Kansas Jayhawks Football Recruiting: Juco players sign with KU

Kansas officially has eight new members of the football following Wednesday’s Juco signing day.

Here is the updated recruit list:

Kyron Johnson has graduated high school early and signed along with the junior college transfers.

Kerr Johnson, Willie McCaleb, and Shakial Taylor were all late additions who just verbally committed on Tuesday. With Jamie Tago decommitting and pledging to Hawaii last week, that opened up a spot for McCaleb.

One thing to keep in mind is that once again, Kansas will not be able to sign a full class of 25 players. According to Tom Keegan at the LJW, nine players from last year’s class will count toward this year. Most of these players are transfers (Daylon Charlot, Charles Baldwin, Denzell Evans), early enrollees (Mike Lee), or late summer additions (Hakeem Adeniji, for example) aka “blueshirts.” Per Mr. Keegan:

(Blueshirts) ... means the the athletes did not make an official campus visit paid for by the school. Blueshirts, because they did not sign letters of intent, are fair game to be recruited by any other school until they enroll, which can be on the first day of summer conditioning. They count toward the following year’s recruiting class, even though they spend the year on scholarship.

That means KU can only sign 16 players for the 2017 class.

You’ll notice there are 16 names in the table above. That means should the remaining verbal commitments hold, KU’s class is complete. Anyone who is not signed can still decommit, so there’s still the chance for something crazy to happen.

It is also noted that out of a class of 16 players, 7 are Juco transfers. But when you look at the 25-man class as a whole, including the “blueshirts,” it looks pretty decent.

The full list of “blueshirt” players:

OL Hakeem Adeniji, started on the O-line as a true freshman in 2016

OL Charles Baldwin, former 5-star transfer from Alabama, redshirted in 2016

OL Malik Clark, two-star recruit chose KU over Missouri, Mississippi State, and Tulane, played vs Rhode Island

WR Daylon Charlot, former 5-star transfer from Alabama, redshirted in 2016

RB Denzell Evans, former 3-star transfer from Arkansas,

DB Mike Lee, four-star recruit, started at safety as a true freshman in 2016

LB Dru Prox, not rated by any recruiting services, redshirted in 2016

P Kyle Thompson, redshirted in 2016

DB Justin Williams, couldn’t find much info

Anyway, the good news is, Kansas should be close to 80 scholarship players next fall. Between guys counting forward, backward, blueshirts, grayshirts, redshits, and walk-ons earning scholarships, the roster is looking better from a scholarship number perspective. A few wins in 2017 might go a long way to increasing the talent level of future classes as well.