Kansas football fall camp position analysis: Linebackers feature experience and potential

LAWRENCE — Kansas football has a lot to offer at linebacker this fall.

Each of its three regular starters are back from last season, in senior Rich Miller, redshirt senior Craig Young and junior Taiwan Berryhill Jr. A transfer from Bowling Green, junior JB Brown, has made a name for himself. And there are others competing for playing time, too, like junior Cornell Wheeler and redshirt sophomore Tristian Fletcher.

Here are five thoughts about Kansas’ linebackers as fall camp continues:

Chris Simpson downplayed that Taiwan Berryhill Jr. has been limited

Earlier during fall camp, Kansas head coach Lance Leipold said Berryhill had missed time due to a hamstring issue. But linebackers coach Chris Simpson said Saturday it wasn’t a serious problem and added the coaching staff is just being smart about the timeline for Berryhill’s return.

Berryhill said he’s not far off from being 100% again. On Saturday, he was able to take a step forward and get some reps in during practice. He’s coming off a season in 2022 in which he started all 13 games and collected 46 tackles, six tackles for loss and two sacks.

Craig Young could be a featured part of Kansas’ pass rush

There have been a lot of questions about how Kansas is going to be able to pressure and sack opposing quarterbacks after defensive end Lonnie Phelps Jr. turned pro. And while Young isn’t a defensive lineman, there’s a good chance he’s going to be part of the Jayhawks’ answer.

“Me just playing new positions and everything is helping the defense out, it’s helping the team out,” Young said. “So, me bouncing around is what’s best for the team.”

Young has a goal for how many sacks he wants to get this year, although he didn’t volunteer that number. Last season, he was second on the team with 4.5 sacks — which went along with his 60 tackles and 5.5 tackles for loss.

If Rich Miller isn’t directing things, there are a couple who could

Miller has been a regular starter since he followed Leipold, Simpson and defensive coordinator Brian Borland to Kansas from Buffalo in 2021. Simpson described the journey Miller’s had from his freshman year to now as the prime example of trusting the process. But there does need to be someone, or more than one player, the Jayhawks can turn to if Miller isn’t in the game directing things.

Simpson said right now that’s probably a combination of Berryhill and Wheeler. Wheeler has appeared in 19 games across the past two seasons, but not produced many statistics. From Simpson’s perspective, Wheeler is showing improvement because he’s been able to get a lot of reps.

“It’s getting good as their coach, because I feel comfortable with a number of guys,” Simpson said. “Sometimes you throw a guy in there and you’re like, ‘Uh.’ You’re not always sure. There’s a few guys now that I feel pretty good about being in there if they get called to duty.”

Jayson Gilliom is making an impression

Jayson Gilliom, a redshirt sophomore, missed the 2022 season due to an injury he suffered during the spring that year. He’s in the midst of a position change, switching to linebacker from safety. But while that could make it challenging for him to compete for playing time, Leipold has spoken glowingly about him during fall camp.

While Leipold acknowledged there’ll be days when Gilliom is sore, he still praised how well Gilliom is doing and said they haven’t had to monitor Gilliom as much as he thought they would. Leipold described Gilliom as being passionate about what Gilliom’s doing and as someone who’s set to contribute a lot on special teams.

“Our first night practice, I walked in the eating area and he’s the only guy in the room,” Leipold said about Gilliom. “And it happened to be his birthday. And he’s sitting there and he’s got five different drinks there — two Gatorades, two waters, whatever — ready to hydrate, ready to go, looking through notes, doing whatever it’s going to take.”

Logan Brantley’s athleticism is evident

While Logan Brantley is a freshman and likely won’t have the first-year role someone like Brown will, given the varying levels of experience between the two, Brantley is making a name for himself. Simpson said there are players talking to him about what he and the staff already knew, that Brantley is athletic and can run. It’s just a matter of translating how well he’s been able to do in the meeting room to the field.

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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.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas football fall camp position analysis: Linebackers, Rich Miller