Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Don't Worry Too Much About the KU Defense + Long-Term Impact of the WVU Win & Jalon Daniels

Episode Date: September 15, 2022

Although the Kansas Jayhawks football defense struggled at West Virginia, reasons not to be too worried. What's the long-term impact of the West Virginia win and Jalon Daniels' play? Plus, Scott Chasen's worst coaching decisions of the week.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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 Scott Chasen to talk to you football after their win over West Virginia. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well on rock chalk sports talk Monday through Friday from three to six on KLW and in Lawrence. Thanks for making locked on Jayhawks. Your first listen every day.

We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts on today's edition of locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be joined by Scott Chasen, who will talk to us about KU football. Maybe some playing time surprises or non-players so far in the season. Obviously with KU football beating West Virginia, what that means for the rest of the season and maybe long term for the Jayhawks and then his worst coaching decisions of the week. Scott Chasen, Booth Review.

You can check it out with Kansas City Sports Network with us again here on Locked on Jayhawks. And we've spent a lot of time this week talking about the offense. Jalen Daniels, deservedly so. They played great in the West Virginia game and so far this season. We haven't spent a ton of time on the defense. I mean, there's been some, but it's more so been, well, that wasn't great, but they still made the big stops when they needed to. I guess, where do you go from here with the defense? Because when I look at it, I see with the defense improvement in the

run defense. You still give up under four yards per carry against West Virginia, but clearly you struggled defending the West Virginia passing game really until the Kobe Bryant pick six. And when we look at some of the guys who are playing and aren't playing right now, you could make the argument that, oh, some of those new transfers, like maybe they're just not hitting and maybe that's not a great sign for improving the defense. You could also say maybe that's a good sign for the improvement internally.

You could also say that maybe that means reinforcements are on the way down the road because those guys are going to learn the scheme more. So what do you kind of make of the defense from what we've seen into the rest of the season? You made a really good point. I'm going to give you three names on a defensive breakdown that no one has talked about to this point and and I've tried to consume everything I can nobody's talked about this so the play when West Virginia scored to go up 21-7 and Kenny Logan took

the bad angle the players on that play who could have made a play before the ball got to Kenny Logan were Zion DuBose, Lorenzo McCaskill, and Jacoby Bryant. Jacoby Bryant was the corner who was blocked on the wide receiver screen, didn't make an attempt to go for the tackle. Zion DuBose was not quick enough recognizing that it was a screen. He kind of stood there frozen. And then Lorenzo McCaskill had an arm tackle. And that's why I think it was Bryce Ford Wheaton got to the second level. Kenny Logan takes the bad angle. And then I think everyone jumps on the back end of, and it was a bad angle, by the way, no one, no one should be saying, actually, Kenny Logan made a great play. No, it was the worst play he made all game, but that's how a touchdown happens like that. Like a long breakdown. West Virginia ran that play again.

And that play got blown up because Romello Dotson not a great tackler not a very physical guy fought through a block tripped the guy up and Lonnie Phelps made a tackle brought the guy down and so when I see the defense like watching back on film nothing is ever as good as you think and nothing is ever as bad as you think Kent says that everybody says that um and it's very true. I saw a defense that was really, really close and flat out. I've said this like a hundred times this week, Kansas went down 14 to nothing because I had four penalties on one drive, which never happens. Kansas is one of the least penalized team in the nation. And OJ Burroughs fell down defending a guy running to the end zone.

After that Kansas outscored West Virginia by 27 points. And not only that, three of West Virginia's touchdown drives involved fourth down conversions. So when you look at that game and ask me what was a little flukier, Kansas winning despite a horrible defense or a team got three fourth down conversions on different drives, scored touchdowns on all those drives, and also a dude fell down and they got a touchdown. Like I come away not impressed or promised or whatever by the Q defense. I just think it's a lot closer than people realize, and I'm expecting a much better defensive game in week three. I guess that's a good point that I hadn't really considered, too.

You also add in the play where it gets tipped up in the air and their guy catches it. Like, for most games, a ball that gets tipped up that high and hangs that high is an interception, right? And it ends up being a big play for them. So that is a good point that should give you maybe more optimism with where the defense is. I guess when you look at some of the snap counts of some of the guys who played from week one to week two, I had somebody reach out to me, and I'm sorry, I'm blanking on the name,

because I talked about this earlier in the week about maybe some of those guys are distancing themselves and I thought he brought up a good point he said that you know maybe a part of that was West Virginia is running fast and hurry up and so okay you can't sub they can't bring in all these players which I thought that was definitely an interesting point there but what do you kind of make of some of those those differences and has there been anyone that you've been kind of surprised so far with either the lack of playing time or the amount of playing time they've gotten you know Derek I was surprised in week one but then seeing guys I was less surprised

and the example I'll use is Lorenzo McCaskill who like before the season I was like this is KU's best linebacker like this dude is going to play all the time. And I don't think he's bad by any means. Like, I think he's a good player, but I think you're seeing what, first of all, not being there in the summer and the spring, and then also not even being there the first few days of camp. Like he looks hesitant to me and he looks a step slow. And when one guy in the defense is a step slow, it ruins everything. You know, you can't be in lockstep like Brian Borland tries to be. Little surprise, Gavin Potter hasn't played as much. I think that tells you that they feel pretty good about the, you know, Taiwan Berryhill,

Rich Miller, Craig Young. But he was listed as an or on the first depth chart. Now, sometimes those depth charts are done by media staff with some input from coaches. And so, um, I think they're not always the most reliable, but Gavin Potter has been one. I expected him to play a little bit more. Um, you know, I, I was a little curious how ready Lonnie Phelps and Craig Young were. I thought they would both be really important players on this team, but you know, I wanted to see it. So they've, they've probably both played a little bit more than I thought. And OJ Burrows that would be a big one for me. I guess if you want to go hold defensive backfield,

I did not expect this much from OJ Burrows, but I've actually thought he's held up well. And I tweeted out a video of him fighting through a block and making a tackle and Brian Borland, who is like not on Twitter, favorited that tweet. So I don't know what that means, but read into that all you want. I think he loves OJ. Kalen Girvin also not playing as much as I thought he would. So those are mine.

Do you have any different ones or any of those you feel strong about? No, the Potter one's funny because, yeah, he continued to be listed as the or there. I think he played like single digit snaps against West Virginia. And that's clearly no longer an or. Like it's Craig Young. We can stop acting like that's clearly no longer an or. Like, it's Craig Young. We can stop acting like that's a thing at this point. But, yeah, the Kalen Girvin one to me is the biggest surprise.

Like, Marvin Grant and OJ Burroughs in week one, we saw them split snaps. I was a little surprised that Burroughs was above 50 and Grant was still in the 30s, that it was that big of a difference. But it makes sense because Marvin Grant is more of a run-stopping, in-the-box safety, and OJ Burroughs is more of a pass but it makes sense because Marvin Grant is more of a run stopping in the box safety and OJ Burroughs is more of a pass defending safety and what situations were you mostly in against West Virginia it was it was passing the football so that makes sense and we're also both OJ Burroughs guys like doesn't he seem like the exact player that a coaching staff would love

because he is so instinctive and he helps you in so many ways there that that makes sense to me. Kalen Girvin is the one because that was a guy that got brought over as veteran leadership for a secondary. And it's not that I thought he was just going to be more talented than the guys KU has. KU's secondary with like Romello Dotson and Shad Dabney and Kobe Bryant. The question with those guys was never that they can't be talented enough. I know we've both talked about like how talented we think Kobe Bryant is, but all those guys was never that they can't be talented enough. I know we've both talked about how talented we think Kobe Bryant is, but all those guys are still really young.

And even after playing last year, they're still inexperienced compared to maybe other teams. And a lot of other teams are playing junior and senior corners out there. So that was the one that maybe is most intriguing to me on the defensive end. And then it's the linebackers like Eric Gilliard and Lorenzo McCaskill. Their snap count went down from week two. So I guess how much of that do you just make to it was, I guess, the first real game of the season, if that makes sense. And so clearly they're going to go with the guys they trust more right now

versus how much of that do you make as, no, those guys are seeing the arrow go up or down, depending if they're getting more or less playing time right now. Well, I think this game was the first real look at what they thought, because I think in the first game, you also dealt with like second half. So many bench guys were getting, you know, a ton of minutes or snaps, and that affects things a lot. I will say, and totally agreeing with you on the cornerback front, like I brought up the play where Jacoby Bryant didn't fight through a block, didn't attempt to make a tackle. And then at the, the backend, everyone remembers Kenny Logan's mistake. That was an emphasis coming into the year.

And I think Michael Swain wrote a good piece that kind of broke this down that Brumello Dotson, Jacoby Bryant needed to tackle better. That was a coaching emphasis. That was a player emphasis. And it's hard when you're a freshman and you're kind of wiry, you don't have the weight put on to get your body beat up like that. You know, it's really, it's funny. I I'm a Jacoby Bryant fan. I think he's a very good player and I'm on record as saying I, it really annoys me watching a football team. If I'm rooting for them, if a cornerback

just like backing off and giving up underneath and underneath and underneath Jacoby Bryant was targeted a ton. He gave up like 90 receiving yards, but Jacoby Bryant's more likely to make a mistake going for an interception than he is like giving way too much of a cushion. And with that, you get the good, the spectacular plays right at the end of game. So I have been a little bit surprised that he and Mello Dotson, I guess it's now Kobe Bryant and Mello Dotson, um, Kobe and Mello. That's funny. Um, uh, I I've been a little bit surprised with just their use. I do think that the hurry up stuff has something to do with it, but, um, I don't necessarily know if there's a person right now that I'm thinking like, man, that guy a ton more snaps I guess I don't I didn't really look at the defensive tackles like I'm assuming

Caleb Taylor guys like that still played a good bit and so yeah it's kind of crazy but I think week two was the first real look at the team and how they want to play those guys okay in just a moment we're going to get on to what the win means long-term in terms of this season long-term and maybe some stuff after that as well. But first, BetOnline.net is your number one source for all your pro and college football betting needs and sports information this season. Find all of the latest Football League developments, game matchups, news, and podcasts, including this year's opening week's games. BetOnline is also your continued source for all your sports wagering information,

including live betting, esports, and scores. The fastest and easiest way to check in on all your favorite sports and events, including MLB, MMA, boxing, and golf. Head to the website today or use the mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. KU on the single-point underdogs to Houston at the moment at BetOnline, where the game starts. KU takes down West Virginia. The win total for me that I projected them winning, I said three or four at the start of the year,

but I did not have them beating West Virginia. So I guess for me that would bump it up to four or five wins, which this is not me saying they'd make a bowl game, but if you're winning four or five games, you are a bowl contender. So I think that's what it does, especially if Jalen Daniels is legit legit which he looks like right now what did the West Virginia game do for you in terms of the the 2022 season outlook oh it's it's changed it and and my whole thing coming into the season was KU's a zero to three win team two to three win team, unless, and I said this again a bunch of times, so people are probably tired of me saying it, but if Jalen Daniels is

consistently week to week as good as he was at the end of last year, then Kansas is not zero to three, Kansas is four to six. With the West Virginia win, I'm at like four to five now. I think it would not be a disappointment in a vacuum if KU only won three games, like looking back on this season, whatever. But I think it would be a disappointment from you start on two and you went on the road. Like, yeah, you would hope to win a couple more times. And in fact, I'll say if Kansas starts three now, especially again, they have all these winnable games early, which is considering how many new offensive wrinkles they have and how much continuity they have. Um, it's just such a boost for Kansas. Like imagine being Houston and you're in week three and you're like, I had to prepare for all this triple option and wide zone. And now they're passing it this way. And like, you just be, uh,

baffled. You wouldn't know where to start. Um, so yeah, season outlook, I'm probably on four or five right now. Three is still in the realm of possibility. I think it would be very disappointing if they finished with two, but I expect, what are these next games? You've got Houston and Duke. I'd absolutely expect them to win one of those. Then you've got TCU and Iowa State. I'd expect them to win one of those.

And then let's talk about Texas Tech and maybe K-State, depending on the quarterback play there at the end of the year. You try and win one of those. And then let's talk about Texas tech and maybe K state, depending on that, the quarterback play there at the end of the year, you try and win one of those. That's how you get to five. And I've given you three sets of games. So it's not like they have to win this one or this one, you know,

like I've given you three sets of games. So that's where I'm at. I I'm thinking four to five right now. It makes sense. Yeah. If, if you told me to start taking them seriously to actually making a bowl,

I think they would need to win this week against Houston for me to do that. And it's the continued progression, I guess, of Jalen Daniels. You're right. It's still such a small sample size when you looked at what he did last year and even just adding the two games this year. But I'm kind of to the point now where I'm ready to declare he is a top-half quarterback in the Big 12. Are you there? I'm there. I'm kind of to the point now where I'm ready to declare he is a top half quarterback in the big 12 are you there I'm there I'm probably top three um I will say like

I'm really excited about Jalen Daniels I really like Jalen Daniels and and from the time he's been on campus starting games as a 17 year old freshman even though he wasn't here in the spring um like Brent Dierman who basically stuck his neck out for Jalen Daniels has told everyone, this dude is the truth. Just wait. And now it's a different staff, obviously developing him, but I've been pretty sold on him.

The turnover thing though, we haven't seen it yet be a concern. He threw a couple of picks. What in the end of the end of the season last year in the last game. So far you really one throw he put in jeopardy in an option toss that was, you know, a bad mistake in the opener that could have been a fumble or was a fumble, but KU recovered. It hasn't bit KU, definitely didn't bite KU against West Virginia. And I would go as far as to say he was conservative against West Virginia, which I was

really impressed by given the weather. You know, there was an option play in overtime. That was definitely a pitch like guy running completely unblocked defender has committed to him. I think it was Luke Grimm, but he didn't pitch it. And again, Michael Swain pointed this out to me. It's like, it's a monsoon it's raining. Like you saw how many fumbles there were. I think that was a conscious decision, the play where he was roughed, roughing the passer. That was another one where there was a deep route. He could have tried to force it in an overtime. It was a third down. Instead, he went with the check down. And even though it lost yards, he was saying at worst, Kansas is getting a field

goal here. I'm not going to risk this touchdown or interception if the throw is not there. So I was really impressed by that. If he can do that again this week, similar to you and similar to what I said about the bowl game, I'll be sold. I'm not going to be like, well, let's see. I want to see one more just because we heard so much about in camp that maybe he was being a little turnover prone and not protecting possessions as much. So this is kind of the week for me that I want to see this.

Tech had a bunch of turnovers last week against this Houston team. Yeah, let's see if Jalen Daniels can protect the ball. And if he can, then it no longer becomes a conversation for me of like, when will the turnover show up? But instead just like, yeah, Jalen Daniels is top two or three big 12 quarterback. Um, and production wise, he'll probably end up top half, but yeah, to me, to me, he's already in that range. I say all the time too, like pass rush is the easiest way to create turnovers. It's strip sacks. It's forcing pressure, forcing quarterbacks to throw early, maybe into bad decisions.

And so far they have no sacks. So I do think those things are kind of correlated there, which Houston's got a good pass rush. But part of the reason I ask with Jalen Daniels is if we're already there, that he is a top five. And you said, I even think top three quarterback in the Big 12. And I obviously asked you what the West Virginia win would mean toward the rest of this season. Now we start looking ahead to the future of this program because Jalen Daniels has two more seasons left at Kansas, right? And if he is already a top half or top three quarterback this year,

is there a chance Jalen Daniels could end up being the best quarterback in the big 12 by the time he's done? It's what if Thursday, Derek? Um, no, look, I think, well, I mean, there's a chance. I, I don't think he is. There's a chance he's the best quarterback in the big 12 right now. Like the big 12 is kind of down on quarterbacks. And especially when you were being injured. Um, I think there's legitimate questions so it's like it it depends kind of how you view it but i'll say this like if jalen daniels this is kind of a hedge in a cop app but i don't care um if the way he's played the first two weeks if this lasts the whole season he's the best quarterback in the big 12 period so like that's that's the bar he set for himself now i don I don't think that's fair. Like, I think you have to expect some regression just because,

I mean, he ranks third in the nation in QBR and he ranked that way after the FCS game. And now he ranks that after a big 12 game. So like he didn't move that that's how good his quarterback plays, but he's, he's been absolutely electric. Um, I think that, that idea that he can return one, possibly two, but really one more season, I think that tells you that you would really, really expect Kansas, if not this year, to be in bowl contention and or making a bowl game next year because you do bring so much back and you bring back a two-time essentially starting quarterback that you feel great about. Like if there is staff and quarterback continuity here, yeah, I think Jim Daniels will easily be a top couple quarterback

in the Big 12 next year, and Kansas will be in contention for a bowl game, again, with the hedge contingent that this does last and this goes throughout the season. Coming up shortly, we got to get to Scott's worst coaching decisions of the week. We're back, and another week, more dumb coaches making, I guess I shouldn't say dumb coaches,

sometimes smart coaches making dumb decisions, right? Like, you know, good people do bad things, smart people do dumb things, so it's not necessarily a judge on their character, but at least in the moment, and we should probably bring up, up this is for college we would have so many more with the nfl i mean the denver broncos nathaniel hackett stuff um i don't know did you put some nfl ones on there i don't really care i mean there's so many to go around i had i come up with the top three originally i left the college football weekend the three that i felt pretty good about like the duke northwestern game had some crazy stuff neil brown was going to be on this list absolutely i

had like a list and then like the nfl happened and i was like nah this whole list is now nfl that's fine if that's okay we can do an nfl week and then i'll go back to college next week but their nfl coaches made crazy decisions listen listen i i I will. If you go to a high school football game and you want to put those on there, I don't care. I just I just thought all of yours were college this week. But hey, any coaching decisions that are dumb? Let's bring them up. So who are the candidates this week?

And then I'll see if I can guess who the winner is. Yeah, I'm just going to go to like Lawrence High and Free State and just start ripping like Clint Bowen with a terrible like a fourth and two. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Okay. So number one, Texans Colts, 26 seconds left in overtime, fourth and three at the plus 49, 26 seconds left. So if you don't get this, you might lose the other team might get a field goal, but if you convert,

yeah, you're in field goal range. Or at least you can try like a crazy field goal for the win. Um, yeah, instead they punted, I believe that was the Texans who punted and lovey Smith, um, shocking to me. And he said after the game, well, we didn't want to lose. So that's, that's great. That's half. Um, but yeah, a tie is really not going to get it done, especially in division. Um, second Bengalsers. I believe Zach Taylor is the coach of the Bengals. Zach Taylor is a really good coach who's in the category of, like, really good coach who constantly makes idiotic decisions. Great schematic coach. Yes, great schematics, play caller, X's and O's.

It's kind of like Andy Reid a little bit. Yeah, except this guy makes the wrong decisions at all times. So like for starters, the Bengals scored a go ahead touchdown or tying. I think it was go ahead or tying plus the extra point by Jamar chase clearly in. And he just like, doesn't challenge it.

They rule them out at the one, like the announcers are like, or I was watching red zone. The guy's like, uh, that's a, do they not see that's like, that's a touchdown doesn't challenge it. And then they get stuffed for, you know, four downs, they don't

score. And then they end up losing that game in overtime. Also in overtime, they were punting the ball back to Pittsburgh in like the final minute. And they punted with 13 seconds left on a running play clock. And he said he did it on purpose because they had like a new punt operation. They just wanted to make extra sure it went smoothly. Well, they gave the Steelers an extra 13 seconds. They kicked the game winning field goal as time expired. I love that they made that public to the like, hey, we always snap it at 13 seconds because now every every other other team special team is going to be like, I jumped the snap right at 13. So dumb.

Okay. The third decision, Nathaniel Hackett. I don't know if you heard about this one, Derek, this kind of went under the radar. So he had a fourth and five and I can't remember where the ball was. Well, I could tell you it was whatever it would take to kick a 64 yard field goal. And they had all three timeouts. So in theory, the play here is you go for it super quickly knowing that if you get it, okay, now we can run clock. We can run it down, kick a field goal. And if we don't get it, we've got three timeouts, whatever. Instead, he ran the clock all the way down to burn a timeout.

So now he's eliminated any chance of winning the game if he gets the ball back and it misses, but then you would figure, okay, he's still going to go for it with two timeouts. It's just like, this is the final play of whatever. No, they kicked the field goal from 64. You know, 63 yards was the NFL record for a field goal that stood for like 40 years. So I don't know why some coaches think they can just like strut out and do that. I think I saw the stat that 64 plus yard field goals are NFL kickers are two for 42 from that range. So anyway, they kicked the field goal.

It didn't go in. And then I kind of felt bad for him. Like clearly panicked. He started taking timeouts on the kneel down. And it was like, yeah, he just doesn't like good coach, horrible decision. And the Broncos, for some reason, cannot hire a good football coach. I love it. Well, if I'm picking the winner, it's got to be Nathaniel Hackett.

I feel like it's not even close, right? I want to give it to Zach Taylor because he deserves it, Derek. And I want to give it to Lovey Smith. But yes, it's Nathaniel Hackett. All right. Well, Scott, appreciate the coaching decisions, the worst ones of the week. And we'll talk to you next week. Always a good coaching decision. Listening to Locked on Jayhawks with Derek Jones. And check out Booth Review on Kansas City Sports Network with Scott as well. Thanks again, dude.

Thanks. That's Locked on Jayhawks. Derek Johnson. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and check out everything here with Locked on Jayhawks. See you Monday.