HAWK ZONE

‘The trifecta’: KU football’s 2024 recruiting class could include 3 high school teammates

Topeka Capital-Journal

LAWRENCE — As Jonathan Kamara talked last week, just a handful of days before he’d commit to Kansas football, the excitement he felt about potentially playing for the Jayhawks was evident.

There was the feeling Kamara, a class of 2024 prospect out of the state of Arizona, had about being a priority from the Kansas coaching staff. Kamara, who’s at Desert Edge High School, liked where he projected at linebacker with the Jayhawks. He saw Kansas as a program on the rise under head coach Lance Leipold.

But Kamara’s excitement didn’t just come from his own individual potential as a collegiate athlete. Kamara’s commitment days later made him the second from Desert Edge to make that pledge in the class of 2024, following a teammate of his in cornerback Aundre Gibson. And given the fact the Jayhawks are targeting another Desert Edge talent in that recruiting class in Deshawn Warner, an edge rusher according to 247Sports, the chance exists that the three high school teammates could all end up at the same college.

“It is very intriguing because, from a comfort level, we could all be surrounded by people we’re used to and they could just help us adapt to the college game easier,” Kamara said less than a week before he committed. “And we could keep each other focused and just, yeah, be great.”

Kansas head football coach Lance Leipold looks on during a practice this spring at the team's indoor facility in Lawrence.

As Marcus Carter tells it, the point-man on Kansas’ staff to get this all going was Jordan Peterson. Carter, a co-head coach at Desert Edge, said he and the Jayhawks’ defensive backs coach/defensive pass game coordinator developed a quick bond. It wasn’t just the attention Peterson paid to Carter and the players Kansas was interested in that impressed Carter, but how Peterson interacted with all the coaches and players.

Carter said Peterson initially visited to see Gibson and Warner, and that he eventually reached out to Peterson about Kamara after giving local schools a chance to recruit Kamara. Carter felt Peterson trusted him enough to know he wouldn’t mislead anyone about a prospect. And once the Jayhawks started to go for Kamara, whose recruitment has also included Kansas linebackers coach Chris Simpson, Carter felt it would possible the Jayhawks could get “the trifecta.”

Gibson is someone who Carter said has always been a talented athlete, but has made great strides when it’s come to maturity. Kamara, a late-bloomer from Carter’s perspective, is someone who just to fill out his frame more because he already was someone who had a great work ethic and was loyal. Warner is a former wide receiver Carter said had the chance to earn a scholarship at the next level with the move to the defensive line.

“All I know is whoever gets them, any one of them, is going to be in good hands,” said Carter, who also spoke last week prior to Kamara’s commitment. “And if you get all three, I think that’s program-changing. Because they’re all, obviously, on the defensive side of the ball, but they’re all on each level of the ball.”

Kamara and Warner said they and Gibson are all going to visit Kansas together in June, so there’ll be a great opportunity for the Jayhawks to wrap things up then. Warner said the idea was a mix of theirs and the Kansas coaches. And Warner, a 247Sports Composite three-star talent like Gibson, is aiming to have his recruitment finished by the beginning of July.

Warner, speaking last week prior to Kamara’s announcement he’d committed, was clear he was still exploring all his options. But Warner, who noted he’s Gibson’s cousin, was also looking forward to seeing everything in person he’d been hearing about in his various conversations with Gibson and others. Warner hopes to see where he and his Desert Edge teammates would fit into the program.

“That’s a once in a lifetime opportunity right there, to live — to ball out with those guys, these guys, since my freshman year, play with them at the next level and then be able to live with them in college,” said Warner, whose recruitment has also included Jayhawks defensive ends coach/special teams coordinator Taiwo Onatolu. “Yeah, that’s a once in a lifetime opportunity right there.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.