Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BIG 12 SQUAD - What Analysts Say About the Kansas Jayhawks After Week Two

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

Week 2 had some major ramifications for the Big 12. Oregon dominated Oklahoma State, Arizona State fell to Mississippi State, Baylor picked up a major win over SMU and so much more!  

This is take three on my intro, and I'm imagining that Arizona State, West Virginia, and a whole lot of the Big 12 teams with like three takes on their football games this weekend. This is the Big 12 squad. You're talking ball with the Big 12 squad. From Oklahoma State to Utah, from Kansas State to BYU. From Houston to Texas Tech, it's the local experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming Big 12 weekend. Buckle up, it's the Big 12 Squad, and we have a seat for you.

Know her feelings and thin skin aloud. Squat up, you're part of the Big 12 Squad. Happy Thursday, everybody. Welcome to the Big 12 squad. I'm Drake Toll from America's number one Big 12 podcast. Locked-on Big 12 alongside Chris Level of Lockedon, Texas Tech. Jake Hatch covers the Cougars of BYU on Locked on Cougars. Parker-Rainsworth of Locked on Coogs.

Yes, that's confusing. Talks about Houston. Nick Merriman doesn't talk about much ever at all. But when he does, it's Iowa State with Lockton Cougars. Cyclones. Kevin Borba locked on buffs, and boy, I'm glad he showed up this week. I did not know if we were going to get him in the flesh. I was about to say, I thought we were told you had to win to be on this week's show. No, that was not conveyed to me. But you know what? We're winning hearts and minds. Yes. If you're a two-star recruit out there, we want you. Cody's still all of locked on

Oklahoma State. This is the Big 12 squad brought to by game time. Cody, oh, I really didn't know this guy. It's Mountier Paul of Locked on West Virginia. Cody Snowball and Mountaineer Paul, the two guys get highlighted first. Paul, we'll get to you, but you know, this week I've heard a lot of Big 12 analysts and national analysts talk about how the conference was not great toward the end of the day on Saturday. Cody, I remember when Oklahoma State had like three straight 10 win seasons and then went 7 and 6 or whatever it was and the whole fan base fell apart if only they could have known what uh all right paul we'll start with you yeah what are you doing down there dark yeah it's like i could hear that i can hear the whole screen going

exacerbated all you think going on pa pa are you okay over there yeah i was i was running to the can i was running in here i was late you know what i mean I ran all the way from my mailbox all the way up here. Well, West Virginia was not running anywhere at all on Saturday. What, we'll give Cody a second to catch his breath, too. What happened in the lost to, in the lost to Ohio? Yeah. It was a disappointing performance, to say the least.

I think it's just to prove most people's points that there's not very many teams in the modern era. that have brought in 80, especially 81 new guys and succeeded quick. Last year, they brought in 60 at Jack State. They lost three in a row to start the year. They started at 0 and 3, and they won eight in a row to win the conference. I'm not saying we're going to do that. I'm saying Rich Rod's, what he does takes a little time. The culture that he goes for is a little bit unique in today's age, modern age.

It's a little bit more rougher. I think it's taking time for that to catch on. and our offensive line is not even average. If you look at pro football focus, both weeks, even against Robert Morris, we've had, we've had guys scoring in the 50s on, and that's not the be all end all. Obviously, you have to watch tape. There's probably been, I would say, 20% misassignment, 80% no push.

So it's like, it's a strength issue. So that's not great. So Rich Rod's having to try to figure out a way to maybe go more perimeter oriented run scheme or do you hit the button and say okay max brown you started at florida you can spin it do you come in and throw to us we have good i personally believe we have some good receivers so you may have a philosophy flip which rich rod's never done last point rich rod goes really fast when you have an offense that goes really fast it's not getting first downs that's not good either because it puts your defense under a ton of pressure and we saw that saturday play

out the defense was salty 17 points for as many possessions they they had to guard for 40 minutes they only gave up 17 points had three tear to three takeaways nine yards off three takeaways not good um totally that i think we're underestimating one aspect of this game guys and that was that it was the return of the mac uh oh how it was 11 and no last or 1 11 games last year that's not like a terrible mac team and they returned a lot of that team so excuse me parker i think drake was about to ask about the basketball school of the bunch here okay not not to say that oregon is a bad big 10 team if we're going on uh saying the opponents that won are bad cody that was pa paul just gave me he waxed poetic about the ways that west virginia could

improve moving forward and things that didn't go too well you guys were just complete dog Yeah, and I appreciate you not trying to sugarcoat that. That is precisely the product that we put out on the football field was just a big old pile of it. Audit code violations all over the place. Cody, that's after a real question about Oklahoma State. That's what I'm going to call it. When we pulled a plug on Mike Gundy. Kevin, you took the words right out of my mouth.

Like, legitimately speaking, I think part of watching that game was sad. I was never super upset or angry because I realized we're watching. watching the end of an era. There is no way that Mike Gundy can recover from that moment in the eyes of the Board of Regents unless we win like eight in a row and find ourselves in Arlington. That's about the only chance Mike Gundy now has as remaining the Cowboys head coach. You know there's calls already happening. You know we just cut down 15 million out of the buyout for this specific reason. Did we think that we were going to be this worthless? No, no, we did not. We upped our NIL. We upped a bunch of stuff. We got a new staff. and it was an absolute disaster. So everything that he's tried to prove that he still got it, it showed the other day that he doesn't. And I actually wanted Chris Level's opinion on this. You've been watching football for quite some time.

You've been covering it professionally for quite some time. I've been going to game since 95 and Stillwater. I have never seen any team ever beat the ever living out of us like Oregon just did. And we played some number one ranked OU teams. We played some number two ranked Texas teams. We played some top 10 A&M squads and top 10 Colorado squads. I have never seen Oklahoma State get beat up and down the field. We got beat 58 to zero against Tech in 2000.

Tech did it to us, and it still didn't look that bad. Am I higher than the drafts, Faccina, or am I on to something here? You have a hard time ever recovering from it. There's no reason that Oklahoma State should lose by that much. I don't care who it is. I don't care if you're playing the Packers. but yeah i uh i i i i i worry about because what you're going to start to see is a little apathy i'm afraid and you're already probably starting to see it uh with the fan base and until the change is

made and then what's the button that is zach robinson the the button that they get put are you going to go hire j kenny uh i i'm just genuinely curious it's like what direction that they go and how much money do they owe mike gundy right now even though they cut it down how much is he is he still owed his bio would be 15 mil Yeah, I mean, which I don't think is the easy pill to swallow for Oklahoma State because they're trying to battle with NIL and they've got this. That's a ripure. Yeah, I mean, there's just a lot going on there. So I don't envy your situation there.

But trust me, man, we've all been there where you've got a head coach. You just kind of, it's kind of lame duck-ish. And it's a tough existence. Well, Cody Campbell's against Oklahoma State. So maybe he'll do us a favor. you, pal. Can we borrow a billion? I do think, though, and

Houston just did this whole coach church thing, and this is the bad part of it, Cody. There are a lot of really good coaches in the Texas Oklahoma area actually that are like at the group of six level, FCS level, coordinator level, like, I think are due to get a good

coaching job. I don't know. Jeff Trailer, Jeff Traylor, GJ. Kinney. Well, Chris, the problem was the GJ. Kenny, and I think G.J. Kinney other than Zach Robinson should be our top target, right? But the problem of G.J. Kinney's, you mentioned it, you've got to pay

the Mike County buyout. And then G.J. Kenny now has a $10 million buyout. That's 25 mil before you ever even find a coach. I don't know that Oklahoma State can afford to do. Maybe it's Matt Wells. You could even get a Matt Wells. What about like Garrett Riley, though? Like, what?

I love Garrett Riley. Colin. Colin. Colin's not a bad. Colin. Colin's not a bad. When you're looking for a coach, are you looking for someone like an up-and-comer or are you trying to find someone with experience? Because like if you shoot for, like obviously we're talking about. He's making the choice. Will Stein, obviously. Are you trying to find someone who's going to stick around forever or find someone who could boost the program for the now? Because I believe the objective always would to be get somebody that will stay forever because we're not the Alabama. We're not going to recruit, you know, the Nick Saban level of coaches all that often. So we're probably going to have to get an up-and-comer. When we hired Mike Gundy, everyone thought it was a stupid decision because he'd only been a coordinator for a couple years. And just because he was an alum, blah, blah, blah, that worked out very well. And the beauty that Zach Robinson is he's bringing himself in the NFL, and he would have that connection that Mike Gundy doesn't seem to have, right? We've talked about this before.

Oh, you have guys like Adrian Peterson and DeMarco Murray out here recruiting on behalf of OU. Oklahoma State doesn't have that. If you hire Zach Robinson, he brings back the Des Bryants and the Tatum Bells and a Brennan Predigrews of the world to help Oklahoma State. And that's beneficial. Cody, Ben Arbuckle, file that name away. Yeah, well, there's no doubt that Arbuckle. Now, he's going to have a buyout too and may have options. He will have options, but I'm saying he's in Norman.

He's in Oklahoma right now. Keep an eye on him. Brennan, Marion, Tulsa wide receiver, right? Well, we tried that. I was told last year he was the leading candidate. it. And then we found some stuff that he apparently led that UNLV money problem, the promising of NIL that wasn't real. And so we backed off. Supposedly, that's why we backed off of Brandon Marion. But he was supposed to be the guy before Doug Meecham. And then we found something

that we didn't like. And I was told that it had something to do with the UNLV NIL stuff. What about Douglas? Eric Morris at North Texas is also up and come or two. Troy Taylor at Stanford. We just got fired. This is bro. His name and names. I love it. You know, Douglas Gottlieb? Yes. Atta, baby, Paul. Paul does he get to keep his radio show, though? Yes. That's a must.

That's a must. That's a great. It's great question. Mike Gundy. Did you guys know that the AP poll is the single stupidest thing that's ever existed? Get a load of this one, locked on Big 12 squad. Today's show is brought you by DoorDash. The reason it's brought you by DoorDash is because I, as a human being love it time to look back crown this week's MVP on who delivered and you can win

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apply. Promal period beginning and finishing now. Finishing through November 18. That is DoorDash. The AP poll. It is the it's arguably, it's bad. It's arguably worse than FPI, though FPI from ESPN would tell you Alabama is the number 14 in the country. insane by the way just that that's a real way we love the fbii out here bro does dropping 72 on louisiana

monroe mean nothing these days 73 uh sorry even even more this this comes from ralph amson on the twitter he says let's check in on the goat ap voter chad bishop who moved noturday who moved noturday from unranked number eight this week after they won against b y that's right they had a buy week from unranked to number eight. He also forgot Florida State on the last week's ballot. And this week took Ole Miss from 19th to absolutely unranked after an SEC road win. And how can we forget Hayley Sawyer, who God love her soul. And she has tried to defend it after Florida, number 16 in her ballot, lost to the University of South Florida at home.

She moved Florida from 16 to 14. She saw She saw enough Can we get rid of the polls The coaches poll's stupid The AP poll is asking beat riders Which it is hard to vote Like if you don't watch the games

I'm not excusing any of this But there was like eight voters Who had SMU over Baylor Right It's just It's hard for people Who are covering individual teams to vote So just let the computer do it

There are dozens of SIDs Who are vested in the coaches poll They are It's their favorite part of the week So you let you do not take away their best part of what they get to do every single We don't go off the coaches poll though Like the AP poll means something

Like we we go out those rankings until the Playoff rolls around and it shouldn't It shouldn't but we go off those rankings To the playoff rolls around and even then When the playoffs go around it's like okay well Baylor was number 17 in the AP poll So then moving here or there like people use it as reference and so they need to figure out a way to

It's the problem more the usage though Like y'all just pointed out like We have no problem dismissing a coach's poll. Why why do we have so much such a big problem with dismissing the AP? It's just a different human body, different like set of human bodies. Well, it's a metric. It's a metric

that's factored it. It's baked into the cake of how they pick the teams that go to the playoffs and all the things and it's just. It used to mean something back in Chris's day. Well, and Borba nailed it. Oh, whoa. Yeah, it's BYU's got a national championship trophy. Thanks to that poll, so it's shoving.

I got a poll right here. It's got Houston at 23 right now. Can we just pick any pull? Because I got one right here. Yes. Trust me. Is it my poll? Ruby at ready? Rudy at ready? Really?

She made her ex-account private after this because she got bombarded. Wow. Millions of people. Her explanation made it so much worse. She said it's a problem and it doesn't matter. She said, I just want to go into my processes and logic on this.

So I do think that she's getting to Brunt into this because she's a target people like to pick on. She's not the only terrible AP vote. She's absolutely not the only person that things like this, right? There were so many people who had head-to-head matchups wrong. There were so many misogyny. Unranked teams. And like, I saw this idea earlier.

Like, what would we think of national riders, like rather than beat reporters voting on it? Like, people who are paid to watch a bunch of games, rather than someone who's... But, but Kirkhurt Street has a vested interest to the SEC. I mean... Again, I made this case what I think... I made this case this week,

maybe a bit with level, is if I own a million dollars in stock for Apple, what's my phone? An iPhone, my headphones, AirPods. I want Apple to succeed. If ESPN has a billion dollars in the SEC, who do they want to pump up more? Who do their employees feel inclined to assist? Then go to the computer. It's either the computer or nothing.

Bring back to BCS. Bring it back. Are we going to let that thing call the AGO? I don't know why we need the people voting. I think Ms. was her Sawyer. I think she kind of is like the loudest, I guess, punching bag we've ever seen. I think the video made it worse, but we're not going to pretend like this happens every year, every week, for instance.

Like I think there's moments where the Big 12 last year had a bunch of big wins and like none of those teams got any respect from the AP voters because they don't watch those games. So why are we expecting people from California where I'm from or from Florida to watch games in Texas or games in Utah? Like why are we putting so much pressure on that? It's also so many games. games. It's so much to want. Because if they were to watch

Colorado, they would have seen three quarterbacks and I quote, I don't even know who this third guy is. Martin Luther Stobb. Right. Yeah. I mean, I mean, yeah. Legend of Ryan's stop. Didn't get a vote, unfortunately, Chris. I think Haley Sawyer did have a set three though.

Okay. There you go. Which again, credit to Haley. There was a voter last season. I wish I could remember his name who after Notre Dame played Navy. If you remember anything about that game, it was somewhere around, somewhere around, like, 55 to 7 Notre Dame, they moved Navy ahead of Notre Dame in their AP Bowl. Were they a veteran?

Probably. I mean, thank you for your service. Well, yeah, we can, we can roll with that. We're okay. There are plenty of geriatric AP poll voters and those who just don't do the thing where you have to watch the college football. And it's, which also credit to most these, these voters, I've never really, that I can remember, looked at one and thought, like, wow, the school next to your name, like, oh,

they represent Oklahoma State, that they actually voted with their heart. and put it in and assisted their own favorite school they usually do something really really stupid unrelated to anything they cover like she didn't put USC at one she just like moved florida up after they lost which is a much more innocent mistake like it was it kate rogerson where i admitted notre dame oh i don't remember maybe it's ian thresd blair kirkoff uh coming up do we so i think I think Texas Tech, Iowa State, BYU and Utah are in the top four conversation. TCU may be around there. But is there anybody else?

Or is there just a pretty healthy gap, right? But don't, Borba, don't give you the big eyes. You don't know with your third string quarterback. Brian Stah begins, Marlon, Bobby. It's locked on Big 12 squad. Today's show is brought to you by Mazda Standard. The reason that I now drive a Mazda is thanks to Mazda Standard. deliver confidence with every single drive.

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That is Fandul, place your first $5 bet, do it today. Let's start with Jaycatch. BYU has played no one. Stanford is Stanford could could make the quarterfinals of the FCS, probably. They could likely get, they lost a SAC state like a year ago. They had a bench their quarterback.

If they have any hopes of doing anything, that's another story. Yeah, that's a, calling the quarterback is just a, it's a compliment. It's more than he deserves probably. He retired from football, and they were like,

please come play football for us. And they have a four-star prospect on the bench that they refused to for modern day like that's a big deal and they he's got a real alan bowman to him he's got this he's got this real old man alan bowman thing to him uh hatch b yu has proved nothing other than they don't other than the fact they don't suck i think the same as texas tech i explain this to level uh b yu proved their floor is not three wins they'll certainly garner another one this season have they proven that they can win the big 12 i would be hard pressed to say they can win the big 12 at this juncture because as you mentioned

And Stanford and Portland State, those are by far the two weakest opponents on paper that BYU is going to face this year. I said it in the preseason. I know that guys like BORB have heard me say this. I've been thinking that East Carolina might be the toughest of BYU's first six games. I still believe that to be the case. What? The first six, yeah, absolutely.

Damn. Colorado must be the seventh game, right? It's not you know that hates the Big 12. Colorado must be the seventh game. I know that they don't play Connor Wigman this year. so they don't know i'm telling you i really do think that east carolina is going to be the first test they're going to face and it probably is the first of the six until they get to the utah game i i really think that we do not know much about b yu at this juncture enough to say that i think

they're a big 12 favorite i would say that they absolutely will be in the mix if everything holds true but we still need a lot more for them to show on the field wow uh i did not know the Houser Kid from Michigan State is the quarterback at the ECU until this very moment. So that's, I guess, voting well for them. Level you and I did a crossover this week. Texas Tech in a very similar boat. Yeah, and I told you the same thing I'm going to say now. This is my man, Nick's league, until anybody does anything different right now.

They've had two of the better wins that anybody else has had. We just don't know a lot. We've got a long way to go. I think Tech's collision course is going to be Utah. in about a week and a half. If you win that game, you absolutely belong in the conversation. If you don't,

then you don't belong in that conversation. Pretty simple. You've played a couple of JV teams at this point, and you've hammered them. Your starters have played into the second quarter in both of these games. I don't think Oregon State, I mean, Oregon State head coach is dropping F bombs on national TV.

That's what kind of disarray that their program is in. They're coming in a little bit this weekend. I did. He kicked it like a stop. Soccer ball. And then they returned that soccer ball all the way into the end zone. Oops. So, yeah, and I, I guess we're supposed to give credit to TCU for beating a just really bad, terrible, slow, poorly coached North Carolina team. Oh, yeah. Wow. George, I'm wrong. Nick Super Bowl rings. And in Chris Level's book, it's poorly coached. All right. There we go. The college, this ain't the NFL, man. This college game is a little bit different. And TCU, yeah, they show them. He's more worried about his trademarks.

He wants filed and patented than anything. Gold digger. And who he does and doesn't let in the facility. They all got the truth. Well, you know what? I wouldn't let the Patriots in either because there's nobody to come see. I mean, like, there's no, I have no prospect for you to come see. So save your time, fellas.

I think he's going to a favor. You're not wrong, Chris. Pete Thamble was like, they have two draftable players. And then their best player gave up nine catches. So, is it famel, though, or thammal? Huh? Is it famel or thamil?

Maybe it's ruggia ready. I don't know. Ruby it. I did see on Twitter where Chris Level said that Utah is small and tiny and puny and the Texas Tech will beat them by a million points. That was really awesome. That you Twitter mob treating you, Chris.

It's not even gamely. It's not even gamely. It's cute when they just pull out this a portion of what he got clipped. He got clip. I did, I did. Selectively edited. Wait till next Monday.

It gets even better. Trust me. I appreciate that those fans have a post. But Drake asked me if I'm supposed to like, you know, feel sorry for these guys because they got like a 10 a.m. local kick. No, I don't feel sorry for them. You taking that check. Where else did you have to go? You're stuck here, man.

You take your little 10 a.m. local slot and you'll like it. I mean, I just like that you called them your toughest test upcoming. that's actually blow out in the week after right that's alpha Melchrist level and you can't do anything about it live that you can do nothing you can do not the Utah um is Bronco Becked on a Heisman watch list yet

He should be he should be no no no no Uh yeah Nick is he a Heisen candidate be for real let's be Let's be so for real Oh we get we sure Nick has spoken a lot this show I say I don't know what the over under was on my first words but I'll chime in here. When you're on top of the conference, you just don't need to chime in. You can let everyone else kind of duke it out down below.

I don't know why Rocco wouldn't be. He doesn't have the numbers, but from what we've seen on the field, he's doing what he has to do. He's getting it done. It's not going to be enough to get him a heisman. He doesn't have the fancy, flashy numbers like he did last year, two 1100 yard wide receivers,

but he's doing enough to win these games. And the Iowa Iowa State game is, it's neither quarterback from Iowa. or Iowa State will ever win the Heisman because that game will always be 10 to 13. It literally always will. And that will always kill their numbers. Does Iowa score on a hundred yards passing on the year, though, Nick? Do you see the stat about Grinowski?

I have not. The record for the least passing yards through the first two weeks, 127 or something. Not what you want to be leaving. Same thing with them. That could be us. It's a cyclone state, baby. They choose this every, they choose it. I was going to say, as long as they have this,

the regime they've got there in Des Moines, it ain't changing any. It's not changing. Oh, I'm sure Grinowski is a wonderful person and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all times just he went to Iowa. Iowa happened to Mark Grinowski. It's nothing you can do about that. Wonderful member of the community. Iowa is the Big Ten's version of Utah.

There you go. That's all you need to say. Oh. Jake, did you say Des Moines, aren't they in Iowa City? I don't remember. They in Des Moines. Yeah, that outfit Des Moines. Yeah.

It doesn't matter. I'm getting hot my fans. The sentiment was there. There's no passing touchdowns. That's all that matters. Nick Maravitz goes into the teeth of the wolves' den this weekend. Wolves a hell yeah. Hell yeah.

Jonesboro, Arkansas is the location. What a beautiful place to play a road game. They have a fountain at Centennial Stadium, don't they? That's what happens when you're, what, 14 in the A people? You get to go on the road. You can't go to Arkansas. That's what happens? when your athletic director walks to a podium and goes,

I'm going to shoot you guys straight. We have no money. That's where we'll get it. Sam Pittman's kind of like an Arkansas at Orgeron. He is, but different school, but adjacent. I can see how you have gotten to that. Yes, they play something close to that. I think Iowa State would also beat Arkansas.

They were playing them on the road. But Arizona State told me to give hope and no one ever. I've learned that this week after the Mississippi State loss. That is Chris Lovell Blockton, Texas Tech. J. Catch talks the Cougars of BYU. You partner Rainesworth Locked on Couges of Houston, Nick Marevettes, the Cyclones, Kevin Morbill, Bob's, Cody Stowball, Oklahoma State, Mountaineer Paul, Blockdown, West Virginia. This has been, it always will be locked on.

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