Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Early Look at Kansas Jayhawks Football vs Lindenwood & Illinois + DE Room Key to Defense Improvement

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we start our early lookaheads of KU's first two opponents, Lindenwood and Illinois, and we preview the defensive end room, which is maybe the biggest fulcrum to the defense improvement. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast network, your team every day. Hey, I'm Derek, Derek Johnson at the Johnson radio on Twitter. Thanks for making locked on Jayhawks. Your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:34 We're free and available anywhere. You get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like, and subscribe to the show. Thank you. The everydayers catching each and every show apologies. We did not have a show on a Monday, had a medical thing in the family that had to tend to so thank you for bearing with us and we will have a bonus episode today on your tuesday to make up for it so no worries there right we'll have a basketball episode later today today though we are talking ku football we're talking the early

Starting point is 00:00:59 preview of their first two games ku lindenwood and ku illinois and we're gonna get to our defensive end room preview, which is, I don't know, maybe the most biggest X factor of the positions on the KU defense to their improvement this season. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more as the playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel's hooking up all customers

Starting point is 00:01:22 with a booster bonus daily. That's right, there's something for everyone every day all summer long. So just visit FanDuel.com to get started today. All right, we're going to start with our Lindenwood early look ahead. Then we'll get to our early preview of the Illinois game. Then we'll finish up on the defensive ends. So this first game with Lindenwood, it's obviously an FCS opponent. It's one that they were in the naia like i don't

Starting point is 00:01:45 know a decade ago basically and they just kept creeping up the levels of college football now in the fcs and this is not a team that is supposed to be a great fcs team this season to uh kind of say the least so they went three and seven last year this is their second year of transitioning up from Division II, again, prior to that being NAIA. They bring back 14 starters, so maybe they'll end up creeping closer to 500. Seven back on offense, seven back on the defensive side of the ball.

Starting point is 00:02:15 So a good amount of experience there at the very least. Three of which are returning all-league selections among the 14 returning starters. They have a receiver who was an all-conference pick jeff caldwell one at defensive line in kobe mcclendon and then one at linebacker uh ethan stole sats i don't know if that's the proper way to pronounce that anyway they have seven transfers coming in from the d1 level from the fbs level i guess I should say, or, you know, from FBS, but not all power five. So they've won from power five, as I continue to mix up my words here. That was actually a walk on coincidentally

Starting point is 00:02:55 at Kansas, that was Reese Thomas. So overall three FBS transfers, one from power five, and even that one was was a walk on there. But I don't know, maybe a Reese Thomas revenge game against KU in this one. But overall, this is a game that you're going to be pretty heavy favorites in. They ranked just 77th in FCS football last season in yards per play. There are 128 FCS teams, by the way, if you're wondering. They ranked 87th in yards allowed per play a year ago. So, you know, I guess both of those aren't in the 100 range. Like, that's good.

Starting point is 00:03:31 They were, I guess, below average to bad at both. Maybe they can be average at both. And with all the starters back, they're a 5-5 team, like I said, and maybe they're a little better than last year. But they finished just 108th among 128 FCS teams on ESPN SP+. And on ESPN SP+, they have the 102nd best offense in the country and the 108th best defense there, again, of 128 teams. So that looks a little bleak.

Starting point is 00:03:58 There is a QB competition for them. Overall, the defense, I think, has more certainty back, even though both have seven starters back just because I mean the quarterback is such a key position that it's a little bit more uh knowing what you got there I don't think that this is like 2016 Rhode Island bad that was another level there which by the way if that 2016 Rhode Island team because that was against like still David Beatty bad KU if that was against like Lance Leipold good KU that Rhode Island team, because that was against still David Beatty bad KU. If that was against Lance Leipold good KU, that Rhode Island team,

Starting point is 00:04:29 it's like 80 to nothing. I don't know. It would have been very, very bad. So I don't think it's that bad. But among the FCS teams that KU has played since Lance Leipold's been here, so South Dakota, which almost beat them in year one, which that was a good South Dakota team, at least a solid South Dakota team. And then you

Starting point is 00:04:45 look at what Tennessee Tech oh gosh I don't even remember who it was last year at this point um oh Missouri State of course like this is probably the worst one that they played in the Leipold era and this could also probably be the best KU team in the Leipold era right we'll see what ends up happening this year compared to last year, which was a good season. But like on paper, you expect this one to be better than last year's one, right? So that just kind of leads to a formula where you're having expectations of it being a wide result in favor of KU, which I think that expected result is for KU to kind of smash them.

Starting point is 00:05:22 Basic offense should work here. And that's been something that's been a common theme for KU their last two years in FCS games they've been able to run just basic you know half halfback stretch or their wide zone plays or whatever you're gonna call it halfback dive just like straight up basic basic stuff we're not giving away too much on film and in the playbook and it works because you just have better players and you can execute your simple stuff, which is the hallmark of a good team. And you can do that early in the season against a lesser opponent and your offensive line dominates defensive line, dominates the game. You dominate

Starting point is 00:05:55 the line of scrimmage and you're running backs just out athlete the other team. And boom, Devin Neal ends up with four carries for like a hundred yards. You know what I mean? So they shouldn't have to get too adventurous basically just line up and dominate the game so what are what's going to be the key for KU like that just dominate in the trenches and you're going to be okay that was the case the last two years like you know looking back on it there were a couple plays where even Austin Booker which was kind of an unknown commodity at that point in the first game you just saw that first step looking really good coming around the edge and it was like okay showing a little bit

Starting point is 00:06:24 something but I want to see him do it against an FBS opponent. Well, it was still a, at least, I don't know, show that, hey, there's something here. And even the year before, like Lonnie Phelps said, what? It was like four tackles for loss and three sacks in the FCS game where it's not that he ever had another three sack game for KU in the FBS competition, but you could see in that first game, like, okay, that's a dude, right? And so you're looking for that stuff.

Starting point is 00:06:48 You're looking for that on the offensive and defensive line, just dominate in the trenches. Just don't do stupid things, penalties, turnovers, et cetera. It can be a little bit harder in the first game of the season, but certainly you want to feel clean coming after that first game. And then the most important thing for KU, just stay healthy. The more you dominate early, the sooner the starters can get out, the sooner that you can give playing time to younger guys

Starting point is 00:07:08 and players further down the depth chart, which will be good for their development and their play time and keeping everybody happy, stuff like that. So no injuries is kind of the biggest thing in that first game. And just win the game because you can't afford to lose a game like that. Anyway, let's get on to our early preview of the KU-Illinois game because I think there's a little bit more substance to that one on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:08:30 Thank you to the everydayers tuning in to each and every show on this episode of Locked On Jayhawks. Again, we'll have a bonus episode later today that is talking about David Coit, who is KU's newest transfer addition in Northern Illinois, or from Northern Illinois. Averaged over 20 points per game and how that could affect the rotation for KU and which players addition from Northern Illinois averaged over 20 points per game and how that could affect the rotation for KU and which players it could affect the most for KU Hoops.

Starting point is 00:08:51 Let's get to our early look at the KU Illinois game. And when you look at Illinois, this is a team you played a season ago. You played in Lawrence. It was a Friday night game for KU. They had the blackout with the cool black uniforms that I think everybody's hoping that they wear again for a game this season. I'm trying to think which game should they do the blackout for? Hmm. That's a good question. Do you do it early in the season on a Friday night again with like the UNLV game?

Starting point is 00:09:21 Or do you use it on a Big 12 game? I feel like that would be probably the better call. And then if you use it on a Big 12 game, which one do you do is kind of the question. Because like Iowa State sometimes wears black. Colorado sometimes wears black. So like do you not want to do it in those? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:09:37 Kind of an interesting question. Anyway, didn't need to get too much into that. Illinois went from eight wins in 2022 down to five wins in 2023. And that was after they lost a ton of talent from that 2022 team, specifically to the NFL draft and specifically in the secondary. Like their entire starting secondary was drafted into the NFL. And I'm pretty sure they had three picks. It might have been all four.

Starting point is 00:10:01 It was at least three got drafted in the first two days of the NFL draft, meaning top three round draft picks. And they had obviously their big one go in the top 10 to the Seahawks at the corner position. So like there was a lot to lose for a program like Illinois in the same way that would be a lot to lose for a program like Kansas. So we saw Kansas beat them 34 to 23 last season. That was a score that honestly was misleading to how,

Starting point is 00:10:27 I guess, how much KU dominated that game. Because that was a game where, like, you look up at the end of the season and you're like, oh, Kansas, you know, beat Illinois by 11 points and Illinois ended up being a 5-7 team. Like, that was a fine win for KU. It could have been more. KU just kind of let their foot off the gas pedal. You had in the second half of that game,

Starting point is 00:10:53 you had the Kobe Bryant and Austin Booker targeting calls. They were out for the rest of that game. Looking back, those are two all-Big 12 first-team players that you were without for a half. Oh, you were outscored 16 to six by Illinois without, you're probably two best defensive players a season ago. And it took weird stuff happening. Like Luke Altmyer running free for a 72 yard touchdown,

Starting point is 00:11:15 like on just a weird nobody's there. And also you just let your foot off the gas. You were up 34 to seven. You're up 34 to seven with three 46 to go in the third quarter. Like at no point did you feel like you were going to lose that game you know what I mean you out yarded them um 539 to 341 like I mean you dominated the game you were much better than than the score kind of indicated there and and to point being it'd be easy to say okay well they say on average you lose three to four points for like home field advantage. And that means the other team could gain that. That could be a six to

Starting point is 00:11:48 eight point swing. Are we talking about a coin flip game in Illinois? And maybe it ends up being, cause maybe Illinois just ends up being a lot better of a team. I'm going to get into what they have back and everything like that. But my point is I wouldn't view it that way because I view that game as being like, yeah, Kansas was probably like 21 points better. I don't know. So now this year, Illinois returns between five five to six offensive starters kind of depends what you're looking at some of the different pre-season magazines view it differently some of them view it as like how many do you return from your team that were starters i know like phil steeles magazine counts um in today's day and age he's adjusted to this with the transfer portal if you bring in a transfer

Starting point is 00:12:22 who started at another school and he's projected to start for you um then he'll count that as a returning starter you know which i think makes sense in today's day and age so somewhere between five to six offensive starters somewhere between five to seven defensive starters overall they have 39 letterman back they have 29 letterman gone and 12 of those left via transfer at the spring in the April portal opening, which that's obviously worse than just regular losses like graduation or even a player transferring after December to have 12 players leave after the April transfer portal. That seems like a lot. And obviously we talk about this a lot lot like it's harder to lose those guys

Starting point is 00:13:05 because you don't have as much opportunity to backfill them there's not as many players in the portal not as many good players in the portal and also like those guys have gone through spring ball they've developed a little bit more they know the system a little bit more they took reps from other players that could have been getting those reps in the spring so that's tough for Illinois to lose all those players uh Johnny Newton's gone from Illinois I thought he was the best player in that game for Illinois against KU he had a lot of good pressures on Jalen Daniels the one I think of most though was the one where he pressured Jalen Daniels and then Jalen just like darts away scrambling like back in his own end zone and fires the dart downfield uh so you know having Jalen's mobility still kind of counteracted it

Starting point is 00:13:43 a little bit but yeah he had a good game that one he's gone, they do return Luke Altmyer, a quarterback who I thought was pretty solid in that game. He had some ups and downs throughout the season. I think at one point got benched, but then he finished the season strong and looks like he'll be taking another step into this year. They do have a typically solid offensive line with Brett Bielema team. So I just almost expect that to be the case. And just like same with the running backs I just almost expect that to be the case and just like same with the running backs like you expect that to be good but you know they were a

Starting point is 00:14:09 little underwhelming there last year so we'll see uh Phil Steele does give Patrick Bryant who's one of their receivers third team all big 10 JC Davis who's a left tackle for them fourth team he's actually a transfer from New Mexico and then second team on Lindy's there. Center Josh Krutz was third team for all big 10 on Lindy's preseason magazine. And then linebacker Seth Coleman, third team on Phil Steele and on Lindy's. So those are some of the players to watch for there. What are going to be the keys for KU? I think you have to take advantage of turnover worthy plays.

Starting point is 00:14:42 That was one thing that kind of plagued Luke Altmyer. He was first in scramble yards, actually, for Big Ten quarterbacks. So, I mean, that'll be a key, too, is spying the quarterback. I mean, we saw it, the over-70-yard rushing touchdown he had against Kansas a season ago, or just making sure he doesn't run all over you. He was also number two in deep passes, so got to defend the deep ball. But the one thing that hurt Altmyer last year was the 10 interceptions and four fumbles, so 14 turnovers.

Starting point is 00:15:08 And that was, again, even getting, I don't know if it was benched or injury or whatever that caused him to miss some time at one point in the season. I think he's a pretty good quarterback, year two now in a system after he was top six in QBR in the Big Ten, former highly recruited guy that was at Ole Miss. I think he's going to be solid, but he probably will give you a chance for a pick or two.

Starting point is 00:15:31 So take advantage of those if you're KU. And then just be yourself. Like I think KU is the better team, going back to the idea that I think that game was more dominant than the score indicated. Like just be you, handle things on the road. Obviously that makes it tough, is just being on the road and doing that early in the season and doing it for the first time in a season.

Starting point is 00:15:49 You have to be able to handle that as well. And then dominate the line of scrimmage. As much as I do view Brett Beal in my teams, whether it was at Wisconsin or Arkansas or Illinois now, as typically having good offensive lines, it was not a super strength for them last season, and they do have a lot of new faces on the offensive line. You lost both tackles, even though you bring in a possible all-conference one from New Mexico.

Starting point is 00:16:09 Phil Steele only ranks them the 17th best defensive line in the Big Ten without Jerzon Newton. So dominate on both lines of scrimmage. We're going to get on to our defensive end room preview on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. By the way, for what it's worth, expected result, ESPN-FPI has KU at about 11-point favorite on a neutral site, so maybe 7.5 to 8.5 in a road game. All right, defensive end preview on Locked on Jayhawks next. We are brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience.

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Starting point is 00:17:43 Catching up with them after we just had our early preview of them. All right, let's get to our defensive end room preview for KU because this is maybe the fulcrum to the defense. You feel good about the secondary. You have a lot back, the depth behind it, even though it's maybe not super proven in terms of games played or career production, I think has a lot of talent from whether it's looking at recruiting levels

Starting point is 00:18:04 or intel from what the staff has been high on for for that you feel good about the secondary i feel good about the athleticism of the linebackers and that you're gonna have a step up there um i feel solid about the defense tackle room i feel like you've got solid guys that you can rotate in there and a few guys that you can point to and say okay maybe they're gonna have a breakout season right and that's always a good place to be. Defensive end room, I think is interesting. You split it in two.

Starting point is 00:18:30 You look at these strong side defensive ends, basically, and you have your Jeremy Robinsons, who's a senior, who we've seen produce at KU the last two seasons. You have Dylan Woodkey, who's a redshirt senior, who had really good production at Youngstown State before he transferred over. And then I don't know who else, if Cole Petras is competing more at the, I guess, weak side or if he's more on the strong side. He's a redshirt sophomore. He might be a walk-on.

Starting point is 00:18:55 Maybe he's earned or is earning a scholarship. I don't know, but it sounds like he could play. Also, I guess we'd throw Ron McGee in here i i sounds like he's working at defensive end he's been like a defensive tackle slash defensive end of points so he's coming off that injury that caused him to miss all of last season you feel good about that position like specifically with robinson and woodkey you could end up with five six seven combined sacks there i don't know maybe even more than that a good amount of tackles for loss. I feel really good that you're getting competent play,

Starting point is 00:19:29 whichever one is kind of rotated into the game. The big question there is the weak side defense. You have Dylan Brooks, who's injured right now. He's a redshirt junior. I don't know if he'll be back at any point this season, but the former Auburn transfer who was very highly recruited, maybe this would have been a breakout year for him. But again, he's injured right now.

Starting point is 00:19:46 DJ Warner, who's the young freshman, sounds like he's impressing so far. Dean Miller, who's a redshirt junior, former JUCO transfer from College of the Canyons, which is where like Jason Pierre Paul and Hollywood Brown went before they transferred up to USF and Oklahoma respectively. And Miller may be breaking out this year. Then you have By Jobe, who's a redshirt freshman, former highly recruited guy from Michigan state,

Starting point is 00:20:09 Dak Brinkley, who's a true freshman. He joined back in spring ball, got a little extra reps. Yeah. Like I said, maybe Petrus and then maybe Graydon Grimes. We mentioned him in the, the D tackle. I don't know if their plan for Grimes is defensive end or D tackle for the true freshman and the son of a offensive coordinator, Jeff Grimes. And then you've got a couple more walk-ons, Jaden Bittingham, who's a redshirt freshman,

Starting point is 00:20:27 and Maxwell Ford, who is a redshirt freshman. So the biggest storyline here is just, do you have the pass rush? I feel good about the requisite pass rush that you're going to get from the strong defensive end spot, which isn't going to be asked to be as good of a pass rush as the weak side. Maybe it does need to be just this year because you need to make up for it somewhere by losing Austin Booker. And maybe you will get that production. Just like I said, I mean, Robinson's been kind of a three, four sack guy the last couple of years. Woodkey, you don't know, totally know how his numbers translate up from Youngstown State,

Starting point is 00:20:57 but he could very well kind of be in the same boat. And that would be good production from that position. But what are you going to get from the weak side spot? Can you get, I don't know, three from Dean Miller? Can you get two from DJ Warner and one from Dak Brinkley and two from by Job to where you're kind of on aggregate building up the sack numbers from what you're getting from these guys? Or will one guy just step up and break out and have six or seven sacks on his own and be that guy. That kind of becomes the big question here. And if that can happen, I mean, I already feel like KU is going to have a chance

Starting point is 00:21:31 to improve as a defense, even if it doesn't, just because if you're better against the run and you're better at all these other positions, I think you could at least be a little bit better. But for you to be like a lot better, for this to all of a sudden become, I don't know, a top 40, top 30 defense in the country, you have to have those improvements at those other positions that I'm kind of expecting or, I don't know, wish casting or whatever it is. But you also have to have this pass rush production come up for that level to happen. And I do think it's possible because you have all sorts of talent,

Starting point is 00:21:59 you have all sorts of athleticism, you have all sorts of ceiling. And KU, give credit to Taiwo Onotolu and the KU, I don't know. I don't know if it's Brian Borland, Lance Leipold, whoever, but Onotolu, the defensive ends coach, for getting these guys ready, seemingly year in and year out. We've gone through the list before, from Kyron Johnson moving positions, from Lonnie Phelps transferring in as an All-Mac player, from Austin Booker who hadn't really played much in Minnesota,

Starting point is 00:22:24 and now what you're trying to do this year, he's been able to ramp guys up and get them to the requisite level needed closer to what their ceiling is than need be. Now, all those other guys were upperclassmen, even Booker, even though he was listed as a sophomore, he was a redshirt sophomore. He's still an upperclassman, his third year of school. And I guess that's the case for like Dean Miller would be for Dylan Brooks if he was healthy, but yeah, that'll be the big test here for KU.

Starting point is 00:22:45 And like I said, talking about the run, that's I think another storyline here. Can you at least be better against the run? Because if you are better against the run, you're improving one area of your defense that even if the pass defense gets a little bit worse, maybe it makes up for it. Or maybe by being a better run defense, you're in more manageable downs. You're in more third and seven, third and eight, third and 12. And now it's more predictable. You can send more blitzes. Your defensive ends can pin their ears back because they know it's a pass situation that they don't have to on a third and

Starting point is 00:23:13 three. You still have to, you know, worry about running the football. And maybe that takes a split second away from you rushing the passer. If you can at least be better against the run, then this would still be, I don't know, a chance for your defense to be improved, I guess I would say. So overall, better, worse, or the same to last year? I would say you're better at the strong defensive end spot. I would say you're worse at the weak defensive end spot. Austin Booker, by the way, just had like a huge game in the preseason.

Starting point is 00:23:38 I could see him end up being like one of the steals of the draft. That dude has unbelievable twitch. I think overall, you would say you're worse. Just, i mean austin booker was one of the best defensive linemen of the big 12 last year um but the question is is it slightly worse or is it way worse right are you going to get like no production from that spot from a bunch of unproven guys because that would be a big problem or is it slightly worse where like i said you're able to aggregate some of those players together where it's close enough and then the other positions can bring it together. And honestly, theoretically, like the ceiling of this defensive end unit is actually higher than it was a season ago.

Starting point is 00:24:15 Because I think the ceiling on what Dylan Woodkey could be is probably more than what Patrick Joyner. I mean, he was dealing with a bunch of injuries coming into KU. Jeremy Robinson is senior, probably higher ceiling than it was last season. As great as Austin Booker was, he was what, a fifth round pick in the NFL draft. And maybe if he comes back this year, balls out, he would have been a second or third round pick. I don't know. But in theory, the level to which like Deshaun Warner and Bai Zhou were recruited, if those guys like hit at some point of college where they eventually are a first-team

Starting point is 00:24:45 All-Big 12 guy, it might be a first or second or third-round pick. It's just a lot to ask because it's a lot of new players. It's a lot of freshmen. It's a lot of guys who haven't hit their ceiling yet in powerful football or have played a ton of snaps or have given a lot of production or know what to expect and are super experienced or have their bodies to 100% level. Now, a lot of the bodies, it sounds like, you know, the weights are going to be okay. Like for DJ Warner, if he's playing 225, 230, that's doable. Again, we brought up past guys that have shown up at other schools. Kari Coleman at TCU, he was around 220, and he had a bajillion tackles for loss as a true freshman for TCU.

Starting point is 00:25:22 So it can happen, but you just got to see it out there. But I think there is a lot of potential at the very least in that room for KU, even maybe more so than a season ago. Whether they hit that potential or not remains to be seen, but based on how the last couple of years have happened, it does give you some faith that they can try to do it. All right, we're going to get to our early preview of the next couple games, UNLV West Virginia, receiver room preview later in the week.

Starting point is 00:25:43 We'll also get to stocks up, stocks down on fall camp football players for KU. This has been Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Early Look at Kansas Jayhawks Football vs Lindenwood & Illinois + DE Room Key to Defense Improvement

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