Jayhawks land Defense who will help the defense

Going into the final pieces to fill out the 2017 class the Kansas coaches have been targeting junior college corners. They will need to replace two senior starters.

After the weekend they have landed their first corner to take an official visit and Hasan Defense is likely to land on the Jayhawks All-Name team right away. With a name like that there is no better fit to play corner.

“I went ahead and committed to Kansas,” Defense said. “I talked about it with coach (Kenny) Perry on Saturday night at dinner. When I got back Sunday night I talked about it more with my mom.”

On Monday Defense got on the phone with head coach David Beaty and made it official.

Perry has been targeting Defense for much of the fall. Defense said he spent a lot of time around starting corners Marnez Ogletree and Brandon Stewart. Both were junior college transfers.

“They told me a lot,” Defense said. “They’re both seniors and leaving and I hope to come in and fill their shoes. The opportunity is there for me to do that. Coach Perry is one of the most real coaches I have ever met. I think he will help me get better as a person and a player.

“We all got along really well. They showed me a lot of the things there. Marnez talked a lot about coach Perry and what it was like to be coached by him and that he is a good coach. He was telling me that if you do something wrong coach Perry will be the first one to tell you and I like that. I want coaches to tell me that good and the bad.”

His mother joined him on the visit and came away liking what she heard on the academic side of things.

“She really didn’t care as much about football as she did the academics,” he said. “So she took care of all that on the visit. We both like how they handle the academics for the players. They have small sessions so they can work with one or two people instead of being in a group with 40.”

The fact the Jayhawks beat Texas didn’t hurt the overall atmosphere on the visit. Defense got a chance to spend time with the team after the game. He said he saw Dana Anderson and other alumni who were also happy with the win.

“I really like the environment and the new locker rooms,” Defense said. “I wasn’t expecting everybody to be so cool and how close they all work together. There was good chemistry and it seemed like everybody was after the same thing. I like how the players and coaching staff all seem to be on the same page.

“The atmosphere after the game was really good. Everybody was excited for each other. I saw the person who the facility is named after and some of the other alums all happy for each other. Beating Texas was a big win for them. That was eye-opening to be able to beat Texas on the seniors last home game with the type of season they were having.”

Defense was recruited by Utah, Kansas, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and New Mexico State. He has a visit set to Utah. He was a first team, all conference corner at Kilgore College.

“I’m really happy and blessed that I am able to be in this situation,” he said. “I am really happy to have committed to a school like Kansas and the program they have is outstanding.”