Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Early Look at Kansas Jayhawks Football vs Missouri State + First KU Depth Chart Released

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, it is KU football game week. College football has officially begun. Let's talk what we're most excited to see from the Jayhawks in their game against the Bears. Early thoughts on the first depth chart being out and more about KU on today's edition of the show. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:33 I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. They get all the everydayers out there. You can like and subscribe to the show on our video version too with our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:00:54 On today's edition of the show, we're talking KU football. They released their first official depth chart of the season and an early look at the Missouri State game for Kansas. First, though, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. of the season and an early look at the Missouri State game for Kansas. First, though, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, official sportsbook of Locked on. Make every moment more right now. New customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed.

Starting point is 00:01:21 Visit FanDuel.com slash Locked on to get started. All right, so it is officially game week. This is coming out on your Tuesday, which means we've got just two more days in between and three more full days before you get on to Friday with KU taking on Missouri State at 7 o'clock. It was nice to see college football over the weekend. It was nice to see week zero and everything back, but it's going to be even more nice with KU football there.

Starting point is 00:01:43 You feel that extra whiff of football in the air. It feels great this week, that's to say the least. Now, what am I most excited to see in the first game of the season? Obviously, there's only so much you can and can't learn in an opening game. Now, obviously, if you lose a game to an FCS opponent, if you look bad in some regard to an FCS opponent, that's very telling, but it's from a negative standpoint. From a positive standpoint, it is such a weird situation being because if you end up winning the game 45 to seven, or if you go off and as a quarterback, you have 300 yards or as a running back, you have 150 yards. It's kind of just like, okay, that was a great performance. We expect you to be good and we know you're good, but that doesn't tell us how you're going to necessarily perform in some of

Starting point is 00:02:28 the other upcoming games because it's not indicative of the proper competition. And it's almost like, okay, that was cool. Show it to us again in a bigger game. But then if you struggle, if you, you know, struggle to tackle the other running back in an FCS game, we do hold it against you. So it is kind of a plus minus in that there are certain things you're not going to be able to learn from this game. If KU puts up 60 points, you're not going to come out of it going, this offense is even better than it was last year. No, it's just going to be like, oh, the offense is good. And you beat up on a team who's worse than you, right? So there are certain things you can and can't take away, but I'm just in general with Jalen Daniels, even though I don't think there's a ton you'll be able to take away

Starting point is 00:03:04 positive or negative from what he does. You know, if Jalen goes out there and he throws three interceptions, not ideal, but I'm not going to come away from the game against Missouri State and be like, oh, something's wrong with Jalen, the back injury. And you know, he's just not the same. No, we're not going to do that. We're going to be like, well, the track record, Jalen Daniels, still a good player. He probably just had a bad game. Flip side of that. If Jalen Daniels has a great game, Jalen Daniels goes out there, throws for 300 yards, runs for another 100, has a bunch of touchdowns, I'm just going to be, okay, we knew Jalen Daniels was a good player. He had another game where he showed why he is a good player, right? There's not going to be anything that we

Starting point is 00:03:37 necessarily learn about Jalen Daniels. I'm just excited to see Jalen Daniels because it's fun every time we get to see Jalen Daniels he is an enticing exciting uh super fun talent that you don't want to miss and you don't know how many more games of Jalen Daniels in a Kansas uniform you're going to get you know both in terms of he's had the injury history in the past like any injury can happen at any point to any player but if Jalen Daniels has the type of season that you're hoping he has and can live up to the preseason Big 12 conference offense player of the year and he gets that in the postseason, there's a chance he goes pro at the end of the season, meaning this would be the final season

Starting point is 00:04:13 for Jalen in a Kansas uniform. Now, you don't know that's going to be the case. Maybe he does come back for another year. But it's better to prep like it is, right? It's better to prep and just have fun with every game and have fun with every last experience. Enjoy what you've got with Jalen Daniels while you have it. Cause you don't know how long you're going to have it. So even in an FCS game, enjoy it while you've got it. Plus there

Starting point is 00:04:35 is the questions with the back injury and stuff, and it sounds like he's going to be good to go and starting. And I don't think it's going to have an impact on the game or anything, but yeah, that does become a bit of a question. What does that look like? And does that become a storyline into the season the same way it has in the preseason? I think overall from the defense, what I want to see is just don't have that bad first impression going back in line with what I was saying about, you know, we're not going to necessarily,

Starting point is 00:04:56 if the defense pulls a shutout against Missouri state, if they hold them into 10 points, we're not going to come away from the game and say, Oh, see, defense is fixed all the issues from last year. They're gone. We're not going to do that, but we will hold it Oh, see, defense is fixed. All the issues from last year, they're gone. We're not going to do that, but we will hold it against the defense. If they go out and give up 31 points,

Starting point is 00:05:09 if they give out a lot of yards and points to the Missouri state offense, just don't have a bad first impression this year is basically what I'm saying. Just have a whole home game. You know, you can give some points. It's, we'll see how good the Missouri state offense is. Their offense coordinator is the son of Bobby Petrino, who was the head coach of the team last year. Typically, you think of really good offenses there. I'm sure they have some good offensive talent.

Starting point is 00:05:31 If you give up 17 points, you're going to give up some points. It's going to be understandable. But yeah, don't give up 31. Don't give up 38 points. Don't have trouble getting off the field consistently over and over again. Don't have that bad first impression. I think specifically when you're looking at players and units on the defense, I'm looking at the defensive line.

Starting point is 00:05:50 Are you getting a good push? Are you getting blown back on their running plays and giving up too big of holes? Are you getting pressure to the quarterback? You can only end up with one or two sacks in the game, but are you consistently getting quarterback hurries? Are you consistently affecting the play and causing the offense to do other things that they don't want to do? And then, you know, from the linebacker spot, like JB Brown, I just want to kind of see what he looks like overall in a Kansas uniform. Heard so much about his athleticism traits,

Starting point is 00:06:18 his strength traits, his speed traits. I want to see what that looks like on a field that he's a hard hitter. I want to see what it looks like in a Kansas uniform kind of mixing into things in addition to that defensive line. Can the offensive line, like, can you have a road grading game? That was one thing that was cool about the Tennessee Tech game is they were basically able to at certain points just say, we're going to run a basic play. We're going to run this wide zone play, this halfback dive play,

Starting point is 00:06:40 and it's not going to matter that we're not overcomplicating things because we don't want to put too much on tape for our next opponent, which is West Virginia, which you don't want to put too much on tape for your next game, which is Illinois. And you want to be able to run those simple plays and just have them be your bread and butters that you're going to need over the course of the season, but just be able to open up gigantic holes. There was a Devin Neal 80-yard rushing touchdown against Tennessee Tech in the game last year. That was just a simple wide zone play. He had good vision on it, good speed, good cutting to get through there.

Starting point is 00:07:12 But the offensive line opened up such a gigantic hole that any of the KU running backs would have scored that 80 yard touchdown. You want to see the offensive line do that again. You want to see them road grade. You want to see them be dominant and open up those huge holes that it doesn't really matter what the KU offense does. They can just move the ball and have success with it because one, that can be sustainable over the course of the season. And two,

Starting point is 00:07:28 it allows you to hide some of those things for the future weeks, including the very next week against that good Illinois team. I think in general, anytime you're watching a team play their first game, this doesn't matter what sport, what team it is. You want to see the new guys. You want to see the transfers.

Starting point is 00:07:41 You want to see the freshmen. Obviously it'll depend for the freshmen, like how much Kansas can get up by can you send it to the second strings can you send it to the third strings in the second half in the fourth quarter at different points for how much you're going to see some of them I think of the true freshmen the only guys on the two deep it was I could be wrong with this but uh Calvin Clements at one of the tackle positions Damon Greaves at at the punter position Keaton Kubeka at the receiver position. I could be missing somebody there, but those are the ones that come to mind. But a lot of newcomers in terms of transfers, obviously.

Starting point is 00:08:12 You know, you look at Dylan McDuffie at the running back position. You go on the offensive line, like could we see Logan Brown in with the twos or rotating in at different points in time? Looking at the defense, a ton of transfers from the defensive end spot with like Dylan Brooks, Austin Booker to Gage Keys, defensive tackle, Devin Phillips, JB Brown, who I already talked about, maybe even Damarius McGee in there. He was listed on the two deep as an or with Quentin Laster. So a lot of new players. You just want to see what they're like in a KU uniform for the first time. And the last thing here is special teams in general.

Starting point is 00:08:42 Does the kicker look good right now? There's a lot of oars on the depth chart, so who exactly wins out some of those battles? Is KU using Australian-style punting for how they want to do it? Are they using two punt returners at once? Are they doing more classic stuff? Sounds like Trevor Wilson's going to be heavily involved in the special teams. We didn't see a ton of him last year because he had the off-the-field stuff that kept him out the first part of the season,

Starting point is 00:09:03 and then he had the injury that kept him out of the back half of the season after he actually played well in that Baylor game down in Waco so having him back does he get reintegrated in a good level and how much is he helpful to that special teams where you're looking for more explosivity and and guys that can make those big plays happen which we know Trevor Wilson can do just that I want to see what all that looks like schematically does it look any different with Sean Snyder and some of the analysts that they've had and have kind of brought to the table? You want to see that in that first game,

Starting point is 00:09:30 some of the system stuff, the process stuff that can be more translatable than maybe necessarily the results that you're looking for in that first game. All right, we're going to continue on with locked on Jayhawks here. Can you release their first depth chart where I was most wrong, where I was most right, biggest takeaways from it overall, and then an early look at the KU Missouri State game here with Locked on Jayhawks. First though, this episode of the show

Starting point is 00:09:52 is sponsored by BetterHelp. Obviously, there are going to be times when you feel uncertain about something in life, whether it's a relationship, job advice, just something in your day-to-day, and you're trying to power through it. You know, I talked to my parents, I'll talk to my wife, I'll talk to other people to bounce stuff off of. And obviously, you have to go through those internal discussions with yourself about, you know, how you're going to make this decision. But it's nice to have other people to talk to about it. And sometimes with those tough choices in life, the path forward isn't always clear. Whether you're dealing with decisions around your career, relationships, anything else,

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Starting point is 00:11:25 off your first month that's better help help.com slash locked on college are the KU football depth chart is uh officially out for week one and we'll see how much this gets updated over the course of the season I know last year um it did not get updated like too much over the course of the year um here's a graphic if you're on our YouTube page. Like and subscribe there. We'll explain what we are if you're listening on audio. Biggest areas I was right, biggest areas I was wrong with the opening depth chart for Locked On

Starting point is 00:11:53 in some of my predictions last week. I think I felt most right about the offensive line. Had the starting offensive line, I kind of left it open that I wasn't sure Ford or Reed Adams Adams would start at left guard or right guard. So I guess I took a little bit of a cheat there. But I think beyond that, I've kind of said that regardless who's listed on the two deep, I expect, because they basically have three main guys they're going to go to off the bench, that maybe each of them can play

Starting point is 00:12:17 two different positions. I think those are Baines, Brown, and Lavelle. And like if Novitski, for instance, got hurt, they'd just move Ford over from right guard to center and then maybe bring in Lavelle. And like if, if Novitski, for instance, got hurt, they just move forward over from right guard to center. And then maybe bring in Lavelle at right guard, or maybe you bring in Kobe Baines at right guard, right? It's not all an exact science that you immediately put the second string in for the first string on this offensive line.

Starting point is 00:12:36 So I feel good about that. I feel good that I got right on the Hayden Hatcher thing. I thought it made a lot of sense that he would start right away. Would not be shocked if Austin Booker is starting by week three of the season or something, or week two of the season. But I think with Hayden Hatcher and Austin Booker, I think the competition was close. It was interesting. There wasn't an or there. But I think you go back to Taiwan, Berryhill too. It's kind of a respect thing from the staff that, hey, you've worked hard. In the case of Berryhill, he's been dealing with injuries. You don't lose your spot to injury. And with Hatcher, it's like you worked hard, not just this year,

Starting point is 00:13:04 but over the course of your career, you're an older player as a senior. We're going to give you that first nod because it's close between you and Booker. It's not to say that they would automatically be like, oh, Austin Booker outplayed him, but we have to start the senior. I don't think they would do that. They're all about competition. But if it's tied, if the competition is equal, you go with maybe in that point the upper hand to the upperclassman,

Starting point is 00:13:24 and that doesn't shock me that they're going to give him first role but I wouldn't be surprised like I said if Austin Booker shows out that that he eventually takes that spot away biggest area I was wrong I will go to the Taiwan Berryhill one I thought JB Brown I I wasn't totally sure about it I took a risk and put him in the starting lineup I thought at least though he would be an or with Taiwan Berryhill I I felt confident that at least that was going to happen. That didn't end up happening. Taiwan, Barry Hill, no or there, maybe that goes back in line with the idea. You don't lose your spot due to injury because you know, with Barry Hill, he's been banged up over the course of fall camp. And I

Starting point is 00:13:56 thought that would leave an opening for JB Brown. So I guess it becomes interesting. Still would not be shocked if by middle of the season, JB Brown does become a starter there. The other part of this is the DJ Withers one, you know, Tommy Dunn had a nice breakout over the last year and a half. D.J. Withers has come on really strong here. I had Tommy Dunn as a starter. I didn't necessarily have him as an or with D.J. Withers. I figured D.J. Withers would play a lot. And to be clear, I don't think this impacts. Both Dunn and Withers are going to play lots of snaps and rotate a good amount. But at this point, it wouldn't even be shocking if Withers is actually named the starter and there's an or there for who could get that starting lineup. Maybe it'll matter just who practices better for this specific week. If I

Starting point is 00:14:33 go to the special teams version of this, this graphic looks silly on our YouTube page, but hello. Yeah, whatever. If we go to the special team side of things, I thought it was surprising that Seth Keller was an or with Owen Peeper-Gerdes. I do think Seth Keller has maybe struggled a bit down the stretch in camp, so maybe it leaves it open, and this week is about competition. But with punter, I think the Damon Greaves or Graydon Addison, I think that's more so they don't want it to get out as much that they're going to be doing like Australian style punting maybe and they're trying to preserve that I think it's silly because after you do one punt everyone

Starting point is 00:15:10 will know at that point in time um I don't know maybe it is an open competition but I've heard good things about Damon Greaves to make me think he is going to be the starting punter and maybe that's just kind of what uh that is kind of hiding on that end of things. Now, other things of note in this depth chart, Trevor Cardell and Jared Casey listed as oars, I think is very interesting because as much as Trevor Cardell, you heard good things about what he was doing in fall camp and that he's one of the breakout players. I didn't know that I necessarily expected him to usurp Jared Casey or at least be online with him.

Starting point is 00:15:42 Now, maybe this is more indicative because, too, if you look all through this, even though there are guys listed as oars, all of the guys who are listed as oars, the guy who is on top of the other is the one that it feels like from a media standpoint is the guy who is slightly ahead of the other, right? Like you see Dylan Brooks or Davion Westmoreland, but most people feel like Brooks is ahead of Westmoreland.

Starting point is 00:16:04 You see a Booker with Patrick Joyner, but most people see Booker slightly ahead of Joyner there. You see O.J. Burroughs or Marvin Grant, but you feel like Burroughs may be slightly ahead there. You see some of these where it's like, well, it feels like the guy on top, Kobe Baines or Nolan Gortica, is actually slightly ahead of Jared Casey. He's on top in that regard so if jared casey is below him what does that mean for his playing time what does that mean for trevor cardell's or is it more indicative that they're different like if it's if it's the true tight end one spot trevor cardell would be more of the backup or the second tight end but if it's specifically for like an H-back, fullback, slash tight end type of guy, then that's going to be Jared Casey.

Starting point is 00:16:48 But I found that very interesting. Five running backs on the two deep. How about Lachlan getting on there? That's kind of cool for him. And then Keaton Kubeka is the only player on here. So among all the positions, there are certain position groups where there are more than two guys on the position. Like I just said, running back has five of them, but the only position where there are more than two guys

Starting point is 00:17:10 without there being an or is Keaton, Quebec at the X Lawrence Arnold, Tanaka, Scott, Keaton, Quebec, every other position that has three or more names on it. There's an or on it, not the case with X. So why would they go for a three deep at just this one position? Well, I think it tells you that, you know, sometimes with young players have talked about this before. You want to make sure they're encouraged. Their camp is encouraged that even if they're not on a two deep, that they know they're close to cracking it, that they know the future is there for them because you don't want those

Starting point is 00:17:36 players to transfer. It could be a nod to that. It could be a nod that you feel like, you know, I don't know that you feel like this guy is close and you want to reward him because they had a great camp and you want them to feel encouraged and them to know that, yeah, it's right around the corner for you. It really just shows their appreciation of him, which I thought was cool and gives you insight into among that freshman class receivers. He's clearly being seen

Starting point is 00:18:00 as the guy with the most so far from that group. We're going to finish things up here with, you know, I guess some other news and notes with the captains being named. No really injuries were of note. The Jalen Daniels thing, I don't know, it's kind of more of a no-show thing, but sounds like he's going to be good to go fully in the game for KU and early thoughts on the KU Missouri State game here with Locked on Jayhawks. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you

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Starting point is 00:19:14 the number changes. Visit FanDuel.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season with an offer you won't want to miss. FanDuel, an official partner of the NFL. All right, so other, I guess, news and notes. Again, Jalen Daniels sounded like he's going to be fine. He's going to be starting everything. Jalen, Mike Nowitzki, Mason Fairchild, Rich Miller, those were your four captains that were named by Lance Leipold. So ESPN SP Plus is the really good thing by Bill Connolly that it's kind of like the Ken Palm of college football.

Starting point is 00:19:45 It's predicting the game, which typically the line in Vegas is within a point or two of the SP+. It's a really good system. Now, maybe it'll be a little different because in a game like this against an FCS opponent, maybe it's just slightly off there. But it has it as a 19.5 point margin, about 39 to 19 on the score in favor of KU. If that line comes out at 19 and a half or 20 I think eventually it'll get bet up to like 23 or 24 so if you do see the line come out at like 20 I would say get on that number early because I think it's only going to

Starting point is 00:20:16 get harder for the KU side of things um and from a KU standpoint like this is a game where you feel like you know if we played all our second strings, we've got an experienced backup quarterback, we should be able to still win. We have more talent, physicality. Missouri State's only bringing back eight starters, which is less than you have on your entire offense alone. Not to disrespect Missouri State, because this is a good team. Good FCS team.

Starting point is 00:20:39 It's in probably the toughest FCS conference. They almost beat Arkansas a season ago, but that's a lot of players to lose. They lost probably their receiver one to transfer. They lost one of their players who could have been one of the starting quarterbacks. They might rotate guys, I don't know, coming into the camp here. And also on top of it, they still have some coaching continuity, even though Bobby Petrino is gone, who's probably, I'd imagine, recruited and brought some good players in there that he's stocked the cupboards full. So it'll be a tougher FCS game for sure than last year, but I would be comfortable if the line is 20 or 19, kind of taking KU there with what you should be able to do

Starting point is 00:21:14 from a physically dominant standpoint. All right, that's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Nick Schwartz is going to join us tomorrow to talk some more KU football. We're going to get to our KU football win-loss prediction for every game, and then we've got our KU Missouri State preview all to come later this week. Thanks for joining us today on another edition of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can find us on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:21:34 Like and subscribe to the show. See you next time.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Early Look at Kansas Jayhawks Football vs Missouri State + First KU Depth Chart Released

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