Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Does KU Have a Top 25 Offense, Jalon for Heisman, and How Do We Properly Talk About Kansas Football Now?

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

Is the Kansas Football offense elite? Is it top 25? How do we properly talk about KU now? Jalon Daniels for Heisman! Plus, is there more pressure on the Jayhawks to win the Duke game than a game in a long time? Joined by Nick Schwerdt.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!NugenixNow get a complimentary bottle of Nugenix Total T when you text COLLEGEto 231-231. Text now and get a bottle of Nugenix Thermo, their most powerful fat incinerator ever, with key ingredients to help you get back into shape fast.LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!UpsideDownload the FREE Upside App and use promo code Locked to get $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more.Underdog FantasySign up on underdogfantasy.com with the promo code LOCKED ON and get your first deposit doubled up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're joined by Nick Schwert to kind of figure out what the discourse should be when we talk KU football. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 on KLWN. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. You're free and available wherever you get your podcasts. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. You're free and available wherever you get your podcasts. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks,

we're joined by Nick Schwert to continue to talk to KU football. How elite is this offense and how have things changed over about how we should talk about this team instead of it being, you know, whenever we talk about Kansas, the bar is always, ah, but could they win four games? That would be a big deal. And can they just do this well enough? Can you just not be worst at this?

And now it's becoming more of a conversation of like, are they just good? We got Nick Schwert. Again, you can catch him on Cody and Gold with 610 in Kansas City. You can also hear him on the Wave in the Wheat podcast, talking KU football, KU basketball throughout the season and whatnot. I guess first thing, we'll start with this. The offense, everywhere you look, yards per carry, yards per play, points per game, all these metrics, this has been one of the better offenses in the country so far. Still a small sample, three games into the season, and it's kind of like, I don't know what

to do with it in terms of clearly the offense is good but like are we talking about an elite offense is this a top 25 offense in the country because you could say well it's still a small sample and maybe some of the allure of catching these teams off guard with the triple option could dissipate a little bit and it won't be as easy each week but also say what you want about West Virginia say what you want about Houston what you think they are as teams by certain metrics Houston was a top 25 defense coming into that game by certain metrics West Virginia's defensive line was really good that was a strength of their team that was a strength of their defense and you're putting up

these numbers so where's where's the bar here for the KU offense like is this a top 25 offense in the country are they elite offense I think so I mean I don't know where the the line is for what an elite offense constitutes but regardless of what you think about their strength of schedule I know I think football reference has them at 77th in the country and that's out of 131 teams so they're saying you're not playing a tough schedule you're middle of the pack it's not the biggest cupcake schedule but we're still waiting to see you guys go up against the big dogs but with that being said even if you don't think Houston and West Virginia are good teams which you could make a strong case for they still put up 55 against West Virginia and 48 against Houston.

So that's what you're supposed to do. It's the same thing that we were saying after the Tennessee Tech game. If you don't think this team is good, that's fine. But what do good teams do to bad teams? They kill them. I look at the final score for that Houston game. It wasn't particularly close, Derek. So I think that this is a really good offense.

I think it starts with Jalen Daniels. I think first off, we talked about this, I think a little bit last week, Andy Kotelnicki is doing a phenomenal job at setting these defenses up and putting his guys in positions to succeed. I thought that was the best performance that we saw from KU through three games was against Houston and Jalen Daniels with that zone option stuff, he is, that was incredible. Like he's giving Houston linebackers nightmares because for the first time we saw him go up against elite level competition for another team and still look super athletic. And if that's the case against Houston, I'd imagine it's going to be the case against Duke this weekend.

I'd imagine it's going to be the case against Iowa State and TCU. So I don't know if this is a top 25 team in the country, but I know they've passed every test that they've been up against. And looking at the Big 12 slate, Houston to me is on the same level as the Iowa States, the TCUs, the K-States, the Texas Techs of the world. So if that's what Kansas can do against Houston, I don't have any concerns that they're all of a sudden not

going to be able to move the ball once they get into Big 12 play. Yeah. And I guess for KU to reach at this point, like the goal of going to a bowl game internally, that's probably discussed for every team. Like I remember KU teams that maybe won two games, and you would talk to them in the preseason. They'd say, what's your goal? Well, we want to be the team that goes bowling, right? And you kind of sit there and go, okay, I understand why you would have that, but that's not what level we're kind of at.

With this team, that feels like a very attainable goal at this point in time. You started 3-0. You have those two Power 5 wins. If you beat Duke, you're right there. You have two more wins to go over the final eight. Does the offense have to continue being this good for them to go bowling? What happens if the offense is at a level where they're good, but they're not putting up these insane numbers? They're not able to run for 200 yards in a game over their opposition. Is that still good enough for them to reach that level?

Well, their defense is ranked 84th in the country in points allowed. So through three games, as good as the offense has been, the defense has not proven that we're going to be stalwarts. We are going to shut your opposing offense down. With the exception of that second quarter, Houston moved the ball pretty well. It just so happened that Kansas was unconscious on offense. So to answer your question, yes, I think this offense has to remain one of the elite offenses. And that's not necessarily a knock or saying that it's unlikely to happen. We see it all the time in college football. If we were talking about the NFL and you had this team

averaging 35 points a game and a defense that's given up whatever's KU given up right now 27 a game then I'd say okay well that's probably not that sustainable but this is college football and Kansas isn't averaging 35 points per game Derek they're averaging 53 so we see we see teams use this formula all the freaking time in college football and there is no reason to suspect now that three games in, it's not like they saw a little bit of a drop off once they went and played West Virginia and Houston, or we're starting to see them come down to earth. No, this is the same offense we've seen for three weeks. They have not dropped off one bit. If anything, I think you could make the case

that Jalen Daniels is getting more comfortable as the games go on because you mentioned the other teams in Kansas history that start to an hour against a cupcake schedule, and they try to convince you that they still have bowl aspirations. That always felt like guys talking themselves into it. Like if we say it enough, then it will seem realistic. That's not what this team is doing. This team is saying it because it feels realistic. They are 3-0. They look like one of the top offenses in the country. I don't know if they're going to average 53 a game. Imagine they drop off to 38 a game. That's still going to be good enough to rack up a handful of wins in the Big 12.

So, yeah, I think that's the formula, and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. So, like, at what point, because everything you just said is kind of changing the discourse here. Even when they beat West Virginia, the conversation was still, OK, it's clear that the program is improving and that Lance Leipold's making his mark. And they've made all of these positive arrows going up for this team. But you're still thinking, OK, maybe there are three, four, maybe a five win team. Right. okay maybe there are three four maybe a five win team right and now after this Houston game it

feels almost like yeah this this could very easily be a bold bull team like you're you're almost double digit favorites against Duke so you're expected to win that can you get those other two wins moving forward but watching the way that they have kind of dismantled these teams like what you were talking about earlier where they just dominated that game against Houston. At what point do we change the discourse of this just being this cool story of this team that is finding its way toward maybe bowl eligibility? And at what point do we just change the discourse and start to have these expectations of not just,

hey, this is a good football team for KU standards, and now the conversation is, no, this is just like football team for KU standards, and now the conversation is, no, this is just like a legitimately good football team in college football. You change it right now. You change it right now. They have played two straight FBS teams, one of which is a conference opponent, the other one that's going to be a conference opponent,

and they did whatever they want on offense against them. They really did i mean that was a shellacking on the road and houston by the way two back-to-back road games against fbs opponents if you don't think that this kansas team is a legitimate threat to win big 12 games i would ask you what you need to see because there are going to be detractors because it's easy it's kansas the ammunition is there there's 15 years of it you don you need to see because there are going to be detractors because it's easy. It's Kansas. The ammunition is there.

There's 15 years of it. You don't have to be that creative to come up with reasons why you're not buying stock in Kansas football. But with that being said, what we, you and I talked about this all the time, all the time, which was,

and I think you have referenced this in terms of quarterback play, but I think you can apply it to the team itself. No one's asking you to be the best. Just asking you to not be the worst. Don't be the worst with a bullet. For the longest time, Kansas had the worst quarterback in the Big 12 with a bullet. They had the worst defense in the Big 12 with a bullet.

They had the worst offensive line in the Big 12 with a bullet. Most of those years, they had the worst coach in the Big 12 with a bullet. None of those things are true right now. Now, they may have the worst defense in the Big 12. I'm not sure, but I know they don't have the worst offense. I know they don't have the worst quarterback. I know they don't have the worst head coach. So you have those three things going for you, right? You got a competent head coach. You've got a really good play caller, and you've got a quarterback who can execute that offense. That's worth wins in the Big 12.

So they may end up at the bottom. I mean, they may still, I don't know, what's the, you're going to make fun of me. How many Big 12 games do they play? Nine? Yes. All right. I knew I was close.

Okay, I got it. You know, they could go three and six in Big 12 play. That might not finish last in the Big 12. If they went three and six in Big 12 play. That might not finish last in the Big 12. If they went three and six in Big 12 play, that puts them at least four wins on the year. Personally, I'm ready to take the over simply because going into- By the way, you're terrible at math.

It put them at least at five. Huh. Wait, they've already got one Big 12 win. Okay, yeah. Yeah, you're right, you're right. Just exposing myself as we go here. But yeah, if they win three and six, they win five games. That'd be the best season since 2007, 2008. Like, come on.

So you have to be willing to look at your expectations, and I'm sure there's people listening that are saying, dude, they're winning more than five games this year, and I'm not going to try and argue against that. But because you're not the worst at everything, that means you're going to be competitive in games. And as has been the case for every team not named Kansas in the Big 12

since 2010, if you're not the worst team in the Big 12, you're not just going to get romped every single week. And until we even see a sign of that, until we even see a sign of that, until we even see a sign of, oh, oh,

there's the shortcomings. Oh, there's where the defensive line is going to hurt them. Oh, there's where the lack of, you know, open field tackling is going to hurt them until that shows itself. Why should we sit here when a team is three and oh,

coming off the heels of a blowout victory on the road against a team that's going to be in the big 12 next year. Why should we sit here today and say, no, we should still be skeptical about this team? All right, just a moment. I want to get into more on Jalen Daniels, how good he has been. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

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So you said in the preseason, we talked a little bit about the Jalen Daniels-Heisman stuff, and that was just a hypothetical, just kind of a fun thing to throw out there. But we saw it on Dennis Dodd's list about a week ago, and it's another story to do it right now versus at the end of the season. Like you mentioned this earlier, you have to win usually usually nine games I can't remember if RG3 won eight or nine when when he won it went nine and three okay so you have to get a lot of wins to a level that we're still not at Kansas probably getting to that point but you do have a Heisman vote and and we're kind of messing around about it earlier. Like, is he legitimately on your radar at this point?

I mean, I don't want to ruin this conversation and be that guy, but like anybody who has a Heisman list after three weeks is kind of wasting their time. Bryce Young was not the favorite heading into the last week of the season, but guess what? Alabama beat Georgia and he happened to be the quarterback and made some big plays in that game. So what do you know? All of a sudden he wins the award running away. So like I could make a list the week before the season ends and then everything can change the last week of the season. Like with that being said, we know how this works.

It's not necessarily right, but typically speaking, you need to be the starting quarterback on a team that's competing for a national championship. And I don't necessarily agree with that. I, I refuse to believe that even though I know that Georgia and Alabama and Ohio State have the best collections of talent,

I refuse to believe that every single year they have the definitively best player in college football. And they probably don't. Like, that's not a knock against Bryce Young. He was incredible. It's not a knock against Devontae Smith from a couple of years ago or even guys like C.J. Stroud this year. They're really good quarterbacks.

Those are all first-round picks, right? But I refuse to believe that simply because they're on Alabama and Ohio State, they are therefore the best player in college football. So even if Jalen puts up the numbers, the odds are highly against him being able to even garner recognition unless this is an eight or nine win football team. And that's not necessarily right, but honestly, it kind of works the same way in the NFL. Like if you look at the guys who win MVP year after year, win 11 or 12 games, that's the baseline criteria. Your team needs to be one of the best in the league if

you're going to be considered for that award so i don't know how you fix it or how you change it but ultimately kansas is going to need to keep winning at a high level for him to get consideration well i know how you change it i mean we can't change it from a you know systematic approach but everything you were just talking about there about oh you got to win this amount of games and maybe it's not always the best player you have a vote here you can start the change yourself. So here's all I'm saying. This is what you do.

You vote Jalen Daniels number one, and a bunch of people are going to be voting Stetson Bennett and stuff number three, which I like Stetson Bennett. He's actually kind of fun to watch. He makes some creative plays. But if you exchanged Stetson Bennett for Jalen Daniels, do you think Georgia's any worse? Do you think Jalen Daniels is still putting up big numbers

with that Georgia team around him? Of course he is. So you vote him first. It'll become a story, and you start the change. So it's up to me. I have to be Batman in this situation. I have to be the hero that Gotham needs. Yes.

What do you think KU's record is if Jason Bean is starting these three games for Kansas? Well, see, that's tough because with Bean, he's obviously such a good runner. And a big part of why KU beat West Virginia and Houston is because Jalen Daniels went off running the football, right? Like he had over 100 yards against Houston. So is Bean actually putting up like 200 yards on the ground against Houston, but just less in the air? But no, I think they could have beat Houston with Jason Bean because of the way the running game was going.

I mean, they were averaging 6.5 yards per carry. I think I saw from Bill Connolly today they were averaging 4.6 yards before contact. The offensive line was just road grading West Virginia. I don't think, or Houston, I don't think they beat West Virginia with Jason Bean. There were so many key third downs and key passes that Jalen Daniels had to convert. So I'll say two and one. Yeah, I think that's one thing going back to Daniels that maybe was underestimated coming

into this season. Like we knew he was a good athlete. I mean, on Hughes versus Houston knew he was a good athlete. I mean, on Hughes versus Houston, he was perfect on the ground. He was slippery, bouncing off tackles. He made the right read almost every single play.

And now you look at Kansas, they're 10th in the country, man, 10th in the country, averaging 241 rushing yards per game. So whatever you thought you were missing from Jason being in terms of athleticism, I don't think anybody's really thinking about that right now.

Like, Daniels is not the athlete that Bean is, but he's a much better thrower. And he wasn't even great throwing the ball against Houston, but every time he needed to make a big one, right? That's the thing with this team. As good as they've been rushing the ball, those 15 to 20 times a game, those 15 to 20 times a game, those 10 to 15 times a game, whatever it is,

where you ask Daniels to make a big play downfield, underrated throw in that game, Sabian Morris in the flat, right? Where he just puts it right over the defender's hand, right in the bucket and picks up a first down. I think that was in the third quarter. I mean, the throw to Lachlan was great. He had a couple of nice throws to Lawrence Arnold. You don't need him to be perfect throwing the ball he's not

the best passer but those handful of times where you just need a big play like you know the running game is going to open those up execute in that moment he does it every single time the dude's a gamer and that's why you have confidence in him that's why i think you know what man the whole heisman stuff everybody always gets into this conversation of, well, who should it go to? Is it the MVP? What's the most valuable mean? Okay, so he's the most valuable to his team.

It's not that complicated. It's not that complicated. Get to the end of the season. Who was the best? Who was the best player in college football? Don't worry about definitions defining who else is on his team. You watched football all year long. Tell me who the best player in college football? Don't worry about definitions defining who else is on his team. You watched football all year long.

Tell me who the best was. At this point in the season, you can make a case for a lot of guys. It's tough to make a case against Jalen Daniels because what he's done through three seasons is as impressive. Three games is as impressive as any other individual performance I've seen in college football this year. All right, I got a fun question for you dealing with the KU-Duke game. That in just a moment.

So KU is, what, nine, nine and a half point favorites? It kind of depends where you look, eight and a half some places, over Duke on Saturday. And both teams are 3-0 coming into the game. Obviously, there have been so many moments of disappointment in years past for KU. But at the end of the day, whenever KU loses a game, it's more like apathy than it has been in years past than it is disappointment, right? With the exception being some of the FCS games, like the Nichols State game, David Beatty,

I think his final year, like that was disappointment. But when you look at FBS games kansas is always the underdog so it's hard to be i guess disappointed with the team losing that game so if kansas were to lose to duke on saturday would that be the most disappointing loss for ku since the todd reese and mark mangino days no you can't say that that's not not fair. They should win this game. But, I mean, I remember 2016, I want to say. They go to TCU. It was TCU and Iowa State in back-to-back games. And one of them, they had like 10 offensive yards.

They didn't get past midfield until like the fourth quarter. Yeah, it was 21 yards against TCU for the game. That was the Doug Meacham stare game. And that was right after the Iowa State game where it was like, it was like a snowstorm or a monsoon or something. And that they couldn't muster up anything offensively. So if Kansas loses this game to Duke, you're still going to have some level of confidence going into the Iowa State game.

Same thing with TCU. Because we've already seen them do it against FBS opponents. This to me is not a prove it game. game same thing with TCU because we've already seen them do it against FBS opponents this to me is not a prove-it game it's a continuation of you have looked really good to start the year keep doing it but it's not as though if they lose this game it would be very disappointing you're not wrong about that but if they lose this game we're not going to be sitting here saying up season's over no I I'd be three and one entering the meat of their schedule yeah i i think clearly if you you know took a broad approach and looked at it and said would you take three and one through four

games for this kansas team you would i just mean from a standpoint of it feels like now that you've gotten to a point where you're three and oh you're receiving votes in the ap poll you're you're favored by almost double digits against duke the path is there for this team to legitimately make a bowl game, right? And so if you lose to Duke, it feels like it's kind of stripping that part of it away. It's taking away the part where you had everything in front of you. You take care of business against Duke. Now you're sitting at 4-0. The path to a bowl game is a lot more open. Whereas if you lose to Duke, it becomes a lot more difficult because at that point you're saying you would need basically four Big 12 wins

to get to a bowl game. That, to me, is where the kind of disappointment would come in. It's not that it would be the worst loss for KU in however long. It would, to me, be the most disappointing just because of where the expectations have kind of gotten for this team. I would say this though, maybe you're right because Duke is the second worst team on Kansas' schedule this year. And the worst one is Tennessee Tech, who's a bad FCS team. So yeah, that would be very disappointing, especially after two road wins to come back

home and what we expect to be one of the best environments inside Memorial Stadium that we've seen in a very long time. If you lose that game, yeah, you're going to feel like you missed one there. I would also say this. Over the last 48 hours, I haven't spent a lot of time entertaining the idea that Kansas is going to lose to Duke because they just went on the road to West Virginia and Houston and they put up what was the final score 48 against they put 48 against Houston and 55 against West Virginia I mean I know that we have been preconditioned to just expect the wheels to fall off I'm still there man like I I get it I totally get it You can say whatever you want and say like, I believe this team is turning the corner culture, et cetera. I believe all of that, but you're like, uh, you're like a dog who was

sort of beaten as a puppy, right? You're just like, you're flinching at every possible sign of somebody raising their hand at you. And I, and I, I and I get that but you're nine and a half point favorites for a reason you were nine point dogs and you just won running away on the road you were 13 point dogs and you won by 13 I don't see it happening Duke has played one of the easiest schedules in the country to this point I think they rank 118th out of 131, dude. 118th out of 131. They are 3-0, but their three wins have came against Temple, Northwestern, and North Carolina A&T.

I don't feel like this is the game where Kansas' offense all of a sudden no longer has the ability to move the ball down the field. He's Nick Schwert. Again, you can check him out, Waving the Wheat, and on 610 in Kansas City. Nick, appreciate the time as always. Talk to you next week. Thanks, brother.

Coming up on tomorrow's show, we are going to be joined sort of. We have a fun little podcast with Josh Neighbors, who runs the Locked On Big 12 show, kind of talking about KU, the start to the season, some Big 12 football as well. So that'll be a fun episode that we'll share for you tomorrow that you can hear on the Locked On Big 12 feed or hear with Locked On Jayhawks.

If you have anything you'd like for the show to talk about or want to follow along in the action, you can reach out at DJohnsonRadio on Twitter. And don't forget to subscribe to the show so you're getting all the latest with Locked On Jayhawks. That'll do it for today's episode. Have a good rest of your day. We'll see some of you on Rock Chalk Sports Talk later today.

Deuces.