SI All-American Watch List: 9 Kansas commits and 19 key KU football targets named

Top 10 position rankings start this week; preseason SI99 out in August.

As just his second season in Lawrence dawns, Les Miles is already making a mark on the recruiting his many recent predecessors couldn't. Kansas has received commitments from nine prospects who are candidates for the 2020 Sports Illustrated All-American team, and dozens more rising seniors on the SI All-American watch list are also considering the Jayhawks.

Headlining Kansas' crop of commits from the class of 2021 is running back Devin Neal. A local star from Lawrence High School who will also play baseball for the Jayhawks, Neal boasts the size, speed and power needed to make an instant impact in the Kansas backfield.

Listed below is the full breakdown of KU verbals and prime targets on the SI All-American watch list.

VERBAL COMMITS

G Edgar Amaya/6-3, 300/Russellville, Ala.

TE Mason Brotherton/6-5, 242/Mena, Ark.

S Omar Burroughs/5-10, 165/Bradenton, Fla.

QB Ben Easters/6-3, 195/Brownsburg, Ind.

WR Jaddai Henry/6-4, 190/Carrollton, Texas

RB Devin Neal/5-11, 208/Lawrence, Kan.

WR Kelan Robinson/6-3, 190/Grand Prairie, Texas

LB Andrew Simpson/6-1, 220/Bellflower, Calif.

DE Deldrick Withers/6-4, 245/Little Rock, Ark.

TOP TARGETS

OT Joseph Amos/6-5, 325/Lancaster, Texas

ATH Noah Avinger/5-11, 165/Anaheim, Calif.

ATH Nick Martin/5-11, 190/Texarkana, Texas

S C.J. Baskerville/6-2, 180/Richland, Texas

S Sirad Bryant/6-1, 184/Cordele, Ga.

S Lyrik Rawls/6-1, 180/Marshall, Texas

LB Andrew "Bam" Booker/6-3, 220/Cincinnati, Ohio

DE Barlyre Davenport/6-4, 225/Chickasaw, Ala.

WR Justin Franklin/5-9, 160/Douglasville, Ga.

WR Quincy Skinner Jr./6-1, 175/Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

CB John Howse IV/6-2, 185/Brentwood, Tenn.

CB Robert Regan Jr./6-0, 186/Orange, Calif.

CB Justin Walley/5-10, 170/Biloxi, Miss.

QB Kaden McMullen/6-3, 200/O'Fallon, Mo.

DT Torey Phillips/6-5, 270/Texarkana, Texas

DT Melvin Swindle/6-1, 290/Oklahoma City, Okla.

OG Anthony Rosas/6-3, 280/Baldwin Park, Calif.

OG Ross Ulugalu-Maseuli/6-3, 330/Santa Ana, Calif.

OT Joshua Sales/6-6, 285/South Bend, Ind.

More than 1,000 student-athletes, representing every state in the country, are SI All-American candidates. Video highlights, scouting analyses and a list of each player’s college verbal commitment and/or top college contenders can be found on their bio pages, broken down by state, at SIAllAmerican.com.

Over the coming weeks, SI will unveil its preseason top 10 for each of 14 position groups (kicking off with quarterbacks this week). SI will unveil its initial top 99 ranking, the SI99, on August 24.

The evaluation process will continue throughout the season “until the list of 1,000 contenders coalesces around just 25 young men who can say proudly they are the best of the best -- they are Sports Illustrated All-Americans,” said SI Director of Football Recruiting John Garcia, Jr.

The candidates will be narrowed to 250 in October and 99 in November, and will culminate with 25 first-team Sports Illustrated All-Americans saluted at SI’s annual Sportsperson of the Year banquet in New York in December.