And they're off...

The first day of any preseason football camp always goes, well, “great.” 

It’s great to be back out there with the guys. It’s great to get started. It’s great to see everyone again. Great, great, great. 

We heard those words, and more like them, uttered from Kansas football coach Lance Leipold and players Cam Pickett and Trey Lathan on Tuesday morning. But a layer below the surface was a little nugget that figures to go a long way toward determining just how great this Kansas team can be. 

“I think we’ve improved a lot on defense,” Leipold said early on in his meeting with reporters following the first day of preseason practice.

You don’t have to stick exclusively to Twitter/X to see that the KU defense could stand to improve. 

Last season, under first-year Defensive Coordinator D.K. McDonald, the Jayhawks ranked 85th nationally in total defense, giving up 387 yards per game and nearly 6 yards per play. The year before that, in Brian Borland’s final year as DC, KU’s defense ranked 92nd nationally in total defense, giving up 392 yards per game and more than 6 yards per play.

“We’re getting more across the board, and you can see that leading to a confident group of guys.”

— KU football coach Lance Leipold

It remains to be seen if this unit and those numbers will be better in 2026. But there are at least a few reasons that the KU coaches and players believe they will. 

“We’ve increased our size and speed overall, especially on the defensive side,” Leipold said Tuesday, adding that he’s seen more confidence and better depth from his defensive players throughout the offseason. 

One of the things that has led to that confidence, according to Leipold, is better communication across all levels of the Kansas defense.

The sixth-year Kansas coach praised linebacker Trey Lathan, safety Taylor Davis and transfer linebackers Quincy Davis, from New Mexico State, and Bam Crouch, from Boston College, as big reasons for the uptick in communication on defense. 

Veteran wide receiver Cam Pickett, who joined the Jayhawks last year, smiled while saying that he’s seen all kinds of communication from his defensive counterparts throughout the offseason. 

“We move around a lot as an offense,” Pickett noted. “And we can see them communicating and picking up on different things and just talking throughout the secondary.” 

Lathan, who led the Jayhawks in tackles last season and sits among their most important returners entering 2026, said the change was evident to him as soon as winter workouts began. 

“I’ve just seen a lot of dudes who are buying into the process,” he said Tuesday. “A lot of dudes, they don’t do that. So, that’s what we do here.” 

Lathan pinpointed that as part of the “good foundation” that the KU defense has heading into the upcoming season and he noted that the speed Leipold talked about along with better leadership — which goes hand in hand with that whole communication thing — were big reasons he believes this defense will be better in 2026. Perhaps significantly so. 

“A lot of guys hold each other accountable, not giving guys the opportunity to slack,” Lathan said. “We didn’t have that last year. Right after the season, after our exit meeting, that’s the one thing that we established, that we need leadership, something that we lack, something that could have helped us definitely in the back end of the season.” 

The KU linebacker added: “We’re a much faster defense. We’ve got a lot of dudes that transferred in, but a lot of those dudes can roll. A lot of guys who are willing to fly around and make plays.”

More players. More wheels. More bulk. More chatter.

And more experience at the defensive coordinator position, too, where D.K. McDonald enters Year 2 as KU’s DC, with what even the players called a valuable learning experience from 2025 under his belt. 

“We’re getting more across the board,” Leipold said. “And you can see that leading to a confident group of guys.”

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