The Kansas football team is reaping the rewards of the first weekend of the winter transfer window.
Over the course of Sunday evening, KU earned commitments — some announced by the players, some reported — from a series of transfers at positions of great need. They came from defensive tackle Eamon Smalls (UAB), linebacker Landyn Watson (Kentucky), running back Jalen Dupree (Colorado State) and guard Connor Stroh (Texas).
These are the second through fifth transfer acquisitions of the offseason cycle, following former Grand Valley State defensive tackle Jibriel Conde, who flipped from Wisconsin on Dec. 1, and they come within less than 72 hours of the opening of the portal on Friday.
Smalls and Watson each announced their commitments on Sunday.
Smalls is a 6-foot-2, 310-pound tackle from Ladys Island, South Carolina. After recording 16 tackles in eight games for UAB as a redshirt freshman in 2024, he moved into a full-time starting role in 2025 and played 416 defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, over the course of 11 games. He recorded 50 total tackles, including 3.5 for loss with a sack.
Smalls, who has two years left to play, will join Conde along the Jayhawks’ new-look interior line, which also features experienced returnees Blake Herold and Marcus Calvin Jr. along with freshman Josiah Hammond and incoming 2026 signee Nakwaine Carter.
Watson will be a sixth-year senior at his fourth career school. He brings Big 12 experience from two years at TCU, including on the 2022 national runners-up, and SEC experience from his lone year at Kentucky; in between, he spent time with Marshall, where he totaled 65 tackles in 11 starts in 2024.
Originally a four-star recruit out of Hutto High School in Texas, Watson played a rotational role for the Wildcats in his fifth collegiate season. He recorded 21 total tackles in 237 defensive snaps, per PFF.
The acquisition of Watson brings KU closer to filling a dire need at linebacker, where it lost all but one scholarship player — freshman Malachi Curvey — to either graduation or the portal. It will still need to bring in additional options at both middle and weak-side linebacker.
As for Dupree, Jon Kirby of JayhawkSlant.com reported that he committed to KU at the conclusion of his weekend visit.
“I’m not in the portal to sightsee,” Dupree told Kirby. “I was focused on finding the right fit and getting back in the locker room with a team that’s ready to win now. The goal is to learn fast and get to work immediately.”
Dupree is a former three-star recruit from Benton, Arkansas, in the class of 2024. He carried the ball 25 times for 153 yards and a touchdown as a freshman at CSU, then led the Rams in rushing in 2025 with 508 yards on 102 carries and two scores. He left the team after playing in nine games, citing coaching changes within the program.
He will have three years left to play and will serve as the first piece of a new-look backfield after KU lost its top two running backs on the depth chart to graduation and the next two to the transfer portal. The Jayhawks also have freshmen John Kelly and Justin Thurman and signee Kory Amachree.
The final commitment to become public on Sunday evening, as reported by 247Sports, was that of Stroh. A massive interior lineman listed at 6-foot-7 and 341 pounds, he started five games for Texas last season after he did not play in either of his first two years with the program, but he did not appear much during the second half of the 2025 campaign. He is originally from Frisco, Texas, and attended Wakeland High School.
The guard will be an immediate contender to start for the Jayhawks, especially if they move Amir Herring to center in the wake of Tyler Mercer’s transfer-portal departure.
