Jayhawks set to get visit from Xavier Ukponu in March

Next month the Jayhawks are going to get a visit from one of the elite defensive tackles in Texas.

Xavier Ukponu confirmed to Jayhawk Slant he will take an unofficial visit to Lawrence in March. Kansas has been on his radar for some time. He planned to visit for Junior Day in January but could not make the trip.

Defensive tackles coach Jim Panagos has been the lead recruiter and building a relationship with Ukponu.

“It's been fun getting to know him, just his story and everything,” Ukponu said. “I love talking to him. We talk a lot, multiple times a week, and I feel like I have a good relationship with him.

“I think he's just a relationship guy. He's the type of coach that he's going to push you, but it's from a place of love because he's gotten to know you so well that he knows what can make you go or not.”

Panagos has sold the recent success of the Kansas program to Ukponu. The Jayhawks have been to two straight bowl games and have high expectations going into 2024. Ukponu has followed the team’s trajectory since Leipold took over.

“He just told me that's the program is on the rise,” Ukponu said. “They're trying to win and that I could be a big, difference maker for them. I just like the program is a really good program. It's like a really blue collar program where you just work. I just feel like I have a good relationship with Coach Panagos.”

Ukponu, who plays for Denton Guyer, is receiving interest from college coaches all over the country. He holds over 30 scholarship offers and that includes schools like Oregon, Florida, Missouri, LSU, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, USC, Tennessee, and several others.

In January he visited Texas, Texas A&M, and Florida. He will continue to take more trips for spring football.

“I'm going to LSU, Cal, Oregon, USC, Kansas, A&M, and Texas,” he said.

Ukponu, who is rated among the top defensive tackles in the country, is using his unofficial visits to get to know the coaches at each school. That will help him decide where he takes his official visits in the summer.

“I feel like each school is something different that I'm trying to accomplish,” he said. “Like LSU, I've never been down there, but I have a great relationship with Coach Bo Davis. So, I’m just really trying to see what it's like down there and just see if I like the atmosphere or not. Most of these places to just to see how the environment is if I like it because I haven't really been down there.

“But with A&M and Texas, it's just to really talk business and where they see me fitting in and stuff like that because I've already been down there before.”