June a busy recruiting month for Les Miles and KU football staff

By Benton Smith     Jun 7, 2019

Kansas University football recruiting

The recruiting battles that will shape the Kansas football program’s 2020 class are far from over. But a week into what is shaping up to be a busy June for head coach Les Miles and his staff, the Jayhawks appear to be off to a sound start on the recruiting front.

As of Friday, Rivals’ national team rankings for the 2020 class listed KU at No. 42 among the 100 programs tracked.

Within the Big 12, Rivals currently ranks Kansas seventh, ahead of West Virginia, Baylor and Texas Tech.

Working with a relatively limited number of scholarships to offer after taking over the program this past November, Miles’ first recruiting class at KU ranked 10th in the Big 12, per Rivals. However, going strictly by the average star ratings for the signees in each conference member’s class, KU finished eighth averaging 2.71 stars.

Looking at the current state of the 2020 class by average star ratings, KU ranks seventh.

With seven verbal commitments in place, KU is tied for fifth in that category.

Duece Mayberry, a three-star cornerback from Oklahoma, became the seventh member of KU’s 2020 class this past Sunday, joining three-star offensive lineman Jackson Stoefen (Iowa), three-star receiver Keith Miller III (Texas), three-star receiver Keenan Hambrick (Alabama), three-star tight end Trevor Kardell (Missouri), three-star tight end Will Huggins (Shawnee Mission South) and two-star quarterback DaVonshai Harden Jr. (Topeka).

All verbal commitments, of course, are nonbinding. The soonest any players in the 2020 class can sign is December.

Eventful June for Jayhawks

KU’s coaching staff opened the month of June by hosting camps and somewhere between 900 to 1,000 players were on campus as a result.

The first weekend of the month also featured a boatload of prospects visiting the program, the majority of them in an unofficial capacity.

One player who made his trip to Lawrence official on June 1, three-star Kansas City, Mo., defensive end Johnny Wilson, told Jon Kirby of Jayhawk Slant he planned to take two more official visits this month, to Missouri and Iowa State.

Wilson, ahead of his senior year at Park Hill High, reportedly has offers from KU, Mizzou, ISU, Arkansas, Iowa and Nebraska.

The local recruit from K.C. wasn’t the only three-star D-end to take an official visit to KU that weekend. So did Khari Coleman, from George Washington Carver High, in New Orleans.

Coleman has offers from several programs, notably KU, Kansas State and Tennessee at this time.

More than 30 players took unofficial visits to Kansas this past week, including four-star quarterback Chubba Purdy.

A 6-foot-3, dual threat QB from Gilbert, Ariz., Purdy told Jayhawk Slant he communicates with Miles and KU assistants Les Koenning and Jeff Hecklinski “almost every day.”

“I have a good relationship with all three of them,” Purdy said. “They just tell me that I have a really good shot of playing at Kansas. I would have to fight for that job, but I would compete for it.”

Chubba is the younger brother of Iowa State QB Brock Purdy. Chubba also visited K-State this week.

Here are a few other notable recruits who took unofficial visits to KU the weekend of June 1:

• Isaiah Jacobs, three-star running back from Owasso, Okla.

• Abner Dubar, three-star athlete from Anna, Texas

• Camar Wheaton (2021), running back from Garland, Texas

• Josh Baker, three-star offensive lineman from Eureka, Mo. (committed to Arizona on Friday)

The KU staff expects to have another big recruiting weekend beginning Friday, June 21, with more official visits on deck.

A three-star cornerback from Atlanta, Durante Jones told Rivals’ Chad Simmons he will be in Lawrence June 21.

Another three-star corner, Caleb Offord, from Southaven, Miss., told Simmons he plans to commit to a program before his senior year, and the teams Offord speaks with most are Notre Dame, Duke, KU, Louisville, Purdue and Vanderbilt.

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