Kansas football lands verbal transfer commitments from two-former four-star recruits
The Kansas Jayhawks football team, seeking to improve its weaknesses this offseason, secured two pivotal verbal transfer commitments over the weekend.
Verbal commitments aren’t binding and can be fluid until players arrive on campus, but LSU defensive back Damarius McGhee announced his commitment to KU via Instagram Saturday night.
The former four-star recruit from Pensacola, Florida spent two seasons at LSU and will have three seasons of eligibility remaining. He played in 13 games at LSU — 12 as a freshman, one as a sophomore. In 66 defensive snaps as a freshman, he made five total tackles, three solo.
He entered the transfer portal Dec. 6. The Top 100 recruit in the 2021 class (per 247sports) initially chose LSU over Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Florida State and other schools.
McGhee isn’t guaranteed a starting job in Lawrence, where he will battle Cobee Bryant, Mello Dotson and Kalon Gervin for playing time.
KU’s other weekend commitment, received on Sunday, is from former Utah State linebacker Patrick Joyner Jr. Like McGhee, he made the announcement via social media.
Coming out of South Dade High School in Homestead, Fla., Joyner’s college offers included Alabama, Florida, Auburn and Michigan State. He chose the Hurricanes but battled injuries for three seasons before transferring to Utah State.
Joyner played two seasons with the Aggies and has one year of eligibility remaining. He had 31 tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack for Utah State last season and totaled 60 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks in 932 snaps over the past two years.
Rated a four-star recruit (per ESPN) out of high school, Joyner entered the transfer portal on Jan. 11. He could be a potential replacement for Lonnie Phelps Jr., who recently declared for the NFL Draft.
Kansas now has 10 verbal commitments from transfers. Six of them are defensive players; two play offense and two play primarily on special teams.
This story was originally published January 15, 2023 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Kansas football lands verbal transfer commitments from two-former four-star recruits."
