photo by: Kansas Athletics

Taylor Davis, left, and Jaden Harris

When Kansas coach Lance Leipold discussed the acquisition of Georgia transfer safety Jaden Harris this spring, he made sure to note how helpful it could be for Harris to provide competition for returning starter Taylor Davis.

In the spring, in the summer and into fall camp, Harris has by all accounts done just that.

“I’m never going to shy away from somebody pushing me,” said Davis, who recorded 41 tackles and an interception in 2025, and is expected to play more often in the boundary safety role this season. “That’s just the brotherhood that we’ve gotten. We do everything together, we’re always with each other. So it happened pretty quickly.”

Quickly, and apparently with a high level of intensity. Davis agreed with a reporter’s suggestion there was “no love lost” between the two: “None,” he emphasized with a smile, shaking his head.

“When I tell you we go at it, we go at it,” Harris added. “The whole summer. I’m talking about pushing and shoving, nearly fighting. Because we’re both the same animal and now that we put on pads, it’s like a mutual respect, because we both know, ‘OK, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to win, you’re willing to do whatever it takes to win.'”

Much remains to be determined in the safety room, which KU overhauled in the offseason. Davis is one of precious few experienced returners, along with Mason Ellis, who started at nickel back last year. Harris is one of four transfers, joining the more coverage-inclined Corey Gordon (Louisville) and Christian Pritchett (Georgia Tech) and another nickel candidate in Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman (Iowa State).

But because Cummings-Coleman and Ellis were very limited in spring practice due to injuries — in fact, it was a similar situation at cornerback, with Syeed Gibbs limited and Austin Alexander and Elijah Cannon out completely — KU’s coaches never got a clear picture earlier in the year of how the secondary might look when the season rolled around.

“There’s a lot of able people in that safety room,” Leipold said. “Who’s going to take charge and solidify themselves in order to be the guy out there is yet to be determined.”

Harris, for his part, said he and Davis respect each other to such an extent that it doesn’t make much of a difference who ends up starting.

“It really don’t matter as long as we win as a group,” he said. “I think we’re so focused on the room having success.”

When it comes to taking charge, as Leipold referenced, Davis has certainly caught the attention of his coaches by doing just that. The redshirt junior, who started throughout 2025 after he was thrust into action by injuries late in 2024, has already gotten credit from Leipold as one of the defense’s top communicators.

Davis said he understands he’s a veteran now and needs to occupy more of a leadership role. The junior transfer Pritchett called him “dominant” and “straightforward”: “He pushes everybody, he pushes himself,” he said.

As many insights as the Missouri City, Texas, native may have gleaned from his past two seasons of action, Harris, for his part, is a fifth-year senior who played at some of the nation’s top programs in Miami and Georgia — and his most productive season, at Miami in 2024, came when he played boundary safety in a somewhat similar scheme to the Jayhawks’, which is one reason why he came to KU in the first place.

“Just bringing him in has pushed me to be better,” Davis said. “Him obviously coming from Georgia, he learns things differently. He’s learned a lot. He’s been in college longer than me, so just taking that role to kind of learn from him — and we’re learning from each other — has been really good.”

Ultimately, both Davis and Harris are likely to receive significant playing time this season, in keeping with Leipold’s past assertions that the gap between first- and second-string players is narrower this season than in previous years.

“These are long seasons, man,” defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald said. “After our bye, we’re going to play nine in a row. You never know (how) this season may go, that unfortunately, somebody may have to step in. So it’s good to have that depth and have some equal talent of guys who could step in, and if somebody, God forbid, does get hurt, at least the next guy’s coming in, you don’t have a huge drop-off there.”