74 Days Until KU Football: 2021 Recruiting Class Recap

The most recent crop of recruits comes to KU as the #62-ranked class in the country (per 247Sports). That ranking took a bit of a hit when national top-100 recruit WR Quaydarius Davis was dropped from the class by the university after domestic violence allegations came out in March; Davis would have been the program’s highest-ever recruit since Rivals began ranking players.

All told, the Jayhawks have 20 recruits in the class, which has been bolstered by 10 transfers for a total of 30 new incoming players. (I don’t think the transfers affect the class ranking.) Perhaps unsurprisingly, six transfers come from Buffalo - coach Leipold’s previous stop - as well as one each from Virginia Tech, Texas Tech, Notre Dame, and North Texas.

KU’s class ranking is actually not last in the Big 12. Texas Tech came in with the #74 class (just 12 recruits), and the Jayhawks are within shouting distance of #60 TCU, #58 Iowa State, and #55 K-State. So, considering all of the offseason turmoil, things could definitely be much worse for Kansas.

It’s another “typical” KU class, chock full of 3-star recruits. Last year, I opined on the quality of the 3-star recruits, and that’s the case again this year. The Jayhawks have four top-1000 players in this class, which gives them 14 out of Les Miles’ three recruiting classes. For reference, the David Beaty regime brought in just eight such recruits across four classes.

I’m guessing that most of the new faces we see this year will be the transfers, but we’ll take a closer look at them in an upcoming article. As for the recruiting class, I’m not sure we’ll see very many of these guys in year one, but here are a few who could get on the field for their freshman campaign.

RB Devin Neal is KU’s highest-rated recruit in several years, and the top-rated recruit in the state of Kansas. He also steps into a position of need considering Pooka Williams’ departure to the NFL. Velton Gardner and Daniel Hishaw both return, and Amauri Pesek-Hickson is an intriguing prospect. However, considering his profile, Neal should be given every chance to earn some playing time in his freshman season. Neal had multiple scholarship offers from other schools in the Big 12 and Big 10.

S-DB Edwin White decommitted from Tennessee to sign with Kansas. He also held offers from Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and a host of G5 programs. He comes in as a highly-rated safety prospect, but may find it difficult to find much playing time behind Kenny Logan and Ricky Thomas.

DE D’Marion Alexander also had a nice offer sheet that included Minnesota, Arizona State, Baylor, TCU, and Texas Tech. However, he also shows up on campus with some entrenched competition, as Steven Parker and Kyron Johnson both project as starters on the D-line.

Once again, overall I would say expect to see more of the transfers get playing time as newcomers to Kansas football this season, but, this class does have some interesting prospects, and at the very least, is key to continuing to rebuild KU’s depth as the program recovers from the David Beaty era.