Quick Take: Juju Marks is a recruit the KU staff wanted from the minute they started recruiting him. Even with the staff change over when the OL and OC left, Daryl Agpalsa both came in and picked up the recruiting right away.
Marks told me he built a good relationship with Agpalsa, and they went to his school a couple times. This is a situation where I think the new rules for getting the opportunity to meet with the recruits in the school helped.
I know there were some schools that came and went, but KU was the one school along with UCF that was on him the whole time.
This is a big commitment for a couple of reasons. The first, it helps recruiting on the local front. Let’s face it, landing a four-star local prospect is big because of the recent results. The last few years have been tough with local recruiting. This gives the program some visibility.
It comes at a position of need. The staff is likely to take three high school OL and with Anderson Kopp, this gives them two. That makes it a lot easier to go out and find one more.
Breakdown: When college coaches started recruiting Marks, he was a defensive lineman. Last year Aquinas moved him to the offensive line. Marks told me he feels more comfortable there.
I have watched him several times and seen him in person. He has the body for an offensive tackle that every coach looks for. He is athletic, moves his feet well and has long arms. He is in the 6-foot-7 range and those are things that can’t be taught.
There is still room to improve, but he has all the tools any coach would look for in a tackle.
What this means: There aren’t a lot of names on the OL board and with getting a commitment from Marks that likely means the staff will only need one more. That is much easier than finding two when there doesn’t appear to be a lot of options on the board.
Marks told me he built a good relationship with Agpalsa, and they went to his school a couple times. This is a situation where I think the new rules for getting the opportunity to meet with the recruits in the school helped.
I know there were some schools that came and went, but KU was the one school along with UCF that was on him the whole time.
This is a big commitment for a couple of reasons. The first, it helps recruiting on the local front. Let’s face it, landing a four-star local prospect is big because of the recent results. The last few years have been tough with local recruiting. This gives the program some visibility.
It comes at a position of need. The staff is likely to take three high school OL and with Anderson Kopp, this gives them two. That makes it a lot easier to go out and find one more.
Breakdown: When college coaches started recruiting Marks, he was a defensive lineman. Last year Aquinas moved him to the offensive line. Marks told me he feels more comfortable there.
I have watched him several times and seen him in person. He has the body for an offensive tackle that every coach looks for. He is athletic, moves his feet well and has long arms. He is in the 6-foot-7 range and those are things that can’t be taught.
There is still room to improve, but he has all the tools any coach would look for in a tackle.
What this means: There aren’t a lot of names on the OL board and with getting a commitment from Marks that likely means the staff will only need one more. That is much easier than finding two when there doesn’t appear to be a lot of options on the board.
