Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Who Will Lead Kansas In Different 2024 Categories + Bryce Cohoon Transfers In + Foster & Cure Visits

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks Football Friday, who will be KU's season leaders in different categories in 2024? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can give me a follow on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can find our show here with LockedOnJHawks anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show.

Starting point is 00:00:37 This is a Football Friday episode of LockedOnJHawks. We're going to be talking about who are going to be KU's leaders in some of these different categories for the 2024 season. We'll get into some latest, I guess, off-season player movement news as Kansas added a transfer receiver in Bryce Cohoon earlier this week. They also have visits this weekend from Bryce Foster, the Texas A&M transfer, and Lincoln Cure, the five-star prospect from the state of Kansas in the class of 2025. We're also 90 days away from the first KU football game happening against Lindenwood, and we have some early season scheduling times for KU,

Starting point is 00:01:11 so we'll get into all that on today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks in our Football Friday episode of the show. First, it is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply with GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply with GameTime. All right, let's start with who are going to be some of KU's leaders for the 2024 season.

Starting point is 00:01:33 You know, as we're going through these, I don't really even feel the need to get into who's going to lead Kansas in passing yards and rushing yards because the obvious answers are Jalen Daniels and Devin Neal. The lone exceptions would be, okay, is Jalen Daniels, you know, is he going to be able to be healthy through the season? And if not, then who would that person be the other way? But those are not really fun conversations.

Starting point is 00:01:57 And also it's built off of injury, which I guess it's a little bit different when you have somebody who has had to deal with a lot of injuries, but it's not really something you predict going into a season. You know what I mean? Like when you're, when you're doing, uh, if you're like picking the wind totals of your favorite team, you're not, you're not sitting there going. Yeah. And I think this guy's going to be injured for this week. And then this guy will be out for three weeks here. Like you just don't do that. Right. So I'm not even gonna spend time on it. Jalen Daniels for passing Devin Neal for rushing what would be the next one receiving yards would

Starting point is 00:02:29 be the next one who's gonna lead Kansas in receiving yards this season now this this seems like it would not be a very complicated question that of course it'll be LJ Arnold of course it'll be Lawrence Arnold and last season Arnold led Kansas with 782 receiving yards that's almost 200 more than what Quentin Skinner had, and that's over 200 more than third place, which was Luke Grimm, who had 555. Now, the year before, Lawrence Arnold also led Kansas in receiving yards. He had 716 of them. Now, that was a closer race. Luke Grimm finished second at 623, so less than 100 yards apart, but again, obviously, it sounds like, okay, of course course I'd pick LJ Arnold here.

Starting point is 00:03:07 Here's what I find to be very interesting, though. LJ Arnold's put up good stats with Jalen Daniels, but Luke Grimm has had a really good connection with Jalen Daniels. So last season in the three games where Jalen started, Luke Grimm had nine catches, Quentin Skinner had eight. Lawrence Arnold had 14. But then when you look at yards, Luke Grimm had 142. Quentin Skinner had 96.

Starting point is 00:03:33 Lawrence Arnold had 169. So the yards are pretty close between Grimm and Arnold. And then there were only two touchdowns thrown to those receivers. They were both to Luke Grimm. What if we widen the sample size? Let's go back to 2022, which would, let's just go with the games where Jalen started and finished the game. So we're going to count the three starts in 2023, and we're going to count his, what was it, eight starts that he started and finished the game. Would it be seven starts that he started

Starting point is 00:03:59 and finished the game? Because not counting the TCU game, whatever it is. The games where he started and finished the game for KU. Here's the stats between the receivers. Luke Grimm has the most catches with 44. LJ Arnold has the second with 41, and then Quentin Skinner drops off to 21. Yards, Luke Grimm is first with 587. LJ Arnold is second with 550. Quentin Skinner third with 232. Touchdowns, Luke Grimm with six. Quentin Skinner third with 232. Touchdowns. Luke Grimm was six. Quentin Skinner and LJ Arnold each with one. So again, and you could even go back for like, if you want to talk about the connection that Daniels and Grimm had,

Starting point is 00:04:34 you go back to even that 2020 season and the games that Jalen Daniels started. You go back to the 2021 season and the games Jalen started at the end of the year. There was that strong connection there. Like Grimm had four catches for 39 and a touchdown in his second year against TCU in 2021. He had four catches for 105 in the finale against West Virginia. He had four for 61 against OU and four for 53

Starting point is 00:04:55 against Iowa State as a freshman in 2020. Point being, there's a really good connection there between Luke Grimm and Jalen Daniels. This goes back to the health discussion. Will Jalen stay healthy for the bulk of it to allow that connection? But I think you could make a real argument that Luke Grimm could end up leading Kansas in receiving yards. Now, I would take LJ Arnold still to lead Kansas in receiving yards.

Starting point is 00:05:16 I think he's their most complete package at the receiver position. But I also would probably pick Luke Grimm to lead the team in receptions and touchdown receiving touchdowns because I think he has that that trust factor from Jalen maybe the most and then I'd pick Arnold to lead in receiving yards but if you gave me like plus money you gave me like plus odds plus 200 plus 250 plus 300 I would take Grimm in this situation to lead him in receiving yards so I think that'll be interesting uh pancakes this is a quick one. Logan Brown, I think would be a good one. Mahler, but I think the good call here is go with one of the guards. KU going to be running some of that wide zone

Starting point is 00:05:50 and getting runs out on the perimeter. Give me Kobe Baines because those guards are going to be pulling and knocking guys over in the secondary. What about tackles? Who will lead Kansas in tackles in the upcoming season? So KU's top two tacklers from last year have graduated. Kenny Logan, he led the team by far in tackles. He had 95 of them. Rich Miller was second. He had 58. And Kansas overall loses three of its top four tacklers, four of its top eight. The highest

Starting point is 00:06:16 returners by tackles last season were J.B. Brown, who had 57, Marvin Grant, who had 52, and O.J. Burroughs, who had 51. You could argue Burroughs gets up there again, but he's more that free safety. I think that's kind of closer to the ceiling of what he's going to get, you know, 40 to 60 tackles in a given season. To me, this conversation between three guys to lead Kansas in tackles, typically you're not going to see a defensive lineman do it. J.B. Brown, Cornell Wheeler, and Marvin Grant. And it makes sense, linebackers typically accrue the most tackles on a team, but we've seen it with like Kenny Logan getting a lot of those tackles. So honestly, if I was going with the pick right now, because I

Starting point is 00:06:54 think Brown could be splitting time with like Tyjuan Berryhill possibly, that could limit the number of tackles that you get there. I would be going with Marvin Grant. Wheeler's going to be on the field a lot, and so I think that would be a very good pick. But I think Grant's going to be playing as this safety that's kind of in the box at certain times, maybe on early downs where he is almost like that Craig Young role as another linebacker safety, and he's going to stay on the field on the third downs,

Starting point is 00:07:17 maybe move into more of a traditional safety role in the third downs as opposed to being more of that, you know, Hawk, Cinco, linebacker type whatever you want to call it in the regular defense and i think grant's a big hitter and he's really improved over uh his couple years at kansas i think he'll take another step forward this year so i'm gonna go with marvin grant to leave kansas in tackles what about sacks for ku now this is a big question for kansas because they need to find some sort of development here after losing Austin Booker, who led the team with eight sacks last season. Second on the team was Jeremy Robinson,

Starting point is 00:07:51 who had four and a half sacks. Can Robinson get up to like six? Kyron Johnson led him in 2021 with six, six and a half. Maybe that ends up being what leads it this year. And you might be thinking, oh, if that ends up leading it at only six, is that going to be good enough? One of my favorite stats that I love to bring up is that 2007 Kansas, the 08 Orange Bowl team, their leader in sacks individually was Max Onyeagbule with three and a half. They just made up for it because they had eight guys who had two or more sacks

Starting point is 00:08:20 and they had 12 guys who at least had one. And then they obviously just had like a ridiculously good secondary and a couple of linebackers are earned like over the course of their career some court for some form of uh like all big 12 honors well uh it remains to be seen on on the linebackers though i am you know bullish and feel good about jb brown and cornell wheeler but you do have that in the secondary this year you know i don't know if you have the akib to leave but i mean if if ever anybody was to duplicate what he did, Kobe Bryant, kind of be the guy.

Starting point is 00:08:49 You feel good about Melo Dotson. You feel good about your safeties. You feel good about some of the backups that you have in that secondary. You feel really good about the secondary. So maybe you can just do it by there. But any other candidate would be probably a guy that we really haven't seen it from

Starting point is 00:09:02 because what's the deal with like Dylan Brooks and his injury? How much is that going to hamper him? Is that going to force him to miss time? Is it going to force him to miss the whole season? I don't know. Dylan Woodkey had four last year at Youngstown State. He had five the year before. So I mean, if he can improve that to six, that puts him in the running, but that was at Youngstown State. The jump up in competition, what is that going to do for him? Or will it be negated by another year of college ball for him that the improvement he makes will allow him to still make a jump overall? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:09:30 What about by Job? Like, is he going to be ready to play that big of a role on the team and lead them in sacks? He certainly has the talent to do so. Where does Dean Miller fit into all this, and how is he going to merge into all this? What about Sean Warner and Dak Brinkley? You know, Dorrance Armstrong was undersized. he played as a freshman at Kansas's defensive end he had

Starting point is 00:09:49 three and a half sacks Kari Coleman who we made a comparison to undersized the end went in right away after being a former Kansas commit went to TCU as a freshman was like under 220 pounds he had three sacks so maybe the expectation for Warner and Brinkley is uh two to three sacks I don't know so I think to me the clear answer here wholey is two to three sacks. I don't know. So I think to me, the clear answer here, who's going to lead when sacks, it has to be Jeremy Robinson. But I don't even know if that's clear from a standpoint of you feeling ultra confident that Robinson's going to have a ton of sacks.

Starting point is 00:10:15 Like it's just that the floor is highest with Robinson that you feel like you will get four, five, six sacks, which you don't know if anybody else is going to kind of get there by default. So I guess I would pick Robinson and maybe Robinson can break out. And I think there is another level there that he can get to, but you know, he's at least a quality pass rusher. If you gave me Robinson versus the field though, even though there's not somebody specifically that I feel confident enough to be like, yeah, I know that's going to be the guy he's going to surpass him. I wouldn't take the individual, but if you gave me Robinson versus the field, I would take the field and just almost assume that somebody is going to break out in that way. All right, last one here, interceptions.

Starting point is 00:10:52 Melo and Kobe both had four of them last season. Odds are it's going to be one of the two, and if you're going with one of the two, it becomes tough, I guess. I don't know. I think Kobe is even more of the ball haw hawk but if they're throwing more to mellow as we saw over the course of last season he's gonna get more opportunities and probably end up with more interceptions I think the dark horse here and this can actually be my pick because I think it's fun on OJ Burroughs he has four in his career I can see him spiking to like four or five in a season he had a bunch of them in his high school career at IMG Academy I could see him having a big year where he has like a handful of interceptions this year.

Starting point is 00:11:27 So I'll go with OJ Burrows with the interception lead because I don't know how much teams are going to even target Melo Dotson and Kobe Bryant, and especially with Kobe. Let's talk about Kansas' newest addition, Bryce Cohun, and some key visitors this weekend on Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Whether it's going to the NBA Finals, the NHL Finals, or NHL Stanley Cup is coming up. And whether it's in the area or maybe it's just something

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Starting point is 00:13:09 KU makes an addition to their receiver room and a couple of key visitors coming up this week, or weekend, I guess I should say, in Lawrence. And then we'll finish up with being 90 days out and some of the early schedule stuff for KU. So let's start right here. KU adds Bryce Cohun earlier this week. He is a transfer wide receiver from Syracuse.

Starting point is 00:13:33 He's six foot two, 187 pounds. He's originally from Mays, Kansas. Never hurts to bring in local kids in terms of how that can help with recruiting. And obviously he was at Syracuse last season so was at another power conference school he joined the Orange originally at a Mays high school where he was rated an 84 overall he was rated as a three star by 24-7 sports out of the prep ranks I believe he played his high school ball with Avery Johnson where Colquhoun ended up being first team all state as a senior. He caught 37 passes for 844 yards, so certainly was a threat to go to the house anytime he touched.

Starting point is 00:14:13 I mean, eight touchdown receptions on 37 catches. Pretty good. He was also a two time captain at Mays, which speaks pretty highly there in what you're bringing to the table. He's just a speedy receiver. He was the 5A state champion in the state of Kansas in the 100-meter dash. Now, last season with the Orange as a true freshman, he wound up playing in three games, no stats recorded, but that meant he preserved his red shirt. So he'll be a red shirt freshman here coming up in the fall of 2024, four years left to play.

Starting point is 00:14:42 It sounds like he will be a preferred walk-on for Kansas now could this be a player that you know he's a preferred walk-on and I think this is kind of the case for Leighton Cure who they brought on that he is just Kansas is like full up on scholarships that Leighton Cure is a preferred walk-on for this year but then come the winter spring like postseason he'll eventually be put on scholarship and could that be the case for Bryce Cohoon here as a preferred walk-on for this year, but then come the winter, spring, like post-season, he'll eventually be put on scholarship. And could that be the case for Bryce Cohan here, that basically, you know, you get a year of a kid as a preferred walk-on, develop them in your system,

Starting point is 00:15:13 then you put them on scholarship when you're going to be losing like 30 seniors at the end of this year? Obviously, part of that isn't just, you know, part of it could be the plan. It's part of also, if you're Lance Leipold, you're telling the kid, yeah, if you do everything we ask of you and you're good enough we will put you on

Starting point is 00:15:27 scholarship you know and i'm sure those comes in the conversation but i'm sure that's also part of the conversation that yeah if you're not good enough then we're not going to be able to do that but you know that might be the plan that maybe he could play himself into a scholarship in a year when things open up and when you look at ku's future receiver room right there's a lot of questions there about who are going to be the players, who are going to be the bodies that take up those critical snaps and make those key catches for the future of KU quarterbacks, whether it's Isaiah Marshall or David McCollum or whoever. And so you look at LJ Arnold and Luke Graham and Quentin Skinner all graduating at the end of this upcoming season. You know, I figured Doug Emelian will be taking a big step coming into

Starting point is 00:16:04 next year, but yeah, there are a lot of questions of who are going to be those other guys. Now, do you expect somebody who was a preferred walk-on to all of a sudden become a starter by the time he's a redshirt sophomore in his second year at Kansas? Probably not. But could he be a contributor by then? Could he be a possible special teams piece? He has all sorts of speed. Was it Ryan Shadler?

Starting point is 00:16:23 Or gosh, I feel like I'm messing up that name. Former like Wichita State track guy who, you know, returned like kick for touchdown for Kansas and everything. So I don't know. Maybe there's something you can do here. But yeah, it certainly does not hurt that you brought in again. I mean, again, it's a preferred walk on, so it doesn't hurt anything here. Has a lot of speed.

Starting point is 00:16:40 He's an in-state recruit and he could possibly turn into something more. He was given a scholarship as a three-star recruit out he could possibly turn into something more. He was given a scholarship as a three-star recruit out of high school to another power five. So yes, this is a real nice pickup for KU, especially given that, you know, you're not having to give a scholarship at least right now. And if he earns it, that means that he earned it. And that would be awesome if that were to be the case. Now, also this weekend, Kansas has a couple visitors. Bryce Foster is the first of which, for Foster, who's confirmed by rivals and Jayhawks' Lanton John Kirby that he's visiting this weekend. He is the center transfer from Texas A&M, would come in and be expected to be a starter right at

Starting point is 00:17:18 the offensive line for KU. It would be a huge get. And he was originally supposed to visit Oregon before he visited Kansas, but that's been switched up in the timeline. So Kansas gets the visit now. Now the plus to that is Kansas gets an opportunity to woo him to where if he would have went to Oregon before Kansas, there's the chance he never makes it off the campus of Oregon without committing. And then you don't even get a shot to show him on the visit. The downside is I believe like the track, like nationals or whatever are going

Starting point is 00:17:45 to be going on while he's there in Oregon and he really likes tracks. So that will probably be a good selling point for what Oregon can show. And not like, Hey, look at this environment we're bringing for, you know, track events and everything like that. And I don't know, that could be a big sales pitch, but we'll see if Kansas able to get it done this weekend. That would certainly be pretty cool. If, if they were able to do that that the other one is Lincoln Cure he is the younger brother of Leighton Cure the tight end that Kansas picked up from Fort Hayes State out of the transfer portal Lincoln is a tight end he's six foot six 220 pounds I think I saw somewhere that he's up to already like 245 or something which is crazy for a kid who's going to be going in to a senior year of high school next year. He is a five-star prospect on 24-7 sports, number 26 in the country.

Starting point is 00:18:30 This is not your normal Kansas. I mean, this class of 2025 for Kansas is much better than, I mean, I don't know. It's just amazing how good this class is for the state of Kansas. And again, Cure is a five-star prospect. He has all these schools after them, Oregon, Texas A&M, Alabama, Kansas State, Kansas, stuff like that. I don't know that Kansas is sitting in great sitting, but it can't hurt that his brother's there.

Starting point is 00:18:52 And we'll see how this visit goes for him as Kansas tries to make inroads there. All right, let's finish up here. 90 days out from KU football. We got some scheduling times and what that number signifies for KU this upcoming season. Finishing up with this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, we are 90 days away from KU football's first game against Lindenwood. We now know the times of KU's first three games of the season.

Starting point is 00:19:18 So week one against Lindenwood, we already knew that was going to be on a Thursday night. It'll be at 7 p.m. Central time. It'll be on ESPN+. I think the 7 p.m. is going to be real nice because you have, you know, if you're getting off work at 5 o'clock in Lawrence, playing out in Kansas City, Kansas, that gives you, you know, obviously there's probably going to be traffic getting in and parking and everything like that. So it's not as simple to say, oh, it's a, you know, 25-minute normal drive.

Starting point is 00:19:42 Maybe it's closer to an hour or something, but that still gives you an hour to kill on top of it. And if you're coming from like Topeka, the, yeah, let's say instead of maybe an hour to get to Kansas city, Kansas, it takes an hour and a half with traffic. You're still there. So that's good there. That's a seven. Then week two, Kansas will be at Illinois. That'll be Saturday, September 7th for week two at 6 p.m. Central time on FS1.

Starting point is 00:20:05 So another night game for Kansas. It'll be on the road. That'll make it for a tough environment in Illinois. And then week three, they're back at home. And this is one that continues to be divisive. Kansas loves to play their Friday night games. Well, they're going to be playing UNLV in week three on a Friday night. That'll be on ESPN.

Starting point is 00:20:22 The game will be at 6 p.m. Central time. And if it's a Friday night game, I don't know. I feel like you should be able to make it at least seven because what I was saying, like if you're coming in from Kansas City and you get off work at five o'clock, trying to get in at six, especially with all the construction that is now on like sixth, that last year was on like 23rd in Lawrence, makes it difficult. And I get it from Kansas' perspective. They're trying to be like a, you know, you'd rather be on ESPN on a Friday night than be on ESPN Plus on a Saturday morning.

Starting point is 00:20:55 Part of the problem, though, is, I don't know, if you're, okay, first of all, Arizona's playing K-State that night, which most of the big college football fans are just going to tune into that because that could be a top 25 matchup. But second of all, if you're tuning into KU UNLV, you're either a KU fan, a UNLV fan, or you are a college football diehard. Either way you're tuning in. I don't know how much national audience you're getting just because you moved the game from Saturday to Friday.

Starting point is 00:21:25 So again, not my favorite, especially with high school football going on and everything like that. And I've worked in the local radio scene. Friday nights are usually very big with high school football, but it kind of takes away from that when Ken's playing there. So I don't know, not a big fan of that,

Starting point is 00:21:37 but you know, I can understand a little bit from KU's point of view. And it is nice sometimes when you do play on a Friday to where you have the full slate of Saturday to watch other games, right? So there are still pluses to it. Now beyond that, 90 days away from KU football, what does 90 signify? Well, number 90 is Jeremy Robinson. And that's somebody we talked about earlier, second on KU and Saks last season. Can he make a big jump this year? We were talking going into last year, going into last offseason, could he make a jump?

Starting point is 00:22:06 Because he showed a lot of good flashes. You think back to the 2022 season, and the game that really comes to mind for me was that Baylor game where he was a wrecker on the defensive side of the ball. And he had that big, was it like the strip sack and the fumble recovery that he almost took for a touchdown? And Robinson showed a lot of flashes, but it was a little more inconsistent. And that's something that Brian Borland and some of the coaches kind of talked about, that they were trying to get him more consistent. And we didn't see it as much last year.

Starting point is 00:22:31 Like, I think he was just still a solid player for KU. The question is, can he become more consistent? And can he turn being a good player into being like a possible All-Big 12 player and helping KU really figure out their pass rush in a big way? That's going to be one possible option for KU to find a little bit more there. Now, other numbers, 90, Mello Dotson led Kansas with 90 interception return yards last season. Who's going to lead Kansas in interception return yards going back to the stat leaders? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:23:01 It becomes tough because it's like how much our team's going to throw at the corners. But I do think it's interesting that as much as Kobe Bryant gets all this attention and deservedly so because he has been an excellent corner for KU Melo Dotson's really good too and it's not very often that you have a chance to have two guys realistically like on the first team all big 12 at the corner position I mean Kansas is going to have some real good opportunities to mix and match their defenses and be aggressive and be exotic and throw some blitzes out there. I don't know how much that is in Brian Borland's forte,

Starting point is 00:23:34 but if ever you were going to do it in a year where you don't have an obvious go-to pass rusher and you have this experienced, really talented secondary, I say why not? Bring the aggression to the offensive side of the ball. And the last one here, just kind of a question with the number 90. Can Jalen Daniels play at least 90% of KU snaps in 2024? Because if you do, then you're going to feel really good about where you are at the end of the season.

Starting point is 00:23:58 And it's not that he has to play 100%. Be great if he did. But like if you said at the end of the year, like if you said right now, Jalen Daniels is only going to miss one game this season now again part of that is okay did he miss one game and then he had three other games where he was playing but he was playing hurt so he wasn't as effective yeah that changes the precipice but if I were to just say no he was going to be normal Jalen but he would miss one game you don't get to pick which game it is unfortunately would you take that or would you roll the dice I think I would honestly take that and of course that one game could be like at Kansas State or a game that

Starting point is 00:24:28 like would be very important but again I think I would probably take that all right that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page see you next time back on Monday for another edition of LOJ

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Who Will Lead Kansas In Different 2024 Categories + Bryce Cohoon Transfers In + Foster & Cure Visits

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