The current 247Sports Composite Team Recruiting Rankings for the class of 2018 feature normal fare at the top – Penn State, Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame, USC, Clemson, Texas A&M and LSU – but then you hit the ninth spot.

Kansas.

Yes, that Kansas. The Jayhawks of the Big 12, the same team that’s gone 2-22 the last two seasons, have a Top 10 recruiting class. It’s early, we must remind you.

Thanks to six commitments on Feb. 4 from Top 600 prospects, the Jayhawks currently have the Big 12’s highest-ranked recruiting class. Five of those six pledges came from Louisiana natives, including a trio of four-star prospects — wide receiver Devonta Jason, cornerback Corione Harris and wide receiver JaMarr Chase. It’s the high school juniors from the “Boot” who have Jayhawk nation hopeful about their football program.

“It was big for them,” Harris, the nation's No. 22 cornerback, told 247Sports on Monday. “It could be the start of something new.”

That trio was joined by three-star safety Aaron Brule and three-star running back Anthony Williams to make up Kansas' fivesome in Louisiana. Three-star quarterback Clayton Tune, a Texas native, also committed over the weekend.

Seeing as we're talking football recruiting and not basketball, it's one of the most delightfully surprising recruiting stories — again, very early — that we've seen in a while. How in the world does this happen?

Credit can almost single-handedly go to to second-year Kansas assistant Tony Hull. The former head coach at Warren Easton High School in New Orleans, Hull is the Jayhawks’ Louisiana recruiting arm.

He knows the state well and coached against many of the players (and coaches) he’s currently recruiting.

“All credit goes to him,” Harris said “He’s a great recruiter and I’ve been knowing him since he coached high school. He did what he needed to do (to get me committed).”

That the pledges came on the same day wasn’t a coincidence. The Louisiana group planned it out in a group text. They wanted to make a statement at the same time.

The reasons for committing to Kansas vary individually, but mostly it comes down to wanting to make a change in Lawrence, a place that hasn’t experienced a winning football season since 2008. David Beaty, a third-year head coach, is selling the opportunity to create a legacy, and these 2018 recruits are buying in.

"We are a family," said Chase, the No. 256 player in the class. "We are about to build something special."

There is still a question of whether these recruits will stay together. It’s nearly a year until National Signing Day 2018, and each Louisiana prospect will have a bevy of offers from throughout the country to sort through.

Harris, for example, turned down LSU to commit to the Jayhawks.

That doesn’t happen in recruiting, but Harris thinks this surprise class of Kansas commits will stick together.

“We’ll just communicate and do what’s best for us,” Harris said. “But I believe so.”

Kansas' lofty spot in the recruiting rankings — even ahead of Alabama — won't last in the coming months as teams around them fill out their classes. They'll have to work 51 more weeks to secure their newest haul. But for now they've got as many four-star players committed as they've signed in the last 12 classes combined. They even added another commit Monday in Louisiana defensive tackle Nelson Jenkins.

Kansas, at least for today, is on top of the Big 12. It has Louisiana (and Hull) to thank for that.