When linebacker Jibreel Al-Amin first arrived at Kansas, he downloaded an app to track his calorie intake.
At a certain point he forgot about the app entirely — he had to keep eating, whether he was hungry or not. Such is the life of a previously 200-pound linebacker attempting to bulk up in preparation for his first season at the power-conference level.
“At past schools I definitely tried all the extra protein and just different things, eating lots of steaks, and the weight just never stuck,” said Al-Amin, a transfer from Marshall who started his career at Jacksonville State. “When I got up here, they just made sure I was dialed in and got it done.”
The result is that Al-Amin, who has gained about 20 pounds, now has developed a Big 12 linebacker sort of body to match his already high-level athleticism — exactly what KU was hoping he could accomplish: “This is the heaviest he’s ever played in his career, but he still moves extremely well,” head coach Lance Leipold said.
“It feels amazing, honestly,” Al-Amin said. “Just me being faster, stronger and more physical. I love it. I can get after it. I can take on blocks and get off blocks even better than I did before.”
Listed at 205 pounds last year, Al-Amin recorded 56 tackles for Marshall with three sacks and a forced fumble. On film, linebackers coach Chris Simpson saw “a project, not necessarily the player, but the frame.”
“We also said, ‘Man, if we could put some weight on that kid, as twitchy as he is and athletic as he is, he could be something,'” Simpson recalled. “And that’s kind of where he’s at now.”
Even with Al-Amin’s previous unsuccessful efforts to put on the weight, he was convinced quite straightforwardly by “all the PowerPoints” KU showed him that he could give it another try.
“He said at some point in time he just didn’t think he could put the weight on,” Simpson said. “But coming here, he just realized that the resources that we have and have provided him have allowed him to do that. It’s exciting to see him be able to use his skill set now with a little more armor on his body, and I think he’s seeing that too.”
Beyond that, he appreciated more broadly what the coaching staff had planned for him.
“And me being a kid from the East Coast, I went to school in the South, somewhat on the East Coast, and it was just something new,” he said. “I enjoy it out here, love the community.”
He said he’s appreciated the love for football that he’s already encountered in Lawrence, and of the redone David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, he added, “I could just imagine it packed out, so I can’t wait until it gets finished, and also game one takes off.”
When opening day does indeed roll around on Sept. 4, Al-Amin may not be the first or even second choice for KU’s main two linebacker roles. Trey Lathan has middle linebacker locked down, Bam Crouch is on the weak side and Quincy Davis is probably first off the bench at either spot, with Malachi Curvey also in the mix behind Crouch.
But when KU goes to a three-linebacker look like what it used to run under Brian Borland, or when it needs additional speed or coverage ability out of the weak-side position, it has “a taller guy, lengthier, flashy guy,” as Crouch called his teammate, at its disposal.
“I’d say those roles are identical,” Al-Amin said of the “Hawk” and “Will” linebacker positions. “It’s just one is to the field and one is to the boundary, so we do a lot of the same thing, not too much of a difference, it’s just more spacing, one’s in the boundary.”
Simpson notes that even at Buffalo, the KU coaching staff sought hybrid players to use in three-linebacker packages. Of course, they didn’t deploy those all that often in D.K. McDonald’s first year as defensive coordinator.
“It’s a little bit what I talked about with just the evolution, of how you got to evolve with the people you have,” McDonald said. “So I think he’s going to help give us just a little different piece than what we’ve had here in the past. A real athletic type of guy … His flexibility in this defense is going to help us out a lot, and you’ll probably see him in a couple different spots to help this defense out.”
