Several true freshmen seized the spotlight during Kansas football’s fall camp.
Defensive ends DJ Warner and Dakyus Brinkley have garnered plenty of attention because of their high ratings and their opportunity to play immediately given KU’s lack of depth at the pass-rush spot. Isaiah Marshall has received the natural scrutiny that comes with being an apparent quarterback with the future, and his on-field resemblance to current starter Jalon Daniels certainly helps. And running back Harry Stewart III and cornerback Jalen Todd have earned such consistent praise from coaches, even dating back to the spring, that it’s impossible to ignore.
But there are nearly a dozen additional true freshmen at KU this season, many of whom have inspired optimism in their coaches, in most cases with just a few weeks of practice.
Even if those coaches haven’t called them out by name, head coach Lance Leipold emphasizes that it shouldn’t be considered a mark against the players.
“I am not disappointed with any of our young players and recruits, so just because I don’t mention them doesn’t mean they’re not what we thought they could be,” Leipold said. “It’s going to take some time. Time could be three weeks, time could be three months, I don’t know, and I don’t want to put the pressure on these young men that they feel like ‘What’s happened?'”
Kansas cornerback Austin Alexander catches the ball during fall camp on Monday, August 5, 2024, in Lawrence.
The cornerbacks
Todd is a candidate for action on special teams and could potentially rise as high as KU’s No. 4 cornerback spot. That makes it easy to forget that he came in as part of a trio of highly touted corners that also included the top player at the position in the state of Illinois (Austin Alexander) and a member of the much-discussed Desert Edge High School contingent from Arizona (Dre Gibson).
KU’s top corner Cobee Bryant said the young players at his position “might be better than me, for real.”
“Not going to lie,” he said. “They can ball, man. I’m trying to teach them early, because I was like, I said, ‘Me and Mello not going to be here next year, so y’all got to learn fast.'”
Cornerbacks coach D.K. McDonald said of Alexander that he has a bright future, “and if he keeps progressing it may be sooner than later.”
“He’s really pushing some guys, he’s a smart football player, he’s a competitive football player, and he doesn’t struggle moving around on the football field,” McDonald said. “So really the sky’s the limit, and it’s really going to be up to Austin what this year really provides for him, because he has all the skill and ability. Now it’s about putting the mental part together and then letting all that take over and be a playmaker for us here.”
Gibson has an intriguing positional fit. Because he’s a somewhat bigger corner (listed at 195 pounds), defensive coordinator Brian Borland views him as a potential future piece at the Cinco spot, which is what replaces KU’s Hawk linebacker when the Jayhawks are in a 4-2-5 nickel alignment. It’s the role that Marvin Grant and the Dye brothers will play this season.
McDonald noted that because of Gibson’s physical makeup, “you like him in the run game, he can sustain in there, get off blocks and different things like that.” More immediately, though, he will also be in the picture on special teams, potentially as a kick returner.
“Dre’s been really impressive, just from a mental standpoint too,” McDonald said. “He’s very mature beyond his years and you love those type of guys, because they can get on the field early and they won’t be shocked by Power Four competition at all.”
A former cornerback
Jon Jon Kamara, another Desert Edge product, has grown up quite a bit since when he first emerged as a college football prospect, and the photo on his online recruiting profiles has not caught up.
“He looked like he could have played in the Little League World Series,” Leipold said.
His former high school teammate and current fellow Jayhawk, Warner, was well acquainted with the photo in question.
“If some of you guys seen that, you guys would be surprised,” Warner said. “His growth has been crazy, just his maturity level has been crazy.”
The fact that KU evaluates him as a linebacker is quite a transition considering he was playing cornerback not so long ago.
“Big, long guy, kind of gangly, almost not fully grown into his body, but wasn’t afraid,” linebackers coach Chris Simpson said of Kamara’s corner film. “He’ll strike somebody, and you’re kind of watching him move, you’re like ‘Yeah, I don’t know if he’s got the corner skills but could maybe be that hybrid safety-type player, safety-backer-type player.'”
When his body developed further, it turned him into an intriguing project with the prospect of taking defensive back speed to the linebacker position. He’s already KU’s fastest player at linebacker, Simpson said.
Beyond that, Leipold praised him for being coachable and “highly positive,” as well as working through an early rib injury.
“I’m excited about Jon Jon because his ceiling is so high to keep learning about the game and how to use his body,” Leipold said.
Another new addition at the linebacker spot is JaCorey Stewart, the Atlanta product who Simpson said “is doing some good things (and) very explosive.”
‘Our babies’
Offensive line coach Daryl Agpalsa has a variety of young players to work with in his position group, whom he recently referred to as “our babies.”
Those babies seem to be learning to walk quite quickly, as Kene Anene (Cottage Grove, Minnesota), Carter Lavrusky (Scottsdale, Arizona) and Harrison Utley (Norman, Oklahoma) have all seen recent action. (David Abajian, from California, has been out injured.)
“They actually took the last four plays of the team period at the end of practice,” Agpalsa said on Aug. 14. “And that’s our tempo period, so we’re going quick, they have to talk and communicate quickly to know what’s going on, and they execute at a high level, so it’s great.”
They are also benefiting from the fact that KU runs multiple huddles in practice.
“They get a ton of reps,” Agpalsa said. “I’ve been at places where your young players don’t play as much, and our program philosophy is to develop everybody in our program, and that’s what exciting to us, is the ability to develop our freshmen so they’re not just standing there.”
Kansas freshman Damani Maxson during the first day of spring practice at the practice field on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Lawrence.
Others
Tight end Jared Casey had a positive early impression of the freshman at his position, Carson Bruhn from Sioux Center, Iowa.
“He’s going to grow and be really physical,” Casey said. “He’s pretty fast already too, so just knowing the plays and getting that down and the mental aspect of it and he’ll be a really good player for us.”
One of the Jayhawks’ higher-rated players, and another early enrollee besides Brinkley, Marshall, Stewart and Todd, was safety Damani Maxson (Houston), another piece for Borland and McDonald to work with going forward.
“He’s very athletic,” teammate Mason Ellis said. “I love Damani.”
The final true freshman on scholarship for KU is Greydon Grimes, a late commitment who is the son of new offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes and will be a bit of a project on the defensive line at 6-foot-6 and 255 pounds.
Chance Parker/Special to the Journal-World
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
Chance Parker/Special to the Journal-World