photo by: Kansas Athletics

Dakyus Brinkley

The Kansas football team had two or fewer sacks in five consecutive games before redshirt freshman Dakyus Brinkley was involved in a pair of sacks on consecutive plays on Nov. 8.

Early in the second quarter Brinkley wiggled his way around Arizona tackle Tristan Bounds to bring down Noah Fifita by his left leg, then on the next snap lined up on the opposite side, bounced off a chip from a tight end and dodged Ty Buchanan to corral Fifita after teammate D.J. Withers put the quarterback in a precarious position.

“Those weren’t just like him working a great move and getting a sack, those were second-effort plays that he had,” KU defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald said on Tuesday. “He got chipped on both of those and just worked really hard to get there.”

The hard work led to the first sack and a half in the promising career of Brinkley, who played 31 snaps, the second-highest total of his tenure as a Jayhawk behind KU’s season-opening blowout against Fresno State.

“It was very awesome to have back-to-back sacks,” Brinkley said. “Not a lot of people get to do that, especially for that to be my first two sacks. That was a very cool experience. And I just hope that I can get more.”

He may well have the chance to do so. While true sophomore Leroy Harris III has garnered much of the attention for his own breakout season behind Dean Miller at pass-rush end, Brinkley is also displaying plenty of the promise that made him such an appealing prospect in the high school class of 2024.

“I come in every day trying to elevate the standard, so elevating the standard and that showing off on the field, I feel like I’m progressing very well,” he said.

McDonald said Brinkley is “kind of the definition of what you want in a program like this.”

When Brinkley arrived at KU, even as a four-star prospect out of Katy, Texas, who was the son of a longtime NFL linebacker, he didn’t necessarily occupy the limelight right away because he came in along with one of the Jayhawks’ highest-rated prospects ever in fellow edge rusher DJ Warner. And while Warner earned immediate playing time, Brinkley redshirted and didn’t see any action.

But Warner and fellow young gun Bai Jobe transferred in the offseason, opening the door for Brinkley.

Even in their absence hasn’t necessarily been a linear path to playing time this season for Brinkley, who said he is up close to 250 pounds. Head coach Lance Leipold said that defensive ends coach Taiwo Onatolu has spoken to Brinkley during his career about a habit of following up a good week of practice with a lackluster one.

Now the redshirt freshman is showing the increased consistency that comes with a higher level of maturity, Leipold said.

“Everybody has their own race and I feel like I just stuck to my own race, just trying to perfect my craft and do what I do daily,” Brinkley said. “Just coming in to work every day, I knew it was going to pay off. Still paying off.”

Now that he’s felt what it’s like to get to the quarterback — “Both of them were actually my favorite,” he said of the two sacks — KU will need him to make a habit of doing so. That will be important both in the immediate future, as another five-sack showing like what the Jayhawks put together at Arizona could go a long way toward helping KU secure bowl eligibility at Iowa State on Saturday, and in the long term as the Jayhawks reconstruct their defensive line in the years ahead.

“That kid has such a bright future,” McDonald said. “If he continues to work and just put his head down and grind, man, he can be an unbelievable player here for the Jayhawks.”

• Sports reporter David Rodish contributed to this story.