you missed it already,

Starting point is 00:01:46 it was more of a play now corner. You're still looking to maybe add a scholarship player to the corner room, and you said, okay, we're going to bring on a kid who, ideally, if he balls out, he'll learn playing time, but realistically,

Starting point is 00:01:58 we can view him as more of a developmental piece that adds depth this year, and then maybe he'll turn in something. And maybe, end up with a situation kind of like what Jaliel Hurley was last year for KU. You brought him in from Alabama. He was a little buried on the depth chart there. He starts the season, you know, and works his way up a little bit.

Starting point is 00:02:15 Eventually it's on the field season goes on. And now it's like you feel like you have a current and future piece in Jal Hurley. And maybe that'll be what we see with Elijah Cannon here. But this also continues the trend for KU of adding SEC talent. You'll look at it now for the Jayhawks. And, you know, they've really, if you're, feels like approached like three areas. They've hit up the small schools.

Starting point is 00:02:39 They've hit up the SEC and then they've hit up the ACC. Obviously, there's some that, you know, fall in between. But the SEC contributes to a lot of KU's additions. Connor Stro, the line hexes. You look at Geron Willis, the linebacker from South Carolina, Landon Watson, the linebacker who was at Kentucky. Jaden Harris, another SEC defensive back was just at Georgia. So you're going through this list.

Starting point is 00:03:03 and there is, I don't know if there's an emphasis or if it just so happens to be who's in the portal, but it is something that has become at least a bit of a theme in what KU has added and certainly can't hurt there. Let's get into Canon Scouting Import, what he brings to the table and how he fits into this current and future KUDB room. Thanks to join us here on Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Rocket Money. Let's be real. Managing your finances can feel overwhelming between subscriptions you forgot about, bills that keep going up and trying to figure out where all your money actually

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Starting point is 00:04:13 Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at RocketMoney.com slash locked on. That is rocketmoney.com slash locked on. Rocket money.com slash locked on. So KU adds another corner, another one from the SEC here. And for the Jayhawks, Elijah Cannon comes in at six full. 1, 180 pounds. He came into Mississippi State as an 85 rated three star.

Starting point is 00:04:43 He played four games, his true freshman season in 2024. So that allowed him to get a little bit of playing time, but still take a redshirt. And then as a redshirt freshman this past year, he actually played less games. One tackle and one game played in 2025. 2024, he made four tackles and had a pick six in his stats. A lot of the playing time, both years came against the, the FCS opponent, the give me win for Mississippi State. And even though it's a limited action to go off of the,

Starting point is 00:05:15 the pro football focus grades are good in that limited action. He had 49 snaps total in the two seasons. So, you know, it's hard to take too much away. But, you know, if you're going to have limited action, better be good in the limited action than to be bad in the limited action, right? 67.3 pro football focus grade in 2024, 71.7 pro football focus grade in 2025. Again, it's a little tough to take too much away when you are talking that limited sample size. But, you know, clearly at the very least, this is another body in the building.

Starting point is 00:05:47 And this is somebody who you're going to try to develop. You've got a good amount of corners now. I believe overall, this brings KU to in the mid-70s and their scholarship numbers, which means we're closing in on them completing their portal class, you know, around 10, I don't know, you'd probably say eight to 12, depending how many scholarships you want to have on the team this season. Guys that are left at this point in time, some of those are going to be depth pieces. Some of those are going to be pieces that are depth this year and you hope to develop in the future. And realistically, some people are going to transfer, some or not.

Starting point is 00:06:23 So Cannon becomes the latest edition for KU. Let's get more to that corner and DB room breakdown next. Thanks you for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. So Elijah Cannon, a redshirt sophomore. You know, he joins a corner team or corner room for KU where there's not a ton of other sophomores. Austin Alexander obviously is a sophomore. He's the only other sophomore. So, you know, that puts him in that class there.

Starting point is 00:06:50 And now you have it kind of separated out in a nice way where you got a couple seniors, Saeed Gibbs and Roman Pearson, who you just added from Ball State. You've got a couple juniors with Julio Hurley and Jalen Todd. Now you've got the two sophomores and then you got two freshmen with Chris McCorkel and Lenny Brown. Obviously McCorkel, Redshirt freshman, Brown, a true freshman. So I think that's a nice diversity of having eight corners. Is that enough? Are you going to want one more developmental one?

Starting point is 00:07:15 I don't know. I feel like that's going to be enough, but who knows? But it feels like that's a nice diversity of classifications where it's like you have a couple in each class to kind of make it come together and make it work. So I feel like they're probably done. But yeah, like I said, I guess if you really wanted to add a ninth, another developmental one, I guess you could. I think it would probably be, you know, better to add a different position. But I think you look at the corner room and, yeah, like Jalen Todd, Roman Pearson, Syed Gibbs, Austin, Alexander, Julio Hurley.

Starting point is 00:07:42 I think it's really Todd as a starter and then those other four guys competing for the other spot. But, you know, maybe Cannon will surprise some people and maybe Cannon can be one of those guys and maybe Cannon can continue and improve. And all of a sudden you see him on the field later in 2026 like we did with Julio Hurley and then sets him up to play a little in 2026. And that's part of this too. Like it's not just can you get on the field or not. It's can you set yourself up to get on the field the following season potentially, right?

Starting point is 00:08:08 Because when Gibbs and Pearson graduate, will KU feel like, hey, we have something really good here in Canon that come 2027? We're going to have them as part of the two deep or do we need to go elsewhere? Like you're almost auditioning for your 2027 job all of the 2026 season there for KU. But yeah, overall, when you look at, you know, some of the needs remaining because if we're saying corner is at a point where they're probably pretty good there, you know, do you add another quarterback there? Do you add another running back? Maybe a receiver, but all those are ones where it's probably looking more of a backup. I think the biggest needs at this point left for KU probably getting a pass catching tight end to pair with Carson Bruin.

Starting point is 00:08:49 You want to play a lot of two tight end lineups, getting a starting tackle, and then maybe another starting linebacker unless you're comfortable with everything else that you have or maybe you can bring somebody else back. And then outside of that, I think most of the additions KU has left are. kind of depth pieces, right? I guess the kicker and punter would go into there too, but, um, you know, they, they do need to add more depth pieces at some of these different positions. So, um, it is pretty crazy how it went from what the portal opened up on Friday. And then we got the first commit for KU, I guess Konde back in December, but we got the first commit of this portal season, what on Sunday? And then a bunch of them came in. And so it's been like five days. And now we're to a point where they're almost done with filling out the meaningful starter positions.

Starting point is 00:09:33 pretty crazy how quickly this is all working and coming together. I like it and I don't like it. I kind of like to drag out a little bit and get to, you know, breathe a little in between some of these different players. But at the same point in time, it is kind of fun to have this all in one period and not have to, I'm sure for the coaches, not have to stress about it in later seasons. So this is probably a good thing overall.

Starting point is 00:09:54 I wonder if they'll eventually do this in basketball. That would be even more wild if we do this in basketball with the amount of, the amount of people that are out there and everything. But all right, That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Thank you for joining us anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. Don't forget to check out all of our other commitment episodes and videos,

Starting point is 00:10:11 as well as our KU Basketball, West Virginia preview right here on LOJ. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Sec Connection Mississippi St Corner Elijah Cannon Gives Kansas Jayhawks Handful Of Sec Additions

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