Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Best and Worst Takeaways From Kansas Jayhawks Football's Week 1 Win Against Missouri State

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, most encouraging, most worrisome things that may have happened in week one, an update on what's going on with Jalen Daniels and whose stat line is it anyway with Nick. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN and Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. He's Nick Schwert. Give him a follow at Nick underscore Schwert.

Starting point is 00:00:37 You can find him all sorts of places. We'll get to that later in the show. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the page. Before we get into any of the action today, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime.

Starting point is 00:01:04 So we're going to be talking week one takeaways, what's most encouraging, what's most worrisome, little update on the Jalen Daniels stuff, finish up with whose stat line is it anyway. So let's start with the positives. Let's enter in a positive mindset here. What to you was the most encouraging thing, player, play, outcome that happened in the first game for KU over Missouri State? When we talked last week, I told you that the only hope or the only thing that I was looking for in week one was for KU to do what you're supposed to do when you're facing an FCS team, which is

Starting point is 00:01:39 beat the brakes off them. Now, how they got to that final conclusion is maybe worth a discussion because it was sort of a microcosm of last season. Slow start, put it on in the second half, and then you look at the final score. Depending on what number you got it at, Derek, I got it at 28 and a half. I think it closed at like 32, which wouldn't have been a cover. 28 and a half was a cover.

Starting point is 00:02:03 So if I want to look at it through that lens, I would say you're 148 to 17. The game was not particularly close, especially down the stretch. Jason Bean looked good. Devin Neal looked good. The offensive line did a good job of holding up. I guess I take those as positives. You did what you were supposed to do against an FCS team. So to me, it's less about the individual performances and more of the totality of KU's performance, which was a convincing win. You put it behind you and now you get ready for a game that actually matters this Friday. Yeah. And I think that's kind of where I'm at because we saw the defensive line dominate in last year's FCS game. Lonnie Phelps had, what, four tackles for loss, three sacks, and obviously he ended up remains to be seen. This will be a great test this week with Illinois, like you said.

Starting point is 00:03:09 I think for me, that offensive line is the one, though, that I feel better about because the defensive line, I know the numbers didn't look great, just one sack. They had nine tackles for loss. I think they had 14 QB hurries. I thought they played well, but it's with the offensive line, just going back to last year for me, that it backs up the idea that, you know, okay, they bring back a lot of players. Dominic Pooney moves to left tackle, and they were dominant again, right? It's backing up what we already know. It's previous evidence on top of what they are into this week.

Starting point is 00:03:39 And now you play Illinois that has two preseason All-Americans at the defensive line position. This is a team that was number two in ESPN SB Plus in defensive efficiency a season ago, projected to be top 10 coming into this year. I think we're going to learn probably more about Kansas in this game this week. When you look at maybe where some of the questions are like, you know, we think the offensive line is good, but can it be dominant? How good is the defensive line? I think this week against Illinois, we're going to learn more than maybe any other week over the course of the season. Yeah, it's interesting.

Starting point is 00:04:11 And I don't know how much you want to talk about the Illinois game in general. So I don't want to step all over this, but I would be curious, like, how would you be feeling about this game had Illinois lost to Toledo last week, which they very well could have. Toledo goes for two. They don't get it. They're up by one with 2.30 to go. Illinois drives down, kicks the game-winning field goal with about 30 seconds to go. I would be really interested to know how we would be talking about this game if Illinois were coming into Lawrence 0-1 instead of 1-0 with a nail

Starting point is 00:04:42 biter win. You're right. Great defense last year. They lost their defensive coordinator. He's now the head coach at Purdue and Devin Witherspoon, the shutdown corner was a top five pick in the NFL draft. So I do wonder if Illinois is going to be able to replicate what they did a season ago defensively. I would also say to that point, at no point last year, even after the 5-0 start and you start losing some games halfway through the season, Jalen Daniels is out, Jason Beans, the quarterback, the offense took a step back, but they were still one of the top 20, 30 offenses in college football all year, all year long. And there's part of me that says there's only so much we're going to see any opposing defense

Starting point is 00:05:34 this year due to slow down the Kansas offense. Like maybe that's the difference between scoring 42 points and 34 points, but KU is going to get theirs. I have no question about that all season long. KU is going to get theirs offensively. The question that we talked about last week that we talked about the week before is, can you go from being a defense that gives up 35 a night to a defense that gives up 24 to 28? Because by the way, that's still not a great defense, but it's enough to not have to have the offense be superhuman every single night out, because as we both know, that's simply not sustainable. So yeah, I'll be interested to see what this Illinois defense that should be pretty good is going to do against the Kansas offense, but I would be pretty shocked if KU goes out there and lays an egg

Starting point is 00:06:26 offensively. My bigger question is going to be, are we going to start to see the growth on the defensive side of the ball? Which of these more encouraging from week one? Was it how Jason being played final stats look good. I think first half, maybe a little inconsistencies, but when he had to win Missouri state, you know, kind of throw a counterpunch at you,

Starting point is 00:06:45 he immediately goes down and gets a touchdown, was really good in the second half. So would it be that, or would it be Duke beating Clemson? Because I know it's a different team, but you beat that Duke team last year who won nine games, and it was an eight-point game. But I remember after that game saying, yeah, Kansas should have won that game by more.

Starting point is 00:07:01 And shouldn't that show what the ceiling of this team with a healthy Jalen Daniels and Daniel Hyshaw can be? Yes, but I would also say in college football, things can change so drastically from year to year. And there can even be teams that you're high on going into the season. Like if you want to do the flip side of it, well, we thought Clemson might be a potential college football playoff contender. Well, I'm certainly not saying that after week one. I would take the Jason Bean, even though I'm not like jumping over the moon after Jason Bean's performance. It's simply that you have some confidence knowing that he can get the job done if Jalen can't go for any extended amount of time, which at this point, we're going to get into this. But at this point, like I'm at least considering the idea that once again, we're not going to see a full season from Jalen Daniels.

Starting point is 00:07:57 Like even if he starts on Friday against Illinois, should I be super confident that he's going to start every single game the rest of the season? I'm not willing to go there. We saw last year that Bean can be a competent backup, but going into the season last year, remember that it wasn't a foregone conclusion that Jalen Daniels was going to be the starting quarterback. From everything that we heard from inside the program, it was a razor's edge separating those two guys and I don't think that was smoke but we know the difference between those two quarterbacks it's not talent it's the stuff up here Jalen's got that magnetism that charisma the confidence that I don't think Jason Bean has but then you go to this offseason the coaches are talking up Jason Bean they're saying that he took a big step that

Starting point is 00:08:43 he's gotten you know much better over the course of the off season. I wonder if some of that is just them trying to instill that confidence. Because if you look back on the season, if you're the coaching staff and you're looking back on last year and you're saying, wait a minute, we see these dudes in practice, there's not that much separating them. But then when we see them on Saturdays, Jalen takes it to a completely different level. Can we get some of that out of Jason Bean? And I don't know if last Friday is an indication that they have been able to do that. But I think there is an effort to try and get him to find that next gear because they believe if he can just take that next step in terms of his mentality, then he can be a very competitive quarterback in the Big 12.

Starting point is 00:09:28 All right, I want to get more into the Jalen Daniels stuff, most worrisome things about what happened in week one. We'll finish up with whose stat line is it anyway. First, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have access to the best

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Starting point is 00:10:49 It's hard to in a game like that. I guess you could say, oh, I would have loved the defense to give up only three points or something like that. But I don't know how much that's kind of splitting hairs. And also they gave up seven after a fumble, so maybe realistically it was more of ten. To me, there's two that stick out here. One of them is just Daniel Hyshaw in general. Daniel Hyshaw, you saw him have that explosive touchdown at the end, so maybe this isn't a big deal.

Starting point is 00:11:15 But we saw last year he did have fumbling issues at times. And for him to fumble, I think, might scare you a little bit because that is one thing. Like Kansas can't be a team that has high turnover numbers. They just can't, they have to play on the margins with those little ways. And that's one thing they can't do, but also he just didn't look explosive in his first few carries.

Starting point is 00:11:33 Maybe that's something that by week two, week three, he'll have shaken the rust off from the injury last year, but he did not look like the same guy. And then the other one is, is back to that quarterback stuff with Jalen Daniels. Yeah. With high shot. I mean mean the dude dislocated his hip so if you would have told me at that moment during the iowa state game hey this guy's never going to be the same player i'd say yeah yeah there's

Starting point is 00:11:55 probably something to that i mean derrick not only did he dislocate his hip they couldn't get it popped back into place on the sideline that that's like beyond football worry that is to the point of holy crap like this dude is like needs serious medical attention because this is not something to play with so i mean there was a chance he was never going to play again straight up like the fact that he's on the football field is a success in and of itself so if you just told me like yeah he's never going to be able to be that guy again, I mean, join the club. There are thousands and thousands of running backs at every level of play that have sustained

Starting point is 00:12:33 serious injuries that were never the same guy. I would say that like, if he's not that guy anymore, is it a hit? Sure. But this is college football and it's the running back position. Like if there is a replaceable position, it's backup running back because he is the backup, right? Devin Neal is RB1 and everybody else kind of chips in around him. So if you told me that Savion Morris has to be that second guy this year, I'm not really going to be too concerned about that. Yeah. The Jalen Daniels situation is one

Starting point is 00:13:01 that is concerning because while I do have confidence that Jason Bean can fill in and do a respectable job, if I'm talking about my expectations for this team, wanting them to be a seven or eight win football team, I don't think they get there without Jalen Daniels. Like, yeah, maybe Jason Bean's good enough to get you to six, but if you're looking for the ceiling, you need Jalen Daniels.

Starting point is 00:13:21 And now moving forward with a reasonable level of question as to where he's going to be, what he's going to be for this team. That would probably be problem number one that I'm looking for a solution. Yeah, like when I think of the difference between Jason being and Jalen Daniels, because if you look at the stats, you can very easily be like, well, I don't see the difference. They're both putting up these amazing stats. It's the little plays. You even see it in the FCS game. There was one play. I have a screenshot of it from the first half

Starting point is 00:13:52 where Jason Bean's running a speed option, and he pitches the ball way too early. He could have just ran it himself. Some of those little plays where Jalen's going to be more willing to sacrifice his body and attract the defender, which is going to allow the running back to gain more yards. That doesn't go down for the quarterback. It goes for the running back, but it is a play made by the quarterback. Those little plays. Being a tough runner, he did take a couple hits in that game,

Starting point is 00:14:14 so maybe that was kind of an improvement moving forward for him that we'll see. And some of the inconsistencies, right? It's only maybe two or three throws a game that you're really like, oh, that was a play Jalen wouldn't make. Like I go back to the first half. He threw into triple coverage. It might've been the first drive of the game to Jared Casey. It was incomplete. Ended up, you get the long rush. Yeah. I think it might've been Derek. It might've been quadruple coverage. Yes. It was a lot of people there. Right. And that's a, that's a play where you're like, well, I don't think Jalen throws that pass. To Jared Casey, by the way. Yes.

Starting point is 00:14:45 Like if there's one guy you got to force the ball into traffic for, it is your former walk-on halfback slash tight end. Yeah. So like, it's just those little plays where you get the kind of one, oh crap moment, a game that you don't really have as often with Jalen Daniels those are the differences so I think you're right I think they can make a bowl game especially if they're going to be a dominant running team and the defense is better the special teams is better with Jason Bean but any hopes of having that special season where you do win eight or nine

Starting point is 00:15:16 games that does revolve around Jalen Daniels and when you look at how how this has kind of been handled all the way through we go back to fall camp. Lance Leipold, the first week that we found out about the injury, he said that if we're still talking about it in a week, we'll go deeper into it. Well, weekly, as he had his press conferences over fall camp, we never really went any deeper. And every time it was kind of sidestepped. And then we get to the week of the game.

Starting point is 00:15:42 And on Monday, Lance Leipold says anybody who's available is going to play. He was asked a few times about is Jalen going to be the starter and kind of sidestepped. It kind of said, yeah, like if that's what's on the depth chart like that, you know, it was kind of like weird ways.

Starting point is 00:15:54 It wasn't a definitive way of saying he's going to start. Then we get to the video board. The video board announces Jalen Daniels is the starter. Jason Bean comes out. He actually starts the game. Jalen doesn't go. We hear after the game that Jalenlen was practicing some he was getting reps we obviously saw him warm up before the game too but that he they just didn't want to start him because he didn't get enough reps which that

Starting point is 00:16:15 seems to go counterintuitive with the monday comment if he was available you know and then we get into was it monday when brett mcmurphy reports that jaylen daniels is going to be starting then we see the depth chart come out though and McMurphy reports that Jalen Daniels is going to be starting? Then we see the depth chart come out, though, and it's an or with Jason Bean. We hear from Andy Kotelnicki, and he says he, a question was asked that we heard Lance Leipold said he's taking more reps. And he answered, yes, more reps. Something along those lines. I say all this to kind of summarize to say this is a very confusing and roundabout and vague response. No, it's not.

Starting point is 00:16:46 No, it's not. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know this is your show. I'm going to cut you off. Because it's not confusing at all. If you've spent any time around college football, it is very obvious what is happening. They're lying to us, Derek.

Starting point is 00:17:02 They're misleading us because that's what college football coaches do. They don't have to disclose injury information. So they're not going to disclose that information. Now we can get into the right and wrong, the integrity, the morality of all of that. That's a different conversation. But what is happening is painfully obvious. It's what always happens, which is if we don't have to tell you anything, we are not going to tell you anything. Now, how much does this matter to the other players in the locker room? I don't know. I've talked to guys who have played who said, you know what? We don't really care, right? Like we're, we're busy doing our own thing. If the quarterback

Starting point is 00:17:39 plays, that's great. If he doesn't, he doesn't, whatever. Like it's not something that we're losing sleep over. Other players may disagree, but they're lying they're they're they are very obviously lying and misleading i will say this if and i know this is what's going on but when coaches do this as as an effort of gamesmanship because they think the opposing coach is now going to have to prepare for two quarterbacks it's the dumbest thing ever like it it just simply i refuse to believe that's how it works that brett b lemma and the illinois coaching staff are having to pull double shifts and they're sleeping in the office every night

Starting point is 00:18:27 because they're coming up with two separate game plans for Jason Bean and Jalen Daniels. NFL teams are the greatest football teams in the world. They release injury reports every day. Andy Reid talked about Travis Kelsey hyper-extending his knee at practice. They tell you this stuff that happens and guess what they still end up being okay I know that's mandated but yeah yeah but that's the thing and if it weren't mandated then Andy Reid wouldn't tell you shit like he wouldn't tell you

Starting point is 00:18:54 a damn thing if he didn't have to I do think that like what's interesting is you go to the idea of gamesmanship and like trying to to gain an upper edge specifically with Kansas in this offense I'm not saying like the principles are the same but I do think from like a 30,000 foot view the ideology is very similar in that like the San Francisco 49ers offense with Kyle Shanahan whether it's Treyrey Lance, Jimmy Garoppolo, Brock Purdy, the offense doesn't really change. As long as that guy's been in the system, you trust him to go through his progressions. Boom, boom, boom, ball out. Don't have it run, right? It's a very quarterback-friendly system to the point that from a defensive coordinator's perspective, we don't really change a lot.

Starting point is 00:19:45 You may have to account for a few extra things if Jalen Daniels is in there, but a lot of what makes Jalen Daniels so great is the stuff that he just has the ability to do. We call it the it factor, and it's sort of cliche, but that is what makes Jalen Daniels special. It's not that he has all these physical tools that Jason Bean doesn't. Jason Bean's a tremendous athlete, right? Maybe he's not quite as shifty as Jalen Daniels. Jalen Daniels is maybe just a little bit more precise. Maybe Jalen Daniels is a little bit more deliberate in his decision-making, but that doesn't change how you prepare as an opposing coach. So it's just funny to me that you think this gives you a leg up.

Starting point is 00:20:25 Like I don't truly believe the preparation for Illinois changes in any significant way, depending on who the quarterback is. Yep. All right, let's finish up. Whose stat line is it anyway? First, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks brought to you by GameTime. You know, I'm going to the Chiefs game on Thursday night, and I still have not bought tickets, but I'm not stressed out at all because GameTime has them.

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Starting point is 00:21:44 Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets. Lowest price. Guaranteed. Finishing things off with whose stat line is it anyway? I've got two for you this week.

Starting point is 00:21:56 They're both from the first week of the season. KU Missouri State game. Six carries, 40 yards, one rushing touchdown. Yeah, I know who this is. And to be honest, I didn't really know who he was before the game. That would be Dylan McDuffie. That's right. I don't know if you have background on this guy, but like I was saying earlier,

Starting point is 00:22:19 you talk about the running back position. It is a position where we weren't really talking Daniel Hyshaw before the year last year. College football teams carry like 17 running backs. And at any point in time, one of those dudes may emerge and be the best back on the team. Yeah. McDuffie, he went to Buffalo, was part of the staff and had a great year. Their first year at Kansas, transferred to Georgia Tech last year. Didn't have a great year, comes to Kansas, knows the system, knows the scheme. Really impressed the staff because when he first came, he was telling them how can I impact special teams

Starting point is 00:22:51 and doing some of the little things. So it would not surprise me if Hyshaw is struggling coming back from that injury if McDuffie ends up being the running back too, maybe later in the season. Defense side of the ball, seven tackles, which tied for the team lead, two tackles for loss, which also was the team lead. There were two guys I know who had two TFLs. I think one of them was Marvin Grant, and I can't remember who the other one was.

Starting point is 00:23:21 So I'm going to say Marvin Grant. That's a good guess because he had a really good game too. The correct answer on this one, though, is Hayden Hatcher on the defensive line, who I thought coming in, I thought well-deserved that he was going to be playing, starting. He's a senior that kind of improved a ton, added some weight and everything. But I didn't know what it would look like on the field because we've seen past versions of Hayden Hatcher.

Starting point is 00:23:43 He's been more of a rotational guy. And we've heard all the hype about, oh, well, this is a new Hayden Hatcher, but you didn't actually know the fact that he led the team in tackles that he had that many tackles for loss, I think is a good sign. Yeah. I mean, I think KU had nine as a team in this game. And that to me is like one of the, that's one of the numbers I'm looking at and saying, all right, like, that's cool. Like you should do that, but I'm not going to now get hyped about the idea. It's like, you know, Lonnie Phelps last year, what do you have? Like three sacks in the first game. It's like when Svi as a sophomore went down and hit six threes against Chaminade and the

Starting point is 00:24:21 Maui Invitational. It's like, cool. Can you do it against Texas? You know, can you do it? Can you get nine TFLs against Illinois? Because if you do that, I promise I will be singing a different tune this time next week. Yep. All right.

Starting point is 00:24:33 He's Nick Schwert. You can give him a follow at Nick underscore Schwert on Twitter. What do you got going on this week? We just released a new episode of our new podcast, Could Be Wrong, which, by the way, I just want to say, toot my own horn here, perfect title for a podcast because no matter what I'm wrong about, you can't hold it against me because it's built into the title. But, you know, we're talking about a lot of the same things that you and I discussed today, Jason Bean's performance. I will share with you one little nugget that we discussed in our podcast episode today. Jason Bean needs, I believe, two more touchdowns, two more passing touchdowns for 10th all time in Kansas football history.

Starting point is 00:25:18 He's going to get it. Isn't that insane? Well, okay. I was talking to somebody about this with real quick that if Jalen Daniels just didn't exist, KU fans would be talking about Jason Bean like he was the second coming.

Starting point is 00:25:34 You know what I mean? Like he would be the best quarterback bar none. There was the one year of Carter Stanley, but it would still be Jason Bean since Todd Reising. But because you have Jalen Daniels, whenever Jason Bean comes in, instead of that, like you're all excited. It's like, oh man, like I like Jason Bean, but it's not as good.

Starting point is 00:25:50 You know what I mean? Yeah, no, you're, you're totally right. Like when we were going through some of the, you know, the, the ugly list that I know you've looked through many, many times of all the different starting quarterbacks over the past 15 years. It's like, well, he's, he's if if if Jalen's one Jason Bean's probably right there next to Carter Stanley to at least hold his hand up and how insane is that to say that maybe the two best quarterbacks at KU in the last 15 years are both

Starting point is 00:26:21 on KU's current roster but to fair, at least these guys have actual coaches and offensive coordinators that the guys that came before them didn't quite have. Yeah, Tyreek Starks, I still believe somewhere deep down. All right, that's going to do it for today's episode. Give me a follow at DJohnsonRadio on Twitter. Check out all Nick's stuff as well. We'll be back for a KU Illinois preview on tomorrow's episode

Starting point is 00:26:42 with Locked on Jayhawks. You can get it anywhere you get your podcasts or on our YouTube page. See you next time.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Best and Worst Takeaways From Kansas Jayhawks Football's Week 1 Win Against Missouri State

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