The Kansas Jayhawks are in the midst of a revamp. After back-to-back 5-7 seasons, the Jayhawks were always going to have to reshuffle. While the NCAA Transfer Portal is yet to open, Kansas has already seen running back Johnny Thompson Jr, wide receiver Bryce Cohoon, linebacker JaCorey Stewart, tight end Jaden Hamm, and safety Damani Maxson enter the portal.
Minutes ago, Kansas’ newest portal exit was confirmed, safety Lyrik Rawls.
Rawls came to Kansas with three years of playing time at fellow Big 12 school Oklahoma State. With the Cowboys, Lawls' minutes began to stack up his redshirt freshman season, where the safety played in 12 games, finishing with 24 tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack, two pass breakups, and a forced fumble.
In Rawls’ lone season with Kansas, the redshirt senior burst onto the scene with an insane interception against Fresno State in Kansas’ season-opening 31-7 win against the Bulldogs.
Rawls finished the season with 72 tackles, seven passes defended, and an interception.
Kansas football turning down a bowl bid seems short-sighted and disappointing
Rawls was consistently hovering over the field with three 10-tackle performances. The first was a 42-31 loss to the Missouri Tigers, the second a 37-34 loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats, and the 10-tackle performance in a 42-17 loss to the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
On the season, the Jayhawks' pass defense ranked near the middle of the pack with the 70th best passing defense as Kansas allowed 225.4 passing yards per game.
Overall, the Jayhawks ranked 92nd in total defense as Kansas gave up an average of 409.5 yards per game.