This what each position coach had to say about the 18 signees that came to a little over 4000 words. This was from the ESPN show where they did a short film breakdown on each player.
You’ve seen most of the film. Each player was around 1:30-2:00 minutes.
I went through each player breakdown and cleaned up all the wording as much as I could. I think for the recruiting junkie on the board this would be great reading. It is kind-of an unfiltered chat with the coach going over their guys.
There are segments within some of the bios you can tell when a coach is talking about the film they are watching. Excuse any typos I went over it a couple times but there was a lot of reading and will be honest the eyes were getting tired at 1 a.m.
OFFENSE
Josh Eargle on Mason Brotherton
His junior film showed the ability to really block at the point of attack and was attached. And this year where you've seen his development, it's just his route running. I knew he had good hands out of the backfield, kind of using some play action, last year. This year got really, really excited. There's some toe-tap, sideline catches from him. They split him out. They use a lot of different creative ways to get him the ball. He was their offensive production this year. I mean he’s just a dynamic player. We can add that to room and continue to create those Swiss army knives, so to speak in our room with a fullback tied in, split out in the slot type guy who we're trying to recruit to be hybrids.
On his athleticism and speed for that size:
You need these type of bodies for all your special teams. He's a 6-foot-4 240 pound, young man that really, really loves the gym. Matter of fact, he's got one at his house. His dad's got a shop and they've created it into a gym. He's in there with his younger brother all the time, just getting after it. He’ll be a pass catching thread for down the middle of field for Coach Dearmon.
Jonathan Wallace on Devin Neal
I'll tell you what. Devin Neal is probably one of the most spectacular players that I've come to see. And I really love his vision, really love his big play ability. Able to win in space, change the direction, power, elusiveness. There's really a whole lot that I love about Devin Neal.
But I think more than anything, his character, his hard work, his commitment to the game, to his teammates. Those are all just great qualities to have as a running back. And one of the most important ones is ball security. The kid really does do a great job of holding onto the rock, has really good technique.
I love everything about him. It seems like he's just really scraping the surface of what he's going to be as a football player.
I think Devin is going to be a guy that physically is ready to play. The kid is a really thick kid. He works out all the time. I see posts all the time on his Twitter where he's working out, he's pushing sleds. So I think, from a physical standpoint, he's got to be ready to go. And I think also once we get them on campus, there's going to be a lot to learn for him from the neck up which I think is going to be very beneficial to his game and allow him to play a lot faster.
Emmett Jones on Majik Rector
I can’t wait until he gets here. He's very cerebral. Made a lot of plays for his program as an outside receiver and the inside receiver, very dynamic with the ball in his hands after the catching. One thing that impressed me is his IQ for the position. He understands coverages, he understands manipulation, he understands what it takes for him to have a good body language when it comes to winning on certain routes. So fired up about him.
Once he gets here, the speed that we're seeing from Majik right now, once he gets here is going to enhance like times five because our program is unlike any high school program in the country. So, I'm expecting to see him do this all the time once he gets here and we get to play against other Big 12 opponents. He's going to help us out tremendously.
One thing we like to do is, we like to put ourselves in a position where we could move those guys around to create match-ups. Really don't like to just recruit an inside guy or an outside guy. You want to bring in guys that can play both spots. It's good that we've seen him play a little bit of outside also too, because that's going to make him more versatile here once he get in our program.
John Eargle on OL Corey Robinson
The greatest thing about Corey is that your junior film, we saw a big physical man who had all the tools that you would want in an offensive tackle for us here at Kansas. The difference in each year was his skill development. His technique on the offensive line play just went through the roof and you saw a raw product. They really put a lot of work in in the off season to fine tune some of the things like the hand placement, how to keep most of his weight down the center of his body, where to put his hat and just learning about leverage. And Corey is going to be a great impact player for us.
When you talk to Corey and you talk to his family, just unbelievable people, and he’s a great person. He's going to add so much to our city, to our university, to our football program and our locker room, more than just football. He’s an intelligent young man that's going to come in here and knock it out of the park. He's going to be a field general for us. He's going to know what everybody's job is up front and be able to help us and identify guys and the blitzes off the edge because he's going to be able to read.
Emmett Jones on Kelan Robinson
Well, I like his size on the boundary on a lot of stuff we do here at the University of Kansas with our offense. Lot of time that receiver, that X receiver that boundary, we going to ask him to do a lot of push cracking in our perimeter run game that's going to open up a lot of shots down field for him also, too.
You hope for a guy his size can draw that presents where he can get bracketed or he can get clouded by a squat corner or a high safety also, too. We want someone to demand that type of attention if that happens then that's pretty much going to open someone else up either in the run game or to the field with our Y and Z receiver.
He has the speed if that safety was to decide to buzz his feet playing like a little quarter technique, then Kelan has the speed to get behind in the secondary and he can go up and get it with his hands also too. Definitely a bit target coming out the boundary for us. Skies the limit for him, upside is very high, and can't wait until he gets here. He's going to soak up everything that we have to give him, that weight room, nutritionist. I can't wait to get him in the classroom and get out on the field and work with him.
Josh Eargle on De’Kedrick Sterns
De’Kedrick is a huge athletic man. Really, he's a 6′4″. He's up to about 280 pounds, now on this film he's about 250, 260. Plays the game really hard. He's nasty in a good way, when you talk about offensive linemen. He just gets after it and plays great, unbelievable effort and extra effort and extremely athletic feet. Extremely great bend in his hips. He knows hand placement. They use him a lot out in the edge and he can get there and run and be a run block and force and start him outside of tackle and they'll see how his big body develops.
Probably the most athletic offensive lineman in this class. Kendrick really came into his in his senior year. You've seen the strong development come from him. He's got abnormally long arms, which is a good thing. He's really ... we needed some length in this class and his length and his arms is just ... gives him an advantage on Friday nights and will for us and the Jayhawks on Saturdays.
Brent Dearmon on Ben Easters
So with Ben, we like his poise. We like his leadership ability. We got to see him throw in person on our campus, so we got to see how the ball comes out of his hand. We got to see how he looks you eye-to-eye when you're coaching him up. And I know his high school coach real well, so I know he's been pushed. I know the way he's been coached. But then the fact that he can drive the ball down the field. You get to see him here on this play. He can relocate the pocket. He's making a big time throw under pressure and delivers a strike downfield to his guy. So the big play ability of driving that ball down the field is another thing that we really like about Ben.
Q: What does it show you when you’re QB makes a throw like that knowing he’s going to take a shot.
That's that kid that you want to take with you on Thursday nights in the off season to the bar fight with you, right there. He's a kid that he knows when pressure's around, he can feel the pocket, he can get it out just in time. And he knows that the big play on the end of that throw is well-worth that hit he took, so it says a lot about him.
Another thing you get to see right here, that Ben didn't get to show a lot of, because a lot of high school coaches don't want to run their high school quarterback because they really don't trust in their backup just yet. So you get to see, Ben can move a little bit. I don't think he is as fast as Jalon, but he gives us another weapon in that room where you can see him use his legs. And then he's running that zone replay that we run so often here, gets on the edge and is able to run by defensive backs. So that's not the staple of his game, but it's nice to have a QB that can extend plays like this and go make big plays with his legs.
Josh Eargle on Larson Workman
He’s from the state of Texas, a big rascal man, big old huge long arms, big 6-foot-5 young man who was really physical off his junior film and continued to add weight this year, played a lot heavier this year and he did in his in his junior film and you can see that as he starts to lay on people and lean on people and wear people down as the game goes on.
The number one thing we were looking for in this class was length and that's what Larson has. He's on the edge offensive tackle for. Extremely long legs, long arms, to be able to create separation in the pass game. Probably what Larson does the best. He's really developed his pass blocking technique and can get those big, long arms and create separation and create the width of the pocket for a quarterback.
Larson did a really good job from his junior to senior film in both cases, really rolling his hips on contact in the run game and really, really happy to have Larson joining our war daddies up front.
You're looking for redeeming qualities in each individual and how that translates to what our offensive scheme is. I think that our emphasis this year, offensive line wise was length. We needed more length. We feel really, good about the depth of our unit in the middle and need to add guys on the edge.
DEFENSE
Chidera Uzo-Diribe on D’Marion Alexander
I think the sky's the limit for a guy like this. The 3-4 defense, it allows for these long explosive athletes to be all over the field, to make plays, not only in the run game, not only in the pass game, but also show up in coverage and do things like that. So, his explosive athleticism is going to allow him to make plays on all three phases.
The thing with 3-4 guys to also know is when you show that you can play standing up in a 3-4 defense in college, not only are you attractable to 3-4 NFL teams, but also 4-3 NFL teams as well. Because they can understand, hey, this guy can do it standing up, he can do the same things with his hand down.
Jordan Peterson on O.J. Burroughs
Coming from IMG Academy, he’s originally from Georgia. As you watch this film, the thing that stands out is his range. He's a long guy, has tremendous range in the middle of the field. He'll go up and attack the football. And when it's time to go to the house, he's trying to score every time he gets-
He's a long strider. He's deceptively fast. He's eating up grass as he's running. But again, his ability to go up and get the ball at the highest point is his biggest asset. Again, you can see him just doing some things naturally from the middle of the field, playing off the quarterback, and the high shoulder of the quarterback right there. Again, he's going to be a big time asset for us moving forward here at the University of Kansas.
Being at IMG the last two years, he led the state of Florida in picks as a junior. Didn't get quite as much action this year. But as you see from this tape, he's still making plays. He gets the ball in his hand, again, trying to take it to the crib. You know, when you're at IMG, you're not playing slouches either. You're playing some of the top programs in the country.
Chevis Jackson on Shad Dabney
Just a little bit about him, he's a kid that has a big personality, man. He talks a lot, you know what I'm saying? But he's comfortable in his skin, and he likes to be around the guys, and he's a good football player, very athletic, multiple sport guy.
A guy with multiple sports has the ability to access different movements without even thinking about it, and applying it when it's necessary.
Watching film on how Dabney didn’t bit on a trick play
He tayed home. But the one thing I want to say about this is just simple football. If you watch it back from the beginning, you see just little things that I teach my guys. Four people to one side, something always come back, you know what I'm saying? Something always coming back to that side, and you see it's a loaded formation right there, and he sees that flea flicker and he knows he got to take it, he got to go high to get this ball right here. The quarterback doesn’t even see them half the time. You know you're just going to get those gifts right there.
Kwahn Drake on Tommy Dunn
That's Tommy D, baby. That's my guy right there. The thing that that makes this kid special is that we think that he's somebody that could play up and down the entire defensive line. He could play all the positions. I bet he's going to give us some versatility. He has strengths being knocked back. The greatest thing about him, he also plays a little bit of tight end.
He's an all-around athlete, and a basketball kid, does a little bit everything.
And right here, this is the first clip. You could just see him right here, getting out of his stance right here, just doing a really good job of putting hands, being explosive, just running through a guy.
One of the things we always talk about, we want big guys up front to be able to go through his mouth and out his back. We're looking for guys who are explosive, to make explosive plays and do that. The thing that I like about him is he literally plays every position. He's on the film at nose guard. He's on the film at three technique. He shows up at five, and then we know the game's on a line, he shows up, and he's at tight end at times.
Just a dominant player. I'm excited about him. He's going to give us the versatility that we're looking for and just really adds depth all around because he can play all those positions. And the energy and the attitude, and just in the recruiting process, he's one of those kids that every time you talk to him, he's excited, he has energy, he's ready to go.
Jordan Peterson on Jayson Gilliom
Well, Jason's a guy that really can play everything. And as a Senior, he played primarily corner. But a couple of his high school coaches, they repped him at nickel, they repped him at safety. He's a bigger body guy, a 6'1 190 plus pound guy, that will really come down and smack you.
Coming his program, they do a really good job of coaching those guys from a technique standpoint. He is definitely, IQ wise, a really impressive young man and football makes sense to him. He's been around football all his life and really been catching on pretty quick according to those coaches. And again, you can see him coming off the edge here. We can blitz him. He knows how to finish the play. Obviously, when you put them in the blitz, he can drop down in the box and be a big time box safety. And so his ability to play multiple positions is really going to help us as a defense.
D.J. Eliot on Andrew Simpson
Andrew Simpson, as you can see here, is a very talented player. Andrew has athleticism to play in space. Andrew has speed and then close and make tackles. Andrew also is physical enough to get off blocks. He's a kind of guy that he's going to be a great addition for us because he has not only the physical attributes, but he has all the intangibles too.
He comes from a winning program where he's a leader. He's a quarterback of the defense. He makes all the checks in a complicated system that's similar to ours, and he's going to bring a lot to the table as a football player and as a teammate.
What's critical about that is how much we blitz our inside linebackers. He's going to be in position to make plays within our scheme and you can see him doing it already within his scheme. Now, what I really liked about him when I first saw him as a junior was not only his tackling and his blitzing, but was his coverage skills. He's has a knack for playing in space and covering not only tight ends and backs, but he's even been matched up on some wide receivers before.
The Big 12 is a space game. I've coached in the Pac-12 and in the SEC. The only league I haven't coached in is the Big Ten and I've coached in the ACC as well, and this league is unique because it's such a space league. It's a league that you have to be able to make plays in space and you have to be able to cover, and Andrew Simpson brings that to the table.
Chidera on Trey Staley
Trey is a versatile outside linebacker. With Trey, you get to see him play in space, on the line of scrimmage, rushing the quarterback, and in coverage. A lot of the things that we ask of our outside linebackers here, he's already doing, and I think that's going to help him translate to this game pretty seamlessly when he gets here.
I think he's a natural fit for the outside linebacker position. He does a good job of getting off the edge when he's called to go on blitzes, he has a good feel for that as well, but he also can do a good job holding his own out there on end coverage as well.
Chevis Jackson on Devonte Wilson
DeVonte Wilson, originally out of Savannah, Georgia. He plays ball in Florida, right there on that border, that state line. He’s another athletic guy, that we're getting in this year's class. He's 6'1", 6'1" and a half. Long guy.
He also plays receiver. Being able to get that ball in the air and create those turnovers and make plays on the ball when the ball is in the air is important. Half the time, some of those corners don't want to tackle. Him, being the tough guy, being from the country, he wants to mix it up with guys and be in that run fit.
Kwahn Drake on D.J. Withers
One of the biggest attributes we feel about DJ is his ability to rush the passer and that's something that we felt that we wanted to add to the defensive line is guys who have natural pass rush ability to flip their hips and go get the quarterback on the ground.
You can see him right here as an outside guy right here on an edge, does a really, really good job of winning at the top of the rush, finishing on the quarterback, just shows the ability, explosive to turn a corner and also locate the quarterback. That's going to be one of the key things that we're looking for this year to continue to develop and as you can see in all these clips, good job, you saw him the first time he was in the stance of two point. Being able to stand up, showing his position versatility, being able to play maybe some outside backer for us at times. Being able to play four eye five technique, moving all the way around, just putting him in position where he can really affect the game the most right here. And here's another clip where you see him doing a great job of working to flip his hips.
He turns a corner, brings him down right there. And that's something that we look for right there consistently at the defensive line position, just guys being in a position where they can create power, get off the snap of the ball, turn a corner. And his length, he's over 6-foot-4 inches tall. He's going to be able to give us something of the edge and really give us exactly what we're looking for.
You’re looking for people with dominant mentalities, dominant person, and you looking for somebody that's going to come in and dominate and that's the main thing we're looking for up front.
Jordan Peterson on James Wright
The guy that we saw as a junior. He did multiple things, played quarterback, played some running back, played DB, played safety as well as nickelback and playing that overhang position. So, has definitely shown some versatility. We really see him explode as he's playing quarterback and when he gets the ball in his hand. So, I'm always partial to recruiting some guys that play on the other side of the ball. Usually, that translates over to being, "Hey, look, I know football, I know concepts, I know what the offense is trying to do to us as a defense." So having that experience is really going to help him when he gets on campus.
And I feel like it gives a safety, a rhythm. Like where they pick up the patterns of all offense to where they can see it naturally from the quarterback's position to "Okay, this is where you try to attack us before and this is where they gassed us, this is how they might set it up again. So having to put it like that does make life easier as a safety's coach.”
Again he can play multiple positions. He can play that Hawk, that nickel position for us. And we're excited about him.
You’ve seen most of the film. Each player was around 1:30-2:00 minutes.
I went through each player breakdown and cleaned up all the wording as much as I could. I think for the recruiting junkie on the board this would be great reading. It is kind-of an unfiltered chat with the coach going over their guys.
There are segments within some of the bios you can tell when a coach is talking about the film they are watching. Excuse any typos I went over it a couple times but there was a lot of reading and will be honest the eyes were getting tired at 1 a.m.
OFFENSE
Josh Eargle on Mason Brotherton
His junior film showed the ability to really block at the point of attack and was attached. And this year where you've seen his development, it's just his route running. I knew he had good hands out of the backfield, kind of using some play action, last year. This year got really, really excited. There's some toe-tap, sideline catches from him. They split him out. They use a lot of different creative ways to get him the ball. He was their offensive production this year. I mean he’s just a dynamic player. We can add that to room and continue to create those Swiss army knives, so to speak in our room with a fullback tied in, split out in the slot type guy who we're trying to recruit to be hybrids.
On his athleticism and speed for that size:
You need these type of bodies for all your special teams. He's a 6-foot-4 240 pound, young man that really, really loves the gym. Matter of fact, he's got one at his house. His dad's got a shop and they've created it into a gym. He's in there with his younger brother all the time, just getting after it. He’ll be a pass catching thread for down the middle of field for Coach Dearmon.
Jonathan Wallace on Devin Neal
I'll tell you what. Devin Neal is probably one of the most spectacular players that I've come to see. And I really love his vision, really love his big play ability. Able to win in space, change the direction, power, elusiveness. There's really a whole lot that I love about Devin Neal.
But I think more than anything, his character, his hard work, his commitment to the game, to his teammates. Those are all just great qualities to have as a running back. And one of the most important ones is ball security. The kid really does do a great job of holding onto the rock, has really good technique.
I love everything about him. It seems like he's just really scraping the surface of what he's going to be as a football player.
I think Devin is going to be a guy that physically is ready to play. The kid is a really thick kid. He works out all the time. I see posts all the time on his Twitter where he's working out, he's pushing sleds. So I think, from a physical standpoint, he's got to be ready to go. And I think also once we get them on campus, there's going to be a lot to learn for him from the neck up which I think is going to be very beneficial to his game and allow him to play a lot faster.
Emmett Jones on Majik Rector
I can’t wait until he gets here. He's very cerebral. Made a lot of plays for his program as an outside receiver and the inside receiver, very dynamic with the ball in his hands after the catching. One thing that impressed me is his IQ for the position. He understands coverages, he understands manipulation, he understands what it takes for him to have a good body language when it comes to winning on certain routes. So fired up about him.
Once he gets here, the speed that we're seeing from Majik right now, once he gets here is going to enhance like times five because our program is unlike any high school program in the country. So, I'm expecting to see him do this all the time once he gets here and we get to play against other Big 12 opponents. He's going to help us out tremendously.
One thing we like to do is, we like to put ourselves in a position where we could move those guys around to create match-ups. Really don't like to just recruit an inside guy or an outside guy. You want to bring in guys that can play both spots. It's good that we've seen him play a little bit of outside also too, because that's going to make him more versatile here once he get in our program.
John Eargle on OL Corey Robinson
The greatest thing about Corey is that your junior film, we saw a big physical man who had all the tools that you would want in an offensive tackle for us here at Kansas. The difference in each year was his skill development. His technique on the offensive line play just went through the roof and you saw a raw product. They really put a lot of work in in the off season to fine tune some of the things like the hand placement, how to keep most of his weight down the center of his body, where to put his hat and just learning about leverage. And Corey is going to be a great impact player for us.
When you talk to Corey and you talk to his family, just unbelievable people, and he’s a great person. He's going to add so much to our city, to our university, to our football program and our locker room, more than just football. He’s an intelligent young man that's going to come in here and knock it out of the park. He's going to be a field general for us. He's going to know what everybody's job is up front and be able to help us and identify guys and the blitzes off the edge because he's going to be able to read.
Emmett Jones on Kelan Robinson
Well, I like his size on the boundary on a lot of stuff we do here at the University of Kansas with our offense. Lot of time that receiver, that X receiver that boundary, we going to ask him to do a lot of push cracking in our perimeter run game that's going to open up a lot of shots down field for him also, too.
You hope for a guy his size can draw that presents where he can get bracketed or he can get clouded by a squat corner or a high safety also, too. We want someone to demand that type of attention if that happens then that's pretty much going to open someone else up either in the run game or to the field with our Y and Z receiver.
He has the speed if that safety was to decide to buzz his feet playing like a little quarter technique, then Kelan has the speed to get behind in the secondary and he can go up and get it with his hands also too. Definitely a bit target coming out the boundary for us. Skies the limit for him, upside is very high, and can't wait until he gets here. He's going to soak up everything that we have to give him, that weight room, nutritionist. I can't wait to get him in the classroom and get out on the field and work with him.
Josh Eargle on De’Kedrick Sterns
De’Kedrick is a huge athletic man. Really, he's a 6′4″. He's up to about 280 pounds, now on this film he's about 250, 260. Plays the game really hard. He's nasty in a good way, when you talk about offensive linemen. He just gets after it and plays great, unbelievable effort and extra effort and extremely athletic feet. Extremely great bend in his hips. He knows hand placement. They use him a lot out in the edge and he can get there and run and be a run block and force and start him outside of tackle and they'll see how his big body develops.
Probably the most athletic offensive lineman in this class. Kendrick really came into his in his senior year. You've seen the strong development come from him. He's got abnormally long arms, which is a good thing. He's really ... we needed some length in this class and his length and his arms is just ... gives him an advantage on Friday nights and will for us and the Jayhawks on Saturdays.
Brent Dearmon on Ben Easters
So with Ben, we like his poise. We like his leadership ability. We got to see him throw in person on our campus, so we got to see how the ball comes out of his hand. We got to see how he looks you eye-to-eye when you're coaching him up. And I know his high school coach real well, so I know he's been pushed. I know the way he's been coached. But then the fact that he can drive the ball down the field. You get to see him here on this play. He can relocate the pocket. He's making a big time throw under pressure and delivers a strike downfield to his guy. So the big play ability of driving that ball down the field is another thing that we really like about Ben.
Q: What does it show you when you’re QB makes a throw like that knowing he’s going to take a shot.
That's that kid that you want to take with you on Thursday nights in the off season to the bar fight with you, right there. He's a kid that he knows when pressure's around, he can feel the pocket, he can get it out just in time. And he knows that the big play on the end of that throw is well-worth that hit he took, so it says a lot about him.
Another thing you get to see right here, that Ben didn't get to show a lot of, because a lot of high school coaches don't want to run their high school quarterback because they really don't trust in their backup just yet. So you get to see, Ben can move a little bit. I don't think he is as fast as Jalon, but he gives us another weapon in that room where you can see him use his legs. And then he's running that zone replay that we run so often here, gets on the edge and is able to run by defensive backs. So that's not the staple of his game, but it's nice to have a QB that can extend plays like this and go make big plays with his legs.
Josh Eargle on Larson Workman
He’s from the state of Texas, a big rascal man, big old huge long arms, big 6-foot-5 young man who was really physical off his junior film and continued to add weight this year, played a lot heavier this year and he did in his in his junior film and you can see that as he starts to lay on people and lean on people and wear people down as the game goes on.
The number one thing we were looking for in this class was length and that's what Larson has. He's on the edge offensive tackle for. Extremely long legs, long arms, to be able to create separation in the pass game. Probably what Larson does the best. He's really developed his pass blocking technique and can get those big, long arms and create separation and create the width of the pocket for a quarterback.
Larson did a really good job from his junior to senior film in both cases, really rolling his hips on contact in the run game and really, really happy to have Larson joining our war daddies up front.
You're looking for redeeming qualities in each individual and how that translates to what our offensive scheme is. I think that our emphasis this year, offensive line wise was length. We needed more length. We feel really, good about the depth of our unit in the middle and need to add guys on the edge.
DEFENSE
Chidera Uzo-Diribe on D’Marion Alexander
I think the sky's the limit for a guy like this. The 3-4 defense, it allows for these long explosive athletes to be all over the field, to make plays, not only in the run game, not only in the pass game, but also show up in coverage and do things like that. So, his explosive athleticism is going to allow him to make plays on all three phases.
The thing with 3-4 guys to also know is when you show that you can play standing up in a 3-4 defense in college, not only are you attractable to 3-4 NFL teams, but also 4-3 NFL teams as well. Because they can understand, hey, this guy can do it standing up, he can do the same things with his hand down.
Jordan Peterson on O.J. Burroughs
Coming from IMG Academy, he’s originally from Georgia. As you watch this film, the thing that stands out is his range. He's a long guy, has tremendous range in the middle of the field. He'll go up and attack the football. And when it's time to go to the house, he's trying to score every time he gets-
He's a long strider. He's deceptively fast. He's eating up grass as he's running. But again, his ability to go up and get the ball at the highest point is his biggest asset. Again, you can see him just doing some things naturally from the middle of the field, playing off the quarterback, and the high shoulder of the quarterback right there. Again, he's going to be a big time asset for us moving forward here at the University of Kansas.
Being at IMG the last two years, he led the state of Florida in picks as a junior. Didn't get quite as much action this year. But as you see from this tape, he's still making plays. He gets the ball in his hand, again, trying to take it to the crib. You know, when you're at IMG, you're not playing slouches either. You're playing some of the top programs in the country.
Chevis Jackson on Shad Dabney
Just a little bit about him, he's a kid that has a big personality, man. He talks a lot, you know what I'm saying? But he's comfortable in his skin, and he likes to be around the guys, and he's a good football player, very athletic, multiple sport guy.
A guy with multiple sports has the ability to access different movements without even thinking about it, and applying it when it's necessary.
Watching film on how Dabney didn’t bit on a trick play
He tayed home. But the one thing I want to say about this is just simple football. If you watch it back from the beginning, you see just little things that I teach my guys. Four people to one side, something always come back, you know what I'm saying? Something always coming back to that side, and you see it's a loaded formation right there, and he sees that flea flicker and he knows he got to take it, he got to go high to get this ball right here. The quarterback doesn’t even see them half the time. You know you're just going to get those gifts right there.
Kwahn Drake on Tommy Dunn
That's Tommy D, baby. That's my guy right there. The thing that that makes this kid special is that we think that he's somebody that could play up and down the entire defensive line. He could play all the positions. I bet he's going to give us some versatility. He has strengths being knocked back. The greatest thing about him, he also plays a little bit of tight end.
He's an all-around athlete, and a basketball kid, does a little bit everything.
And right here, this is the first clip. You could just see him right here, getting out of his stance right here, just doing a really good job of putting hands, being explosive, just running through a guy.
One of the things we always talk about, we want big guys up front to be able to go through his mouth and out his back. We're looking for guys who are explosive, to make explosive plays and do that. The thing that I like about him is he literally plays every position. He's on the film at nose guard. He's on the film at three technique. He shows up at five, and then we know the game's on a line, he shows up, and he's at tight end at times.
Just a dominant player. I'm excited about him. He's going to give us the versatility that we're looking for and just really adds depth all around because he can play all those positions. And the energy and the attitude, and just in the recruiting process, he's one of those kids that every time you talk to him, he's excited, he has energy, he's ready to go.
Jordan Peterson on Jayson Gilliom
Well, Jason's a guy that really can play everything. And as a Senior, he played primarily corner. But a couple of his high school coaches, they repped him at nickel, they repped him at safety. He's a bigger body guy, a 6'1 190 plus pound guy, that will really come down and smack you.
Coming his program, they do a really good job of coaching those guys from a technique standpoint. He is definitely, IQ wise, a really impressive young man and football makes sense to him. He's been around football all his life and really been catching on pretty quick according to those coaches. And again, you can see him coming off the edge here. We can blitz him. He knows how to finish the play. Obviously, when you put them in the blitz, he can drop down in the box and be a big time box safety. And so his ability to play multiple positions is really going to help us as a defense.
D.J. Eliot on Andrew Simpson
Andrew Simpson, as you can see here, is a very talented player. Andrew has athleticism to play in space. Andrew has speed and then close and make tackles. Andrew also is physical enough to get off blocks. He's a kind of guy that he's going to be a great addition for us because he has not only the physical attributes, but he has all the intangibles too.
He comes from a winning program where he's a leader. He's a quarterback of the defense. He makes all the checks in a complicated system that's similar to ours, and he's going to bring a lot to the table as a football player and as a teammate.
What's critical about that is how much we blitz our inside linebackers. He's going to be in position to make plays within our scheme and you can see him doing it already within his scheme. Now, what I really liked about him when I first saw him as a junior was not only his tackling and his blitzing, but was his coverage skills. He's has a knack for playing in space and covering not only tight ends and backs, but he's even been matched up on some wide receivers before.
The Big 12 is a space game. I've coached in the Pac-12 and in the SEC. The only league I haven't coached in is the Big Ten and I've coached in the ACC as well, and this league is unique because it's such a space league. It's a league that you have to be able to make plays in space and you have to be able to cover, and Andrew Simpson brings that to the table.
Chidera on Trey Staley
Trey is a versatile outside linebacker. With Trey, you get to see him play in space, on the line of scrimmage, rushing the quarterback, and in coverage. A lot of the things that we ask of our outside linebackers here, he's already doing, and I think that's going to help him translate to this game pretty seamlessly when he gets here.
I think he's a natural fit for the outside linebacker position. He does a good job of getting off the edge when he's called to go on blitzes, he has a good feel for that as well, but he also can do a good job holding his own out there on end coverage as well.
Chevis Jackson on Devonte Wilson
DeVonte Wilson, originally out of Savannah, Georgia. He plays ball in Florida, right there on that border, that state line. He’s another athletic guy, that we're getting in this year's class. He's 6'1", 6'1" and a half. Long guy.
He also plays receiver. Being able to get that ball in the air and create those turnovers and make plays on the ball when the ball is in the air is important. Half the time, some of those corners don't want to tackle. Him, being the tough guy, being from the country, he wants to mix it up with guys and be in that run fit.
Kwahn Drake on D.J. Withers
One of the biggest attributes we feel about DJ is his ability to rush the passer and that's something that we felt that we wanted to add to the defensive line is guys who have natural pass rush ability to flip their hips and go get the quarterback on the ground.
You can see him right here as an outside guy right here on an edge, does a really, really good job of winning at the top of the rush, finishing on the quarterback, just shows the ability, explosive to turn a corner and also locate the quarterback. That's going to be one of the key things that we're looking for this year to continue to develop and as you can see in all these clips, good job, you saw him the first time he was in the stance of two point. Being able to stand up, showing his position versatility, being able to play maybe some outside backer for us at times. Being able to play four eye five technique, moving all the way around, just putting him in position where he can really affect the game the most right here. And here's another clip where you see him doing a great job of working to flip his hips.
He turns a corner, brings him down right there. And that's something that we look for right there consistently at the defensive line position, just guys being in a position where they can create power, get off the snap of the ball, turn a corner. And his length, he's over 6-foot-4 inches tall. He's going to be able to give us something of the edge and really give us exactly what we're looking for.
You’re looking for people with dominant mentalities, dominant person, and you looking for somebody that's going to come in and dominate and that's the main thing we're looking for up front.
Jordan Peterson on James Wright
The guy that we saw as a junior. He did multiple things, played quarterback, played some running back, played DB, played safety as well as nickelback and playing that overhang position. So, has definitely shown some versatility. We really see him explode as he's playing quarterback and when he gets the ball in his hand. So, I'm always partial to recruiting some guys that play on the other side of the ball. Usually, that translates over to being, "Hey, look, I know football, I know concepts, I know what the offense is trying to do to us as a defense." So having that experience is really going to help him when he gets on campus.
And I feel like it gives a safety, a rhythm. Like where they pick up the patterns of all offense to where they can see it naturally from the quarterback's position to "Okay, this is where you try to attack us before and this is where they gassed us, this is how they might set it up again. So having to put it like that does make life easier as a safety's coach.”
Again he can play multiple positions. He can play that Hawk, that nickel position for us. And we're excited about him.
