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KANSAN.COM
SPORTS
Ranking the 2016 recruiting class
▶ CHRISTIAN HARDY
@ByHardy
On top of 17 new signees, Kansas football coach David Beaty introduced three walk-ons who will join the team for spring practices next month.
With Beaty's help, I ranked the players from 1-20. Some — such as Kyle Mayberry and Maciah Long — rose to the top because of their ability to play right from the get-go. Others such as Isaiah Bean rose because of their potential and raw ability.
The quotes are from Beaty's signing day press conference on Tuesday.
1. Kyle Mayberry CB, 5-11, 165
"Love this kid, love his mentality,love his personality. He'll be one of the leaders from this group, there's no doubt. This guy can lock you down in coverage. It allows you do some things in man coverage and get some pressure on some teams."
2. Maciah Long ILB, 6-2, 215
"This guy's probably underrated. I'm so impressed with this guy This guy could be one of the great leaders to help develop our program from this point forward."
3. Chris Hughes OT, 6-5, 260
"Large, athletic family. This kid's a really,really good player."
4. Hunter Harris C, 6-3, 255
"He's one of the hardest working guys I've seen around so far. He'll probably play some guard and center for us, but he is athletic enough to be able to set the edge if we need him to play tackle."
5. Isaiah Bean DE, 6-5, 210
"We had a real need for pass rush. We lost Ben Goodman, who was a big pass rush guy for us, and we're looking for even more dynamic than that. Long, good looking athlete with a great frame."
6. Evan Fairs WR, 6-2, 180
"He is a good looking, big, long guy, who can separate and run. Gives us some profile out there on the edge. Reminds me a little bit of a guy named Briscoe that we had here, in terms of his length."
7. Tyriek Starks QB, 6-2, 185
"Love this kid. One of the most impressive things I liked about this guy is, we go into his bedroom, and he's got a cardboard Coke box that he's torn off and on his wall in his bedroom are his team goals. Nothing about him, all about his team."
8. Ian Peterson S, 5-11, 175
"He can do a lot of things for us. He can really run, he returned kicks for [his high school], he's got some instincts about him."
9. Isi Holani DT, 6-3. 300
"He is one of those A-gap guys that we've been looking for. A nose, a guy that can really handle A-gaps for us in our four-down stuff."
10. Stephan Robinson CB, 5-11, 175
"This guy is a long, good looking, quick, athletic, change-of-direction guy. This guy plays both ways, he plays receiver and he plays DB. He's going to play DB for us and play corner."
11. Khalil Herbert RB, 5-10, 195
"One of the top players in Miami's area, and this guy can play. He can run, he's got power. You're going to have to tackle this guy."
"He is a big dude and this guy is quick now. He's quick off the ball and he can be disruptive up the middle and we really do need that."
12. Deelsaac Davis DT, 6-3, 290
who have tremendous upside."
13. Antione Frazier OT, 6-5, 250
14. Lucas Jacobs OG, 6-2, 295
"He is a guy that can really do a little bit of everything. He can play at center, guard, tackle. He's got some upside to him."
15. Shola Ayinde DB, 6-0, 175
"Committed to us last year, had a lot of people coming in on him, and he stayed with us. Kind of a raw guy, but we have high hopes. This is one of those guys
"He comes from a winning program, which is important for us. We want to add kids to this team that understand and know winning. He's a long guy and he has ability to press and play press coverage."
16. Julian Chandler DB, 6-0, 165
17. Cam Durley
OT, 6-6, 295
"This guy is a long, man coverage guy that can do a lot of different things for us. He's played on the offensive side before, but he can be a dynamic return guy for us in the punt return game."
"Big-time basketball player in high school, played only one year of high school football, really. If you're talking about tackles, and a guy that can play basketball as an O-lineman, usually those guys turn out working out because they have good feet."
18. Keegan Brewer WR, 5-11, 175
"Out of Lake Dallas, Texas, he looks little, but he's a 5-11 guy. This guy kind of reminds me of that Cole Beasley type of guy. Great instincts, moves around well, really quick."
"This guy can throw it and he can run it. He's got a little poise to him that you don't see a lot of guys have."
19. Dagan Haehn QB, 6-2, 210
20. Bryce Torneden S,5-10,180
"Local guy, and I'm really excited about having this guy on board. We're going to start him out on the defensive side. He's a guy to me that sticks up as a weak-safety type of guy that can make a lot of tackles for you."
Kansas Football head coach David Beaty speaks at a press conference. On Wednesday, Beaty addressed the media for National Signing Day.
File Photo/Kansan
Beaty shifts recruiting strategy for 2016 class
BRIAN MINI
@daftmunkop
Charlie Weis was the Kansas football coach just two years ago.
@daftpunkpop
The former coach brought a recruiting strategy that leaned heavily on bringing in players with junior college experience, while mixing in the occasional high school player.
This experiment had mixed results, including a few awful seasons and the positive addition of the 2015 Big 12 leading tackler, safety Fish Smithson.
In his second year with the program, current coach David Beaty has new ideas of how to rebrand the Jayhawks, different from Weis' strategy. Of the 20 total recruits in the 2016 class, only three are from junior colleges.
"It's about development," Beaty said in his signing day press conference. "It's hard to develop guys when you only have them for a year or two."
There were 12 junior college players in last
year's recruiting class. However, Beaty seems to be moving away from that trend - starting with this class.
"We're not going to cut corners and cutting corners is trying to get rich quick. We're not trying to do that," Beaty said.
Four-year players have had success at Kansas in the past. Players like Ben Goodman, Ben Heeney and Bradley McDougall are a few examples of the players with successful four-year careers at Kansas.
Sometimes junior college players enter their Kansas careers with more than two years of eligibility left even though they have a couple of years left in their college careers.
For example, 2016 commit Stephan Robinson spent one year at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, which gave him three years of eligibility at Kansas.
"He's not a true high school guy but he gives you more than two years," Beaty said of Robinson.
"This guy plays receiver and he plays [defensive back]. He's going to play corner for us."
Beaty even shared the same recruiting attitude as new Kansas women's basketball coach Brandon Schneider.
"I love, love, love what Brandon Schneider said at his press conference last year: 'We're going to recruit the planet, we'll have a Kansas identity, to go find the right ones to hoist those trophies and see that confetti drop on us."
Keeping with his trend of hitting the state of Texas hard, 12 of the 20 commitments for this year are from Beaty's home state. Only one of the 20 were from the state of Kansas, though.
"It wasn't for a lack of trying," Beaty said. "We just got to prove to them that it's worth staying at your university because this is their university."
- Edited by Brendan Dzwierzynski
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