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

Kansas safeties Taylor Davis (27) and Lyrik Rawls (2) talk with defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald at spring practice on Thursday, March 6, 2025, in Lawrence.

However much intrigue surrounds the Kansas football offense entering the 2025 season, there’s arguably even more left to figure out when it comes to KU’s defense and special teams.

The defense features both a variety of transfers and a large, prominent contingent of returning players whose roles may not be set in stone. While the offense includes, for example, the likes of Kobe Baynes and Bryce Foster on the line and Jalon Daniels at quarterback, it’s not totally clear just how prominent returnees like Taylor Davis, Jalen Todd or Blake Herold will be as part of this year’s defensive unit.

Throw in the fact that coordinator D.K. McDonald will be running his own defense for the first time in his career and there’s a lot still to be determined on that side of the ball. Not to mention that the Jayhawks’ special teams will for the first time in the Lance Leipold era feature new starters at all three of long snapper, kicker and punter.

photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas cornerback Jalen Todd stretches during warmups at fall camp on Monday, August 5, 2024, in Lawrence.

Can Taylor Davis and Jalen Todd sustain a whole season of production?

Davis, then a redshirt freshman safety, and Todd, then a true freshman corner, had each played 14 career defensive snaps in one game against Lindenwood before injuries thrust them into action against Arizona State midway through last season. Davis emerged as an unexpected success at free safety, starting four games and playing 354 snaps on the year, as KU made its run down the stretch of the 2024 season, while Todd also flashed significant potential as he established himself as a viable option as the Jayhawks’ third cornerback.

Neither is a young upstart anymore, as both are among the few returning players in KU’s back seven for next season; as a result, both will have the chance to step into increased roles.

Todd is the presumptive favorite to start at outside corner opposite Utah State transfer D.J. Graham II, a position where Todd has spent exactly 24 plays in his career. He’ll likely face competition from newly acquired Georgia Tech transfer Syeed Gibbs — although Leipold has said part of Gibbs’ appeal was his history playing nickel — but whatever role he ultimately lands in, it’ll be a significant responsibility for someone still so new to college football (even if he enrolled early in 2024).

Davis’ position, meanwhile, could be one of the most competitive on the team with Devin Dye, Jalen Dye and Mason Ellis — the players whose injuries resulted in Davis’ breakout in the first place — all back this year and Lyrik Rawls (Oklahoma State) and Laquan Robinson (Auburn) joining from the portal. If he emerges with a starting spot from that group, it will demonstrate the true durability of the role he seized last year.

photo by: Missy Minear/Kansas Athletics

Kansas co-defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald coaches during fall camp in Lawrence on Wednesday, July 31, 2024.

What is the “5” if KU is running a 4-2-5?

The combination of speculation surrounding D.K. McDonald’s schematic background and concrete statements made by KU players and coaches during spring practice has led to a lot of uncertainty around how the Jayhawks’ defense will actually line up under its first-time defensive coordinator. KU worked hard to transition to a four-man front when Leipold arrived and has excellent, well-fitting personnel on the defensive line this year for such a scheme, and so even if McDonald worked under 3-3-5 pioneer Jon Heacock at Iowa State it doesn’t seem likely he’ll be able take a lot of inspiration from his old boss in this situation.

The question is what the defense looks like behind its four-man front.

KU linebacker Trey Lathan, a West Virginia transfer, said at one point in the spring that KU is running “a 4-2 and sometimes a 4-3,” per JayhawkSlant. That could technically be quite similar to what the Jayhawks did in previous years under Brian Borland, of course, when their base defense was a 4-3 with a hybrid, coverage-heavy “Hawk” linebacker position and then, as needed, they adjusted to “Cinco” or nickel packages with additional defensive backs. Last season, the three primary players who served as the 11th defender in those situations were Jayson Gilliom, Marvin Grant and Todd, respectively.

Comments like Lathan’s in the spring provided good reason to wonder whether the looks that previously used to be variations with Grant or Todd are now considered KU’s base defense. In other words, will KU play with a fifth defensive back more often than it did under Borland?

If it does, this is not necessarily the ideal season to do so. KU has what looks like its deepest linebacker group in years as it combines the transfers Lathan, Bangally Kamara and Joseph Sipp Jr. with returnees Gilliom, Logan Brantley and Jon Jon Kamara. Meanwhile, it is thin at cornerback behind Graham, Todd and the new addition Gibbs and doesn’t necessarily have proven full-season starters at safety.

photo by: Chance Parker/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas freshman Dakyus Brinkley runs through drills during the spring showcase at Rock Chalk Park on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Will Dakyus Brinkley return to the weak side?

He never truly left the role of weak-side defensive end, but Brinkley was one of several players that position coach Taiwo Onatolu and the rest of the KU staff started to work in on the strong side behind Texas transfer Justice Finkley when the Jayhawks had a bit of a logjam at the pass-rush end spot. Brinkley had also bulked up to 245 pounds since the end of the 2024 season, which made him arguably better suited to stop the run than he had been previously.

The balance of power has shifted somewhat with high-upside weak-side reserve Bai Jobe leaving in the spring portal window for Miami (Ohio) and then KU adding newcomers Leroy Harris III (Chattanooga) and Alex Bray (Illinois).

Bray is an obvious choice for the run-focused strong-side position at a listed 6-foot-4 and 270 pounds. Harris is more of a pass-rush option but, like winter addition Caleb Redd, is young and seems like a long-term project. That means KU’s depth on the weak side is now suspect, while the strong side is suddenly overflowing with options.

The logical move would be to return Brinkley to working primarily behind returning all-conference honoree Dean Miller on the weak side and give Harris and Redd some more time to develop, with one potentially in limited rotational action as a No. 3 option. Then Finkley, Bray and possibly Dylan Brooks can take up the snaps on the other end.

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.

What is the optimal rotation at defensive tackle?

Tommy Dunn Jr. and D.J. Withers have been fixtures of the KU program for so long that it feels almost inevitable that they should start and play a majority of snaps as redshirt seniors, and as some of the few returning players on the Jayhawks’ defense. Yet defensive tackles coach Jim Panagos said during the spring, “I don’t know who’s going to start. That’s a good problem to have.”

A big part of that problem is redshirt sophomore Blake Herold, a player on the rise who ranked higher in season-long Pro Football Focus grades last season than every defensive contributor but Cobee Bryant, Mello Dotson and JB Brown. At one point, Borland said he could be the team’s best pass rusher, period.

Throw in Kenean Caldwell, a frequent recipient of praise from coaches over the last year or so who has completed his transition from a nose tackle recruited by the past coaching staff to a key rotational piece, and the return of Gage Keys, whom Panagos told he would have to start at the bottom in his second stint at KU but who had once seemed poised for a starting role of his own before he left for Auburn.

Even Marcus Calvin, Herold’s somewhat less heralded classmate, has worked his way into the conversation to play about 10 snaps a game, Panagos said, meaning KU has six veteran players to fill two spots.

As for the favorites Dunn and Withers, Panagos has said they now need to “dominate every play,” a fitting instruction after both went through periods of inconsistency in 2024.

photo by: Missy Minear/Kansas Athletics

Kansas’ Finn Lappin punts during spring practice on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Lawrence.

Will the new special teams operation be smooth?

Luke Hosford worked as the Jayhawks’ long snapper for three full seasons, 2021, 2023 and 2024, and made various other appearances on the KU special teams unit in 2019, 2020 and 2022. His tenure spanned multiple coaching staffs and numerous kickers and punters. It has now elapsed, as he exhausted his eligibility following the season.

Emory Duggar, a redshirt senior himself whose winding road includes an initial commitment to a Minnesota-based junior college out of high school and a brief time when he was apparently supposed to play at his hometown LSU, is now Hosford’s likely replacement at the most overlooked position on any football team. Duggar’s experience is limited mostly to a run of action in Hosford’s place during the second half of the 2022 season.

He will have to build a rapport with a new punter, McNeese transfer Finn Lappin, and kicker, South Alabama transfer Laith Marjan.

KU has made incremental improvement in the special-teams realm in recent years, but this could in theory be its most talented group of the Leipold era. The chemistry, though, will likely need some work. Also worth noting is that reserve punter Grayden Addison frequently served as the holder even when Damon Graves was actually punting for KU, and that KU has another kicker, freshman walk-on Dane Efird, joining in the fall.