Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - UPHEAVAL: Kansas Jayhawks Suffer Critical RECRUITING Blow With Jordan Peterson Defection to K State

Starting point is 00:00:00 K-State hired former Kansas DB coach Jordan Peterson to be their new defensive coordinator. This is very, very bad for Lance Leopold and KU. 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. This is Locked On. Jayhawks, part of the Locked-on podcast network, now the number one sports podcast network. And thank you for joining us on today's episode of the show. We're going to be breaking down former KU assistant Jordan Peterson, becoming the defensive coordinator at K-State.

Starting point is 00:00:43 And with all his recruiting shops at KU, some of the big recruits he brought over, what is this going to mean for the future of the KU battling against K-State? What is it going to mean for recruiting standpoint? What is it going to mean on the defensive end of the ball as you're going to be cross-comparing between the Jayhawks and the Wildcats in state? and why I think this is bad news for KU. Let's finish up a little KU basketball as well. Could KU Hoops make a mid-season move?

Starting point is 00:01:07 Kyrie Walker, does that make any interest for anyone? So we'll break that down on this bonus episode of the show. Let's start right here, though. The news is that Kansas State and Colin Klein, their new head coach, have hired a new defensive coordinator. And that would be one Jordan Peterson. Now, obviously, Peterson was around a lot of different schools, then came over to Kansas during the Less Miles era.

Starting point is 00:01:30 And then during the less miles era, impressed enough to be one of the, I think, was he the only coach? Maybe there's one other. I can't remember who ended up being retained during the Lance Leipold staff. He eventually moved his way up. And eventually, by the time he was done with it, it was, you know, co-defensive coordinator, basically. And he ended up, there was a game that Brian Borland, the defense coordinator for KU, had to miss. He had like a surgery or some sort of medical issue. And Peterson ended up being the defense coordinator.

Starting point is 00:02:00 are calling plays. Beyond that, Peterson was the one who brought in. I mean, he was, he was responsible for a lot of high level recruits that brought in or the upper tier recruits and a lot of classes that KU brought in. But I think the most notable ones that KU fans might remember are the Desert Edge kids, the kids from Desert Edge High School in Arizona, like your DJ Warner's, who came over to Kansas and figured to be a big time recruiting class for KU. And even Devin Neal on Twitter responded to this, the news tweet of it and saying, well, like basically, oh, that's not good. Dak Brinkley, this one's interesting.

Starting point is 00:02:36 I want to get to this one, because this could have a couple different meanings. He just quote tweeted it with LOL, period, and then kind of a, like, I can't speak, like, I don't know, what's to be said. I'll get to that in a second year. Here's why this is bad for KU. First of all, I am under the impression that Colin Klein is going to clean up in state, right? You think of a lot of these people, like Colin Klein, that name is going to have an impact, have value with local high school coaches and with local high school recruits. And so I think

Starting point is 00:03:10 you know, Kay you having a really good in state class in 2026, I think that's going to be tougher to do with Colin Klein as the head coach. Maybe they've established more inroads now and they can continue to battle there, but it's going to get more difficult. And then you look at Jordan Peterson, I think he is somebody who is going to help Kansas State clean up out of state. Um, with now the level he was recruiting because he leaves kansas to peterson to go to texas a and m which is his alma mater where he played and he's i guess like co-defense coordinator there and i think that was more of an title thing um as it was kind of at k u and so he's getting four and five-star recruits at a and i'd imagine at k state it'll be more of the high-end three stars the low end four stars like

Starting point is 00:03:54 he was able to kind of get at the end of his time at kansas but who knows maybe he does i mean he does have he was the main recruiter at A&M on a five star and three other four star recruits in 2026, even if one of them comes over with him, like that's a big deal on the recruiting trail. But like just in his time at KU, Peterson was the primary recruiter on Jason Gilliam, who was a quasi-starter when he was healthy, OJ Burroughs, who was a long time starter for KU, DJ Warner, who had very high hopes at KU, Dak Brinkley, who I think could be one of KU's best players this season, Austin Alexander, who started as a redshirt freshman for KU. I know the secondary wasn't great for KU this year, but to be a starter's redshirt freshman still take

Starting point is 00:04:36 something. John Jod Kamara, who we've already detailed with him entering in the portal, very bright future. He was also the secondary recruiter on Dean Miller, who's a former, you know, All Big 12 second team pick from 2024, Jalen Todd, who's one of the better defensive players for KU on this roster. There's other guys, too, the primary or the secondary. Those are the ones that stick out, obviously. Like, even this, you go back to the class of 2023, this didn't work out for KU. The top two recruits in that class,

Starting point is 00:05:01 Jamil Croft and Jacoby Davis, neither one worked out for KU. Croft just entered the portal. But those were the top two highest rated players in the class for KU. And you would think over the long haul, your top two highest rated players in the class are going to hit more often than not. So even though it didn't work that time,

Starting point is 00:05:18 both of those guys were Jordan Peterson guys, right? So what does this mean for, first of all, Again, the recruiting aspect, not having that anymore is one thing for KU. It's another for that to go to your in-state rival. Then the other question this becomes where it could be bad news is what does this mean for the kids he recruited to Kansas? Like, would they be willing to enter the portal and rejoin him over at Kansas State? John John Kamaro is already in the transfer portal.

Starting point is 00:05:46 DJ Warner, who transferred from Kansas to SMU, he's now in the transfer portal. What are the odds that one of those, if not both of those, just rejoined Jordan Peterson over at Kansas State? And I think that would certainly, especially if they became something really incredible, would make it feel like even more of a gut punch for KU. And then the other current KU players on the roster that he recruited include Dak Brinkley, Carter Lovruski, Austin Alexander, Andre Gibson. Would any of those players consider entering the transfer portal to join Jordan Peterson at K-State? And you could say, well, if they really wanted to join him,

Starting point is 00:06:20 they would have left and gone to Texas A&M. I don't know, man. Like Texas A&M might have wanted more four and five-star recruits. You know what I mean? Like it might just be different. At Kansas State, that might be a different situation where it's more in the same playing field as Kansas. Now, where it does become interesting,

Starting point is 00:06:34 we go back to that tweet from Dak Brinkley. Is he saying LOL, like, if only I could speak in terms of he thinks that Kansas screwed up, not keeping Jordan Peterson, which we'll get into here in our second segment. Or is he saying LOL in terms of, terms of you left Kansas after recruiting us here, you left Kansas to go to Texas A&M because it's your alma mater and we thought it was your dream job. And now you ended up taking a job in the same state

Starting point is 00:07:04 and one of our rivals. Like, what's up with that? So that tweet from Dak Brinkley could go one of two ways, right? I think that would be very interesting, right? And then the last part of this is the schematic side and the side of Jordan Peterson as a defensive coordinator and a play caller. To be clear we don't have a great example of what that is um he was just cutting teeth with mike elko who's an outstanding defensive mind to texas an ms that's probably a good thing for him there we have that one game that i mentioned against it was missouri state though right it wasn't even like kansas played like a power opponent and they they did hold him to 17 points which was the second worst output of the season for the bears that year so i guess that's good the only team who held

Starting point is 00:07:44 him lower was north dakota state at 10 um maybe more impressively they held missouri state to 217 yards and one of nine on third down in the game that Peterson play called for Brian Boylands. That's all great. But like, again, it's tough to tell what that means in a one game sample against an FCS opponent. But again, when you look at him being a Texas A&M, when you look at his experience, to me, this is, if we're making the argument of also this is bad news for KU because they could have had him and he would have been a better defensive play caller or schematic advantage for KU than what they currently have, to me, that's less of a an argument of what do we know about what Peterson's done as a DC because we don't have a ton

Starting point is 00:08:24 of evidence on that. It's more of what we know Kansas has had as the defenses of, you know, whether it's the coordinator, whether it's the players, whatever. These are the ranks for KU in yards allowed per play in the Lance Leipoldera, 128th, 120th, 174th, 1002nd, and 100th. So by that metric, we've only seen one top 90 defense in the Lance Light Boldera. and none that are in the top 70. So odds are, would Jordan Peterson, even from the play calling and schematic standpoint, have given Kansas at least the same, if not better?

Starting point is 00:09:00 Yeah, probably that too. So maybe the worst part about all this is that it didn't have to happen this way. Let's talk about why I think KU screwed this up. Today's bonus episode of the show is brought to you by ORA Frames. The holidays are officially here, which means gift hunting is on. And if you want something meaningful, personal, and guarantee, guaranteed to get a reaction or a frames is the gift that delivers every time it's not just something

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Starting point is 00:10:40 end up being a good defensive mind and that it could also be bad for kU based on what happens with some of the personnel side of this thing, with some of the guys he recruited to KU. He also will have a good idea of what's going on in the Kansas building. That doesn't help KU in going against your rival. And obviously KU has already lost 17 straight games to K State. So like they're already facing a very high uphill battle in doing this, and this just makes it even more difficult.

Starting point is 00:11:04 This is why KU screwed it up to me. Kansas could have hired him back in. So he left for Texas A&M for the 2024 season. And that ended up being, instead, and I don't know what the exact situation was, did KU offer him to be co-defensive coordinator with Brian Borland and a bit of a pay raise, but Borland would still call plays. The problem was that, that it seemed like they wanted to avoid the uncomfortable situation with Borland and be like, hey, you can be the co-defense coordinator and title with the extra

Starting point is 00:11:36 pay and stuff, but he's still the defensive coordinator. And Jordan Peterson's probably going, okay, well, I want to call plays. otherwise I'm going to go to my alma mater. And it did seem like in the aftermath of him leaving, we were sold the idea of, oh, well, there was no way KU was going to be able to retain him. He's going to the SEC.

Starting point is 00:11:54 He's going to his alma mater with Texas A&M. They're paying all this. But what this tells me, him taking the job at Kansas State, is that you could have retained him if you just named him defensive coordinator. That story we were sold a couple years ago, that tells me that it wasn't true.

Starting point is 00:12:09 It tells me that if he was the actual defense coordinator state. that would have been uncomfortable with, you know, a long-time defensive coordinator under, Lance Leopold and Brian Borland. But you basically forced Brian Borland into retirement. I don't know if you forced. Maybe he was ready, right? You had the medical stuff going on. But like, he retired the next year.

Starting point is 00:12:27 You couldn't have, you couldn't have just jumped the gun a year early. You couldn't have made him co-devents coordinator where Peterson was the one calling the plays or where it was a learning experience where Peterson was going to start to call the place and then Borland was going to retire at the end of the year. That seems like a misstep from KU. now not only does Kansas have to live with not having his recruiting prowess or having a young up-and-comer defense coordinator, quite honestly, like, if he did come in, I mentioned some of those defensive struggles for KU and he fixed the defense, you would become a head coach

Starting point is 00:12:57 and waiting candidate too, right? They also now have to potentially see him succeed at their rival and make their own lives worse, right? So I think to me, I would like to apply this same lesson to Andy Kodlnicki. It does not seem like one that Lance Leipold and staff are learning or have learned, but I would like for it to apply. I would like for KU to see this and go, hey, you know how we were uncomfortable moving Brian Borland off the position, even though it was probably a little bit better long term for us to make Jordan Peterson the D.C. And instead, you didn't take the uncomfortable path, which probably would have ended up being the right path. Are you doing the same thing right now, are you right now sitting there going, hey, the uncomfortable path is rehiring

Starting point is 00:13:43 Kotliniki's offensive coordinator. Even though we just promoted Jim Zabrowski to offensive coordinator, we're going to have to have an uncomfortable situation and push him back to quarterback coach. And even though it's uncomfortable, it's for the best, it's for the winning. Everybody's still going to get their money. So that's going to be okay. Like, I mean, at the end of this, these coaches are making six figures to have to deal with these uncomfortable situations. But it feels like, whereas I don't know it just feels like that that is not the path that they want to go down right and if kansas can't figure it out these next two seasons because i don't think a bad 2026 will be it for lance lipold i do think um you know you're looking at least two seasons here and to be clear like i don't want any of this happen like ideally kansas is you know making a bowl game these next two years and they're having and lance lightfold is here for the long term because of all the success they're having and has continued success like that's that's the most ideal situation here but if this does end, not on Lance Lippold's accord, I think the thing we're going to look back to

Starting point is 00:14:45 is going to be the staff moves, the moves, the moves, the non moves, that is going to be the difference why, right? Whether it's not bringing back Khodolnicki, whether it's the hiring of Jeff Grimes, whether it's, I don't know, the hiring of D.K. McDonald right now, whether it's losing Scott Fuchs, which that one maybe you can't or can't control. you know, those are all things that are going to be like kind of the bottom line here. So it doesn't mean they can't figure it out. I'm just saying like if we do fast forward a couple of years and you say that, you know, things have not picked up from where they are now.

Starting point is 00:15:25 I think those are going to be things you're going to kind of point back on. All right. Let's get into a little basketball talk here. Could they, should they make a midseason edition? Who is Tyree Walker? Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. NFL Sundays move fast, one big play and suddenly everything feels different. That's what makes live betting with Fanduals so exciting.

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Starting point is 00:16:35 Well, we should probably start here. The Bill Self a week or so ago on a press conference, kind of poohed this idea. It wasn't necessarily, it kind of got into the idea that, like, yeah, like, if the perfect situation falls in our lap, like we'll look into it, but it's not something we're necessarily pushing for right now.

Starting point is 00:16:51 Paraphrasing there. Now, maybe this is the situation, right? Because this was tweeted out by Tobias Bass of the athletic news. Kyrie Walker will be in Las Vegas this weekend. This was like last weekend to watch Fresno State. face UNLV, his agent tells the athletic. Maryland, Sacramento State, Cal, Tennessee, and Kansas have recently reached out. That is a very varying degree of teams.

Starting point is 00:17:15 Fresno State, UNLV, Maryland, Sacramento State, of like just the levels of things here, right? But he is eligible immediately. So, like, theoretically, you could add him mid-semester, even though, you know, Bilsuff kind of pooh with that. Now, if you're looking at the KU roster, I believe they do have a scholarship spot open. I believe they're sitting on 13 scholarship players right now and they get 14 because the one lost with the self-imposed sanctions for the last year, the last scholarship out of that. So you do have one spot open if you want it. Now, in my estimation, if you were making a mid-season, mid-season edition, the position I would most be curious to add would be adding a big man, adding another center because I think we've seen right now, Paul and Bia is really raw.

Starting point is 00:17:58 and with KU wanting to play a two big lineup of Tiller and Florey, it leaves you a little thin at the back end if one or both those guys get in foul trouble. So I think that would make sense. Now, that said, Walker is a wing type that maybe you could use more with, you know, you can use them at the three and four. And you also don't really have a ton of wings on the roster. And if he's playing some minutes of the four, that does allow you to theoretically lengthen your bench a little bit with the big position

Starting point is 00:18:23 because it allows Tiller to play more at the five as a backup. So I guess it could work a little bit of a work around there. This is hilarious to me, though, this whole thing of, if you don't know who Kyrie Walker is, this whole thing is becoming a sham with college basketball. And it's one of those things where it's like, okay, there's these other schools, like BYU is doing it, right? Like Houston's recruiting a kid. If these other schools you're competing with in the Big 12 are doing it,

Starting point is 00:18:49 I guess you've got to play the game too. At the same point in time, this is hilarious to me that like college basketball, is allowing this stuff to happen where you have a player who's been playing professional basketball for like five years can now come back to college basketball. This is so incredibly stupid to me. But again, if other teams are doing it, I guess, you know, why not? But he was originally like, if you go back to like when he was like a freshman sophomore in high school, he was being seen as like a potential five star recruit for the class of 2020 in those like way too early rankings, he ended up dropping it by the time, I think by the time he made this announcement that

Starting point is 00:19:25 he was going to just go straight to, like, professional ball and go to the G League. He became like a low-end four-star. I think if you look now on the 24-7 composite, he finished as a high-end three-star just outside of the top 200. It's kind of fading as the class went on. He ended up playing in the G-League, Greece, Canada. Right now he's playing in Macedonia. Played four and a half points per game and 11 games in the G-League. And he was, what, 19 years old, I guess.

Starting point is 00:19:52 Maybe his best year. Well, maybe it's this year. He had 15 points, five rebounds per game in Canada in 2022 to 23 for a lower club, went to a bigger team the next year, only 4.4 points per game. But this year in Macedonia, he, which to be, I can't imagine is a great league. But hey, at least he's doing well, 17 points per game, almost 18 points per game, albeit 42, 23, 71 splits. But to go with over five rebounds, four assists, and over steal per game, so solid stats there.

Starting point is 00:20:21 Um, if he's a depth ad, right, that you're looking to like I said, like somebody who, you know, if you just view it this way, if you said, hey, a former high end three, like normally a high end three star recruit, KU would be like, yeah, I don't know. Is it really cheap for us so that we can spend more money on our higher end ads in the NIL? But then if you're like, oh, but a former high end three star crew who's had five years of professional seasoning and experience to try to get better, then it's like, okay, that that player becomes more interesting than a better player. So again, KU could maybe use a little bit more depth than if he's able to come in and, you know, give you just more wing depth, which you don't have a ton of and theoretically give you another person who can play the four or at least the three where it allows white to play more at the four. And now Tiller can, you know, play more backup five minutes where again, it lengthens your, you're kind of big rotation there. And maybe the idea is he's competing with Jaden Dawson and Cole Rosario for fringe rotation minutes, right? with making that late move to KU, but it adds that extra body, adds that another piece. And then I don't know what the situation would be. Would he be given multiple years?

Starting point is 00:21:27 Would he be given one year of college? Who knows? But if he's given multiple years, then maybe, you know, like we saw Tiller, we saw Tiller join it semester last year. He obviously had a red shirt with the medical issue and was out for a time, but probably being around the program and Bill Self and the system, I'd imagine it probably helped him hit the ground running this year, which he did.

Starting point is 00:21:45 So maybe that would be kind of a similar situation you could do there. I think it's a good idea for KU to make a midseason edition. Like I said, I would be leaning more towards the center. You might be wondering, well, who's even out there? Well, Illinois just added a kid for midseason from Europe. So maybe if Kansas can do something like that, I'd be in on it. If you do this, I think as long as it's cost effective for you, I think it would make some sense for KU. But it's not necessarily a huge need either to be able to do this.

Starting point is 00:22:11 And yes, this whole thing, again, is kind of ridiculous. But, you know, if you make the move and he doesn't hit the wrong, rotation, it's like, okay, well, you weren't really banking on a midseason move to be a huge game changer. But if he does and he hits the rotation, then it ends up being kind of a nice bonus for you. If you are able to get him or make some other move in the process, are that I don't know for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, you can find her show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page, you can like and subscribe to the show. And we'll have a recap postcast episode from KU Davidson as well. So check that out here

Starting point is 00:22:42 when it's available on LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - UPHEAVAL: Kansas Jayhawks Suffer Critical RECRUITING Blow With Jordan Peterson Defection to K State

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