Kansas football recruiting: Jayhawk commit adding substantial offers

Deshawn Warner has skyrocketed up national rankings, but Kansas football now has competition with two of college football’s premier powerhouses.

The Kansas Jayhawks are on pace to cap off their best recruiting class in over a decade. They rank 49th nationally, which is good for No. 7 in the new-look Big 12. But while Kansas football head coach Lance Leipold is taking the program to unparalleled heights, the team’s success also means they have to compete with the top dogs.

Deshawn Warner recently soared up recruiting rankings. He now holds four stars on 247 Sports and is rated the 173th player in the country, passing fellow KU pledge Dakyus Brinkley. Warner is a versatile power edge rusher who was regarded as a huge get for defensive line coach Jim Panagos.

Now, Kansas’ coaching staff must work their tails off to preserve Warner’s commitment until National Signing Day. He received scholarship offers from two top programs in the Big 12.

Deshawn Warner secures offers from Ohio State and Michigan

Over the past two weeks, Warner has been offered by Michigan and Ohio State. He will presumably continue to rack up new opportunities as he continues his strong senior year at Desert Edge. MaxPreps has him down for ten sacks and 33 total tackles across the first six games.

Ultimately, these are the types of things schools have to deal with during a rebuild. Until Kansas becomes a school that the best recruiting targets commit to, they will continue to worry about losing their best pledges to more highly regarded programs.

One thing to monitor is that Warner has ties to a pair of KU commits. Defensive backs coach Jordan Peterson has been recruiting heavily in Arizona and was responsible for the commitments of Aundre Gibson and Jonathan Kamara. Gibson is Warner’s cousin. Losing him could mean losing the others.

Let’s hope Kansas can keep Warner on board. He and Brinkley can become an elite edge rusher duo at KU.

Here is a scouting report of Warner’s game on Phog.net.

“We’re just big fans of the overall profile and the senior tape really pops as he’s constantly creating pressure off the edge, winning with both speed and power. To be honest, there’s really not a ton of third-party verified information out there when it comes to the measurements and all that, but he looks to have plenty of growth potential, especially in the lower half. He also owns some impressive track and field markers like his 41-2 effort in the triple jump. That’s notable because recent NFL Draft trends show that a lot of the edge rushers selected early on these days did track and field in high school, and to a high degree, especially with the jumps. I also think four pick-sixes over the past three years is pretty wild. Impressive get for Kansas and someone that can absolutely be a true different-maker in the Big 12 if he keeps progressing.”