Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - CROSSROADS: Kansas Jayhawks & K-State Wildcats Begin Battle for State Supremacy in Week 0 Showdowns

Starting point is 00:00:00 Week Zero is finally here, and both teams in the state, KU and Kansas State, are in action. Let's break it down right here on this Locked-on College crossover of Locked-on Jayhawks and Locked-on, Kansas State. You are Locked-on College Cross-Oves, part of the Lop-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Yes, welcome on into a lockdown college crossover, Lockdown Jayhawks, Locked on Kansas State, the first time ever, which is crazy to say, because we've been doing this for quite some time. But the rivalry is finally ready to talk some football. And although we don't play each other until later in the season, still lots to talk about on this episode. So Derek Johnson, Christian Rout here to bring you this Lockdown College crossover, a sunflower crossover, if you will.

Starting point is 00:00:54 And we're going to dive into some fun action. Both teams in action week zero. We're going to talk about some crazy new requirements. recruiting that most likely is going to change in state and the national picture for both teams because what just happened with that major breaking news last week. And then, of course, never too early, Derek, to talk about a way too early conversation about the Sunflower Showdown. Could it finally be the year for you guys? Can you finally make it happen? I don't know about that. But we'll have that conversation on this episode. Today's episode is brought to by GameTown. Download the GameTime app. Use code lockdown college for $20 off your first purchase. Derek, what a off season it has been for both Kansas, Kansas State.

Starting point is 00:01:31 It's been a fun off season. I know you're bouncing back and forth between basketball and football because you got play to talk about, but it's all football this week, baby. Week zero, Fresno State. How are you feeling? I'm feeling great, man. I mean, new stadium gets you a little extra hyped up. And I mean, Fresno State, it's not a pushover. Like, don't get me wrong.

Starting point is 00:01:52 You do enjoy seeing your team wallop some FCS. team like that's great it's helpful for the school but like it's a little more fun and i'm sure you feel this way too it's a little more fun when you have like a real opponent in the first game of the season where it just gets you more hyped like oh real football's back and obviously your game's a little bit higher stakes than the k u game is with it being a top 25 matchup and a rivalry matchup and everything but you know fresno's a pretty good team so uh looking forward to it and like i said the new digs and the new booth yeah the stadium i forgot even about that that looks good I've seen some pictures of it.

Starting point is 00:02:24 I think that's going to be really nice to check out eventually. And yeah, you mentioned Fresno State. I have seen some national media saying that there's a potential upset brewing with the Fresno State Kansas game. I don't know if I want to go that far. I think the latest we saw our friends at Fandul had as an eight point underdog, the eight point favorite for the Jayhawks. It's up to 12 and a half at this way.

Starting point is 00:02:45 But, you know, interesting tie with the game because obviously Kansas State head coach, Chris Kleiman, you know, had so much success at North Dakota State. His former assistant, Matt Ence, eventually became the head coach at North Dakota State. They won a couple titles with him. He eventually takes the USC linebacker job. He's now at Fresno State. It would not surprise me if Chris Climman during the offseason was sharing some secrets, some tips to trade with Matt Enst to try to pull the upset. I don't know if that would surprise you at all.

Starting point is 00:03:15 I don't know if it would either. You know, Chris Climman seems like a pretty straight up guy. But when you talk in-state rivalries, you never know what could pop up in that case. So maybe so. E.J. Warner starting quarterback for Fresno State, the son of Kirk Warner, NFL Hall of Famer. That would be fun to even watch in the first place. But I think all eyes will be on what Jalen Daniels is going to be, obviously his last season. Injuries have always come up with him over the last couple of years. I remember we were talking years ago, just a few years ago, where he was like the number one or number two favorite for the Heisman Trophy entering this season. I don't know

Starting point is 00:03:47 if that type is there anymore, but how are you feeling about him heading into the new year? I think you feel better with the comfortability of having Jim Zabrowski and Matt Lubick back as your offensive coordinators as guys who, you know, were in the system. And then they go outside to hire Jeff Grimes. And it was just never a good fit. He was also rusty last offseason. He was injured through spring ball, injured through summer. Wasn't really thrown to the receivers. This year, he was injured through spring ball. So that's a little scary. But like during summer, he flew his receivers out to California through with him. He was a go during all the fall camp. So I think the hope is, you know, second half of the season, like the last six or seven games for Jalen Daniels, he was still

Starting point is 00:04:26 top five in quarterback rating and total QBR in the Big 12, but those first five games were rough. And so it's funny because the question, the knock against Jayland Daniels for so long has been, can he stay healthy, right? Well, last year he stayed fully healthy, but the performance was up and down. And in previous years, it was he couldn't stay healthy, but the performance was nails. It was money. So can you kind of blend the two together is kind of the interesting question to me. And if you get that, you could get a special season. If not, I'm sure you're going to have some games where, yeah, it does look a little bit inconsistent. But I think the idea is that this will be a good kind of senior send-off for Jaylon Daniels. I don't know if I should say this as a Kansas

Starting point is 00:05:05 guy, but I've always been high on Daniels. I really do think that he's going to have a great season this year. It's hard to not think about the Big 12 as a whole and then think about these quarterbacks. We see some of these quarterback rankings and Daniels is like eighth or ninth into the rankings for the conference and you don't really even bat and I too much because how great of this conference is with all the returning quarterbacks now I'm sure you can make a conversation of why you think he's higher but this entire conference is insane when it comes to quarterbacks you know yeah yeah i mean sam levitt i'm so high on like that dude could end up being a first round pick at the end of this year obviously i agree johnson is somebody that a lot of you you watch like national college

Starting point is 00:05:44 football whether it's podcast or like read preseason magazines or whatever like every johnson's a dark horse heisman candidate you hear that get popped up a good amount here and there so um i mean it obviously continues on and on uh that's the beauty of the big 12 like that for so many years was the big 12 it was this deep quarterback conference i think it's cool to see that back so i i guess what are your expectations this year for avery johnson yeah i mean i've gone as far as agreeing with that thinking that he can be a dark horse candidate for the heisman trophy i truly do because what we've seen from him step up in the off season you know the inconsistencies were there there's no doubt about it, what we saw last season, but starting seven and one, you saw the upside,

Starting point is 00:06:21 you know, but now he's finally not the quarterback that's taking over for Will Howard, right? This is his team in year two under the helm. Obviously, he's 30 year with the program, but year two as a starting quarterback. I want to see a little bit more consistency. I think there's no doubt about that. I think having just Matt Wells as the offensive coordinator is going to help that naturally. And then, of course, having some speed with Dylan Edwards, which is exciting to have him as his running back one. We saw what happened in the rape. how electric he was, and of course, the wide receivers. Bringing in that size, I think will be absolutely electric for him. I just want to see consistency. I want to see him be healthy because

Starting point is 00:06:56 after the Colorado game, he wasn't 100%. If he can do that, and I know the schedule is not the easiest, but if he can stay healthy, especially when they got to play in Lawrence in the middle of the season, I think that's a very important game, and if not the most important game for Kansas State this season, I do think that he can be not only a dark horse candidate for the He has been trophy, but he can take Kansas State to Arlington and potentially the college football playoffs this year. Yeah, that's definitely the beauty of the big 12th, too, where it's like, you know, I guess after Arizona State where they were last year, everybody goes into it with least a little bit of hope. Realistically, I don't know that you can expect the last

Starting point is 00:07:32 place team every year or the preseason projected last place team to win the conference. But I think even from the Kansas perspective, like clearly Kansas State has more reason to be optimistic about playing in Arlington. And obviously, there's been more. more consistently consistency and every year it's winning nine plus games but like that's kind of the beauty of it all the way down so i i look at this week zero game specifically for you guys with iowa state and i mean that could have big 12 title implications under its belt because iowa state was in there you know last season and for kansas state like i don't know it's i go back and forth whether i like it or not like i talked earlier like i love the excitement of having that big matchup week

Starting point is 00:08:12 the first week of the game of the season it's another thing though when it's a conference game And there's a lot of pressure to kind of win that game. And also, like, one of the teams you're giving up a home game to have this game played in Ireland. So I'm going to be very interested because I think Iowa State and BYU are teams that I'm looking at is like you won a lot of one score games last year. I don't know how it's going to go this go around, but they clearly have a lot back to both teams. And, you know, there's some certain holes. So I guess what are your thoughts on week zero? Well, Iowa State has to find a way to replace 167 receptions between their top two wide receivers.

Starting point is 00:08:48 That's the first thing that I think about. And then you always can make that question, was Rocco Beck good because of those two wide receivers or whatnot? What's going to happen starting off the bat? But you have to have an entire new wide receiver crew, and you have to do that against Kansas State. Week zero. And if you lose that game, there is a really strong possibility that you put yourself at a huge disadvantage, if not, almost put yourself out of consideration for Arlington. I said almost for the record before anybody else gets a chance to play a conference game.

Starting point is 00:09:18 I think when it's all set and done, when we find out who makes Arlington at the end of the season, I think the worst record will be seven and two in the conference. You lose this game in Dublin. You're already halfway there to being eliminated or at least being out of a tiebreaker situation for making the Big 12 championship. So I'm with you. Although I think it's exciting that you get to start off the season in Dublin. Yeah, obviously it sucks that it's not a home game.

Starting point is 00:09:39 but the fact that you get to nationally spotlight, the first game, it's a standalone game to start the college football season, it's super exciting. It's good for the brands. It's good for the Big 12 as much as it's a money grab in certain other ways. It's exciting stuff, but if you lose that game, which for the record, I'm calling right now, I think this one's a coin flip. I'm going to give my prediction at the end of the week before the game starts, but I think this one's going to be a coin flip. It's going to be a great game between these two programs. It always is, but man, I, I don't. It's hard for me. I'm with you, at BYU and Iowa State. It's hard for me to think that either of these teams are going to fall off, although someone's got to do it. We saw it happen to Oklahoma State last year. We saw it happen to Utah last year. One of these teams are going to fall off because eventually some of those other teams in the Big 12, the parody is so dang crazy, are going to step up. What team will it be? As long as it's not Kansas State, I'll be okay, Derek. Yeah, that's for sure. Well, I'm going to enjoy one of these as many people are before the game.

Starting point is 00:10:38 And I'm actually picking K-State. And then I'm picking KU against Fresno. I like that. You know, I'm with you on both for the record. You know, I'm not going to get my score prediction, but I'm with you on both. I've also heard I'm not going to Dublin this year. I just bought a house. So still crazy on that with finances.

Starting point is 00:10:54 But I've also heard that the Guinness tastes a lot better than what you just opened up there. So maybe that's-I can only hope one day. I can only hope one day. I don't know. Maybe we'll get K-UK State out there. I actually wouldn't like that. I would hate. I would hate that. Yeah, I don't know if I want that. And we don't, let's not go to Western Germany either, okay?

Starting point is 00:11:12 Shout out to Michigan, Western Michigan fans. Hey, coming up next, we got a lot to talk about because I think there's a huge change when it comes to in-state and national recruiting on both the levels because what just happened with your program. Some exciting stuff for KU, but I think it could be a concern for folks in Manhattan. Let's talk about that next right here on a locked on college crossover of locked on Jayhawks and locked on Kansas State. But first, Eric, I'm going to tell you, because when I'm on top of my hydration, I feel like everything works better. My energy, my mood, my focus, even my skin, but getting enough fluids every day isn't always very easy. It's actually sometimes very difficult. That's why I've been loving drip drop. It's the easiest thing you put in your pocket. You can be ready to go because drip drop is a doctor developed scientifically proven for fast hydration. It uses me, it uses perfect balance of sodium electrolytes, glucose, and helps your body absorb fluids.

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Starting point is 00:12:46 There's some crazy stuff happening in college athletics. I think we all know that. With Tennessee changing their uniforms to get $20 million a year, switching from Nike to Adidas, I mean, who would ever thought that would happen? Of course, they're finding ways to get ahead of this revenue sharing, find a way to, there I say, manipulate the system to bring more money into their athletic fund. Kansas is no stranger to this. Actually, what just happened last year, or excuse me,

Starting point is 00:13:13 $300 million coming into the program for stadium upgrades and also sounds like an endowment for something for athletics for the future. This is exciting stuff for Kansas, but I have to ask you this question, what does that mean for the future of this program? There's obviously a new stadium. That's great. New facilities probably in the works as well.

Starting point is 00:13:34 But does that help the program for recruiting, for national stage, for in-state, where's your mindset on this brand new news? Because it's exciting stuff for Jayhawks fans. Oh, yeah, it's huge. I mean, so $75 million go into the, I guess, phase two, the gateway district, the project, whatever you want to call it, that's going to kind of be outside the stadium. Like, that's cool. That's great.

Starting point is 00:13:54 Like, that's needed, you know, that yada, yada. What actually is more interesting to me is what's happening, what you kind of mentioned with that other money, the $225 million. It's basically going into a fund. You could call it a slush fund or whatever if you want to. Basically going into a fund that the idea is going to accrue a good amount of interest, right? And if you, you know, I guess depending on how well the stock market's going at that time and how well that they're playing it off of each other. But let's say you do get 10% on your 220 million in the bank account, right?

Starting point is 00:14:24 That's an extra 22 that you're getting every year. Some years might be less. Some years might be more. I don't know. But basically the way that I kind of see it and understand it is that that is going to fund their rev share every year. You know, that's a big thing in college athletics moving forward is going to be, how are these teams using their revenue share? Are they using the full $20.5 million that they're allowed to? There's going to be some schools that can only afford $10 million or $15 or $18 million.

Starting point is 00:14:50 And that extra couple million could be the difference in you landing one extra stud player or a couple extra stud football players. And so this basically is a way for Kansas to have the full amount of rev share for a long time based on the money that's in the account, the money that the interest is. is going to draw out that, you know, for the foreseeable future, Kansas should be good to go there, which allows them to compete with more of the haves than the have-nots in the recruiting game. I know that this is not obviously news for you right here, but, and I know we're talking football this entire episode, but I think it's safe to say that KU is a basketball school. What does that mean for the football program, though? Like, is this money going to be more pushed towards the basketball side?

Starting point is 00:15:33 What do you see the percentage of what they're going to focus more towards basketball to football. Do you think this helps the football program app more? What is your mindset there? Yeah. So there was a number that Travis Goff, the athletic director for KU gave, I don't know, a couple months ago, something like that. And it basically put Kansas to a level where they would be spending on basketball and rev share. I think it was somewhere in like the top 40s in the country, but it wasn't one of the top top numbers. They want to use more of that rev share money, the kind of guaranteed money, I think on football to be as competitive as possible there. And part of the reason why, is because they are a basketball school

Starting point is 00:16:08 and think about it from a perspective of if you're Travis Goff or you're somebody who's gathering donations, what do you think is going to be easier to get, you know, convince a KU donor or convince a KU business to sponsor for? Is it going to be sponsoring an NIL deal for a football player or basketball player?

Starting point is 00:16:23 It's probably going to be the basketball player. So it's easier for them to get NIL money for basketball. So it makes more sense to use the Rev Share, the kind of guaranteed money to use on football. So I think that's kind of the idea. I think it's a smart play for Travis. off knowing that, yeah, you're, you're going to have your KU donors, like some that are honestly, quite frankly, only interested in funding the basketball program. And so kind of take advantage

Starting point is 00:16:45 of that in a real way that you can kind of buoy both as best as possible. Yeah, it makes sense. You know that you can market the brand on the basketball side quite easier. So, you know, make yourself a bigger budget for the football side with the money that you're bringing in that you don't have to market. It makes a lot of sense in my mind. So let's kind of put this, you know, get into the details. The X's nose here. We're talking in-state. recruiting, you know, guys like Lincoln Cure have come to Kansas State over the last couple of years from the top guys in the state. What does that mean this year for in the future, I should say, 2026, 27, some of this new

Starting point is 00:17:16 money coming in and knowing that donors are spending this money, in state players are paying attention to this. And what we just saw with Texas Tech, what they're doing, it's, it works. You can bring in the money. You can use those resources to bring in these players. You think that's going to impact in state recruiting to help the Jayhawks get a little bit more, motivation for these players to come in and then what do you think at a national stage as well yeah i i don't know on the national state because you see a guy like ian premer for instance who you know k u was in on

Starting point is 00:17:46 k state was in on too he ends up going to notre dame so how much did it matter for like the guys who are in the level of lincoln cure and the guys of of ian premer who are not just like you know high end kansas recruits their top 100 recruits in the country that remains to be seen for me but clearly it's had some sort of impact right i mean If you're looking at 24-7 sports of the top 14 rated recruits in the state of Kansas, seven of them are committed to KU. And I think there's only two of them that are uncommitted. I don't know where they'll wind up in terms of everything. But like, this is the first time we've really seen Kansas have this much success at the local state level, which I do think makes some sense.

Starting point is 00:18:25 I mean, for the longest time, K-States dominated the rivalry. K-State has been the much better football program. And so a lot of these kids growing up for decade, decade and a half, two decades have seen Kansas State be the better program. So obviously they were going to go to K-State. I think you're finally seeing the fruits of, okay, you know, they've at least been competitive these last three, four years under Lance Leipold. And the combination of that, the money influx, the, I don't know, branding that they're doing, the stadium stuff, like just the staff put together, like they've been able to finally make inroads. the question to me becomes can this be a consistent thing or is this something that is like just the class of 2026 and then maybe moving forward instead of it being you know maybe in classes 23 24 25 it was dominated by k state maybe 26 it's kansas maybe in 27 instead of it being all about k u or all about k state it becomes more of a mix and things become more of a recruiting battle i'm going to be very fascinated but it definitely feels like it's the first kind of stand by k u in the recruiting game that said you know know, if you don't beat K-State this year, what does it mean? Does that start to, you know,

Starting point is 00:19:34 regress a little bit again? Yeah, that's a good point. You can spend all the money in the world, but I think at the end of the day, some of these players are going to care about performance and performance only, especially when it comes to something like a rivalry. I want to talk about that rivalry in just a minute, but I have to say one thing. I'm still waiting on K-State's rebuttal for what this is going on. $300 million for a donor. I don't think that's going to be the end of it, whether K-State matches it. I don't know if they'll go that far, but I think other schools in the country are just going to see this as an arms race and say, well, he did 300 million. Well, guess what? We're doing 301 or 305 or 400 or 405. I'm sure Phil Knight,

Starting point is 00:20:08 I'll know he just spent $2 billion on Oregon's Cancer Center is going to find a way to put some towards the athletic fund as well. This is not going to be the end all of this. This is going to be an arms race and i'm hoping kansas state finds a way to get creative to stay up to date to whatever needs to be because money is going to be the reason that you bring in good classes and good portal classes good recruiting classes unfortunately that's just how the cookies crumble in these days derrick you know what i'm saying yeah teaboon pickens walked so everybody else could run i love it i love it all right let's dig into this sunflower showdown because it's never too early to talk about KUK State.

Starting point is 00:20:47 This is going to be the last time we most likely see Jalen Daniels and Avery Johnson face off in a matchup together. This one's in Lawrence and could have happened. We'll talk about that next right here on this locked on college crossover. Today's episode of Lockdown Jayhawks is brought to you by game time. Have you ever decided at the last minute to head to a ball game with friends or family? Maybe it's the game day and you suddenly realize you want to be in the stance. That's exactly where game time comes in.

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Starting point is 00:22:12 Last minute tickets, lowest price. guaranteed. No Devin Neal, no DJ Giddens, and for the sake of this conversation, no Luke Grimm, who just took one to the house this past weekend for the Los Angeles Chargers and preseason. This can be a brand new Sunflower Showdown. This one's in Lawrence, but will it be a brand new outcome? That's the biggest question here. Can KU finally break the streak of getting a win?

Starting point is 00:22:38 Fought it might happen last year. It looks like that was very close. I mean, Lance Leopold says that he, let they let this one get away from a lot of thoughts here on this one as we are still months away from this game obviously the football season starting but it's never too early to talk about one of the greatest rivalries in at least the state of Kansas no doubt about that but of course the midwest the sunflower showdown should be a really fun one derrick it should be i mean the last two years have been great great games now i have PTSD from both games you probably do not but

Starting point is 00:23:08 they've both been objectively great games um i feel so bad that devon neal didn't get to win in this rivalry. But, you know, just too many mistakes by KU. And that's the thing that I think is most frustrating from the KU side. It feels like every time KU plays K State, like, I swear, K State could come in with the 130th best special teams in the country and be last in the country and penalties or whatever. Kansas is going to make the dumb penalties. Kansas is going to make the dumb turnovers. Kansas is going to make the dumb special teams place. Like it doesn't matter. It is just there's some curse going on for KU in this game that makes it that way. So I do think Kansas has a great shot at winning the game, new stadium, playing at home, playing off a buy week.

Starting point is 00:23:47 Now, K-State's also off a buy, so that gets neutralized a little bit there. But you've been so close the last two years, and you do have that chip on your shoulder. You do have that edge. At the same point in time, this might piss off some KU fans who are watching this. It's not that I don't think Kansas can win. I think they absolutely can. I'm just not going to pick it. Like, I'm somebody who wants to ride with the hot streak.

Starting point is 00:24:07 You know, I don't want to be the guy that when Nick Sabin was at Alabama, hey, they're going to miss the playoff this year. Like, I'm going to ride the hot streak. So from that standpoint, it's just very hard for me to actually pick KU to beat K State until I see it with my own eyes. Hey, South Carolina finally beat Clemson and Death Valley, but it's just still 40 games for what I happen. I hope it doesn't take that long. I hope it doesn't. So, hey, look, I'm worried with where with you.

Starting point is 00:24:31 I think that you should talk about anxiety. I mean, when Chris Tennant was kicking that field goal, I mean, I was holding my breath. So there's no doubt about that there's definitely anxiety in this series, even though you've won 15. 16 times. So when I look at your schedule, though, and this is something that's important. And of course, the buy week for both the teams, I think that's impressive as well. Chris Klein doesn't have the best record coming out of buy weeks for the record. It's not good. It's like 500. That's about it. So something to keep in mind on that one. But when you look at this, you got a lot of tough games on your schedule before Kansas State. So you should be tested. Chris Kleiman said last year that you were the best

Starting point is 00:25:07 two and five team in the country heading into that game and you really proved it. You truly did. You you proved that you could stick up with a team that was of course six and one at the time before you know everything happened with kansas state when you look at the schedule heading in to the game in lawrence against the wildcats where do you expect them to be like do you expect them to be better than two and five do you expect them to be more on a uh uh a front runner for the big 12 like where's your mindset for that game heading into the game against wildcats yeah so i think you look at the non-con for k u and you go okay two and one would be a very fair record like Fresno State is a game that you're favored to win, but it wouldn't be shocking if you lost the game.

Starting point is 00:25:46 You look at the Missouri game, you're probably going to be underdogs. Missouri has one of the best defenses in the country. You're playing them on the road. So let's say you go two and one. If you go three and oh, great, but let's say you go two and one, you should be Wagner. Then you look at the start of Big 12 play. The beauty of being week zero, this goes for K State, too. You get that extra by week in there.

Starting point is 00:26:02 And that by week comes right before the start of Big 12 play. Kansas should have beat West Virginia last year. They beat them a couple years before. they were up by 10 with like four minutes to go and they blew the game. You get them at home this year, new coach who I do think Rich Rod is a really good coach for West Virginia, but it's the early part of their tenure, a lot of new transfers. Maybe you're getting them at a good time of the season. You look at Cincinnati, you look at UCF coming up in the schedule.

Starting point is 00:26:28 You look at the at Texas Tech game. Like that UCF and at Texas Tech, can you split one of the two? Can you take care of your two home games with West Virginia and Cincinnati? I don't think it's unreasonable to come into that case. State game saying, could you be a two-loss team or at the very worst be a three-loss team? I think that's kind of reasonable, be in that two-to-three loss range. And if you are in a situation where let's say you do only have one loss, like you find a way to, I don't know, upset either at Missouri or at Texas Tech or something like that, then all of a sudden

Starting point is 00:26:57 maybe we are talking this KUK State game as maybe it's an Arlington preview or something. But I think realistically, two or three losses coming into that game, you would feel comfortable with where you are as KU tries to get on the quest back to be in the game. bowl eligible. Yeah, I mean, imagine being two and five heading into that game last year. And then there's a really solid chance that you're five and two, flip that around, five and two heading into that matchup against Kansas State this year. That's what I see as well. What would you rather lose to? This is fun. Who would you rather lose to? You ought to go on the road to Missou, one of the craziest rivalries, right?

Starting point is 00:27:29 Like, I'll, that's such thing. You guys hate each other. Oh, yeah. You hate each other. K-State, KU, have a rivalry. There's no doubt about that. The Missouri can KU rivalry is something insane. Would you rather lose to Missou if you had the pick or would you rather lose and continue the streak against Kansas State? Yeah. So like you said, I mean, as much as Kansas Kansas State is a rivalry, it's a sports

Starting point is 00:27:50 rivalry. Kansas, Missouri is a real life like Missourians. It's nasty. I mean, Kansas and Kansas State fans, theoretically like 150 years ago, they were on the same side, you know, in the Civil War and stuff like that, right? So it's a little bit different with the Kansas, Missouri, just from

Starting point is 00:28:06 that perspective. I mean, there's families like murdering each other. So from that perspective, you would think my answer would be Kansas, Missouri. It actually is Kansas, Kansas State this year. If Kansas had lost 16 straight to Missouri, there's something close, or Missouri was still in the Big 12, maybe, where it counted as a conference game as well, or maybe you were still playing them every year, like this is your first time playing them in over a decade and you had that awesome win over them in 2009. If this was that, I would say Missouri, because historically it is KU's biggest rival. But K-State's beating you 16 straight times.

Starting point is 00:28:44 They're also still a rival. They're in the conference with you. And beyond that, it's the, what we talked about earlier, like that in-state recruiting. I mean, you got to start getting results in this game. And for Lance Lightbold, like, he's done so much with this KU program from where it was, that remains one of those things where it's like you still, you got to check this off the list. You have to start beating your rival, at least, you know, semi consistently. And from that perspective with how close the last two years was, yes, I would

Starting point is 00:29:12 love to win in Columbia. I would love to beat Missouri. And that in most years, in a vacuum, yes, you would take that above any other game. But because of the context around the KUK State rivalry and where it's been, I would actually prefer to beat K State than beat Missouri this year. Yeah, I'm with you. I feel that. I feel the feeling. All right. Well, last thing before we go here, you can't use Jalen Daniels holding on to the football because I feel like that's. a scapego. But if Kansas is going to be Kansas State in the Sunflower Showdown this year, it is because. Yeah, I mean, a lot. Can I just take all holding onto the football? Jalen Daniels, Trevor Wilson, drop punt, Rich Miller dropping the interception, too many, but no.

Starting point is 00:29:50 I think in all honesty, like, I'm very curious to see what this defense looks like, new coordinator, D.K. McDonald, in terms of stopping dual threat quarterbacks, because that is something under Brian Borland, the first four years of Lance Leipold era, they did not do a good job of stopping rushing dual threat quarterbacks. This doesn't just go for K State. It goes for, you know, all the teams they were playing. What does that look like? Can you contain Avery Johnson in terms of on the ground where maybe he has 40 yards

Starting point is 00:30:16 rushing instead of like 100, you know, that would be one thing. The other thing is, yeah, just just play mistake free football because to me that's been kind of the biggest difference. K State tends to be locked in a little bit more or I don't know what reason it is, right? Whether it is more focused, whether it is more motivated, whether it is just, I don't know the fundamentals being taught that we or whatever it is it just seems like they're more locked in it seems like they make less mistakes and that usually ends up being the difference those one or two extra kansas mistakes at the end kansas state kansas taking on the sunflower showdown we'll see if it

Starting point is 00:30:47 happens that one's in lawrence on october 25th as for week zero both these teams are in action first game of the season iowa state kansas state that'll be at 11 o'clock central the first game of the college football season as for uh k u you're taking on fresno state in lawrence and that one's what, 5.30 kickoff, I believe. So that's a lot. So you can watch both as well. Yeah, you can watch both. ESPN for the Kansas State game, Fox for the KU games.

Starting point is 00:31:13 So plenty of exciting stuff coming at you this Saturday. Derek, we made it. How exciting is that? Oh, man. I swear those last couple weeks, once you get to like August especially, you're like, you get to a Saturday or Sunday, you're like, where's the football? I turn on the TV. Where is it?

Starting point is 00:31:26 You know, so super excited. Make sure you check out lockdown Jayhawks, locked on Kansas State. Lots of coverage coming at you this week, making sure you're getting ready for the games. ahead please like the video please subscribe and this has been a lockdown college crossover of lockdown jhawks and locked on kansas state

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