Ever since Lance Leipold took over as Kansas football coach in 2021, the KU football players have exclusively selected team captains who have been with the Jayhawks for the entirety of Leipold’s tenure.
Yes, as recently as 2024, KU had two captains who came to Lawrence in 2020 in Jalon Daniels and Luke Grimm and two who arrived in 2021 in Devin Neal and Cornell Wheeler.
This season, it is quite possible that the Jayhawks’ team leaders could include incoming transfers — players who have yet to suit up officially in crimson and blue.
“I wouldn’t be surprised as we move toward some things at the end of camp when we announce captains, there could be a guy like that in that group,” Leipold said, “because of how they’ve fit in but also gained respect throughout the locker room.”
Leipold mentioned the likes of DJ Graham II (Utah State) and Lyrik Rawls (Oklahoma State), but the first player who had come to mind for him as a transfer shifting into a leadership role was Justice Finkley.
The former Texas Longhorn, a 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior from Trussville, Ala., is poised for a productive fall as KU’s presumptive starter at strong-side defensive end. Tight end DeShawn Hanika unleashed an array of superlatives to describe his play style: “the strength of Aaron Donald but the speed of like a Kayvon Thibodeaux” and “a motor like Maxx Crosby.”
But Finkley’s off-field contributions in particular have garnered unceasing praise from his coaches and teammates over the course of the Jayhawks’ training camp. He made his way onto KU’s player leadership council after just one semester in the program.
“For him, it’s action,” strength coach Matt Gildersleeve said. “He is as actionable (of) a human being as you’re going to meet. When you watch him he just exudes everything we want in this program, from the way he goes about it, his strain, how he brings others along with him.
“You think about, to come in and be on a leadership council on a program that you’ve been on for, at that point when we did the vote, four or five months, that says a lot about your character as a man, and he’s been a tremendous asset.”
Defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald said that when players first arrive, they need time to get acclimated to the scheme and the culture before they can truly blossom as leaders. Once that happened for Finkley, he was able to shine.
“You would think he’s a fifth-year senior here, not coming here in January,” defensive ends coach Taiwo Onatolu said.
“I’ll say the guys on the team have really made me feel like that,” Finkley said. “It feels like home here, I’m not going to lie.”
He leads by example, at least in part.
“It could just be the way he goes about going through drills … the intensity that he does it, it doesn’t matter if he’s tired, if he has maybe a little nagging injury, it doesn’t matter what it might be, he’s going to show up, be the same man every day,” teammate Dean Miller said.
But to hear Finkley tell it himself, he also needed to shift from exclusively leading by example to becoming more vocal, and he has improved in that area by “leaps and bounds.” Gildersleeve has stressed to him that it’s simply a matter of being a good teammate and pointing out areas for improvement: “He talks about you see something, you say something … What type of teammate would I be to not say something?”
“Being able to band some of the guys together, being able to squeeze that extra step out of them to finish practice, we got to finish it like it’s the fourth quarter,” Finkley added. “I think my leadership skills, I’ve definitely taken a step in the right direction.”
Over the course of KU’s training camp, several players have described Finkley as a key resource in the team’s development.
Hanika said he and Finkley like to “bounce things off of each other.” Safety Landon Nelson, winner of KU’s Hammer Award for pushing the team in conditioning sessions throughout the summer, said Finkley was also in contention. Fellow strong-side end Alex Bray has grown close with Finkley quickly as the two have carried out extra work together.
“He’s really brought some guys along with him,” McDonald said. “I really hope he leaves this place playing his best football and leaves this place better than he found it.”
Texas defensive end Justice Finkley (1) during the first half of an NCAA college football game against BYU in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023.
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
AP Photo/Eric Gay