photo by: Buffalo Athletics

Buffalo wide receiver Nik McMillan breaks free against Miami (Ohio) on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, in Buffalo, N.Y.

With 28 players joining through the transfer portal, 18 incoming freshmen (one newly added from Australia) and 40 returning players from last season’s roster, the Kansas football team appears to be up to 86 scholarships.

That is, of course, an educated guess, as the team doesn’t publicize its exact numbers of scholarship players and walk-ons. There is no longer a hard cap at 85, with the abolition of scholarship limits last summer in favor of 105-player overall roster limits — from which some players, mostly walk-ons, can still be exempted if schools classified them as Designated Student-Athletes upon the implementation of the House v. NCAA settlement.

It’s all a bit muddled these days, to be sure, but the key point is that in the span of a frenzied week and a half after the portal opened on Jan. 2, KU reconstituted what is essentially a normal-sized roster — even if it could theoretically go even further above 86 (at a small cost to its department-wide revenue-sharing budget for each additional scholarship). In the course of that roster turnover, KU has also seemingly decided to allocate scholarships differently across certain positions.

Here’s a look at all the change that has unfolded in recent weeks. The KU staff is, of course, still working.

QUARTERBACK

Out: David McComb (redshirt freshman, Miami (Ohio))

In: none

To this point, even with the departure of McComb, for whom the coaching staff had great hopes, KU has not brought in another quarterback. For a long time it seemed the staff might well have been content to let Cole Ballard and Isaiah Marshall battle it out for the starting role; however, multiple reports on Thursday suggested KU was bringing in Rice transfer Chase Jenkins to visit. How that recruitment proceeds could obviously have a significant impact on the outlook for KU’s offense in 2026. If the Jayhawks ultimately don’t fill the spot, walk-on Mikey Pauley, assuming he moves back from his brief stint at tight end, would be an adequate reserve behind Ballard and Marshall, along with freshman signee Jaylen Mason.

photo by: AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman

Syracuse running back Yasin Willis (6) plays against Clemson in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, in Clemson, S.C.

RUNNING BACK

Out: Johnny Thompson Jr. (redshirt junior), Harry Stewart III (redshirt sophomore, Boise State)

In: Yasin Willis (junior, Syracuse), Jalen Dupree (redshirt sophomore, Colorado State)

Stewart seemed poised for great things later in his KU career but transferred down a level, albeit to a school with a stellar record of developing NFL running backs. (Ashton Jeanty, like Stewart, played high school ball in Frisco, Texas.) In terms of production, KU certainly traded up by bringing in two powerful players who were their respective schools’ leading rushers last season and each have multiple years of eligibility remaining. Despite replacing two outgoing transfers with two incoming ones, KU still had space for a third, given that it lost one of its incoming freshman commitments to a signing-day flip. It always made sense for the Jayhawks to seek some pure speed, something they have rarely had at this position — and sure enough they had Derby native Dylan Edwards, formerly of Kansas State and Colorado, in for a visit on Friday.

photo by: Middle Tennessee Athletics

Middle Tennessee wide receiver Nahzae Cox gets lined up against Missouri State on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

WIDE RECEIVER

Out: Bryce Cohoon (redshirt junior, South Dakota), Jaidyn Doss (redshirt junior)

In: Nik McMillan (redshirt senior, Buffalo), Nahzae Cox (senior, Middle Tennessee)

Whatever KU was hoping to accomplish by acquiring Doss late last summer in a special one-time portal window for Designated Student-Athletes clearly did not work out as he did not play in 2025 and then decided to transfer. McMillan, meanwhile, might be one of the splashiest acquisitions KU has ever made in the portal, as a first-team all-conference skill-position player coming off a near-1,000-yard season. Cox is an excellent contested-catch target at 6-foot-3 who should put himself in position for some red-zone scoring opportunities next season.

photo by: Old Dominion Athletics

Old Dominion’s Jailen Butler catches a touchdown pass against Georgia Southern on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Statesboro, Ga.

TIGHT END

Out: Jaden Hamm (redshirt junior, Arkansas State)

In: Jailen Butler (redshirt senior, Old Dominion), Carter Moses (redshirt senior, Albany)

It was a bit of a surprise to see KU go for two new players here when it only lost one reserve to the portal and already has two freshmen, Kevin Sullivan and Jack Utz, to replace its two graduating contributors, Boden Groen and DeShawn Hanika. But then again it only returns nine catches from last season with Carson Bruhn and Leyton Cure, and this offensive staff has always enjoyed having a wide variety of body types and skill sets to deploy at this position and that obviously won’t change with Andy Kotelnicki’s return.

photo by: Cal Athletics

Cal offensive tackle Nick Morrow (52) gets ready to block during a game against SMU on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, in Berkeley, Calif.

OFFENSIVE LINE

Out: Kene Anene (redshirt sophomore, North Dakota State), Greydon Grimes (redshirt sophomore, Appalachian State), Carter Lavrusky (redshirt sophomore, Northern Arizona), Tyler Mercer (redshirt sophomore, Oklahoma State)

In: Kasen Carpenter (redshirt junior, Oklahoma State), Nick Morrow (redshirt junior, Cal), Connor Stroh (redshirt junior, Texas), Trezelle Jenkins Jr. (sophomore, Wayne State)

If nothing else, the exodus of redshirt sophomores was going to help KU rebalance its classes a little bit, which it did by replacing them with numerous redshirt juniors. Of course it was unfortunate for the Jayhawks to lose three players whom they spent two years developing without ever getting them on the field, as well as a fourth, Mercer, who was in line to be the starting center next year. Time will tell whether Carpenter proves an adequate replacement, if he does well enough during the offseason to win the starting job outright. Morrow and Stroh should certainly compete to start at tackle and guard, respectively, and the players they are replacing would surely not have done so in 2026.

photo by: Tulane Athletics

Tulane defensive tackle Tre’Von McAlpine hits Temple quarterback Evan Simon on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Philadelphia.

DEFENSIVE LINE

Out: Dylan Brooks (redshirt senior), Caleb Redd (redshirt sophomore)

In: Tre’Von McAlpine (redshirt senior, Tulane), Jibriel Conde (redshirt junior, Grand Valley State), David Santiago (redshirt junior, Michigan State), Eamon Smalls (redshirt junior, UAB), Kevin Oatis (redshirt freshman, Arkansas)

At defensive end, Santiago is a solid pickup. Given his background as a former linebacker, though, there are still some questions about who will contribute at the strong-side spot along with Alex Bray, especially with how much the Jayhawks like to deploy multiple fronts these days. They could theoretically move a returning player like Dakyus Brinkley or Leroy Harris III over there too, although both did well getting after the quarterback at times in 2025. At defensive tackle, meanwhile, KU may have had its most successful offseason of any one position. The Jayhawks were set to return only Blake Herold, Marcus Calvin and Josiah Hammond — only the first two played last year — in a group where they have been known to play as many viable players as they have. They brought in four competent transfers who will all contend for snaps and who have distinct body types (for example, McAlpine is more of a nose tackle, while Conde is a lighter player who could bring some defensive-end-type traits to the interior).

photo by: Jacob Noger/UK Athletics

Kentucky linebacker Landyn Watson looks to make a tackle against Texas on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, in Lexington, Ky.

LINEBACKER

Out: Joseph Sipp Jr. (redshirt senior, Florida Atlantic), Logan Brantley (redshirt junior, Boise State), Jon Jon Kamara (redshirt sophomore, Wisconsin), JaCorey Stewart (redshirt sophomore, Florida International)

In: Jibreel Al-Amin (redshirt senior, Marshall), Daveon Crouch (redshirt senior, Boston College), Landyn Watson (redshirt senior, Kentucky), Jaron Willis (redshirt senior, South Carolina), Quincy Davis (redshirt junior, New Mexico State)

KU’s biggest move of the offseason in this position group might well have been retaining Trey Lathan after he initially announced on Jan. 1 that he would enter the portal. If he hadn’t chosen to come back, Crouch would have made for a solid replacement, but depth behind him could have been an issue. Now KU should have a much better situation behind Lathan than it did in 2025 when Sipp was injured. The rest of the veteran transfers all have promise but lack proven production at the power-conference level (Willis hasn’t played much and Watson’s most fruitful season was at Marshall). With only two returning scholarship players in this position group, Lathan and the young Malachi Curvey, expect plenty of competition in the spring and into training camp.

photo by: Mississippi State Athletics

Mississippi State’s Elijah Cannon runs the ball back against Eastern Kentucky on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Starkville, Miss.

CORNERBACK

Out: Jameel Croft Jr. (redshirt junior, Charlotte), Jacoby Davis (redshirt junior), Aundre Gibson (redshirt sophomore, Northern Arizona)

In: Roman Pearson (redshirt senior, Ball State), Elijah Cannon (redshirt sophomore, Mississippi State)

Last year, KU had to essentially pick up the pieces in this group after losing a couple of All-American-caliber cornerbacks. The Jayhawks deployed a combination of promising but inexperienced underclassmen and up-and-down veteran transfers in 2025, and it was a rough year for the secondary overall. The good news this time around is that nearly all those contributors are back and one year older and wiser, and the players who left would have been buried on the depth chart, meaning KU was able to replace them with more impactful additions. Cannon is a bit of a question mark at this stage, in the mold of Jahlil Hurley last year (in fact Hurley is also still something of an enigma), but Pearson has done well moving up through the levels of football from Bucknell to Ball State and should vie for a big role.

photo by: Iowa State Athletics

Iowa State safety Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman goes in for a tackle against South Dakota on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in Ames, Iowa.

SAFETY

Out: Lyrik Rawls (redshirt senior, Arizona State), Laquan Robinson (redshirt senior, Southern Miss), Damani Maxson (redshirt sophomore)

In: Corey Gordon (redshirt senior, Louisville), Jaden Harris (redshirt senior, Georgia), Christian Pritchett (junior, Georgia Tech), Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman (redshirt sophomore, Iowa State)

Depth at this position has been an issue each of the last two seasons. KU certainly didn’t look like it was going to be able to bolster its depth when it unexpectedly lost a veteran leader in Rawls to a fellow Big 12 school, but in Harris it got a former starter for a 10-win Miami team and in Gordon, one of the top players in KU’s transfer class overall, a versatile veteran who has been around the Big 12. Those two alone are more than enough to account for what the Jayhawks lost, and Cummings-Coleman (who started early for ISU as a redshirt freshman) and Pritchett provide some promise down the line. If Taylor Davis and Mason Ellis develop well in the offseason — and stay healthy, something which has been particularly problematic for Ellis — this could be a well-rounded room with plenty of competition.

photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Michigan State kicker Martin Connington (29) kicks a field goal during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Iowa, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Iowa City, Iowa.

SPECIALISTS

Out: Efren Jasso (redshirt senior)

In: Martin Connington (redshirt sophomore, Michigan State), Matthew Gill (freshman), Rino Monteforte (redshirt senior, Cal)

The last-minute addition of Jasso last summer had seemed like a move to plan ahead for 2026, given that he ended up redshirting, but instead he was one of the first Jayhawks to announce he would enter the portal. KU loaded up on new scholarship additions to its special-teams unit, although it could be difficult for them to stack up to the quite successful 2025 group. Connington was a bit erratic in his first year as a starter with the Spartans but has three seasons left in which to develop. Gill, technically not a portal addition, comes from the punter factory that is Australia (and Gill used to play Australian rules football) but originates from a new organization, the Australian Kicking Academy, so it’ll be interesting to see how well his skills translate. Monteforte might not look like the prototypical football player at 5-foot-7, 210 pounds, but that hasn’t stopped him from snapping well at two power-conference programs. It should be noted that KU has other players on the roster at each position (kicker Dane Efird, incoming punter Ben Shipley and long snapper Hollis Moeller) and these newcomers may have to fend off competition.