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

Kansas defensive tackle Blake Herold participates in Kansas football's spring practice on Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Lawrence.

It’s been a long time since Kansas fielded a group of defensive tackles that didn’t include both Tommy Dunn Jr. and D.J. Withers — so long that it predates Jim Panagos’ arrival as a member of Lance Leipold’s coaching staff. Kenean Caldwell, for his part, had been around so long as to predate even Leipold’s arrival at Kansas.

Now all three of those program mainstays are gone, and someone has to take up the mantle of guiding the position group in their absence.

“You can’t force someone to be a leader,” Panagos said. “You can’t. But you can encourage.”

One subject of the coaching staff’s encouragement, sensibly enough, is Blake Herold. Now a redshirt junior, the native of Shenandoah, Iowa, has worked his way up through the ranks of the Jayhawks’ program and has been one of KU’s top defensive players each of the last two seasons.

He was KU’s highest-graded defensive tackle on Pro Football Focus in 2025 and racked up 43 tackles, including five for loss with two sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. That all makes for a great example to set for those around him, but the Jayhawks might need more from him than that.

“At the bottom line, I want to win football games,” Herold said. “So if I got to be more vocal, if I got to demand things out of those people, then I think that’s what I want to do, and that’s what this team needs from me.”

It obviously isn’t a shock that KU wants its top defensive players to become more prominent voices in the locker room. (That’s a common theme across position groups this offseason that also involves players like linebacker Trey Lathan and cornerback Jalen Todd, as well as tackle Calvin Clements on the other side of the ball.) But it might be especially necessary at defensive tackle, where Herold and his classmate Marcus Calvin, a rotational contributor last season, are the only scholarship players with on-field experience as Jayhawks.

They return alongside redshirt freshman Josiah Hammond and so are outnumbered by the quartet of transfers that includes Jibriel Conde (Grand Valley State), Tre’Von McAlpine (Tulane), Kevin Oatis (Arkansas) and Eamon Smalls (UAB). It’s been a change of pace for Panagos, who said he called out once for Withers on the first day of winter only to realize he was gone for the first time in Panagos’ tenure.

“They really want to be coached,” Panagos added of the newcomers. “And they’re eager, so it’s been going great. I’m really, really pleased with all four of them. I really am pleased with their work ethic. They come every day and meet me in the afternoon.”

Panagos doesn’t need Herold to fill that same exact role in mentoring them. He also doesn’t need Herold to stretch all that far beyond himself to lead: “I told him, ‘Blake, don’t be me, don’t be Coach This-Guy, be yourself.’ And when he speaks, the players listen.”

He said he thinks his player is becoming gradually more comfortable doing so.

“I definitely had to work at it, especially with a lot of new guys, trying to demand stuff out of the new guys and they don’t know about me or anything like that,” Herold said. “So it’s been a learning curve for sure, but I think I’m picking up on it pretty well.”

In the meantime, he’s been working on his own game.

Herold already has a number of desirable traits for Panagos and the defensive line, perhaps most notably his versatility. He can position himself at various spots along the line as everything from a 5-technique to a 1-technique, which is useful given the multiple fronts defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald deployed last season. (That’s not necessarily the Jayhawks’ plan for someone like Smalls, who will be a 0-technique nose guard. Conde might be closest to Herold in terms of ability to line up on the outside.)

But he does have work to do to better achieve those various techniques. Panagos said one of his offseason emphases for Herold has been cultivating “an elite pass-rush move.”

“I’ve been kind of deepening the bag, as they say, bringing a lot more tools to the pass rush,” Herold said.

The other is taking on double teams, “and he’s doing both of those really well,” Panagos added.

Growing as a leader has required Herold to step out of his comfort zone. He even described finding his voice as a “rough” process. But the potential positive effects go beyond supporting his teammates.

“I’ve been able to elevate my game by helping others elevate theirs,” he said.

Kansas defensive tackle Blake Herold (94) receives the applause from the crowd following a sack during the third quarter on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Photo by Nick Krug