Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Devin Neal Outshines Travis Hunter as Kansas Jayhawks Defeat #16 Colorado Buffaloes on Senior Day

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, on a day where Travis Hunter had 125 yards and two touchdowns, Devin Neal was the best player on the football field and Kansas grinds Colorado into a 37-21 victory. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Derek Johnson, you can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio, on Blue Sky at Derek Johnson. And Kansas takes down Colorado 37-21.

Starting point is 00:00:38 Devin Neal deserves a statue. Travis Hunter might walk away from the season with that little gold statue. Devin Neal deserves a gigantic golden statue in front of the new Memorial Stadium because on a day where you played the probable Heisman Trophy winner and a possible Heisman Trophy winner, however you want to view it, Devin Neal was the best player on the field. If Kansas had more wins right now, that would be a Heisman moment, an unbelievable performance on senior day for Kansas, and they get a top 20 win over Colorado. We're going to break down what happened in the game.

Starting point is 00:01:08 We're going to break down why Devin Neal is going to be a fan favorite for not just, you know, the rest of this season in his time at KU, but for a lifetime for KU football fans. We'll get to our GOATs of the game as well as what's next for KU. Again, thank you to the everydayers tuning in to each and every show. Thank you very much for getting your first listen every day. Find us anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page with Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.

Starting point is 00:01:33 You can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. Just visit FanDuel.com to get started today. Kansas 37, Colorado 21. So Travis Hunter had a good game for Colorado and it was just the Devin Neal show and that's what this whole game was about for me. It was Devin Neal. I know it was senior day. There are a lot of seniors for KU, and a lot of them contributed in different ways in this game.

Starting point is 00:02:07 You know, Jalen Daniels made some key plays, and we're going to talk about some of those things over the course of this. But at the end of the day, you had a running back who carried the ball 37 times for 207 yards with three touchdowns, 5.6 yards per carry on a huge load, and he had four catches for 80 yards and a touchdown. So Devin Neal had 41 touches for 287 yards and four touchdowns. Colorado had 308 yards of offense. Devin Neal had 287 yards as an individual. And yeah,

Starting point is 00:02:41 like the defense deserves credit too. You hold Colorado to 21 points. You had some big situational stops. There are a lot of things that went into this win, but the biggest headline is about Devin Neal. And I say this about the statue thing. Like I, I feel like it's one of those things when you have a current player where it's, it's almost like hard to like view the history of like, how beloved are they going to be? I don't think that's the case with Devin Neal. We are living history right now. He is already KU's career leader in rushing yards, in rushing touchdowns, of which he is building himself quite the nest egg right now over these recent games in terms of having the lead over next best in some of those. He is finding himself on top of records for individual game records, season records, career records. You'll be able to make the

Starting point is 00:03:24 argument that he is the most accomplished running back in KU history. You'll be able to make the argument that he is the most accomplished running back in KU history. You'll be able to make the argument he's the best running back in KU history, but when you make that argument, you start to bring in as much as it, I don't know, if you are having the conversation about KU, should what Gale Sayers did in the NFL or John Riggins did in the NFL matter?

Starting point is 00:03:40 I don't know. Maybe it's all one thing, body of work. And maybe what happens in the NFL with Devin Neal, where he where he certainly will be next year will matter to that but as far as just a kansas career you know he is the most accomplished by accomplishing all those career things and by making back-to-back bowl games and a chance with one more win for kansas this year to make another bowl game he is the most accomplished running back in ku history and this was his i mean he's had other great games too, right? I think about the Oklahoma State game that got them bowl eligible, but this

Starting point is 00:04:08 is almost the swan song to that. And think about this. This is one thought that I had coming from this game afterwards. I think a lot of times that, you know, I don't know, people talk about the past of Kansas history, whether it's talking with your friends, talking with your buddies, you know, reminiscing, talking KU history, KU football, whether it's to your kids or just to a friend or whoever. You bring up past performances that you will never forget. Past individual performances that will always come to mind for you. And obviously there are team performances in this too, right? Breaking the streak nebraska in 2005 the the sports illustrated game against nebraska in 2007 the orange bowl like certain bowl games upsetting oklahoma last year right um maybe beating oklahoma in the 90s uh pick a missouri

Starting point is 00:04:56 game right like there are games that everybody has and remembers their performances you know the people tell their their kids about like hey Tony Sands is on the big board and then maybe your kid asks you hey dad who's that oh let me tell you you know Tony Sands did this against Missouri or June Henley did this when they played at an undefeated Colorado team for what was a big win for Kansas in the uh it was a 94-95 season for KU um and I think by the way Henley and Sands I think were at the game and took a picture with Devin Neal, so that was cool. Todd Reesey against Nebraska or a litany of other games, like Jake Sharp against Kansas State, David Jaynes against Tennessee, even though it was a loss. There are

Starting point is 00:05:34 games that go down in KU football lore for not just the team results, but also what an individual might have done. Whatever it is, whoever it is for you specifically, you're going to be discussing Devin Neal. You're going to be discussing the Devin Neal game. In that game, the same way for a long time as those other ones that we have glorified in KU football past. And I think that is really cool. And obviously, unbelievable performance by the offensive line to help him do that

Starting point is 00:06:06 and to keep Jalen Daniels mostly clean and by the defense and by Jalen and all these things. Senior day was about all the seniors, but it became Devin Neal day very quickly. And it was so deserving. It was so awesome for somebody who stuck around in town, somebody who is like the best kid in the world, somebody who continues to work into the grindstone and represents the university in the very best

Starting point is 00:06:30 way possible. It was Devin Neal day today in Arrowhead. Now getting to the game, big picture itself. I'm curious because Kansas, it was 23-21. Travis Hunter gets that touchdown where he just gets like wide open and then sidesteps by the safety. It was 2321. Kansas was up two. And at the time, Colorado, it felt like they couldn't really be stopped. They had the one stop on kind of the fourth down. Kansas was possessing the football. But Kansas had those three drives where they got stopped the short field goals.

Starting point is 00:07:01 I'd be curious to know how many people were sitting there going when it was 21 321 feeling like oh no missed the shot like they had the opportunity to go for the kill shot if they would have gotten a touchdown on one of those other drives or something like that and now you you shot yourself in the foot i certainly would have blamed you if you had that thought but this team has something special going on and i don't know how it's going to finish off next week like it's got to be hard to come off three straight ranked wins and get yourself up emotionally and physically to that same level next week at Baylor. I hope they can finish it off.

Starting point is 00:07:33 I certainly do. I would love this team to make a bowl game and what a story that would be. It's going to be hard though. And Baylor has been a pretty good team. They've been a lot better than, than people thought really before the season started and really even a few weeks into the season. But this team, it's an unbelievable sustained run i don't know if i have ever quite honestly seen a sustained run for like if we were to give like a five game sustained run

Starting point is 00:07:55 for ku football in my time watching ku football i don't think i've ever seen as good of a five game run as this i should say in my time of like I went to KU in I don't know what like 2013 something like that right so I'm not going back to like the Orange Bowl days um you're talking about a decade plus of football right yeah I mean you could talk about like last year uh was a great team I think if you take this five game stretch which would be what the blow went over Houston these three ranked wins and the only loss a road game against a pretty good Kansas State team that you very easily could have won it's probably the best set of football that I've ever seen Kansas play like if you were to take the team that is playing right now against last year's Kansas team I'm taking

Starting point is 00:08:34 this one now unfortunately you do have to count the early part of the season and that does count to all this but this is the best ball they played you played a quality team in Colorado who's ranked top 20 in the country. You out-yarded them 520 to 308. You had over a 200-yard advantage. You were 4-6 team against the 16th ranked team in the country. Kansas ran for 331 yards. They didn't necessarily have a huge passing game. It was under 200 yards passing.

Starting point is 00:09:03 But whatever they needed to pass, they could. Like Kansas very easily in this game, if you were to redo the game and just be like, hey, we're going to need you to pass for 300 yards and run for 200, I think they could have done it. They averaged nine yards per pass. They just didn't need to pass as much. They were running the ball so effectively. Kansas went 9 of 14 on third down.

Starting point is 00:09:21 They were 2 of 2 on fourth downs. You hit all the money downs. You held Colorado to just 3.2 yards per carry you had that key fourth down stop you had some key stops at the end of the game you had that key fourth down stop at the end of the game too you made situational plays defensively really the only things that didn't go well for you was i guess first half like red zone offense and then maybe pass defense for the full of the game with colorado able to move the ball up. But even then, like, I don't know, they ended up with 21 points. Shader Sanders at 266 yards. So maybe that would just be something that applied for more of the first half. Bottom line here is this.

Starting point is 00:09:54 You made some more memories. You made some more memories on senior day for the seniors, for the fans in attendance. Like I said, you'll remember this is Devin Neal day. You captured an unbelievable run of KU football, three straight ranked wins. It's never happened for KU football. It's never happened for a team with a losing record. You have made history and it didn't even take like, that's, what's crazy to me. If you would have told me Kansas was going to win these three games, I would have figured like, okay, they probably like play, continue to play pretty well. Cause they'd been playing well, even in some of of the losses we knew they were close losses but they just kept making mistakes

Starting point is 00:10:28 at the fatal point of the game but overall for the majority of the games they had played pretty well i would have figured that they would have played well in all these three games iowa state colorado byu and then maybe they just got a little bit of one luck reversion back their way you know maybe instead of being unable to jump on the ball against unlv they would they would be the team that, you know, jumped on the football or the other team couldn't jump on the ball or they get a weird tipped interception. That, like, maybe they were the team that got some one-score luck reversion. They haven't even needed it.

Starting point is 00:10:54 Like, maybe a little bit in the BYU game, you had the punt, obviously. Like, that certainly helps. BYU game, sure, that classifies. But in the other two, you've won by double digits. You haven't even needed it. And that is what is even more incredible in all this. And you have now, beyond it all, crawled up from the basement. You are now just one win away from bowl eligibility

Starting point is 00:11:11 and a chance to do something that Kansas football, I mean, they've already accomplished some things that Kansas football has never done. But you've got a chance to do one other thing. Kansas football has never made three consecutive bowl games. You are one win away from doing that after Devin Neal Day and Senior Day occurred in Arrowhead. All right, we're going to continue on our goats of the game next. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:12:30 Thanks for making this your first listen every day. Let's get to our goats of the game. If you're new to the show, we do good goats, bad goats. Good goats is kind of the new age of the word, greatest of all time, you know, yada, yada, yada, over-exaggeration, new kid's peak. Bad goats is when I was growing up is bad thing to be a goat right there's kind of a scapegoat you didn't want to be the goat uh let's start with the good goats let's get the easy one out of the way that would be one mr devin neal devin neal had 37 carries 207

Starting point is 00:12:53 three touchdowns four catches for 80 yards and a touchdown i know i mentioned the stats earlier but they bear repeating because it is unbelievable four total touchdowns for devin neal and uh you know he ended up with three rushing touchdowns four total touchdowns i Devin Neal and uh you know he ended up with three rushing touchdowns four total touchdowns I put this out on KU stat of the day on blue sky um James Sims the last time KU played Colorado was that crazy comeback for KU and we said 35 points in the fourth quarter to win you go from being down 28 to winning in regulation in the fourth quarter James Sims tied the KU record with four rushing touchdowns that game De Devin Neal has never done it. He got four total touchdowns,

Starting point is 00:13:27 didn't get the rushing touchdowns. He's one away. If they would have maybe given him the ball more at the end of the first half possession, the one that made it 23 to 14, maybe he does get the record, but still an unbelievable performance. Build him a statue.

Starting point is 00:13:41 And what's crazy to me, looking back, like the amount of times, whether it was on a swing pass to like the amount of times whether it was on a swing pass to Devin Neal whether it was on a run where and this isn't just a this game thing like this is something we've seen all throughout Devin Neal's career and what makes him such a good running back because he finds the hidden yards the amount of times where Devin Neal gets the ball and you could just take a freeze frame you could take a screenshot of Devin Neal maybe two three yards behind the line of scrimmage with the football in his hands and there's one or two guys like

Starting point is 00:14:09 there's either one guy straight on from him that looks like he's ready to make a one-on-one tackle or in a couple of these cases in this game there's two guys we're kind of angled coming in ready to sandwich him like at the line of scrimmage or yard behind the line of scrimmage you're like oh no how is he going to get past this one and it's like yeah maybe if we're lucky like if you screenshot it right there you'd be like maybe if you're lucky you get back to the line of scrimmage or yard behind the line of scrimmage you're like oh no how is he going to get past this one and it's like yeah maybe if we're lucky like if you screenshot it right there you'd be like maybe if you're lucky you get back to the line of scrimmage and then all of a sudden you fast forward to the end of the play it's a seven yard game it's uh uh on the the screen pass basically it's a touchdown right it's unbelievable his ability to find hidden yards and that's why he's going to be successful in my mind in the NFL, moving on from this afterwards.

Starting point is 00:14:45 They're like, you know, he's not the fastest guy in the world. I don't think he's going to run a 4-4, right? I mean, he's got enough speed to make it work, but he's not running a 4-3. He's not Tyreek Hill out there. He's got unbelievable vision. He has an unbelievable ability to find the hidden yards. He has a 1-2.

Starting point is 00:15:01 He stays on balance. He's so impressive, man. I can't speak enough of how good devon neal is and and then you get a little bit of the the strength in there too when it's 23 21 the touchdown he has where he kind of trucks the guy and then reaches the ball forward where it shows the combination of power and balance which i think is a perfect description of everything as well like just perfection man um jaylen daniels gets a good goat here too for ku like i said they didn't need him to throw a ton he was 14 of 21 for 189 yards but that's nine yards a pass which is a really

Starting point is 00:15:31 good number he had a touchdown no interceptions very important there and he had six carries for 72 yards so i mean 27 plays basically for for 260 yards like it was a very efficient very good game for Jalen Daniels and uh how about that Warren Sapp Warren Sapp you know Jalen Daniels wants to run around and take hits our defense is going to be hitting him it's a decision for him he can he can decide if he wants to keep it or pitch it well guess what Jalen Daniels just pulled another spin move off and forced another Colorado defender to miss him because when you needed any key play that wasn't Devin it was like hey this is going to be the Devin Neal show every so often Jalen we're going to need you to make a key play and he made him he made him he was excellent in this game as he really has been over these last five six seven games whatever it's been for KU at this point

Starting point is 00:16:17 in time now the question becomes which may be this for another episode will Jalen Daniels be back for next season because he went through senior day in this game now we did see I think it was Kenny Logan went through senior day and then decided to come back for his extra year his COVID year maybe Jalen ends up doing the same thing you had no guarantees you don't know but obviously I think every KU fan would welcome him back with open arms at this point with how well he's really played over this back half of the season as far as other good goats I mean I don't know I have a hard time on the defensive side of the season. As far as other good goats, I mean, I don't know. I have a hard time on the defensive side of the ball, like distinguishing, not that there were,

Starting point is 00:16:53 that makes it sound like they played poorly. Again, I thought the defense overall played well. Like you give up only 21 points to one of the most explosive offenses in the conference in the country. You had some situational key stops in the end, and it wasn't like you just made stops because you forced turnovers. They did pretty well, but i'm trying to think who the standouts would be i mean statistically cornell wheeler had nine tackles in a tfl they were also kind of attacking over the

Starting point is 00:17:13 middle of the field on you felt like mellow dots and played a pretty good game at four tackles uh had some key coverages here or there uh but without like i don't know without watching the all 22 or going back and looking at the pro football focus numbers or without like i don't know without watching the all 22 or going back and looking at the pro football focus numbers or something like i'd be curious to know like who on the back end was targeted or like with kobe bryant seems like on paper he had two pass breakups had three tackles one and a half tfl seems like he played a good game but i'd love to see those numbers blake harold had four tackles for ku so good to see him continuing to do well at the defensive tackle spot i think dean miller on first watch played well. He had three tackles.

Starting point is 00:17:45 He had half a sack, one and a half TFLs, a pass breakup. He had another pass rush where he nearly hit the quarterback. I thought he was being held. They didn't call it. And I think he would have got the quarterback if that wasn't the case. So like it was just a mixed result of a lot of players, I think making some key performances for the KU defense. So shout outs to them.

Starting point is 00:18:02 And then other shout outs, which is kind of our in-between of like, yeah, you deserve a shout-out, but it's not quite GOAT status, besides I think a lot of those defenders. Savion Morrison, he had 11 carries for 47 yards. Most carries he's had in a KU uniform. He was, you know, on the plays where Devin Neal just needed a spell, needed to keep him rested, like Savion Morrison did what he needed to do. And then Tabor Allen, you know, it's not GOAT status

Starting point is 00:18:24 when your longest field goal is 25 yards, but you went three for three on field goals you went perfect for pats and um each point it certainly mattered as far as the bad goats less to do here but i do want to go over two things um whatever was causing travis hunter to get like untouched touchdowns i mean he had that that screen touchdown where he was just like untouched and he's just like i'm faster than you there's good blocking i'm not going to be touched see ya there was the the other touchdown that began the second half where he just like floated open in the secondary whatever led to those things and him running wild no more of that please again he's an unbelievable talent and i think would be deserving heisman uh winner uh for colorado but yeah you can't make it easy on him

Starting point is 00:19:02 that way and then uh je Jeff Grimes goal to go play calling in the first half uh second half uh I thought they did a better job where they were like hey we're gonna give the ball to Devin Neal which is like great because Devin Neal has been unbelievable this game and it's senior day and he's really good at finding the end zone um especially that end of the the first half one like I it's it's mainly the third and goal like should they have just kept giving the ball to devon neal probably but the third and goal the two i'm specifically thinking of k you still had a timeout so they could have stopped the clock if they didn't get it and instead they decided to throw at travis hunter and immediately in my mind as he's throwing it to

Starting point is 00:19:39 quentin skinner on that little out round the end zone I had I had like flashes in my mind of that Travis Hunter like I forget if there's a one-handed interception or whatever against TCU in their opener in the 2023 season I'm like no no no no give the ball to Evan Neal let him ride out and I think that bared out so didn't love that in the first half uh just feed your beast you know no need to over complicate it but overall very good day for KU football. And yeah, there probably were some performances. We'll get into the top and bottom PFF performers, and we'll get into more of that as we rewatch the game as well on the takeaway episode coming up earlier next week. All right, let's finish up here.

Starting point is 00:20:16 What is next, though, for KU football? This is Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by GameTime, which is a new feature called GameTime Picks that makes seating tickets to see your favorite teams or live events, whether you're going to comedy, theater, whatever it is, even easier. GameTime Picks filters out the fluff

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Starting point is 00:21:18 Hopefully, there are two more games for KU football, that game and the bowl game. Now, if you lose that game, you're 5-7, you won't make a ball. I don't believe KU has good enough APR scores, I. Now, if you lose that game, you're five and seven, you won't make a ball. I don't believe KU has good enough APR scores, I guess, if a bunch of teams in front of you in that regard opted out, or I guess maybe if the teams in front of you were four and eight, then maybe that'd give you a chance. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:21:36 Just win this game, take care of business, try to make a bowl game. Hopefully that would be ideal. Now, the time is not determined yet. It'll be Saturday, November 30th. We'll find out for that one on either Sunday or Monday, what time the game will be for Kansas and Baylor. I believe we'll find out on Sunday. So we'll find out for that there.

Starting point is 00:21:52 As far as some of the other stuff going on, KU women's basketball landing two top 30 recruits during the middle of the week, huge for Brandon Schneider, who now has three top 50 commits for the class of 2025. So, you know, that team in 2025 and then 2026 could be really, really good and really exciting. So fun stuff there for KU women's basketball. Also, KU basketball, the men's side, going to have a big week upcoming. Of course, everybody is circling the big game upcoming this week against Furman.

Starting point is 00:22:19 And we'll have your preview for that one. Obviously, we will also talk the KU Duke game. That one coming up on Tuesday. Duke coming off a big win at Arizona where they beat them by double digits. So should be for that one. Obviously, we will also talk the KU-Duke game. That one coming up on Tuesday. Duke coming off a big win at Arizona where they beat them by double digits. So it should be a fun one. KU and Duke in Vegas. We'll preview that one coming up on Tuesday. We will have a top takeaways from KU football and KU basketball episode coming out on Monday.

Starting point is 00:22:38 KU-Duke preview coming out on Tuesday. So make sure to subscribe to the show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. But that'll do it for us today here with Locked on Jayhawks. Devin Neal Day, a success. KU Football 37, Colorado 21. Jayhawks improved to five and six. We'll see you next time

Starting point is 00:22:54 with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Devin Neal Outshines Travis Hunter as Kansas Jayhawks Defeat #16 Colorado Buffaloes on Senior Day

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