photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas' Tommy Dunn Jr. (92) and D.J. Withers (52) jog off the field during the game against Houston on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.

Defensive tackle might be one of the deepest positions on the Kansas football team this season. The Jayhawks have at least six legitimate veteran options on the interior line, as part of a defense that features significant numbers of newcomers at virtually every other position.

Sixth-year senior Kenean Caldwell says the tackles aim to be the “engine” of the defense this season: “It looks like us playing hard, bringing the energy, practicing real fast, running to the football, getting to the football — that’s our goal.”

D.J. Withers agrees at first that this is the deepest interior defensive line KU has trotted out in his own five-year tenure, but does add a caveat — it’s probably the deepest since 2022, “when I first got here with Sam Burt, Caleb Sampson, all them guys.”

Burt, Sampson and Eddie Wilson garnered the lion’s share of snaps during that Liberty Bowl run, as Withers, Tommy Dunn Jr. and Caleb Taylor filled out the rotation; Caldwell redshirted that season.

Those since-departed veterans led the position group in 2022, just as this year’s seniors — including Caldwell, Dunn and Withers — are being asked to now.

“Because we obviously taught them a lot and helped them through a lot of things, now seeing them turn around and kind of do that to the next generation after they leave, it’s really cool to see,” Burt told the Journal-World.

“It’s like a full-circle experience,” Withers added, “being that young guy looking up to people, and now the younger guys looking up to me and me being able to just know what to say, just being in those situations, like, ‘These older guys taught me this so I can teach you this.'”

One young player benefiting from the mentorship of this year’s senior class (which also includes Gage Keys, though there’s a chance he could gain more eligibility following this season) is Marcus Calvin, a redshirt sophomore from St. Petersburg, Fla.

“These guys are more than just older players,” Calvin said. “They’re my mentors, they’re our big brothers, I see these guys as family. Blood honestly could not make a lot of us any closer, to be completely honest with you. I’ve learned life skills, I’ve learned man skills, I learned a lot of different things from these guys. I honestly just learned how to do taxes from some of my teammates.”

Off-the-field leadership is key, but it’s not all that position coach Jim Panagos needs from his longtime charges.

He frequently stresses that teams that have good seasons tend to do so because their seniors play at high levels. Taylor took a step forward for the most productive year of his career in 2024, and now this year’s senior quartet is charged with doing the same.

“I think they need to play fast, they need to play free and they have to play,” Panagos said. “When the game’s in the fourth quarter, they need to play, they need to excel.”

As defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald likes to say — two different tackles quoted him independently — there are no do-overs.

“It’s our last season,” Withers said. “It’s no do-overs, nothing we get, so we just got to leave everything on the field.”

Dunn and Withers are fifth-year seniors whose tenure at KU dates back to Lance Leipold’s first season at the helm and who have been consistent contributors each year since 2022; each started seven games last year. Keys transferred in, transferred out and returned.

Caldwell is one of a few players who predate Leipold, as he arrived as a 3-4 nose tackle in 2020 when Les Miles was still the coach and the Jayhawks went 0-9.

“You know what it takes to win and you know what it’s like to lose,” Caldwell said. “Seeing all that, it just shows that you’ve seen what can happen in college football. For this year, we expect to finish. That’s our goal, is to finish the job.”

All have played plenty in the past, but the offseason has benefited them in various ways. Keys, for example, spoke in the spring about how relieved he was to return to a familiar culture and team environment after a tough year at Auburn. Panagos thinks he can provide “familiarity” and particular value as a pass rusher.

Withers’ growth has been more intellectual.

“I spent a lot of time with D.J. this summer going over coverages,” Panagos said. “I make him install the defense to me, I make him install the defense to the players, I make him understand the coverages, because coverages affect how you pass-rush. Down and distance affects how you pass rush. When you’re a young player, you’re just trying to survive … but each year I put more and more on his plate and now it’s his senior year, he’s doing the little things now.”

Caldwell “made his weakness to a strength” by honing his quickness, Panagos said.

“It’s really been fun to watch him kind of mature and grow through the process, through his time here,” Leipold added.

Dunn, meanwhile, has molded himself into much better shape.

“For someone who’s 315 pounds, he just goes, goes and goes,” Panagos said. “So now he’s making plays. Now he sees that when he’s tired, he’s making more plays and that builds confidence.”

KU is expected to rotate six players in two defensive tackle spots. Calvin will play a rotational role and Blake Herold should be among the position’s most talented players, but it won’t be an uncommon sight at all for the Jayhawks to feature two seniors at a time on the interior in 2025.