Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - STAY OR GO? Lyrik Rawls TRANSFERS + Are Leroy Harris & Cam Pickett Returning to Kansas for 2026?
Episode Date: December 12, 2025Kansas Jayhawks reshape their defense as safety Lyrik Rawls exits via the transfer portal, but the return of standout edge rusher Leroy Harris could ignite Big 12 success in 2026. Can KU’s evolving ...safety room hold up, and will Harris become the next NFL-caliber talent from Lawrence?Derek Johnson breaks down the significance of losing starting safety Lyrik Rawls, what Harris’ impressive pass rush productivity means for KU’s defensive line, and the impact of wide receiver Cam Pickett returning for another year. The episode spotlights key player performance metrics, the challenges and opportunities posed by secondary depth, and how the Jayhawks’ roster moves set the stage for new stars to emerge. What does the future hold for KU’s defense, and can a retooled offense support a new quarterback?Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Omaha SteaksSave big on unforgettable gifts with Omaha Steaks. Visit https://OmahaSteaks.com for 50% off site-wide and an extra 20% off select favorites during their Cyber Sale.And for an additional $35 off, use promo code COLLEGE at checkout. RugietIf you’ve been thinking about taking the next step, now’s the time.Head to https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEto get 15% off your order for a limited time.Rugiet Ready. Feel present. Feel confident. Feel ready. Aura FramesFor a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visiting https://AuraFrames.com to get $35 off Aura’s best-selling Carver Mat frames - named #1 by Wirecutter - by using promo code COLLEGE at checkout. 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.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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KU lost the starter in the transfer portal with safety lyric crawls.
They're also getting a couple big names back.
We're going to break it all down, the impact for KU in 2026.
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.
Welcome to Locked on.
Jayhawks, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network.
And on today's edition of LOJ, we are breaking down some of the latest transfer
shuffling for KU, a couple key players returning for KU, but they also lose a starter in
Lerick-Rawls.
We're going to break down them getting back Leroy Harris and Cam Pickett, losing Lerick-Rawls
on this bonus episode of the show.
Let's start right there with the Harris News.
We'll start with the positive, then work into Rawls, then we'll finish up with Pickett.
So Leroy Harris, I think that is the biggest addition that KU could have had back among these names so far, right?
I think overall, if you're looking at who are the biggest names KU could bring back in general,
it's probably a conversation between Leroy Harris, Trey Lathen, and Dak Brinkley, off the top of my head.
I don't know, like you could have arguments for Jalen Todd with some of the needs KU has at the secondary level.
You could probably have some arguments for Blake Herald as a defense tackle.
Actually, I would put him in that first three to make it a big four there.
Maybe you could have some arguments for a mere herring with some losses on the offensive line.
But Leroy Harris, I think, has the potential to be a legitimate all-big 12 level player for KU
and a legitimate NFL draft pick for KU from the defensive line.
So he posted on Instagram kind of talking about, you know, I don't know,
that kind of referenced his return and that was, I guess, I don't know, backed up or whatever you want to say,
by Michael Swain of Fogg.net.
So this is huge.
Like Harris, again, when we did our list,
thank you every day,
or so already caught it,
about the guys that KU needs to get back,
Leroy Harris was one of those names on the list.
So he transfers into Kansas from Tennessee State.
I thought that he would be more of a kind of,
you know,
he comes in from the FCS level where he had a little bit of playing time there.
He was solid for them,
but you don't have any sacks at the FCS level.
The kind of idea to me was,
okay, you come in, you appear in four games,
you redshirt and then you're ready to go in 2026 is then a redshirt sophomore.
But turns out he was one of Bayou's best players right away as a true sophomore.
He was so good.
He did it right away, 31 tackles, six and a half tackles for loss, four and a half sacks.
And this is super impressive too.
I don't know that he got enough credit for this, eight pass breakups for Leroy Harris this season.
Like he was really, I mean, he seems very long-limbed, but he was really good and really aware
at getting his arms in the passing lanes and knocking down.
passes. Like, just to show you how many eight-pass breakups is, Kobe Bryant and Mello-Dotson
tied for the Kansas lead in 2024 in pass breakups, they had seven each. In fact,
Leroy Harris's eight pass breakups that he had this year were the third most ever in a season
under Lance Leipold at KU. So that is a really important skill to have. And a lot of times
receivers were open against this KU defense. If you're knocking down passes at the line of
scrimmage that is super impactful in addition to the six and a half tfls and four and a half sacks but
overall among big 12 defense events with at least 20% of their max snaps Harris rated out is the 11th best
defense or 11 best edge i should say of the 69 eligible players on pro football focus in the
big 12 so that's a really good place to be at right and that was with the 74.6th grade as just a true
sophomore he also had a 73.7 pass rush grade that ranked eighth of 65 qualified.
qualified with that 20% or better max pass rush snaps, basically a minimum qualifier, right?
And if we look at the non-seniors on that list, again, he was eighth, he was fourth.
So for players that can potentially come back, he's fourth.
This dude is really good, right?
And Pro Football Focus 2 has a specific stat called Pass Rush Productivity.
It's a formula that combines sacks, hits, and hurries relative.
to how many times they're rushing the passer, right?
And so you're kind of combining because sometimes you want to combine the production,
the sacks, other times the hits and the hurries can sometimes be predictive
that you should be getting more sacks.
So you're kind of combining the two.
Well, Harris's pass rush productivity on pro football focus was an 8.3%,
which was eighth of the 63 qualified Big 12th Edge players for that stat.
Here's the best marks under the Lance Nypled era.
Austin Booker in 2023 actually led the Big 12.
He was at a 10.5%.
2021, Kyron Johnson had an 8.3%.
It's the same number Harris was at.
2022 Lonnie Phelps, he was really good.
He was at a 7.7%.
So Harris was even above 22, Lonnie Phelps,
who the number probably would have been higher.
I don't know, felt like Lonnie Phelps didn't get enough holding calls against him.
And then 2024, Dean Miller, who was a second team all big 12 player,
had a 7% rate on that one.
Harris had a really good season for KU
and that was in limited snaps
is still a young player, not overly limited,
but less than I would think.
It was still under 400 snaps.
I bet she he crosses that number in 2026 with KU.
And I think my big hope here is this too.
Like, I don't need to see him as often in coverage.
I know you had the near pick six in the Arizona game.
I know you have some of those past breakups.
A lot of those are at the line of scrimmage, though.
I want to see this dude Russ the passer.
He had 46 coverage snaps.
which, you know, I don't know if that sounds like a lot or not,
but it is when you compare it to his 384 total snaps.
That means 12% of the time.
You had this really good pass rusher, as I just detailed,
had just by one metric,
one of the best pass rush seasons we've seen in the Lipolera,
and you had him in past coverage 12% of the time.
That's way too much for a dynamic pass rusher.
So I want to see that go down.
I want to see the overall snaps go up.
But all that said, the potential is special.
for this kid. I think the potential is for this to be KU's best defense event since Austin Booker.
I think potential is to be a future NFL draft pick. I think the value is supremely high on a guy
like Leroy Harris. And you look at the overall defensive end room for KU coming in the next year.
And I think it'll be interesting to see what they do with Harris. Like, are you going to continue
to use him as a weak side defensive end where he's had success and just say, hey, if it ain't
broke. Don't fix it. Let's keep him there. Or is there any part of you that's wondering, you know,
is there a chance with the way Dak Brinkley finished the season? Could Brinkley and Harris be our two
most talented, our two best defense ends? And does it behoove us to try to use Harris as a strong
side defensive end, maybe add another 10 pounds to him and use Brinkley as the starting weak side
defense end and you get your best talent out there? Or you say, no, we like the fit of Alex
Bray as the strong side. We'll keep Harris on the weak side with Brinkley kind of
rotating along as kind of a pass rush specialist, right?
I think that'll be interesting to see what KU does there.
But point being, knowing you have Harris back, as long as you can bring back Brinkley
too, I feel really good about that defensive end rotation, at the very least on one side
for KU.
And I think Harris is in for a pretty fun season in 2026.
It is interesting because you look at the potential returners for KU on the defensive end,
and I know the defense wasn't great this year.
We saw flashes where there were certain games where it looked good.
I think there's enough there of potential returning talent that if you find the right transfer
additions and the guys get to know the system a little bit better, maybe you could finally
make that jump on the defense event.
Of course, they're going to have to do it without Lyric Rawls, who was one of their starting
safeties.
So let's break that down next as he announced earlier today that he will be entering the transfer
portal.
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slash every dayer. Check the link in the show notes to learn more as well. Okay, so KU losing Lyric
Rawls. They bring back Lira Harris. That's big. Lyric Rawls, though, goes into the transfer
portal. And I guess, I don't know, after the whole Floribodunga saga this past year, I guess I'm,
I'm never going to just be like, well, he entered the portal, but it's impossible he could come back.
I guess, you know, there's always a right number and a right figure to this stuff, but I think for
the most part, probably safe to assume when a player enters the portal, they're gone.
I think the floory stuff was probably more exception to the role.
Nonetheless, Rawls will have one year left of play.
And you kind of looked at the safety room for KU, and it was one where you could have brought both
your starters back with Rawls and Davis, but needed some more depth behind it.
Well, now you're going to have serious work to do.
bringing in safetys. But I think there's certain things KU can work with here. So let's start here.
This is by far the biggest loss so far for KU in the transfer portal coming into 2026. Most of the
other losses have been guys who might not have been on the two deep next year. They weren't this
year. You know, some future players that I like. Like I was interested to see what Demani Maxin
could become. So that one hurts a little bit. I guess compounds with this one losing another safety.
but this was the guy who not just was a guarantee theoretically if he came back to be on the transfer
or to be on the two deep but was going to be a starter for you right and so he came in over from
Oklahoma State he had a solid year 72 tackles seven past deflections one interception
and overall I think KU had a lot of secondary struggles this year and so if you're saying hey
you're secondary struggled and now you're losing players you know I guess you could view it as well
could it be addition by subtraction?
But the other way of looking at it is, hey, if the starters weren't good enough,
what does that mean the backups were, right?
And now you're losing the starters.
It does give you an opportunity to reshuffle, though, in the transfer portal.
I do think they'll miss Lerick Rawls specifically in this way.
He was a really good tackler and hard hitter.
There were some really hard hits from Lerick Rawls this season.
He did have that dumb penalty against Utah.
But he had some really hard hits.
He was a secure tackler from the safety spot.
He had a 10.5% miss tackle rate, which was actually seventh best among 36 qualified Big 12 safety.
So, like, very good tackler to help you come up.
And for a Kansas team that at times struggled tackling, it was nice to have that at the back end.
But also, this is not a impossible replacement either, right?
Like, there's a reason I, again, I didn't want to lose balls.
I thought he could have been even better in year two for Kansas.
And I wish him the best.
and I think he's a solid player.
But it's not one that, like, I didn't have it on the same list as,
hey, you have to bring back Lee Roy Harris and Blake Harold and these types of guys.
And here's why.
So Rawls was targeted 30 times.
He gave up 20 catches, so 67% completion rate, almost eight yards per target.
So those aren't great.
He had three penalties as well.
69.7 pff grade.
That looks solid overall.
That's good.
But if you look under the hood, how did he wind up with basically a seven?
D. PFF grade, which is, again, pretty good, although it's interesting because certain positions
are built differently. Like, if you have a 69.7 PFF grade as a receiver or as, I don't know,
like a, I don't know, there's certain positions where a 69.7 PFF grade is going to put you in the
top half or the top, maybe even quarter of your position in the conference. Safety is not one of
those. I don't know. Maybe it's just easier because like corners you're on an island. It's easier to
see if you lost where safeties get to keep guys in front of them. But regardless, that only ranked him
is the 24th best safety among 36 qualified.
So on the upper end of the bottom half,
by at least 50% of the max snaps.
Now, one problem here is that Taylor Davis was 36th of 36.
So would you have rather lost Davis than Rawls?
That can be a question.
But more on that in a moment.
Back to the Under the Hood stuff.
Like I said, the number 69.7 looks pretty good for Rawls.
But most of that was built on the first four games.
He had a really good game against Wagner and Fresno State and West Virginia.
But after the first four games, so from games five on for the KU season,
so when they really hit the meat of their schedule, here were his individual game grades,
according to Pro Football Focus, 54, 64, 57, 56, 66, 66, 54, and 68.
So if you just go based off of the need of the schedule, I don't know what that overall grade would have been, but you heard a lot of 50s and mid-60s, it probably would have been closer to like a 60 grade, would be my guess, right?
So then you get into a situation where it's like, okay, that's going to rank even lower.
Now, again, looping Davis back into all this, I think it becomes very interesting because KU basically said, hey, we think our two most talented safeties this year are Taylor Davis and Lerick Rawls.
and I don't know that I think that was probably fair logic to have and I think the idea was hey Davis is more of a because KU basically the way I traditionally think of it is free safety and strong safety strong safety is more of your safety that would get up in the box would make big hits think of like a I don't know like a Troy Palomalu for instance um whereas free safety is going to be more of your like your ed reed your safety who's kind of patrolling the back end and coverage probably a little better
an open space than the strong safety versus the strong safety maybe being a little bit better
as a tackler and against the run like those are just generic ways of looking at things obviously
some guys are great at both and stuff but um generally that's what now KU technically is dabbling
into this three safety look and that's a whole other thing but generally KU has used I think
they call theirs like the boundary safety and the free safety or something like that and I think
the boundary safety is more of the strong safety type and so basically
The strong safety type, basically, I think that's more of what Taylor Davis should be.
He can be a hard hitting safety, but I think because Lyric Rawls fit into that
and was probably a little better to that point than Taylor Davis, they said, hey, Taylor Davis
is still talented.
We got to get him on the field.
Let's see if Taylor Davis can play more of the free safety role.
But I think we saw this year Davis struggled in coverage.
He struggled with quicker and faster guys.
And so, I don't know if this is like, is this a transfer move fully on?
Eric Rawls. Is this a transfer move? Hey, you're saying, hey, we want to move Davis back to
the strong safety role. And so you're going to have to compete with him or KU basically saying,
hey, we're not going to spend starter money on both Davis and Rawls, knowing that only one of
them is going to start as our boundary safety, since we're going to push Davis back to that
position. And so it makes sense not to, like it doesn't make sense to give starter money to two guys
when you could give starter money to one and then give starter money to more of a traditional
free safety, if that makes sense. And then maybe you're saying, hey, who do we choose between the
two? Well, okay, Rawls was the better player this year, but we get two years out of Davis
versus getting one year out of Rawls. Again, I don't know if that's the case. This might just be
all on Lyric Rawls being like, hey, I want to go to a program that is going to make a bowl game.
I want to go to a program that has a chance to do this, this or that. Or I want to go to a program
that maybe I'm going to get more money somewhere, right? Maybe it's a mix of both. Who knows?
But I do find it interesting because I will say this, even though Davis struggled this,
year. I think getting him back into that strong safety spot where he won't be matched up on
receivers as much, where maybe it's a little more tight ends, where maybe he can use his hard
hitting and tackling a little bit better suited for that role. I think KU can be okay here,
right? So basically I view it as Davis will slide in for Rawls role, Rawls will be gone,
and then they're going to have a lot of work to do in the safety room, right? You're going to have to
add that free safety, more of your kind of coverage level safety. Are they content with Mason Ellis being
your Hawk position or does he move around to one of the safety positions? And then where's
Laquan Robinson in all this? Where are some of your young guys like Brandon Schmelsley, potentially?
And I think in general, not only do you probably need to add a starting free safety,
you probably need to add one or two safeties from the depth side of things. So there's a lot to be
done now in the safety room. And I don't like losing their crawls, but I guess point being
it does open up the opportunity. Maybe this will be the best career path for,
for Taylor Davis.
Maybe this will open you up a little bit of funds and playing time to bring on somebody
who winds up being more of a free safety fit for the team.
And if those things end up happening, maybe it works out for all parties involved.
All right, Cam Pickett also coming back.
We'll get to that next.
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thanks again for joining us on locked on jhawks and uh we're going to have an episode
So previewing the Kansas and C state game on the basketball court.
All right.
Lira Harris back.
Lyric Rall's gone.
Cam pick it back as well.
He posted,
we mentioned this on the episode the other day that he just had kind of a cryptic's not the right word
because cryptic makes you think of like a negative connotation,
but he posted just a bunch of like KU pictures and I forget what it says.
It was like rock shock or something like that.
The made you think, oh, is that him confirming he's coming back, right?
And again, Michael Swain, Fogg.
That is kind of confirmed that to be the case.
So good news for Kansas, the receiver position, right?
He's going to be a senior in 2026.
His first couple of years at Ball State had a productive second year,
transfers to Kansas, has a productive year at KU, 45 catches, 476 yards with three touchdowns.
I ended up with over 530 all-purpose yards.
And I do think it is good to mention because, again,
I didn't have picket in that group with that I keep mentioning of Harris and Harold of guys
that, like, I think they need to do everything in their power to bring back.
That wasn't a knock against Pickett's game necessarily.
It's just that, like, to me, there's a difference between the top tier of guys that you,
if you have to double the salary to bring them back, you bring them back versus the guys where it's like,
okay, if you wants a $50,000 raise, we can make that happen.
But if you wants $200,000 more, we can't make that work.
Like, you almost have to, it's an unfair way of doing things nowadays, but it's part of the game.
You have to be a GM.
You have to be a, you know, it's the same way of like, hey, in the NFL draft, I would gladly
take this guy in the third round, but I don't want to take him in the first round.
I like him. I take him in the third round, but he's not a first rounder, right?
It's just some of the difference of there. But I do like Pickett. I think he's a solid player.
And I think knowing you're going to have a new quarterback this year, a young quarterback,
it is nice to have a veteran target who's been in the system who knows what he's doing.
And for that reason, you know, if you did have to give a little bit more of a raise just for that,
like maybe that is worth more than I'm giving credit to.
Also the fact that he's a good yard after catch receiver where your young quarterback can
throw him the ball and he can make guys miss.
I don't know.
Maybe I'm talking myself more and more into like why he is important to really
important to bring back.
But and again, like you're something else to his credit.
The 45 catches, the 476 yards.
He did that in where, you know, he was banged up.
He played in all 12 games for KU, but he was banged up, especially at the early
part of the season.
He had seven games this year where he played 25 or less snaps.
Now, part of that is sometimes KU would play two tight ends or three tight ends.
Sometimes, you know, KU.
was going to go more of a heavy set.
Sometimes they're rotating their receivers.
I think some of that, too, was the injury stuff, right?
And he had a lot of games where he wasn't playing like a ton of snaps necessarily.
And he still was a productive receiver overall.
Now, if we look at some of the like the, I don't know, per play or the efficiency metrics, so to speak,
to get a better idea what the season looked at.
So this is how he rates out among 684 qualified wide receivers over at game on paper.
He was 62nd percentile, so above average, solid.
in EPA per target.
That's a good place to be.
53rd percentile in yards per target.
So about average, slightly above average.
53rd percentile in success rate.
So again, same spot there.
Then on some profitable focus grades, among 341 qualified for 20 percent of targets on max
snaps.
He was in the 83rd percentile in reception percentage, the amounts of reception you had per target,
84th percentile in yard after catch per reception.
So again, that shows kind of his ability.
as a yak monster, so to speak.
He was only in the 33rd percentile, though,
in passer rating when targeted,
but you could have the real argument of like,
okay, how much that is on him,
how much that is the quarterback,
how much is the scheme?
That's where it kind of gets difficult,
and I'll let you decide there.
Also among the 168 qualified on pro football focus
for slot targets specifically, right?
When you're getting those snaps in the slot,
he was in the 60th percentile in pro football focus receiving grip.
again above average solid there if you go off of all receivers he was in the 51st
percentile but if we're just looking at the slot 60th and then he was also in the 41st
percent off we're just looking at those slot snaps in terms of yards per route run so i think
pretty consistently across the board there right um you're talking about a player who
by most of those metrics from a a college football wide national perspective was an above
average receiver this year for k you and if you're talking about above average receiver
getting another year under his belt.
I think sometimes an above average can get construed as like a bad thing.
I don't think that's a bad thing at all.
Like I think about it in the NBA all the time where it's like average players will make like
$20 million a year on a contract.
I don't think that's a bad thing.
So I hope people don't hear me say average and hold that as a bad thing.
Like if you were an average college football player, that's awesome because that probably
means you're a starter and you're contributing to winning anyway.
Point being above average player.
And if you're coming back for another year, theoretically, you could.
would be getting better. Now, if the quarterback production is down, which we'll see from Jalen
to the new guy, that could impact it a little bit. But like point being, this is a nice starting
point for the receiver room. It gives you your slot. If you feel good about Keaton, Quebec on the
outside, which I think you need more growth there, but like, I've at least seen enough that
if that ends up happening, I'm not going to be overly worried. And then you bring in a transfer
portal receiver to be the other starting receiver. I'll say this to like, again, going back to
the yard after catch conversation, 336 of pickets, 476 receiving yards.
It came within nine yards of the line of scrimmage.
So hitting a lot of those short routes that you'd think young quarterbacks would want,
273 of those yards that came within nine yards of line of scrimmage came on yard after catch.
He also 31 of his 45 catches over the middle third of the field.
So this is a player who can help a young quarterback, I think, in a lot of ways.
And then I'm also interested to see, like, I do think that,
you want him to be better as a run blocker, only a 53.3 run block grade. Now, it wasn't very good
the run block grade at Ball State either. So maybe he's just smaller receiver and that's
tougher to do. And maybe that is why some of the snap counts were a little bit lower. If he can
even get that up to like 60, basically like the average range, I think that'd be helpful for KU because
I do think they were missing a little more receiver blocking this year than they had in some of the
previous years. But point being, we know he's a yak threat. We know he can help underneath. We know he can help
over the middle. I do wonder with Emmanuel Henderson gone, do we see him more in special teams?
You know, he is somebody with good with the ball in his hand and now the Henderson's gone.
I don't know, might make sense to, you know, allow him to do that as well.
Here's one weird stat that I'll throw out there before we wrap up here.
Can Kansas use him more, I don't know, in like real routes, like intermediate routes, I guess I would say.
That's not fair to call it real routes, like intermediate routes because it's not, I guess this
isn't all intermediate, but guess how many contested targets he had?
So targets he had when he was, I guess, a chance to make a contested catch.
The correct answer is zero.
Again, I don't know.
Is that a scheme thing?
Is that Jaylen didn't want to throw him the ball unless he was wide open?
He was afraid he was getting risk averse there.
Or is that just like that's not part of his game that he's going to make contested catches?
I think that's going to be a number that you're going to have to see go way up with the young
quarterback like you need to be the trusted target for k u so that'll be kind of interesting to watch
but good news there for k u with uh picket coming back all right that'll do for this episode of
locked on jhawks thanks so much for joining the show again on tomorrow's episode we're going
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