Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Trey Lathan Watch: Will Jayhawks Star Linebacker Enter Transfer Portal Officially or Stay at Kansas?

Starting point is 00:00:00 What's going on with Trey Lathen? Do you have a chance of returning to KU? Plus, we're going to get to some transfer portal superlatives for the Kansas Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. How's it going? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:30 And thank you the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. Thank you also for making Locked on. on the number one sports podcast network. On today's episode of the show, we're breaking down the latest KU football and the transfer portal. What's going on with the Trey Lathen situation? Because I think it's becoming very, very interesting.

Starting point is 00:00:46 And if Kansas even has a sliver of hope of bringing them back, that would be gigantic. We'll also get to some portal superlatives for KU, for instance, best offensive edition, most underrated player category like that here with Locked on J. And then we'll finish up with some of the latest news going on. There's some interesting news going on in the world the college football and college basketball.

Starting point is 00:01:07 We'll get to a little KU Women's Basketball update as well as part of that. So today's episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase with game time. So Trey Lathen is KU's stud linebacker that had a good amount of production. You know, you're talking over 80 tackles on the season for Traleith. Any of the interception against West Virginia,

Starting point is 00:01:33 put up tackles for loss numbers. I mean, he was just everywhere for KU. You look at the pro football focus numbers. He was really strong. You look at how he compared to other big 12 linebackers, and he was a top 10 linebacker this past year at KU. You had a really strong season for Kansas after transferring over from West Virginia. And I went as far in our episode before it opened up,

Starting point is 00:01:54 talking about the top 10 potential returners for KU football. I had him as the number one player. Now, I kind of said that I thought you could argue a couple guys in that top spot. but for me, Trey Lathen was the top guy. And even if you think it was second or third or fourth or whatever, it still was a big deal that KU lost him. And obviously KU did a good job retaining a lot of these other players that they potentially could have lost or could have tested the portal

Starting point is 00:02:16 and they did a job with that. And he was kind of the biggest one to go. Now, unfortunately, you could have made the argument that, again, the best player and you did lose him. It sucks, especially when you add into this, that when you look at KU linebackers, think about the guys who have been for KU at the linebacker position. They've constantly had to filter guys in and out of the program, right?

Starting point is 00:02:38 Like they've constantly had to bring in a ton of transfer additions to play linebacker snaps for them. And that was no different last year. That's no different this year with all the guys they brought in. But especially when you look at the guys who have been at KU and play the linebacker spot for multiple seasons in the system, which I guess it's a different system now with D.K. McDonald and Brian Boreland, but it's still the same linebacker coach. having that familiarity and continuity has been worth a lot for KU.

Starting point is 00:03:05 Like you think of Rich Miller, he got a lot better from his first year playing to his second and even third. You look at J.B. Brown. J.B. Brown was a good player, but in a more of a specific role in 2023, played even more in 2024, and he was an all big 12 level linebacker. That was his second year in the program. You think about some of the additions they made that didn't work out of guys coming in for just one year. Like Lorenzo McCaskill was like an all sunbelt linebacker. He came in that didn't really work out. for KU. Eric Gileard had some production at UCF. And I think his thing was he had some injury

Starting point is 00:03:35 stuff going on. But like point being he came in for one year, it didn't work out. Bengali Kamara came in and you saw some really good moments this year for Bengali Kamara. He had some really good highlights, some really good flash plays, made some important plays for KU's defense. But overall, the inconsistency or the lack of consistency was there. Some of the profile ball focus grades didn't love it, the miss tackles, maybe missing an angle or doing something crazy that, um, it makes you wonder like, do players take a big jump in the second year at the linebacker spot in the KU system? And so you look at Trey Lathen specifically. And he already was a really good linebacker this past season.

Starting point is 00:04:14 And then you have the idea that he could potentially, okay, you know, potentially would be a senior, potentially would be another year in the program. And this is a former receiver in high school. This player who in theory hasn't been on the job as much as a linebacker. the growth should be even more. All of those are reasons to believe that Trey Lathen not only is a good player now, but could be an even better player for KU if they can get him back for 2026. Now, this is a long-winded way of getting around to this, right?

Starting point is 00:04:45 Because I'm basically talking up more and more on Trey Lathen, but he entered the transfer portal or at least tweeted out that he was entering the transfer portal. And last I checked, that was still up on his social media page. So who knows exactly what's going on over there, right? But that was tweeted out by him. And right, so makes you kind of think it was going to happen. Well, to this point in time, he has not officially actually entered the transfer portal. Now, is this just something where he's going to wait till, you know, later on the day, Thursday or Friday to enter?

Starting point is 00:05:18 Because again, Friday is your final day that you can enter. And maybe I don't know what the reasoning would be that you would not officially enter or not until the last day. I don't understand what the purpose of that would necessarily be. But to this point, he hasn't officially entered. And then on top of it, because of that, he hasn't like taken a visit, at least officially, to another school at this point in time. So it's kind of like that situation. What is going on here, right?

Starting point is 00:05:47 I guess we're now on Trey Lathen watch as the portal closes, right? As this thing wraps up, if he does not enter the portal by the end of day friday, I don't know if there's a deadline on on Friday or if it's just midnight Friday or whatever it is. Whatever the deadline is on Friday when the portal closes here. If he is not officially in the portal and I know it can take some time, so maybe we wouldn't find out until Saturday or Sunday potentially, but like if he is not in the portal by the deadline, that means he is officially coming back to Kansas.

Starting point is 00:06:16 And that would obviously be a huge deal for Kansas for all those reasons I just outlined and kind of talked about here, right? And it's kind of interesting, like, I don't know, I'd love to know, like, what was the reason he wanted to enter the portal in the first place or why he tweeted it out, even though it hasn't officially happened? Is it that he wanted a bigger amount of money? Is it that another school came calling and said that, hey, we're willing to give you this amount of money to come here? You know, could the delay potentially be that another school wants him and they would pay him a big amount of money? but it's contingent on they're going after another linebacker target and Trey Lathens, they're number two and this guy's their number one.

Starting point is 00:06:55 And they're like, hey, we'll give you that much money. But it's only if this guy doesn't do it and they're waiting. I don't know. There's a lot of things that can add up here, right? Because if you're just talking about leaving from a playing time perspective, that wouldn't be it. So it could be a money thing. It could just be a, you know, he wants to go to a program that, like,

Starting point is 00:07:09 what if he has an opportunity to go play for a team that is expected to compete to win their conference or something next year, whereas he just played for a Kansas team that went five and seven and he probably wants to, you know, make it into the postseason, right? So there are a couple of reasons why it could happen. But obviously for Kansas with the mass exodus of all the linebackers that they had, you wonder if once all those things happened, like Joseph Sipp entered after Trey Lathen, like was Kansas having to kind of hedge a little bit and be like,

Starting point is 00:07:37 hey, you know, John, John Camaro, we can't pay you because we got to the Ford Trey Lathen. And hey, you know, this player, we can't because we want to pay. And then when Trey Lathen goes, it's like, okay, well, now we have all this extra money that we're planning on paying him. Okay, Joseph Sip, are you coming back? And maybe Joseph Sip is like, hey, now that Trey Lathen's gone, I want more money to stick around. And KU's like, no. So we'll just find somebody else in the portal. And then they end up entering.

Starting point is 00:08:05 And KU makes some additions in the portal. And KU, you know, makes a lot of them, Davion Crouch, obviously the most notable among the linebacker additions KU is made. And maybe you're at a point where you go, hey, we actually wound up with, with a little bit more money left over than we thought we were going to have. So hey, Trey Lathen, I know you were thinking about entering the portal, what would you think if we could up that offer a little bit more? What would you think if we could match that other offer that you have or whatever it ends up being? Again, I don't know that this is actually happening,

Starting point is 00:08:31 but I'm just like working this hypothetical out talking with you guys, right? Then that becomes kind of interesting. So I find it very weird, but for a KU player that potentially return and be one of KU best players next season. I mean, I like what they've done in the linebacker portal. They've added some guys that have different skill sets. They've added some guys that can help with special teams. They've added some veterans. They've added some depth. They've added a frontline guy with Dave beyond Crouch. But the difference in having Trey Lathen back to where you can start Lathen next to Crouch and a linebacker core where it's Crouch and then you don't know who's going to be

Starting point is 00:09:08 the other starter. And it's going to be a competition between some of those guys that maybe some of them I like better for depth than I do as a starter is going to be pretty vast in how. potentially I view this defense and how potentially I view this team. And you do have the opportunity. If you can bring Trey Lathen back, like I do really like this defensive line for KU. If you can have Lathen and Crouch back, this would be the best front seven of the Lance Lydra. And that is the opportunity you have in front of you.

Starting point is 00:09:33 So we'll see what ends up happening here. It's going to be a very interesting, I guess, decision and a story of what ends up coming out after this, of what ends up happening here for KU with Trey Lathen. Let's continue on some portal superlatives. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks to join us. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. There's nothing like the college basketball season, tailgates, packed stadiums, being right there in the middle of it all, the energy, the bands, the moments you remember forever.

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Starting point is 00:11:02 Download the GameTime app today. Thanks again for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. So if you can check out the Everyday Air Club to get the ad-free version of Lockdown Jayhawks. And that is on all the major podcast apps. Plus, you get an invite to the members only locked on every day or club Discord server. You can hang out with us and chat with us each and every day. All right, portal superlatives that we have here. So let's start with this one.

Starting point is 00:11:28 And if you have a different portal superlative that you want us to talk about that I didn't go over here, at L.O. underscore Jayhawks on Twitter, give it a follow, just reply to us or tweet at us or DM us or whatever. At L.O. underscore Jayhawks, and we'll go over that. Okay, portal superlative of your best offensive edition. And to me, this is Nick McMillan, and this feels like kind of a home run slam dunk one right now. McMillan, I was just watching some of his Minnesota tape the other day. And that was one of his least productive games. He took off over the last six games.

Starting point is 00:12:01 So this was before that kind of happened. But I still saw some things that I liked against a powerful opponent in Minnesota. And that one, I thought the stop start was really good. I thought his ability to kind of get off press coverage was pretty good in that matchup. he ended up with having two catches for 20 yards. And one of the catches was like really good at the sideline for Nick McMillan. But he went off at the end of the season. And I just love how much of a complete receiver he is.

Starting point is 00:12:26 You can use him in the short, you can use him in the intermediate. You can use him deep. I think he's going to be the most complete receiver that KU has had. Maybe of the light pulled arrow. Like maybe you would look at Kwame Lassar, how he took off at the end of his season at Kansas. Maybe you would look at like L.J. Arnold in 2023 for Kansas.

Starting point is 00:12:44 but I think McMillan is going to put up a really productive season for KU. Obviously, you know, who the quarterback is and how much they run him and how much they pass are going to factor into those things as well. Best defensive edition for KU. This one was tougher for me. Between Thrice, Eamon Smalls, Trayvon McAlpine, and Corey Gordon. So Smalls and McAlpine are both defensive tackles. Both can come in and play the nose tackle for you.

Starting point is 00:13:09 They can play kind of more of a traditional defensive tackle in a four-three role. They can do some different things and they are big bodies that, you know, look the part of their size. It's not just, oh, you were listed at 300 by your college team, but really you're 280. It's like, no, those dudes are listed at like 305, 310, and they look every part of it in the best way possible. Both of them are going to help the KU linebackers. Both of them are going to help, you know, stop the running game. And I think both are fantastic additions. I think Smalls showed even more disruption at UAB,

Starting point is 00:13:44 whereas McAlpine showed even more probably just stoutness at the point of attack against, you know, taking on blockers in the running game. I think both are going to be huge additions for KU. And then I really like the Cory Gordon one. I think he's just a solid player. I talked to a friend of mine who covers things in the Louisville area. And he just told me, yeah, like he's just a solid player. Like he's not going to necessarily be somebody who maybe view as the star of the defense,

Starting point is 00:14:10 but he's somebody who's just going to make solid plays consistently. for you, but I look at it from the point of positional need for KU after losing a lot of safeties and after having a lot of struggles last year, I will take solid in a heartbeat. So I'm going to actually go Corey Gordon on this one, knowing that, hey, if you didn't have even smalls, you'd still have Trayvon McAlpine and a lot of these other de-tackles like Blake Harold. If you didn't have Trayvon McAlpine, you'd still have even smalls and a lot of these other de-tackles because of positional scarcity will go with Corey Gordon as the answer there for now. Most likely to be all big 12. So this is a little bit.

Starting point is 00:14:44 little bit of a different answer because, you know, I don't know, there's a little bit of the Kansas scheme and production and stuff that kind of factors into this. Like it's, it's maybe tough for a guy like McAlpine to be on the All Big 12th team for Kansas because he's more of a run-stopping defensive tackle who maybe isn't going to rack up a ton of tackles, but he's going to make everybody's lives easier. And that doesn't always show up on the old conference team, albeit he did end up on the All-American conference team, but he was on the team who won the league. So it becomes a little easier there. I think it'd be interesting. Like, KU's had a lot of success developing guards. And so what if Connor Stro takes off the transfer from Texas? That could absolutely happen.

Starting point is 00:15:26 But, you know, I could see McAlpine or Smalls, even saying all that stuff. I think McMillan for offense would be kind of an interesting answer there. Like, again, if he takes off and has 800, 900 yards, that would be something that probably gets him on at least one of the teams. Maybe one of the two running backs for Kansas, right? If one of the two running backs kind of takes off and it ends up being like a thousand yard back, then they could absolutely get in there. But I guess my answer would be once again, Nick McMillan there. Best long-term piece for KU. So we defined this as you have to have potential to play three or more years for Kansas.

Starting point is 00:15:57 And at the end of the day, this is probably like, will this end up mattering? Like, I don't know. Somebody is supposed to be around three plus years to transfer. But it's Kevin Oatis for defense and it's Jalen Dupree for the offense. So Dupree could have three more years. the more I dig into Jalen Dupree, I'm kind of wondering if he's going to end up being like the guy for KU at running back.

Starting point is 00:16:21 I don't know, we'll wait and see. Maybe I'm overdoing it there. But you look at Kevin Oatis and Oatis is a former like four star recruit who went to Arkansas developed for a year. I think it wouldn't surprise me if he gets into the rotation this year's the defensive tackles and then potentially could take off down the road for Kansas, especially with the way that Jim Pantagos has developed play.

Starting point is 00:16:42 players at that position. Most underrated edition for Kansas. I got three guys that came in mind. Lynn Dupree is somebody that I wanted to bring up here. Quincy Davis, a really good pro football focus grades and some certain traits that I like from him coming over from New Mexico State with really good at tackling, had a really good miss tackle rate, had some solid coverage numbers in terms of being used as a linebacker.

Starting point is 00:17:05 The question for him is just going to be the jump up in competition. But the answer I'm going to go with here is Keijon Cummings-Colman. comes over from Iowa State where he played a bit as a redshirt freshman until he got injured. I think he's going to be somebody who comes in right away. And honestly, he could have been one of my answers for best long-term piece because he comes in with three plus years. He's somebody who I think is going to be able to play multiple safety positions for KU. That seems like kind of a theme that they brought in safety. You can play some of the different positions.

Starting point is 00:17:32 And I think this kid's going to be somebody to watch not just in the future, but right now for Kansas. KU's best portal hall by position. I think defensive tackle has to be the one. McAlpine and Smalls have been talked about by me in a lot of these different position categories, right? And then on top of it, you added two others. You added Debreel Conday, who is kind of a potential home run swing as a D2 transfer, who has some flash. And then you're making that long-term edition of Kevin Owaitis, who might even be in the rotation as soon as this year. So that's a really good haul from the D-Tackle room, both for the right now and the future.

Starting point is 00:18:08 I would throw this one in there as an honorable mention. It's not on the same level as the D tackle to me, but receiver would at least get an honorable mention for me because it's small but mighty, small because you only have two additions, but I really like both editions for KU. I've talked a lot about Nick McMillan, but I also really like the Nasea Cox edition. That's a big body receiver who's going to play a specific role very well for KU.

Starting point is 00:18:32 He makes contested catches. He's a bigger body guy. You can use him downfield. I think that was also, kind of an underrated edition for KU. So I really liked what they did at the receiver position. Now, position that I maybe still left wanting a little bit more. I might throw tight end in there.

Starting point is 00:18:48 I haven't dug into the film just yet on the transfer in from Albany, just more so the stats on him. So maybe that'll change things a little bit for me. But I really wanted them to go out and get like an alpha tight end, a bigger spend at tight end. So we'll wait and see kind of on that one. I thought about putting running back in here just from a standpoint of I've kind of said all along, like, I would love for them to make a explosive running back,

Starting point is 00:19:12 a really fat condition to kind of pair with some of their other guys. But I do like the two running backs they added. So I don't know where I'd put that one. I think to a lesser degree offensive line, like I like the addition of Connor Stro. I like the addition of getting an experienced left tackle and Nick Morrow. I like the addition of, you know, bringing in a long-term guy that you're coming over from Wayne State and Treasel Jenkins. And I like bringing on somebody who can play the center for you.

Starting point is 00:19:38 but I really thought that they should have, like, I wanted them to have in the portal the same way they attacked where they got like studs and probably paid up for them. That's how I wanted them to do it with offensive line. And it felt like that, you know, stroke probably was a pretty penny, but I don't know, it felt like a little bit of like, I wanted them to get like a solidified stud at tackle, even if it meant, okay, maybe you got like, you know,

Starting point is 00:20:01 one less good piece at a skill position or something like that. And so I think the offensive line, like this will be an interesting, year for Darrell-Aupalsa, right? You've got some interesting pieces like Amir Herring's good. You've got a guy in Tuakutuilovatu, who's interesting and it's been some unique snaps, but it's not a home run that this ends up being a good offensive line for KU. I do think that it'll end up being solid, but yeah, I would say there. And then if Lathen doesn't return at linebacker, that would be the other one I'd throw up there. If he does, then I like the linebacker room a lot.

Starting point is 00:20:31 So that one kind of teeters there. All right, some of the latest news. We'll get to that next. Thanks for joining us here on the Lockdown Jayhawks, making us your first listen every day. You can check out locked on college football or locked on college basketball for your second list or for your second or third lesson as well. Okay, this is some news from Chris Vanini. The NCAA Division I cabinet has moved the start of college basketball transfer portal to the day after national championship games. It was previously opening in March during the NCAA tournament.

Starting point is 00:21:00 I love this. It's going to be a 15-day window. So instead of us having a, which I don't actually love this, I actually liked that our offseason kind of stretched a month or two so we can kind of breathe and and digest and really deep dive into a lot of the different targets or potential targets for KU. I kind of like that, but it's going to be wacky and wild for basketball, just like it is for football with the 15 day period. There's some rules in there about like new coaches and stuff like that. Also, mid-year transfers not eligible to compete in the second school during that same year.

Starting point is 00:21:31 So that's kind of a good clarification there. But this is interesting because even though it'll open the day after the NCAA championship, Like we know now even in football, like these agents and through back channels, like they're going to be talking during the NCAA tournament. So maybe there won't be like visits and stuff. But like people are going to have stuff lined up. So but this becomes to me even more prevalent of like an idea that it would be nice if KU had a GM to be working on these communications like KU football has. As opposed to when the coach is just focusing on the NCAA tournament.

Starting point is 00:22:04 But that's neither here nor there. Other news is. This is from the UFL, which I think they just redrafted all the players. So the Louisville team, the Louisville Kings, has Kwame Lasseter and Jason Bean on the team. So that's really cool. So I think there's going to be a lot of Jayhawk fans in spring football, maybe paying attention a little bit to the Louisville Kings there. So cool stuff there.

Starting point is 00:22:29 Also, the FBS head coaches in football voted unanimously to expand redshirt limits from four games to nine games. So it's not passed yet. That has to go in front of the D1 committee now. That seems wild to me. Nine games for a red, I mean, at this point, like, you're basically just saying, okay, everybody's going to have a fifth year. You just have to play nine. That's crazy.

Starting point is 00:22:52 Anyway, then you have women's basketball update here, KU Women's Basketball. Things are not going super well right now. They are one and four at the start of Big 12 play. They've lost some close ones in there. And now they've got AdOcler versus Oklahoma State. top 40 team on Torvick. They've got Arizona State who's a top 40 team on Torvick.

Starting point is 00:23:12 And then the schedule lightens up a little bit. They've got Arizona who's 132nd on Torvick, Kansas State, who's 68th. They do have TCU, who's the top 10 team. But then the next three games are against teams outside of the top 40, one outside of the top 100. That it's another top 30 opponent and that it seems 188, 68, 26, and 35 to finish. Right now Bart Torvick is projecting KU. Women's hoops to finish 17 and 13, 7 and 11 Big 12 play.

Starting point is 00:23:35 that to me would feel a little bit disappointing, given the talent on this roster. I know they've had to deal with some different injuries with some Iy Nichols and, you know, Julia Davis and stuff like that. And obviously the Reagan Williams getting hurt and stuff, that has not helped here. But like, I think the idea for me was,

Starting point is 00:23:51 could you at least be an NCAA tournament team this year? And they've still got time to turn it around and figure it out and try to get a little healthier and stuff here. But trending in the wrong direction at this point of time. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. So you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. We can like and subscribe to the show. See you tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:24:11 We'll do a KU Baylor preview right here on LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Trey Lathan Watch: Will Jayhawks Star Linebacker Enter Transfer Portal Officially or Stay at Kansas?

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