Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Crossover Questions About Kansas Jayhawks Football and BYU Cougars Ahead of Saturday Big 12 Meeting

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

Crossover questions with Jake Hatch of Locked On Cougars to help preview the Kansas Jayhawks Football team's 2023 Big 12 opener against the BYU Cougars on Saturday. Keys to the game including Jalon Daniels and the KU run defense.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashGet fifty percent off your first DoorDash order up to a twenty-dollar value when you use code lockedoncollege at checkout. Limited time offer, terms apply. BetterhelpThis podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp.If you’re thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. Visit BetterHelp.com/lockedoncollege today to get 10% off your first month. BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege or enter promo code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for a free water bottle with any purchase. You won't want to take your birddogs off we promise you.Jase MedicalSave more than $360 by getting these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical plus an additional $20 off by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.Athletic BrewingGo to AthleticBrewing.com and enter code LOCKEDON to get 15% off your first online order or find a store near you! Athletic Brewing. Milford, CT and San Diego, CA. Near Beer.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Time for a weekly crossover edition of Locked On Cougars and Locked On Jayhawks, talking BYU and Kansas, the Big 12 opener for both of these teams, what to make of the matchup in Lawrence. We're talking about all that on today's show. You are Locked On Cougars, your daily podcast on the BYU Cougars, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, everybody? I'm Jake Hatch, host of Locked On Cougars, your host here talking all things BYU sports every single day. That right there is Derek Johnson, host of Locked On Jayhawks.

This is a crossover edition, and thank you to all of you who are everydayers with us right here on the Locked On Podcast Network. And of course, thank you for making Locked On Cougars and Locked On Jayhawks your first listen of the day. Today's show is brought to you by our friends over at Jace Medical. Empower yourself when you purchase a Jace case, providing you with a personal supply of five antibiotics to treat 50-plus infections. Get yours today at jacemedical.com.

That's J-A-S-E medical.com. All right, Derek, how are you, sir? How's Lawrence these days? Doing great. We have had good weather recently, so that's a good thing. It might be a little rainy, might be some thunderstorms this week. Hopefully we don't get any lightning delays on Saturday. I am actually headed out that way.

I'm going to be traveling out for the game, and I have fingers crossed that there are no lightning delays. That's the worst way, it seems like, to have a football game go, but obviously we'll be tracking all that. I wanted to start off, and obviously Kansas was like the darling of last season across the country, trust me. BYU wasn't even in the Big 12 yet, and we were tracking Kansas and the other teams in the Big 12.

But watching the Jayhawks start as fast as they did last season captured a lot of the hearts when it came to college football fans because the Jayhawks have been down for so long in football. So give me your overall sense. We'll start here. Give me your overall sense of how things look under Coach Leipold right now. It's a night and day from where it was three, four years ago. I mean, they are 3-0 for back-to-back seasons. This sounds made up. For the first time in about 14 years, or it's even more than that, I'm sorry,

the 3-0 last year for the first time since 2009, and then back-to-back 3-0 years for the first time since 1991-92, which interestingly enough, the 92 year was the only meeting between Kansas and BYU before in the Aloha Bowl. The time before that, you have to go back to 1913 and 1914 for back-to-back 3-0 season. So it is night and day what they have done with the program, and now you feel like you're a legitimate program. and it's funny you know from a national perspective last year you win six games you lose in your bowl game for a lot of schools you you just kind of sit there and go ah well six and six year loss in a bowl game it is what it is for Kansas it was it was cause for celebration because of where they've been over

the past decade and a half and now it feels like you're you're really moving in the right direction even to to cap what you did last year uh Lance Leipold this year. Has the football program been able to kind of get itself out from the shadow of the men's basketball program there? I don't know that that'll ever happen, to be completely honest. I mean, it's enough out of the shadow that there are enough KU football diehards who like football more than basketball. On one of the radio shows I host host we run a trivia event we have like a football trivia event and a basketball trivia event and we get a lot of people who come on and say I actually like football more than basketball so there is that subsect of Kansas fans but no I don't think it's ever going to change that Kansas will be basketball school first I also wanted to ask you so I I think you went down to Big 12

media day I was down there as well and the nice part was it was fun to see Jalen Daniels get honored as the Big 12 preseason offensive player of the year now there are people out there I think that Quinn Ewers might end up getting it at the end of the year if he continues to do what he's doing with Texas but how big of a mark of like I guess honor was that to see the Kansas quarterback be picked as the best offensive guy going into the season well it was a big deal obviously you know it's not just having a player that's really good get that to see the Kansas quarterback be picked as the best offensive guy going into the season? Well, it was a big deal. Obviously, you know, it's not just having a player that's really good, get that recognition. It's specifically a quarterback with the value that that position brings to the table. And, you know, I think there was some, maybe a little bit of trepidation

because I do remember a year back, I think it was 2016 or 2017, Dorrance Armstrong for Kansas was the preseason defensive player of the year for KU. Ended up having a tough season. I think it was 2016 or 2017, Dorrance Armstrong for Kansas was the preseason defensive player of the year for KU. Ended up having a tough season. I think he only had like four sacks. You know, he's had a nice little NFL career since then, but it didn't lead to a lot of wins and losses. So, you know, Kansas fans have at least been a little bit there before where it's like, well, let's see what happens on the field. But it was a really cool honor and I think a cool nod to how good he's been because Kansas fans feel like this is the best quarterback in the big 12 and one of the best quarterbacks in the country to kind of get that confirmation from your conference and from the coaches and the people that are voting on this thing,

you know, different media members. It was, I think kind of a good nod for Kansas that, yeah, they do have something there. This isn't just you thinking something up that, hey, he had a good five games and then he got injured last year like no this this is pretty clear that this guy is being widely respected and is seen as one of those guys and if you have one of the best quarterbacks in the conference in the country like the floor of the amount of wins and the ceiling the amount of wins that you're going to have is going to significantly raise now I wanted to ask you because I I did vote for him as the Pac-12, Pac-12, Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year going in. I was, seemed to be an easy pick for me, but is he, how is he different, better? Has he changed at all as a quarterback this season so

far? Well, certainly he's had to deal with injury stuff throughout his career, and that's been no different coming into this year. It's just been different injury stuff. You go back to his true freshman year, he was 17 years old. That was just been different injury stuff. You go back to his true freshman year. He was 17 years old. That was the 2020 COVID shortened season. He came in at one point, was the starter. There was a game that KU offensive line was really bad, and Oklahoma had double-digit sacks.

It was right around there. He gets injured. Then 2021, he's injured in fall camp, which was the first year of the Leipold era, and he didn't get to showcase. I mean, the first time that the Leipold coaching staff saw the quarterbacks throw in person was in fall camp because they got hired after spring ball so that causes him not to be the starter at the beginning of the year but then he comes on late in the year then last year he had the shoulder injury this year in fall all can't be at the back

injury that kept him out of the first game and you know has led to a lot of questions and conversation on kind of our end of things. So that's kind of been different in how it's caused him to play because there have been certain games now over the past season and a half, this year like the Nevada game was one of those, where he hasn't run the ball as much, where if you go back to a year ago at the beginning of the season, he was running the football a good amount of time.

He's a really good runner between the teeth of the defense. His offense coordinator has mentioned that he has the vision of a running back and he fights hard for yards. But you didn't see him really going to that in the Nevada game. Is that the back thing? So that's one kind of difference. But you've just seen his level of play, his patience in the pocket, really grow as the season has gone on from last year into this year.

He's very calm. He has a very good leadership skill. He's one of those guys where when you talk to him, he's such a nice guy and he just exudes confidence that you love talking to him and you can see how players, you know, love that level of confidence. As far as the biggest difference from last year to this year, yeah, I feel like, you know, you see him a little bit more muscular. You see him a little more powerful that they wanted to try to make him a little more durable to get to the season, but we were so early on that we'll kind of wait and see on how

that goes. But yeah, I mean, he was, he was number one in the big 12 and total QBR his end of the season in 2021, when he only played three games, he didn't qualify, but then it was like, is that for real? Then in 2022, it was for real. And now he's just kind of backing it up. Just seems to be more about the consistency and continuing to stack it up than anything. Now, obviously a quarterback's best friend is a very good running back and Devin Neal's been very, very good. I think a thousand yards a season ago. Is he expected to be full go this week? Is these two teams match up? I believe he will be full go. He was kind of dealing with some stuff headed into the Nevada week and that's been something that's kind of kept him down because last year,

you know, he did have over 1,000 yards, only had 180 carries on the season. He had a couple big-time games. Oklahoma State, he had over 200 yards. The Texas Tech game the next week, he's right in that area as well. He's a really talented back. I think he's going to be playing in the NFL next year. I wouldn't be surprised if this is last year at Kansas. Unbelievable vision and cutter and good straight-line speed for him. He's a

really good player. KU likes to rotate their backs though. You'll see a lot of Daniel Hyshaw. Now Hyshaw has been dealing with some fumbling issues. So maybe we get a little more of Dylan McDuffie this week, but KU likes to kind of split the carries. Typically Devin Neal is going to be somewhere between 10 to 15 carries in a game because they want to keep him fresh for later in the season. I think that's especially true because he is dealing with something that's sort of nagging him right now. How good is the rest of the team? There's a lot of people out there that believe that Kansas,

and I use the expression, all gas, no brakes, all offense, no defense. How is the rest of the squad shaping up so far in your opinion? Well, the defense is the big question because they really struggled a season ago. You're only giving up 21 points so far through three games, but the competition level isn't anything that jumps off the page from the offensive side of the football. That said, the six sacks that you had against Illinois in week two,

that's more than you've had in a long time at Kansas. And, you know, the defense side of the ball, you've been adding players, you've been adding speed, you've tried to blitz more this year, you have a little bit more physicality to you, more depth at the defensive line and defensive end group this year. There is confidence that the defense is better, but how much better is the big question you go back to last year and the games that they gave up more than four and a half yards per carry they were oh and seven and the games they gave up four and a half yards per carry or less they were six and oh so it comes down to me about the run defense specifically

so far they've been pretty good at that um they've struggled with mobile quarterbacks i don't know that that has a huge effect on this game specifically um but yeah i mean the defense has improved i think this and next week are going to be the best tests about how improved it is okay last thing i got from you is we've had a really fun storyline out here on this end obviously you mentioned the fact that these two schools matched up one time in the aloha bowl back in 1992 and there are family connections between these two programs. You have the Lasseter brothers, Quinton, who is a starting defensive back for the Kansas Jayhawks, Darius, a starting wide receiver for BYU. They're going to match up head-to-head in this game. Has that been tracked pretty closely out there in Lawrence?

It's been tracked, I know, very closely out here in Provo, obviously. Oh, yeah, 100%. Will you go back to, yeah, that 92 game in the Aloha Bowl, Kwame Lasseter, the father, he was the leading tackler in the game for Kansas. And funny, I guess this is just separate. Mark Jones, who's going to be the ESPN broadcaster for this game, he called that game as well.

That's kind of a crazy connection there. But, yeah, it's been made a lot of here. You can see a lot of articles in the local paper, the two brothers kind of talking trash to each other and having a good time, jabbing at each other, saying that, oh, I'm going to give scouting report to the coach about this or that. Obviously, Kwame Lasseter, the son, who's the older brother of both Darius and Quinton,

played at KU recently as well. And he's a receiver, kind of like Darius, but he went to Kansas like Quinton is. So, you know, I asked actually the media availability the other day to Quinton, who is he helping more? And he said, well, he's given him receiver tricks to help out with, but I think he's going to be rooting for Kansas in the end. Well, Darius said, I saw that tweet earlier this week, say don't, don't, don't, don't contact me this week. Essentially like we ain't talking this week. It's kind of, kind of a fun connection between these two programs, obviously. And we'll talk more about the big 12 connection, obviously between these two programs, obviously. And we'll talk more about the Big 12 connection, obviously, between these two programs here in a moment.

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Have you seen the new locked on college football live show on Friday mornings? Love it. It's great. You should watch it every Friday. Yeah, check it out, everybody. It's going to be unlocked on Jayhawks on their YouTube channel. It's unlocked on Cougars YouTube channel. I get a comment inevitably each week.

Hey, is this on every channel? Yeah, it is, folks. So check it out. It's a reallyed on Cougars YouTube channel. I get a comment inevitably each week. Hey, is this on every channel? Yeah, it is, folks. So check it out. It's a really, really fun program. All right, Derek, I asked my questions about Kansas. What do you got BYU-wise for me? Well, I guess the first thing is with Keaton Slovis. Obviously, he's had a very storied past in a bunch of different schools

that he's had stops at and transfers. Stats look pretty good so far. What have been kind of your thoughts on how he's transitioned into the BYU offense? It's been an interesting debut for him because he seemed like he struggled early on against the Sam Houston in that first game for BYU. The second game against Southern Utah, he came alive and BYU seemingly couldn't rush the ball very effectively and he was slinging it all over the yard. And then against Arkansas, BYU found themselves in a lot of short fields. He was very efficient when it came to getting his opportunities against the Razorbacks and helping them win that game on the road.

It was a pretty thrilling comeback win. Fell behind by 14-0 to start the game. Then obviously trailed by 10 later on in that contest. And to rally to win the way they did was very fun to watch that. But he has been, I think, what BYU wanted him to be. Would they like him to be even more efficient, be putting up some better stats? Probably, and the hope is that as the season progresses, he'll get there, but as you mentioned, his history indicates both a boom or bust potential. Right now, it looks like he's been pretty good. When you look at the running game, I was surprised

by this because, you know, from outside, when I think of BYU football, I think of physical football. I think of running the football really well. Even teams with Zach Wilson it's like Tyler Algier is you know running all over defenses just 2.7 yards per carry so far I think last in the big 12 right now and rushing yards per game is there any indication that they feel like they're going to have that fixed moving into this week and moving forward or what has kind of been the issue that's plagued them there with the running game? Well, it's been the common refrain that we're close. We're getting close. And it's like, OK, well, you can be close all you want until you actually do it.

That's the big question mark. You're right. 2.7 yards per carry on the season. They expected to be better running the football early on this season. They brought in two high-level transfers, one being Aiden Robbins from UNLV, the other being Deion Smith from Colorado. And they figured to be the one-two punch for BYU at running back. Crazy thing is they brought in a four-star freshman out of El Paso, Texas,

by the name of L.J. Martin, and from game one, L.J. Martin has essentially taken hold of the position and said, it's mine. He's listed as the lone starter at the position this week. He's 18 years old, and he looks like the future star for BYU, but it's been stunning in many ways because everybody expected these other two guys who are veterans, who have had, in the case of Aiden Robbins,

a 1,000-yard season a year ago for UNLV. They were thought to be the guys that would lead BYU's rushing attack, but it's been this freshman who's done it. Now, the other thing is BYU's offensive line. They had four different guys from last year's team pursue NFL opportunities, whether it was via the draft or undrafted free agency last year. And they had to replace a bunch of those guys.

They brought in transfers on that front as well. And it's taken some time, it feels like, for them to really kind of get in sync with one another. It felt like towards the midway point of that Arkansas game, you started to see that offensive line started to get a little bit in sync there. Were the rushing numbers great? No, they were actually pretty bad for a second straight game. But it felt like you started to see them start to,

okay, we're starting to figure some things out. Will that mean that they're going to go out and run for 200 yards on Kansas? I don't think so. But if they can get north of 100 plus yards this week, I think it'd be a positive step in the right direction. Well, maybe your answer is the offensive line to this. But you go back to week one, 14-0 win over Sam Houston, and then all of a sudden, fast forward to week three, and you are winning on the road against what I view to be a pretty good Arkansas team down in Fayetteville. What to you was the biggest difference about where the offense went from 14 points in week one to 38 against an SEC team on the road in week three?

Biggest thing was just being efficient with your touches. That's the thing about Sam Houston. It felt like they would short circuit themselves. A false start here, illegal hands to the face there, a holding call. They would drive killing penalties, and that's what really negated their opportunities against Sam Houston. They cleaned that up to a large degree in Southern Utah in their week two game as an FCS game, so you're supposed to overpower those teams, obviously.

But then against Arkansas, Arkansas became the team that made those mistakes in that game, whereas BYU was not making those mistakes. And it was actually a big, big key for BYU in coming back to win that game. So yeah, they're making progress and they're trying to avoid shooting themselves in the foot. But the biggest thing is, yeah, making sure that you take advantage of the opportunities. They've talked about the fact that, hey, we have had fewer touches this season in all three games in terms of overall plays because of the new clock rules and obviously other teams controlling the line of scrimmage and the time of possession, especially against Arkansas.

But if you look at the efficiency, BYU had 55 plays, I believe, against Arkansas, piled up nearly 300 yards and 38 points. That's pretty efficient numbers. Well, when I look at the defense side of the ball, we talked in the off season and that was a big concern for BYU because, you know, it was a unit that struggled a lot last year. So far, the early returns have looked pretty good, whether it's been some of the transfers in the secondary or at linebacker. Obviously, Tyler Batty is off to a strong start this season. What do you make of the BYU defense and having their strong start here in 2023? Jay Hill is worth every dollar they paid him to get him to come down from Weber State.

That's probably the number one thing. Obviously, he had a great nine-year run as the head coach of Weber State at the FCS level, led them to the FCS playoffs multiple times. He and Kalani Satake, BYU's head coach, were assistants together under Kyle Whittingham early on in their careers, and they've just got an affinity for one another. And Kalani said, you know what? I need somebody I can trust to build the defense in the image I want it to be in. And his first call was to Jay Hill, and he was able to pry him out of Weber State.

And so far, so good, as you mentioned. It's been very, very fun to see. It's an attacking defense, bringing pressure. They were getting pressure with four-man rushes last week against Arkansas, which I'll tell you this much, Sam Pittman is an offensive line guru that he is. He cannot be happy that he let BYU get after his quarterback as much as they did with just a four-man rush. So it's been a fun defense. As you mentioned, the transfers coming in at all three levels of that defense have been impact players by and large. Eddie Heckard

looks like a potential. He obviously has to prove this during the conference season, but he's got the potential to be an all big 12 performer. If he continues to do what he's doing early on this season. So it's, it's looking very, very good on paper right now for the Cougars. Is there anything on the defensive side of the ball that you still maybe have questions about or from a certain matchup or,

you know, something that you think could worry them on the defensive end this season? Biggest thing is, is just in terms of a power rushing attack. And I know that Kansas likes to be very balanced with their offense, but with Jalen Daniels and Devin Neal, just those two in my mind, make up a very, very nice contingent of guys who can gash in the run game. And that's something that BYU's got to prove that they can shut down

against a top-level opponent. They did a pretty good job against Arkansas, but it was not perfect. They got to go out there and prove it this week because the one thing Arkansas didn't have was Rocket Sanders. He's one of the best running backs in the country. He didn't play in that game. So it gave BYU a big boost not to have him in there.

With Devin Neal, the other running backs that you mentioned, as well as Jalen Daniels' dual threat capability in this game, I'm looking to see if BYU's rush defense is as good as it has shown so far this year, or if it's a little bit of a mirage. Well, obviously special teams can swing a game. I view this to be kind of a coin flip game, and maybe one big play on special teams can kind of swing it so far.

Are there any concerns, or how confident is the BYU special teams with kicker, punter, and the return game? Punter, they're very comfortable. They think that Ryan Rico could be an all big 12 performer. I actually picked him as my preseason punter of the year punter on the all big 12 team. I think he's that good of a punter for BYU. The question mark has been a kicker.

They obviously graduated Jake Oldroyd, who held down the position for the better part of four years last year. And they had two kickers in camp that were going back and forth who had never kicked a field goal in an NCAA football game. Now, Will Farron, who has taken the starting job was a kickoff specialist at Boise state before transferring to BYU.

And he's made one of two kicks. He, he missed both kicks came in last week's game against Arkansas. He made the short one, uh, missed the long one from, as I think it was 50 yards out, but it wasn't that far offline

so uh we'll see in a pressure pack situation like a game-winning kick scenario there's still some question okay can this this kid got the the mental fortitude or the intestinal fortitude to go out there and make that kick uh return game wise it feels like they're pretty solid they've got a pretty established punt returner in the kick return game uh when they've been given the opportunity has been pretty good this year, but yeah, the big question mark has been a kicker so far. All right. Well, do you want to finish up? We'll get to keys to victory and everything.

Let's get the keys to victory. But before we do that, let's talk about our friends over at FanDuel. Of course, they've been working with us for months now here on the Locked On podcast. Now you want to snap into action with the NFL this season, do it with our friends at FanDuel. It's America's number one sports book right now. New customers get $200 in bonus bets

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of your day, everybody. Hope you're having a fantastic Thursday whenever you hear this. Alright, so Derek, I'm going to start off with this. We'll get the keys of the game in just a moment. A lot of BYU fans expected to make the trip out there to Lawrence. I'm going out there obviously to cover it for my radio station and the podcast, obviously. But when it comes to being in Lawrence, you've got, you know, the lay of the land. What do BYU fans need to know about? What should they be eyeing as they go to Lawrence? Well, it's a, it's a two 30 game. So, you know,

you might be looking for somewhere to go for breakfast. There's a lot of good breakfast spots in Lawrence in general that you can go before the game. If you want a good pastry or like a donut or something, highly recommend munchers go there before the game. You can get a lot of great donuts. The, the cinnamon, many cinnamon rolls and the, the, I don't know, strawberry knots like to die for. Just in general, Mass Street is going to be kind of your go-to.

So Mass Street is kind of like the main street in Lawrence. There's a bunch of restaurants and shops. One of the cool things about Lawrence, it is very much a local type community where you don't have a lot of like chain restaurants. So you're going to get a lot of just like local places if you go on Mass Street. It's walking. You can just walk around. You can, it's walking. You can, you can just walk around, you can park somewhere,

whatever you can get restaurants, you can get different shops that you want to go to all sorts of stuff. So mass street in general is going to be the spot. If you want to check out the campus, it's actually a beautiful campus. I know most people, when you think of Kansas, you think of flatland.

Lawrence is not quite that. It's not like the, the farming towns that you think of when you think of like Western Kansas. It actually is built on a hill. It's not going to be any Salt Lake City or anything like that, but it is built on a hill with some of the undulations of everything going up and down on the campus. Beautiful campus with limestone buildings and everything. You can check out Allen Fieldhouse, although I guess if you come out for a KU basketball game, you'll have a chance to do that down the road. But they you know, they have like tours.

You can look at the original rules of basketball and stuff like that. So there's a lot to do in Lawrence, but Mass Street is kind of going to be your go-to. Okay, so you mentioned breakfast and options before the game, post-game obviously, because this is going to end right around dinner time. If you were to recommend one or two places on Mass Street, where would you say? Yeah, so, well, I'll even give you one that's not on Mass Street. It's close to Mass street, what, where would you say? Yeah. So, uh, well, I'll even give you one. That's not on mastery.

It's close to mass street, but it's actually right by the stadium. You can walk from the stadium. It's about a two, three block walk. Uh, big male is really good. They have Detroit style pizza,

but they have a bunch of other food to, uh, mass street. It really just depends what you're looking for. If you want Italian, you could go to a place like seven, one, five.

Um, you could go to a place like basil leaf is really good. If you want a really good burger, uh, you could go to, place like 715. You could go to a place like Basil Leaf is really good. If you want a really good burger, you could go to, you know, a couple different places. There's a lot of great burgers in Lawrence, but West Coast Saloon has my favorite like greasy burger. Burger Stand has your best if you want like an elevated burger. They got really good milkshakes there. You can get truffle fries, which everybody loves. So kind of just depends what you're looking for. You could also, if you want really good barbecue, you got to make a bit of a drive, go to Kansas city, about 45 minute drive,

a lot of places you can go to there. So yeah, that would, that would be my food recommendation in town. Now I think a lot of BYU fans are gonna be coming from Kansas city for that. Is there, I know that there's Joe's Kansas city there in Kansas city. I've also heard that there's a couple other like just different barbecue joints in KC. What would you recommend barbecue wise? Yeah. Joe's is really good. It kind of depends what you want. Um, Q39 is awesome. Would highly recommend that really good sandwiches there. Gates and Arthur Bryant's are kind of your original ones, but I think there's better options. Chef J is kind of a new one. That is one of my favorites. I would highly recommend chef J.

Um, there's also harp barbecue if you really like different types of sausages. But yeah, Joe's is kind of a cool experience too because you get to go – if you go to the original one, it's like originally in a gas station. But all of it is really good. If you want really good – like they have bacon burnt ends at Chef J. If you want brisket, I would say go to Harp. Or if you want sausage, go to Harp. Chef J does kind of a little bit of everything.

Joe's, you're going to get really good ribs and some of the other stuff. The Z-Man sandwich is the die for. Q39, a bunch of their different sandwiches. They even have barbecue poutine, which is just a caloric intake, but it's all delicious. Wow, poutine. Geez, I got to try something. I'm planning on going to the Joe's, the original Joe's.

I just need to see it. Cause I've seen it on TV for so many times. I'm like, I, you know, I need to go experience that in person just for at least the one time. But, uh, that's a nice part. By the way, the other thing about this is BYU fans get used to going to Kansas city. Cause it's kind of a hub now for the big 12, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, uh, that's where the, uh, big 12 tournament is for basketball. And for people who haven't experienced it before, I highly recommend coming to Iowa State fans every year, make it like their spring break vacation. And they flood the town of Kansas City. And you get, you know, they have a power and light area, which has restaurants and stuff, walking distance away. They close off the street. It's a huge experience.

You get a bunch of fans that come out to the game. Obviously, Kansas and Kansas State have good support being right there. Iowa State comes out pretty well. You get a couple other schools that will have solid turnouts like Baylor and some of these other schools. I would highly recommend coming out. It's a lot of fun for the Big 12 tournament. That would be awesome.

We'll, of course, reconvene as basketball season obviously gets underway here. But back to football for just a moment here, Derek. So I'll give you my keys to the game here in just a moment. But if Kansas wants to win this game, what do you think they have to do to go out there and beat the Cougars? Well, I think on the defensive side of the ball, I'm viewing this as, yeah, they, they cannot give up a big rushing game. It has to be something where they're putting Keaton Slovis in third and mediums and third and longs. I like their defensive ends, their pass rush they can get. And you know, if, if you can get in those

third and mediums and third and longs, you can kind of pin your ears back from there. So that'll be the key from the defense side. Offensively, I think the key for Kansas is just going to be, you know, how healthy is Jalen Daniels? Because against a aggressive defense, he's going to have to be probably scrambling around a good amount. He's going to have to be running the football a good amount and just kind of avoiding turnovers. You know, I mean, that's always a key, but like BYU has forced multiple every game. Kansas has had a turnover at least in every game and they've had some fumbling issues so far this season. So those would be my big keys for KU coming out on top. Now with regards to BYU, I'll just say right up front, they've got to get turnovers. They've got it. You've got to get those

short fields. That was a big key to them beating Arkansas on the road last week. And you mentioned BYU has been able to force them. Same time, BYU has had their own turnover issues at different points in the three games so far this year. On defense, you got to contain Jalen Daniels. You mentioned his health status is obviously a question. That's obviously if he's not 100%, that's advantaged in a way to BYU. I even think him 80% is still, he's just such a dynamic football player. You got to keep him in check. They did a pretty good job against KJ Jefferson last week. They are two very different quarterbacks, but the same kind of skill set with being dual threats.

You got to keep him in check. And obviously you cannot afford to let Kansas control the line of scrimmage. So it should be an interesting one. Do you have a score prediction, by the way? Have you nailed that down yet? Yeah, I'm going to go Kansas 31, BYU 28. I think it's going to be a close game it would not surprise me at all if byu wins this game i i think very highly of everything kalani sataki is doing and

what byu's together i just i think the home field even though i think byu will travel very well and cut into the the home field advantage so to speak uh i i think in the end jalen daniels just does enough but who knows if there is a lot of rain like the forecast might project i think that does favor byu because kansas's running game is more of a read option game and that can be a problem in the rain yeah well and that i i've kind of run out of the same like kind of same thought process with regards to points i had a b i had i think kansas might pull this one out i think byu gets off to an own one start in big 12 play here but i was thinking i was like okay i was going back and forth i'm'm like, you know what? Like Kansas 30, BYU 25, something like that, some crazy number,

just kind of how it pans out. But I got one final thing for you, and I meant to ask this earlier, but it's obviously BYU's first ever Big 12 game, some history being made for the Cougars, and they're very excited for that. How excited are Kansas fans in terms of just the overall new additions to the Big 12? And obviously this game sold out, et cetera. Yeah, I think very excited. I mean, how could you not with Colorado coming in next year

and then Arizona, what they'll do for basketball? As far as the guys who have already come over now, we got up close and personal with Houston last year. I think it's exciting to go get to visit some places. I know some KU fans are already excited to, you know, hopefully for basketball in a visiting trip, go up to Provo and then maybe go skiing or something like that up in Salt Lake.

So I always heard great things about the BYU basketball arena and how they, you know, host games. And it's a very tough place to play as is football. So I think there's a lot of excitement with the teams being added and everything Brett Urmark has done and adding some conference stability because,

you know, for a while there, you didn't know you were going to have it, but now you feel good about it because of what you added. It's kind of frankly stunning in a way that it's kind of panned out the way it has, hasn't it, but it's just,

I tell you as much Cougar fans would be happy to have Jayhawk fans come out. Obviously we say it's the best snow on earth out here in Utah. We'd love to show it off. That'd be the fun part, but we'll get to basketball as it comes. Looking forward to this game on Saturday, Derek. And, of course, we'll have plenty of coverage on both sides,

both locked on Jayhawks and locked on Cougars, plenty of coverage leading up to and after that game. But thanks for taking the time and doing this crossover. Absolutely. Enjoy your time in Lawrence and reach out if you need anything else with any other recommendations. We will do it, no doubt about it. All right. That's going to do it for this edition of locked on Cougars and locked on Jayhawks. Of course, thank you to all of you for making it your first

listen today. Thank you to all of you who are every day is with us right here on the locked on podcast network and until tomorrow, have a great rest of your day. This has been the locked on Cougars and the locked on Jayhawks podcast. See you.