Kansas Football: Post Signing Day Roster Update

Lack of freshmen RB’s & FB’s
Only freshmen OC’s. Look for a 5th year here.
Only 1 freshmen WR. Need more quality youth here, even with 4 per year.
No F/S DT’s. As much as this class helped, we really need young blood too.
The entire DB is thin.

or maybe RSSo so that his rank would logically progress to RSJr

I think we’re really strong in some areas (QB, OL, DE, S, and RB) but just have numbers in other areas (WR, LB, DT, CB).

Also of note, Tevin Shaw will be occupying a scholarship shortly. I think he’ll end up at LB with us even though he is a great RB as well.

One more note – you didn’t list specialists who occupy scholarships.

Ok, so a general breakdown of things since it’s slow at work today:

QB – Crist will be the starter. He wouldn’t have come here otherwise. He knows the system and is the most talented bar-none. While Batey could be a nice find, he does not have a shot at the starting spot this year. Next year, he has a decent chance at a fair competition with Heaps. I think Heaps wins out, but that’s when Batey will get a chance to play. I think next year we’ll bring in a HS QB with a possible RS year. I think we’re talking about a 4-star type guy who has the potential to be a 3-year starter.

RB – I don’t anticipate Sims being the starter at the end of the year, and if it’s truly an open competition in the Spring, I don’t expect him to be the starter entering the Fall. He’s a solid D-1 RB who will still see snaps, but he doesn’t provide anything “extra” He doesn’t have an extra gear. He gets positive yards and doesn’t lose the ball. Both VERY good and VERY important things, but it’s not enough with the talent around him. I think Bourbon is the starter if healthy, though it appears Cox is going to get an opportunity. And let me assure everyone, Pierson is going to get the ball in his hands if Weis has to hand it himself. You can’t teach what Pierson can do, and there isn’t anyone on our roster who can replicate that. I’d like to see him in the slot getting a free release to the second level, but he will get his chances. This is a very good group overall. It’s still a young group, but I expect us to bring in a HS RB next year. As I said above, I think Shaw ends up at LB instead of RB. The good thing about the RB position in general is that it doesn’t take a ton of “learning” to be ready to play and players don’t need to spend years filling out. So a recruit next year will be fine.

FB – I don’t really have an opinion on either guys game, but it’s good to see that neither is a senior. Our ground game was good last year so I’m going to assume these guys are solid. This isn’t really a position you recruit, it’s more a position where you put a bigger RB/LB type kid who isn’t getting minutes otherwise but needs to be on the field.

OL – This group has some serious talent when compared to everything else. This is a group that has played together for a while and has a bunch of starts under their collective belt. While I’m not going to look it up, there is a magic number of collective starts by an OL that is a good indication of whether a team is going to win games that year. Basically, the higher that number, the better your chances of winning. Gill did do a pretty good job in bringing in some OL recruits, so we actually have some youth behind this group of upperclassmen. I’m interested to see how Weis recruits OL because Gill took an interesting approach. Gill recruited primarily OTs and moved guys inside. His theory was that OTs are generally the best OL on a HS team and that their size would also translate to OG/C. Weis has already stated that he loves size on his OL, but will he recruit position specific? At ND he recruited guys who specifically guards entering college, but those guys were also elite 4-star level guys and we can’t count on that coming to KU by any stretch. Assuming we aren’t landing 4-star OGs, does Weis go after a HS OG or does he get the “best player” if he’s an OT and let the staff teach him how to play inside?

TE – This is one of the biggest unknowns for me but not in a bad way. Both Smiley and Mundine have talent and have gotten good reviews, but neither have really gotten a chance to play. I think it’s a competition between them, but Weis brought in a JuCo so Weis kind of got “his” guy already. However, I think Brooks is mostly for depth and numbers. We’ll see because this spot is completely up for grabs. I think this is a prime candidate for a 5th year transfer as well. Another thing to note is that Weis recruited elite level TEs while at ND, and saw a few (2 I think?) TEs get drafted. I think we’ll see a nice TE recruit next year.

WR – This is a position that has a lot of bodies and that’s about it. Patterson can make some plays, but his actual ability was exaggerated last year because we were comparing him to the other WRs. He’s going to play, and he should, but he’s not a #1 WR by any means. Beshears is coming off an injury, though he is a fairly proven commodity, especially at PR/KR. With that said, he’s the same player as Patterson. In my opinion, having both of them on the field together negates in a way what each can do. You only play 2 slot guys in a WR set, and usually only in a split-wide, not a trips plus one. On top of that, I think if Pierson wants the spot, it’s his because he’s better, but there actually is real talent between the two of them. I don’t think Pick is going to be worth much in terms of production. Everyone just assumed a transition like Miers, but that didn’t happen and it honestly probably isn’t going to happen. Weis went out and picked up a JuCo WR in Ford who looks good on paper but is just as much a crap-shoot as any other WR. Shepard and Jackson showed some promise last season as potential #1 type WRs, but again, it wasn’t really more than a flash for either. Now, to be fair to all returning WRs, they had Jordan Webb throwing them the ball for two years. That isn’t going to help anything out. I expect Crist to make these guys look better than they actually are because he’s that good (in theory). McCay is the game changer and true #1 but we don’t know for sure if he’s going to play this season yet. I think we’ll see some attrition from this group around the summer time. Really, all spots are up for grabs and because nobody has done anything in the least bit to separate themselves, everyone has a legitimate shot of making the two-deep. Once that is sorted out, I think a few guys leave or are gently nudged out. I think we should see 2-3 WR recruits next year.

DE – As Owen mentioned, a lot of this DL talk depends on our base scheme. I think this group is solid but unspectacular. Definitely an area that could use an upgrade but one where I think we can get by. Opurum is our headliner but I think he’s overrated by our fan base. I’m not saying he’s bad or shouldn’t start by any means, but we need to be objective about it. When he made the switch initially I feel he was just told to pin his ears back and attack which is what got some results. Now, with a set position (assuming a 4-3 with this as he’s not a 3-4 DE) he needs to progress into more of a complete DE. Keba showed some good signs last year and Green has a huge ceiling. I think it’s a good enough group but needs depth and one true terror.

DT – This is entirely a crap-shoot. We honestly have no idea what we have other than Williams which shouldn’t really inspire confidence either. We have a lot of new bodies which should be the most encouraging news with this group because the old ones just weren’t very good. We’re seeing an influx of JuCo guys but none of them are clear starters on another average Big XII team. I expect to see a 5th year guy come in and compete for a starting job. Next years class will likely have multiple HS DTs in it because DTs actually do require a year or two of filling out, and our underclassmen depth is dangerously thin from a numbers perspective and even thinner from a talent perspective.

LB – Our best hope is Tharpe returning to his pre-injury form. After that, Willis got hyped up a ton and fell flat on his face during games. I think Miles has a honest chance to start and should be in the rotation at a minimum. I think that little of our LB unit as a whole. The last few years we’ve had at least one above average LB that we could count on to make tackles (Springer then Johnson) and we’re all hoping for Tharpe to be that guy this year, but who knows if his Freshman year was his peak. Weis had some talented LBs at ND, though I attribute that more to ND than Weis. This is a position that is going to need a serious infusion of talent next recruiting class. We’re talking about a 3-star freshman having the chance to start. While I like Miles a lot, that should tell you everything you need to know about our LBs. We also just don’t know what the “depth” can do as they never really got a chance to play. None of those guys gets me excited, but I’m not being completely fair because they haven’t seen the field. As a former LB, I know the position is so much more about instinct than pure talent, so I’m hopeful that some of these guys are “players” because they don’t jump out on paper. I think one of them was a coaches son who had a ton of tackles in HS. The difference in our LB play is size. Size and instinct can trump talent. To be a successful LB you need at least 2/3 of: Size, Talent, Instincts. I’ll give the unknowns the benefit of the doubt with the instincts simply because they haven’t proven otherwise, but which guy can we check off as having either of the other categories?

CB – God help us. Well, God or Campo. I’ll pray to both but we need a miracle. I’m hopeful Campo can teach them ball recognition skills and God sees it fit to send us a 5th year transfer. Weis needs to recruit CB hard.

S – I like this group actually. I think McDougald has All-Conference talent. I openly said I didn’t like Terry playing for two years, so I’m not upset in the least bit that he’s gone. I think Kande will wind up as a S again but he won’t make an impact. He came in as a highly touted recruit but he couldn’t put it together yet, and I just don’t see it happening now. I think Smith and Simmons can adequately fill the other spot opposite McDougald. Simmons has been getting some really good reviews from workouts, though he should as he was a track-star in HS I believe.

Specialties – You didn’t list any specialists but they have scholarships. Our LS has a scholarship and he should keep it. Muller has one, though he didn’t show last year why, he has potential and is also the only one we have. I’m not sure if our punter is on scholarship.