Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Three NEW Players That Will Determine How Good Kansas Jayhawks Football Will Be in 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we talk a little KU football. What three newest players into the roster are going to heavily determine how good this Kansas team is and if they can maybe even contend for a Big 12 title. 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? I'm Derek Johnson at D Johnson radio on Twitter and this is locked on Jayhawks. Thank you for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching all of our shows whether you're catching it anywhere you get your podcast free on the audio side or on YouTube where you can like and subscribe to the show as well. And on today's edition of LLJ talking a little KU football three new KU football players, they're going to heavily determine the success of the 2025 season the outcome of the 2025 season for KU. Before we get into any of that, we're gonna tell you all about FanDuel Sportsbook where you

Starting point is 00:01:08 can get some early season odds on KU whether it's the week zero gaming at Fresno State or they're over under win total or to win the week 12. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel right now to customers and get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins with FanDuel. Okay, so breaking down three of the newest Jayhawks that are going to determine how good Kansas is even going to be here in the 2025 season. Now, I think that the idea here is that, you know,

Starting point is 00:01:40 all players have a range of outcomes, right? Like all players have a worst case outcomes, right? Like all players have a the worst case scenario, best case scenario, right? Likely, especially with newcomers, there's the bit of the unknown with them being new players, like the new player could be anything, you know, like it's the beauty of having something new, because you haven't seen a fail to a certain point in time. And so players that like if they don't translate and coming over, or if they're just fine, but like nothing special, versus a player being a good starter, or even an all conference type of guy, like that is a huge swing in what you were getting in a new player on how good a unit on how good a position, or how good overall a team could end up being in

Starting point is 00:02:23 a conference like the big 12, where you have a lot of one score games, or you have a lot of, I don't know, winning on the margins, so to speak, like yeah, those winning on the margins, that one extra good transfer addition you made, or that one miss scouted transfer that you thought would fit in here and didn't, that could be the difference between one extra win

Starting point is 00:02:41 in conference play that separates from, you know, you go into a bowl game, or you going to winning eight or a bowl game or you going to winning eight or nine games, or you being ranked or you going to the Big 12 championship, they really does matter. Now as I go through this list, a little spoiler here, I don't have any true freshmen on the list. These are all players that transferred in to Kansas. And the biggest reason why is, well, I think Kansas, first of all, I guess, has set themselves up

Starting point is 00:03:07 that they don't need to play, you know, true freshmen right away. If a true freshman is getting on the field for Kansas this year, it's well, I guess you never know the injury bug could hit and you would hope that would not be the case. But more than likely, it's because that true freshman really is balling out or maybe it's later in the year when they've had more time to figure things out like Jalen Todd who started to play more last year as a true freshman as a corner

Starting point is 00:03:28 and now will be a true sophomore but like you look at KU is best freshman like Adrian Hawley for instance, he's arguably KU is best freshman coming in in the class is a defensive end and it's like okay, we have Justice Finkeley and Alex Bray transfer from Texas and Illinois who figured to play a lot at the strong side defensive event spot. You have Dean Miller who was all big 12 second team at the other defense event spot. And then you have players who yeah, are like Holly

Starting point is 00:03:52 that they were highly recruited, but they've now had years in the program like Dak Brinkley, or, you know, I guess we'll see what happens with Dylan Brooks with him coming back off injury, but also bringing in transfers like Leroy Harris and Caleb Redd. So it's, it's not impossible to see the guy on the field. But like it's hard for that guy to make like a huge impact if you're only playing 10 snaps a game, even which is like what DJ Warner was doing last year. So number one, the first

Starting point is 00:04:18 guy that comes to mind for me of newcomers that is going to have a heavy hand in how good Kansas is, is Emmanuel Henderson. I get it, theoretically you could take like any of the receivers for KU because you do have a full new starting receiver core if you're Kansas to the point of you need a lot of the guys to step up, right? You need to have a good receiving core with depth so that you can have multiple guys beat you. So it does have to be multiple, But it feels like to me with Henderson,

Starting point is 00:04:47 it's another level. Like with Bryson Canty and with, I don't know, Levi Wentz and Cam Pickett, like I like a lot of the pickups that they made in the receiver room. I still believe that there's something there that they can get internally from, you know, some of the players that they're returning

Starting point is 00:05:04 like Doug Emelian and Keaton Kubeka, right? That that I feel like they're gonna have at least some depth there. I don't know that they're gonna have as good of depth as they had last year. And when I say depth, it was really three guys, but feel as good with your one through three as you do this year. But the difference is to me, I think you could wind up feeling better about your number one. And the reason why would be if Emmanuel Henderson goes off, I think he's going to be really good. By all accounts,

Starting point is 00:05:29 all the the talk that was kind of coming around the scuttlebutt from spring football was that this dude was coming in as the real deal that his speed was very apparent. Keep in mind, this guy was like basically a five star recruit as a running back coming into Alabama, transitioned over to receiver. So it's going to take you a little bit longer to figure out the transition last year, he becomes the receiver number four for Alabama. But, you know, their top two receivers are players who could end up being first round draft picks on the team. So it's not

Starting point is 00:05:55 like a huge slight that he ends up transferring away and comes to Kansas where you know, okay, you would have been the number four at Alabama, you'd be the number one at Kansas. I mean, we saw like Ohio State lost the number four in Alabama, you'd be the number one in Kansas. I mean, we saw like Ohio State lost Jameson Williams to Alabama, he was like the number four, number five on the depth chart, because they had all those guys in front of him, you know, like Marvin Harrison, and I don't know, Mecca, Bucca and stuff. And he transferred

Starting point is 00:06:18 Alabama and he was the number, I guess Alabama had two really good receivers that year. But for my money, he was the number one on Alabama. And he was like a game changer for them, right? Sometimes that happens when you're in loaded receiving courts, loaded receiving rooms. I think he's gonna be an absolute stud for Kansas. And honestly, I feel so good about him to the standpoint where maybe it doesn't make sense to be here.

Starting point is 00:06:40 Cause again, going to the idea where it's like, they need multiple guys to step up a receiver. If I feel so good about Henderson, then maybe it's like, okay, who should I pick here to be the receiver number two, right? But still, I mean, what if like Henderson, like I think the difference again, the difference in Henderson being a solid player being like an Andrew Parchment type of season of Stefan Robinson type season, which like those were good receivers for KU the difference

Starting point is 00:07:03 of that versus being like a star versus being like a first team all big 12 player versus being like an NFL draft pick at the receiver position for KU. That is a big difference for Jaylen Daniels. That's a big difference for the play calling. That's a big difference for the offense as a whole, and how it can open things up for others, but also give you that player that you can go to when you really, really need it. And it's also the idea to like this has been something that Kansas

Starting point is 00:07:29 has been missing the last couple years because like, lj Arnold, Luke Graham and Quentin Skinner, those were good college receivers, like those were good players. None of them really had the skill set of hey, we're gonna throw you a slant. You caught it seven yards. Can you break loose for another 20? We're going to throw you a little drag route, can you add 15 yards after the catch? Most of their game was it could be route running, it could be being schemed open, it could be making contested catches, right?

Starting point is 00:07:56 Though those players were good at a lot of things. That wasn't really the forte of them. And that's something Henderson again, who was a former running back coming into college can bring to the table that adds another level that can make things easier on Jalen Daniels that again, you know, he doesn't have to throw 15 yards downfield to get a 20 yard catch, he could make a seven yard throw and it turns into a 20 yard catch with a guy like Henderson. And here's the crazy thing. Kansas hasn't

Starting point is 00:08:20 had a 1000 yard receiver since Desmond Briscoe in 2009. Both Desmond Briscoe and Kerry Meyer did it in 2008. But 2009 is the last time somebody did it. Steven Simms got the closest. He had over 800 yards in both 2016 and 2017. Honestly, if he would have had better, more consistent quarterback play at the time, maybe he would have ended up, you know, breaking that mark. But Andrew Parchment had over 800 in 2019, as I mentioned earlier, so far in the Lance Leipold era, the most single season receiving yards are with Lawrence Arnold in 2023. He had 782. Lawrence Arnold in 2022 had the second most 716. And then Luke Grimm

Starting point is 00:08:59 would be third from this past season. He had 690. Fourth would be 2021 Kwame Lasteriter, he had 653. And then rounding out the top five would be Luke Grimm in 2022 when he had 623. So that's your leaderboard for the light bulb era, which would tell you that we haven't even had an 800 yard receiver in the Lance light bulb era. So it's like, OK, what is part of that?

Starting point is 00:09:20 Your schematic is part of that something that it's just not going to be doable, right? I don't think it is because Because if you go back to Lance Lightbulb's time at Buffalo, they had a stud receiver in Anthony Johnson, again, this goes back, like Lance Lightbulb and his staff, they will adjust to the personnel they have. Anthony Johnson, really good receiver at Buffalo, he had 1356 receiving yards in 2017. He also had 1011 receiving yards in

Starting point is 00:09:43 2018. So if you are good enough, you're going to get the ball. And now that you have Jim Zabrowski as offensive coordinator, that could be a little bit more wide receiver usage than tight end usage, right? I still think you're going to see a lot of tight ends on the field. But maybe similar to what we saw in the bowl game when Jim Zabrowski was calling the plays when they beat UNLV back in the guaranteed rate bowl with all those receivers going off, maybe that becomes a little more often than what we've seen the past couple years when it has been truly spread out and balanced between

Starting point is 00:10:12 receivers tight ends and running backs. I'm sure it'll still be spread out, but maybe just a little bit more goes to the receivers now. And so knowing that like, it would not surprise me if this is the most receiving yards. In fact, I'm putting a bold prediction out there. Emmanuel Henderson gets the most receiving yards of any receiver in the Lance Lightpole era so far at Kansas. And can he get 1K? That's another level to get to for a team who does run the football lot.

Starting point is 00:10:37 But I'll say 800 plus at the very least for Henderson. And he could certainly be a game changer for this KU offense. All right. Who are two other newcomers that are going to help determine in a big way this KU football season's result? Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you're all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green or high stakes soccer action, FanD dual is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You're already following the action. Why not make it a little more thrilling with

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Starting point is 00:11:40 first bet wins. Open the FanDuel up today or visit FanDuel.com to get started. FanDuel, official sports partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network. All right, thanks for joining us on this episode of the show. You can make Lockdown College football or Lockdown College basketball your second listen every day. All right, who are two other newcomers that are going to have a heavy handed determining this season for KU football? Let's start here. We're gonna move over to the defensive side of the football. Let's get going with Bengali Kamara. So I went back and look, this is the Lance Leipold era for pro football focus grades, which again, take them with a

Starting point is 00:12:19 grain of salt. That's not the be all end all but at least gives us a good reference point here. So in the Lance Leipold era, these are the PFF grades for linebackers with minimum 200 snaps in a season for KU. So you got to be playing you know, I guess at that point, if you're playing 12 game season, I know you're playing, you know, 18 to 20 snaps a game depending on how many games you played. But okay, the highest rated season from a linebacker was last year, JB Brown in 2024 had a 78.4 PFF grade. Then there's a bit of a

Starting point is 00:12:47 drop off, you have to go down to 69.2, which is still good. That was from Craig Young in the 2023 season at Kansas. The third on the list would also be JB Brown 2023 67.6. Maybe we didn't appreciate JB Brown. To be clear, I was the president of the JB Brown fan club. As soon as they got him love that dude, always champion and being good. But even then I feel like I didn't sell it enough on on what he did. I do also think though, that's partially on the staff, they used him in the

Starting point is 00:13:14 right way to get him those grades. Cornell Wheeler in 2023. This was a little more limited snaps with 66.5 pff grade, which is unfortunate because in 2024, he was trending that way. He ended up with a 53.3 which is on the back half of this. But I think that's because he had to play through the injuries. Anyway, after that Cornell Wheeler one, there's not another guy who is so Cornell Wheeler in 2023 was 66.5. Everybody else is 59 or below. And 60 is kind of the minimum of where you want to be at for being like an average,

Starting point is 00:13:43 low. And 60 is kind of the minimum of where you want to be at for being like an average, you know, starter, so to speak. If we look at the bottom, I guess three on there, you know, with Taiwan Berry Hill at 29.7 in 2023, you have Gavin Potter in 2021 with a 37.6. And then you have although, shoot, was that less miles anyway, and then 2024 was Taiwan Berry Hill at a 42.4. But point being, you just haven't had, you know, a ton of great individual linebacker seasons, if you are Kansas here. And I think Bengali, Kamara gives you the opportunity to do just that. So

Starting point is 00:14:20 I guess to begin, my expectation for Kamara is that he has at least a top five season in the light pole there, right? Because that would put you you just need to have a 60 pff grade. If you're just viewing that metric as the judgment there to be a top five individual linebacker season for KU. But if not top two, right, a JP Brown one from last year is a pretty high rating. But can you at least like if you can be top two, that would be such a boon for this team. And I think

Starting point is 00:14:42 the the big difference, I guess I would almost say here is that. Because again, if you're talking about KU's linebacker core, it has not been a strength for them necessarily, according to or compared to other teams in the big 12. And so it is interesting, though, you look at it and go, OK, but J.B. Brown was good last year and Craig Young was good the year before, right? And so you wonder, okay, even if Bengali Kamara is good, how do we know it's going to make the whole linebacker court good if it's just one guy? Maybe it just ends up being

Starting point is 00:15:16 whoever KU second best linebacker is ends up being the most important because, again, KU actually got an awesome linebacker season from JB Brown last year, and they got above average to good years from Brown in 23, Craig Young and contributions from Rich Miller and Cornel Wheeler in 23 as well. The thing about it though is that KU hasn't had two linebackers in the same season cross 70. And if I think Kamara can get there, which I think he can, we saw K use defense last year be

Starting point is 00:15:52 fine with one doing that, like, to be clear, they were fine as a defense, right? They weren't great. They weren't bad. The difference would be I think if it's two, and I think that backs itself up when you consider, you know, OK, so 2023 again, you had three linebackers cross that 66 PFF grade. Two of them were part time players, right? They kind of rotated in. And I think that defense is probably even better than the 2024 defense by, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:18 smallest of margins, but that team won nine games, right? And to also consider that last year, KU's defense played its best ball early in the season. And what was the common theme early in the season when KU's defense was playing its best ball? Cornell Wheeler was healthy before the West Virginia game. And at that point, you had two quality linebackers. So maybe this is above just Bengali Kamara. It's Bengali Kamara and one other guy

Starting point is 00:16:42 needs to step up for KU. So you can have at least two good linebackers that right and I don't know how much the new coordinator DK, DK McDonald and you know, are they gonna play more 425? Like how does that kind of impact this? Does it take away some of the pressures of needing the linebacker core to be good to begin with? So while Kimara is gonna I think have a huge impact and be a key player, if you think he's going to be

Starting point is 00:17:07 good, maybe it is more important to have that second good one. And then maybe you'd look to like Joseph Sip or Trey Laithen, or one of the guys that you have returning can one of those guys step up next to being all like Mara, you can have your best duo of linebackers if you are KU. Let's finish up here. We have another defensive player to get to this is Lockdown Jayhawks. Again, don't forget to check out Lockdown College football or Lockdown College basketball for your second listen every day. Thank you that every day is catching each and every episode of the show no matter how you tune in right here with Lockdown Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:17:40 Okay, so who is next up on the list of players that I think is going to have a key role on on Kansas? Let me mention a couple honorable mentions first, I think you might even be able to have an argument for DJ Graham, given in that that you've lost, you know, those two stud corners and Melo Dotson and Kobe Bryant, and that Graham comes in the most experienced corner now in the room for Kansas. I mean, they added Syed Gibbs as well, who's a redshirt junior, Graham is a redshirt senior. Every other corner on the roster for KU is a redshirt sophomore sophomore freshman or true freshmen. So basically, it's a bunch of underclassmen and those guys. So Graham being a leader beyond the production he could try to provide is as pivotal as anything so that that would be a fair argument to kind of have there. You could probably pick one of the safeties.

Starting point is 00:18:25 I think part of the problem would be, I don't know which one you pick. You pick, you know, Laquan Robinson. Do you pick Lerick Rawls? Like, that's probably the one that makes the most sense there. But I think in general, to me, this position, the guy we're going to talk about here just generally is one of the most important positions on the football field. So we're going to go with this. Justice Finkely. I think he's got a huge impact on how good Kansas is this season. It's interesting you look at the pass rush win rates for Justice

Starting point is 00:18:53 Finkely over his time at Texas before he transferred into Kansas 13%, 7%, 9%. So that's 13 as a freshman seven as a sophomore nine as a junior. If we compare that to players who have led KU and Sax in the light pulled era, you go back to your one of the light pulled era, Kyron Johnson was at a 12% pass rush win rate, Lonnie Phelps was at close to 16%. Austin Booker was at about 15% and Dean Miller was at 6.3%. So if you're looking at that standpoint, you could say, okay, maybe Finkeley is going to be better than Miller

Starting point is 00:19:28 there, specifically, but it depends where the range of outcomes is, right? If you do get closer to the 13%, you're looking at a premier pass rusher for KU, or is if you get closer to 70%, you're looking at somebody who might end up with a handful of sacks, but it might come more by volume, then consistently winning over and over, which kind of felt like how Lonnie Phelps and Austin Booker were kind of doing it. I don't think this is a defensive end position that

Starting point is 00:19:54 like, feels like I think you can make the argument whether the position group is better worse than it was a season ago. And Finke Lee, if he is good, I think the position group is better than it was a season ago. And Finkely, if he is good, I think the position group is better than it was a season ago versus if he's just average, it's probably worse because you at least had a couple guys you could bring in with Robinson and Woodke. Now maybe Alex Bray coming over from Illinois allows you to have more depth there and more, I don't know, darts to throw in terms of one guy breaking out as a all-coffins type of defensive end to pair next to Dean Miller, that would be a nice thing for KU to have. But I look at Finkely as this big addition that the

Starting point is 00:20:32 Jayhawks made in the offseason as somebody who can fill that strong defensive end role, a position that it feels like a majority of the defense events for KU more so, I guess, profile doing, you know, the weak side defensive ends. And so Finkeley being good would allow some of the young guys to develop longer and you not have to go to them. And it's also one of the guys who has more of the proven pass rush than some of the other players that you have on your roster that's like, you need pass rush to be good. And so just from a standpoint of winning football games and being a good defense, having a good

Starting point is 00:21:09 pass or having a good defensive end, that's important at any level of football. So I think it's more of a general reason of why Finkely so important this year. But yeah, if those three guys have big seasons for KU, Henderson, Finkely, Kamara, I think KU is going to have a pretty fun season. All right, that'll do it for this episode of the show. You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page, or you can like and subscribe.

Starting point is 00:21:33 See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Three NEW Players That Will Determine How Good Kansas Jayhawks Football Will Be in 2025

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