Jahlil Hurley

The Florence, Alabama native arrived at Alabama as a consensus four-star, the No. 49 player in the country, and then mostly watched: a redshirt year, then three games on defense as a redshirt freshman. When he hit the portal in December he still had three years of eligibility and a pedigree Kansas was thrilled to land — a former top-100 recruit who, by his own telling, felt at home in Lawrence in a way Tuscaloosa never quite was.

That backstory is the whole point, because the production hasn't caught up to the recruiting ranking yet. In 2025 he played all 12 games but the stat line is thin — 4 solo tackles, 2 pass breakups, half a tackle-for-loss. The discourse around him isn't about what he's done; it's about what the four-star frame still might become. Beat writers keep noting the 6-foot-2 length and the smooth, fluid hips, and the scouting refrain is that a big corner like this may project to safety long-term.

First he has to earn the field. Fall camp has him in a genuine three-way competition at corner, battling sophomore Austin Alexander with DJ Graham limited early, and Hurley has called the experience a positive — a guy still learning the scheme and settling in. The forward stake for 2026 is the simplest one in football: the pedigree got him recruited everywhere; now Kansas needs to see it on Saturdays. Does he win the job, or does the blue-chip ranking stay a line on an old recruiting page?