Grading Kansas' linebacker group creates a bit of a concern

Last season, the Jayhawks' defense ranked 95th-worst in the nation, allowing 409.5 yards per game, a disappointing mark that can be pointed to as why KU finished the 2025 campaign 5-7. 

To make matters worse, this past offseason, the Kansas Jayhawks nearly lost their centerpiece for the 2026 season in linebacker Tre Lathan. Lathan entered the portal for two weeks before withdrawing and staying put. While Lathan wasn’t perfect, he stood out as one of the Big 12’s best linebackers and was even nominated to the All-Big 12 Honorable Mention team. 

Following the Lathan debacle, the Jayhawks made it a mission to improve the pieces around him. Today’s task is to grade how good of a job they did building around the former West Virginia transfer.

Depth chart help is provided here by Ourlads.

A solid starting corps, but don't let it fully fool you

At the weakside spot is projected to be Daveon Crouch and Jibreel Al-Amin. 

Crouch is one of the most surefire pickups the Jayhawks made in the last portal cycle. Crouch is bringing in 38 games from Boston College along with 107 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss 3 sacks and 1 interception. Crouch was named a team captain heading into last season, but he only played 4 games before suffering a season-ending injury. 

Al-Amin spent three seasons at Jacksonville State before making the move to Marshall for last season. With the Herd, Al-Amin was all over the field, totaling 56 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 1 forced fumble and 2 pass breakups. 

The middle linebacker is projected to be Lathan, Quincy Davis and Jaron Willis.

Lathan ended last season with 86 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and 1 interception. 

From New Mexico State, Davis adds 61 tackles and 1 tackle for loss over the last two seasons. 

Lastly lies Willis. Willis played a bit-part role with the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Ole Miss Rebels, making just nine tackles across 21 games. 

Leading the corps is coach Chris Simpson. Simpson led elite linebacker groups at Buffalo before joining the Jayhawks. Since joining the Jayhawks, Simpson has produced solid rooms at KU.

Overall Grade: B

There is discussion over where this grade deserves to be a B or a B- and by the time it is published it has likely been flipped. This grade isn’t supposed to be some sort of diss towards this room. Lathan has long been a favorite and the addition of Crouch should turn out ot be one of the wisest portal plays under Leipold. But the depth with this team significantly falls short. Davis, Al-Amin and Willis all lack power-conference experience and if any of them were forced into a game for whatever reason, there is a fear that the dropoff in quality would certainly be noticeable. 

Simpson is a good coach who has been coaching linebackers since 2010, but he doesn’t rank as one of the nation’s premier coaches at this position and if either Crocuh or Lathan all of a sudden can’t play, the middle of the defense suddenly becomes a massive worry.

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