Kansas Football Recruiting 2013: Linebackers

Linebacker was a position that really developed fairly nicely all things considered during the 2012 season. It wasn't that it was a huge strength, but it was the best group at linebacker for several years. Now the challenge is in improving that group because while things were better, they were far from being perfect. Charlie Weis and his staff have a solid group coming in at defensive line and most of them are on campus this spring. The help at linebacker will be coming over the summer and it will arrive in the form of both junior college and high school prospects.

Jenkins-Moore pulled the trigger fairly early, visited Kansas State and not only stayed loyal but ran interference with Marquel Combs. Sounds like a guy that any Jayhawk fan can learn to like. Moore is one of the top junior college linebackers in the country and he's expected to be an immediate impact player on the outside. That comes as good news for Kansas who will need to replace Huldon Tharp who has expressed his interest in moving on from football after this past season. Moore had offers from Kansas State, Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and more. It's an impressive list and that alone should speak to what Moore could mean for the Kansas defense.

Goeas committed late after a coaching change at Tennessee. It was believed at the time that his commitment was a good sign for Kansas and Reeve Koehler, but in all reality Goeas was just as important in his own right. The pipeline to Hawaii and the west is slowly opening up for Kansas and Goeas already has division one size, now he just has to develop in the player that people think he can. Goeas claimed offers from Tennessee where he was previously committed, Hawaii, UCLA, Washington State and Kansas. Goeas comes from a football family, his dad having played for the Chargers. He most likely projects as an inside linebacker for the Jayhawks, and is a similar signing to Schyler Miles from a year ago.

Samson is a ready made man for the middle. He's another one of the junior college prospects that pepper this list of signings for Kansas and he is a big, physical linebacker. This probably represents what Weis would have liked to do more with McDonald last year and with some of the Big 12 shifting to the running attack more, this is a good player to have on the roster. It also could allow Ben Heeney to shift outside where he played effectively on occasion this past season as a SLB. Faifili chose Kansas over Hawaii, Iowa State, Arizona State, Oregon State and others on the West coast.

Ash was an early commit who will play at linebacker after playing several defensive positions in high school. Ash played primarily on the line where he put up a pretty big number in the sack column but the goal is to move him to linebacker at Kansas. He has a high motor and he's athletic with good quickness so hopefully with time he can develop into a solid contributor for the program.