Leroy Harris III may not have arrived in Lawrence with much buzz, but he’s getting it now.
That’s a notable turn for a Kansas defense that had plenty of problems last season. The Jayhawks finished 95th nationally on that side of the ball, allowing 409.5 yards per game, and the miscues piled up enough to help extend KU’s run of back-to-back bowl-less seasons under Lance Leipold.
Kansas attacked the roster hard to help fix it, bringing in 14 healthy and eligible transfers through the NCAA Transfer Portal for this season. That group was rated the nation’s 53rd-best transfer class by 247Sports.
Still, the biggest gain might have been keeping Harris in the fold.
Harris started at Chattanooga, where he recorded 11 tackles, .5 tackles for loss and three fumble recoveries as a freshman. That season earned him freshman All-American honors from Phil Steele. He later entered the portal as the nation’s 1,347th-ranked portal prospect in the 2025 class before landing with the Jayhawks.
The move has worked out. In his first season at Kansas, the now-junior posted 31 tackles, 4.5 sacks and eight pass breakups, then picked up a Big 12 Honorable Mention nomination.
Earlier this month, Harris landed on a sleeper list, with the writeup noting that he “isn't a sleeper for Kansas fans, who saw him emerge as a disruptor last season, leading the team in both sacks and pass breakups. The Chattanooga transfer showed his playmaking skills against Big 12 opponents such as UCF, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Utah, where he had a tackle for loss and three pass breakups in the regular-season finale. Harris has been through another year of development in Kansas' offseason program and could be among the Big 12's top pass rushers.”
He’ll also be working under Joe Dineen, the former KU cult hero who has moved quickly through the coaching ranks. Dineen went from graduate assistant at SMU to defensive ends coach at Kansas, with stops at Illinois and Purdue along the way. He has already coached Nic Scourton and Kydran Jenkins, both of whom had strong college careers.
As for Harris, the next step is less about a stat line and more about week-to-week disruption. If he can stay consistent play after play, there’s a path to more than honorable mention-level recognition in the Big 12.
Kansas is projecting him to start on a defensive line that also includes Blake Herold, Eamon Smalls and Alex Bray, with Smalls and Bray both arriving as transfers. The Jayhawks open the season September 4 against FCS side LIU, with the game set for 7 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
In Other News...
Kansas Rebuilt Backfield Is Already Bringing New Pressure
Kansas footballs retooled backfield is already drawing attention before the season even kicks off. Dylan Edwards and Yasin Willis landed on the Doak Walker Award preseason watch list, putting both Jayhawks running backs in the national conversation for the sports top back and underscoring how much the offense may lean on that group this fall.
Edwards arrives after stops at Colorado and Kansas State, while Willis comes in from Syracuse, and their different paths point to a backfield built with more than one style in mind. For Kansas, the bigger question now is not whether the room has talent, but how quickly that revamped group can turn preseason recognition into production when the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Still Has A Roster Problem It Can't Afford To Carry
Kansas is still working the phones as it looks to strengthen a roster that has room to get better, but the shape of the team remains unsettled in a way that matters as the season creeps closer. With two open spots available, the Jayhawks have been trying to add another piece, and the need is obvious enough: depth remains a concern, especially in the middle, where every option carries more weight than it should this time of year.
Mihailo Muiki has been part of the conversation, but his path is tied up in NCAA eligibility issues that leave his status cloudy for now. And while Kansas would love clarity on any front, it does not have much of it, with possible help still dependent on ongoing eligibility questions and legal matters elsewhere on the board. For a team that wants its rotation settled, the wait itself has become part of the problem. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Has Sky High Hype But One Risk Fans Can't Ignore
Kansas is already being treated like a national storyline for 2026-27, and it starts with the familiar presence of Bill Self on the sideline and the kind of recruiting haul that usually sends expectations into overdrive. The Jayhawks are bringing in two five-star freshmen, headlined by Tyran Stokes, and that alone is enough to make people talk about championship upside before a game has been played.
The caution flag is the same one that tends to shadow young, talent-heavy rosters: experience. Kansas has only three true upperclassmen on the roster, which leaves a lot of the burden on freshmen to settle in fast and carry meaningful minutes in a demanding Big 12 grind. ESPNs projection range makes the point clearly enough, with a path that looks solid if the newcomers are merely good and another that gets much more ambitious if they become something closer to immediate difference-makers. [Read more 🡒]