photo by: Zach Del Bello / UNT Athletics

North Texas center Tyler Mercer prepares to snap the ball against Stephen F. Austin on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Denton, Texas.

At this late stage of the winter portal window, the Kansas football team is finally winding down its busiest transfer cycle ever.

The Jayhawks have already obtained 21 commitments, spanning practically every position group besides quarterback, and most recently bringing in punter Finn Lappin from McNeese and safety Laquan Robinson from Auburn late last week.

They still have a couple salient needs in the trenches, but with 36 new scholarship players set to join the fold next season, the amount of available spaces to reshape the 2025 team is dwindling — at least until KU undergoes another wave of turnover, albeit a smaller one, following spring practice.

As KU’s class has come together, one key theme among the wide-ranging acquisitions has come to the forefront: The coaching staff has had to find a balance between securing contributors with one year of eligibility left — adding experience to what would otherwise be a young roster, but also establishing a need for more portal additions this time next year — and acquiring multi-year developmental prospects who could flourish in KU’s system further down the line.

The Jayhawks’ best additions are those who have a chance to contribute right away, either because of positional need or past experience or a combination thereof, but also have additional years left to play beyond 2025.

Here’s a look at the top five transfers in the class, ranked specifically by prospective multi-year potential.

Also keep an eye out for a forthcoming installment that focuses on the other axis of transfer-portal value by ranking the top five transfers in terms of immediate impact on the 2025 season.

photo by: UCLA Athletics

UCLA offensive lineman Tavake Tuikolovatu prepares to block against USC on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Pasadena, Calif.

5. Tavake Tuikolovatu

The rejuvenation of KU’s offensive line has been one of the defining trensd among its offseason acquisitions. Between Tuikolovatu, a rising redshirt sophomore, and three rising true sophomores in DeAndre Harper (Northwest Missouri State), Tyler Mercer (North Texas) and Jack Tanner (Tulsa), the Jayhawks reeled in a slew of linemen who have already seen playing time at prior institutions but still have three years of eligibility remaining.

Tuikolovatu, a native of Wailuku, Hawaii, didn’t necessarily light it up at UCLA, where he played 40 offensive snaps in two years, according to Pro Football Focus. But what earns him a spot on this list is that unlike his fellow transfers, he’s seen power-conference line play up close. His most extensive action in 2024 came against Big Ten Conference programs like Minnesota and eventual College Football Playoff participant Indiana that were no slouch in the trenches.

In addition, since KU hasn’t yet been able to acquire an experienced plug-and-play starter to replace right tackle Logan Brown, Tuikolovatu could present himself as a strong candidate right away given his size at 6-foot-6. If not immediately, he’ll certainly get the opportunity to contribute opposite classmate Calvin Clements in the future. Former KU defensive tackle Chris Maumalanga, a mentor to Tuikolovatu, told Jon Kirby of JayhawkSlant.com that his protégé has “a rare combination of humility and nastiness.”

photo by: Sarah Laufer/UA Athletics

Alabama’s Jahlil Hurley lines up against Mercer during a game on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

4. Jahlil Hurley

The cornerbacks Lance Leipold’s staff recruited early in his KU tenure, such as Jameel Croft Jr. and Jacoby Davis, still have plenty of time to develop — they will be redshirt sophomores next season — but were buried on the depth chart in 2024, including below one younger player in Jalen Todd. With that in mind, if you have the chance to do so, why not bolster the recruiting class of 2023 with a player former Alabama coach and legendary recruiter Nick Saban once thought was good enough to play at the highest level of college football?

The addition of Hurley is a big swing for KU given that the Florence, Alabama, native only played 19 snaps of defense in his two seasons with the Crimson Tide, but it’s at a position where, with Todd coming back, veteran starter D.J. Graham II joining the fold and Damarius McGhee getting one more chance to prove himself in his final year of collegiate eligibility, KU has at least a little bit of time and space to assess and develop Hurley before it would need him to play significant action. If he takes to D.K. McDonald and Brandon Shelby’s coaching early on and surpasses McGhee, for example, that would be a bonus.

Certainly his background provides plenty of reason for optimism. He was a consensus four-star prospect and one of the top corners in the nation out of high school. Perhaps a change of scenery could unlock his potential.

photo by: Brett Rojo/Tulsa Athletics

Tulsa’s Jack Tanner blocks against Florida Atlantic on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Tulsa, Okla.

3. Jack Tanner

Here’s another of the faces of that O-line youth movement. The native of Highland Village, Texas, started four games down the stretch for Tulsa after seeing extended action earlier in the Golden Hurricane’s season.

The two assets Tanner possesses that put him above Tuikolovatu on this list — my ranking, remember, by multi-year impact — are his ability to redshirt, suggesting he could be at KU through as far in the future as the 2028 season if needed, and his previously demonstrated versatility. Tuikolovatu has lined up at several different spots, but Tanner played three games as a part-time right guard before settling in at left tackle for Tulsa by the end of 2024.

With so many young players in the fold now on the offensive line — Clements, Amir Herring and James Livingston in one class, David Abajian, Kene Anene and Carter Lavrusky in another, plus the four transfers now — the Jayhawks will need to be as malleable as possible in this position group going forward. Anyone who has a demonstrated record of sliding easily into multiple different spots will therefore have a leg up.

photo by: AP Photo/Chris Jackson

Texas Tech quarterback Tyler Shough (12) is sacked by West Virginia’s Edward Vesterinen (96) and Trey Lathan (19) during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023, in Morgantown, W.Va.

2. Trey Lathan

Admittedly, Lathan’s window for long-term impact is shorter than most of his fellow transfers’ — he has just two years left to play and has already redshirted. But the prospect of a multi-year contributor returning at middle linebacker in 2026 who by then will be playing his fifth year in the Big 12 is so appealing from a KU perspective, and so unlike anything the Jayhawks have had in the past, that it makes Lathan eminently worthy of inclusion here.

A two-year starter at West Virginia whose 2023 campaign was cut short by a broken leg, Lathan didn’t grade out as well on PFF last season after returning from the long-term injury (though he still showed up on the stat sheet, tallying 79 tackles, including nine for loss). But he’ll be another year removed from that big blow when he first takes the field for KU.

Lathan will first have a chance to compete for extensive playing time with fellow transfers Bangally Kamara and Joseph Sipp Jr. KU has only used two true linebackers alongside one linebacker-safety hybrid for the most part in the past, although it’s not clear how, if at all, the Jayhawks might change schematically under the new defensive coordinator McDonald. Regardless, if last year is any indication, all three transfers will find their way onto the field, whether due to rotation or injury.

In 2026, though, Kamara and Sipp will presumably have exhausted their eligibility and Lathan could have a chance to serve as the unquestioned leader of the front seven for the first time — if he hasn’t already established himself as a leader in 2025. Cornell Wheeler only got to do that for one year and Lathan could be a higher-level athlete than what KU had in its previous multi-year starting middle linebacker, Rich Miller.

photo by: Zach Del Bello / UNT Athletics

North Texas center Tyler Mercer blocks against South Alabama lineman Wy’Kevious Thomas on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Mobile, Ala.

1. Tyler Mercer

Mercer is my favorite pickup KU has made in the winter transfer portal, period, and could be a centerpiece of the Jayhawks’ offensive line for years to come.

Leipold has always cherished continuity at the center position, to the point that by the end of the 2025 season he will likely have used just three centers in 11 years as a Division I coach: James O’Hagan, Mike Novitsky and Bryce Foster. The acquisition of Mercer, who at such a young age has already demonstrated the ability to start at the position — a 67.3 PFF grade in 565 snaps as a first-year player at North Texas, a freshman All-American honor from ESPN — ensures the stability of the position group beyond 2025, and provides incoming freshman Anderson Kopp time to develop as well.

One open question is how much of an immediate role Mercer will have. In the month since his commitment to KU, some have speculated that like Tanner or Harper, Mercer could be a candidate to redshirt and retain three years of eligibility to use as the presumptive starting center following Foster’s departure. I don’t believe he should be in any redshirt conversations, because KU simply doesn’t boast such a wealth of proven contributors on the offensive line right now that it can afford to sideline a freshman All-American for eight games of the 2025 season.

I also don’t think schools like Arkansas, Miami and Bill Belichick’s North Carolina would have recruited Mercer in the portal with the idea he would sit on the bench for a year.