Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ELITE: Kansas Football's DYNAMIC DUO | Can Lance Leipold and Jalon Daniels SHOCK the Big 12?

Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm going to tell you why Kansas has an elite head coach quarterback duo compared to the rest of college football, what it means, where KU looks at nationally on today's episode of Locked on Jayhaw. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day at D. Johnson Radio on Twitter. We have a new locked on Twitter account at L.O. underscore Jayhawks as well that you can follow there. And this is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:46 Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. You can find us on our YouTube page or you can like and subscribe to the show. And we're free and available anywhere that you get your podcasts. On today's edition of the show, we're talking Lance Leifold and Jalen Daniels. of butter and jelly, why it's one of the elite head coach quarterback combos in college football. What does it mean for KU? We'll also talk a little national expectations, what some of the publications are saying about KU headed into the season.

Starting point is 00:01:11 And then I want to finish up with a little, I don't know, the personal, what grinds my gears type of segment with some KU ticketing stuff. Okay, let's get things started, though. Today's episode's brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. use code locked on college at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. So KU has, obviously, Jalen Daniels returning for another season in the fold. Obviously, Lance Leipold back as the head coach at Kansas.

Starting point is 00:01:42 And when you think about the most important positions for a football team, it's probably head coach and quarterback. Like, if you have a good head coach, you have a good quarterback, you're going to be in a lot of games. You're going to win a lot of games. It doesn't guarantee you're going to win every game. And Kansas went five and seven last year with the same combination. I remember there were some seasons where Drew Breeze with Sean Payton, which is a good quarterback coach, you know, combo went maybe like seven and nine or something like that.

Starting point is 00:02:06 It's not a guarantee, but it puts you in the running. And when you get the other things clicking, it elevates you to another level. Very important to be good at both of those positions. So back in the spring, Stuart Mandel and Bruce Feldman, both of the athletic, they released their college football head coach top 25. And then recently the athletic released their ranking of all quarterbacks, starting quarterbacks in college football this season. So we have these lists, same publication. Obviously, there's more places you can find stuff like this, like CBS and so on and so forth. But just taking this one, here's the coaches that appeared in both Stuart Mendel and Bruce Feldman's top 25, right?

Starting point is 00:02:48 So not just appeared in one of them, appeared in both. It's Kirby Smart at Georgia, Ryan Day, Ohio State, Steve Starkeesian at Texas, Kalin to board Alabama, Dan Lanning at Oregon, Dabo Sweeney at Clemson, James Franklin, at Penn State, Matt Campbell at Iowa State, Marcus Freeman, and Notre Dame Kurt Signetti at Indiana. Brian Kelly at LSU, Lane Kiffin at Oleingham at Utah, Josh Heiple, at Tennessee, Kirk Farrantz at Iowa, Chris Climent at K-State, Jeff Brom, at Louisville, Jeff Monkin, at Army, Rhett Lashley at SMU, and then, of course, Lance Leipold. So that's a list of 20 guys that are consistently on both lists.

Starting point is 00:03:20 one of the 20 premier college football coaches. Okay, that puts you obviously in good category. Among those 20 head coaches that are on both of those lists, here's which ones have quarterbacks in the top 40 of the athletics ranking. Ohio State is on there with a young quarterback in Julian Sayan. Texas is on there with Archmanning, Oregon, Clemson, Penn State, Iowa State with Rocco Beck, Indiana, LSU, Ole Miss, Utah. Iowa, Kansas State with Avery Johnson, SMU, and Kansas. So now we've whittled things down to say that basically Kansas is one of 14 schools coming into this season that is viewed as having a top 20 coach and a top 40 quarterback in college football.

Starting point is 00:04:09 Only 14 schools. And you look at the other schools on that list, there's a lot of good schools or schools that are going to have high expectations. And if we just look at it from a perspective of Big 12 schools where Kansas competes against for the most part, they're one of just four schools. That puts you an erified rare in the conference. So if we narrow the list further to coaches that both guys from the athletic with Bruce Feldman and Stuart Mandel submitted as top 15 head coaches in college football. And we narrow the list of top quarterbacks in college football from 40 down to 35. So we tighten the list a little bit more.

Starting point is 00:04:49 do both guys have you as a top 15 college football coach are you a top 35 quarterback coming into the year in college football again like these lists will change based on performance of the season there's always going to be a level of projection how much did a player improve how much did you know player regress are they in as good of a situation like how are young players or how are transfers going to a new setting it's an impossible list to truly know like you know coming into the years jalen daniel's top 35 quarterback is the top 10 quarterback is the top 50 quarterback you know how the season goes will better determine. that. But based on those, I guess, prognostications, those early season evaluations, those early season rankings, based on those lists, top 15 coach and college football from Feldman and Mandel, top 35 quarterback on the athletic, that list of schools drops down to Ohio State, Texas, Oregon, Clemson, Penn State, Iowa State, LSU, Utah, and Kansas, which you're now one of three big 12 schools as part of that list you're now one of nine schools nationally so i mean that's that's again in a very good spot which it doesn't guarantee everything there are going to be teams who maybe don't have a top 40 quarterback but sell really good seasons because they're

Starting point is 00:06:01 really good at other stuff there's going to be certain coaches that you know maybe are ranked 30th but they wind up after the season being viewed as a top 15 head coach some of that stuff is going to change but it puts you in a very comfortable position coming into the season And this is what I think is really interesting. You go look at those schools on the list, right? Like if we're talking about, okay, what does this exactly mean? How valuable is it to have a head coach and a quarterback combo that can be, you know, one of the best in the country, one of the best in the conference?

Starting point is 00:06:36 Again, it obviously wasn't worth a bowl game for Kansas last year. And part of that was Jalen Daniels, I think the first five games of the season. and some of this was out of his control. I think some of this was the offense that Jeff Grimes was producing. I think some of this was the rust that he showed at the beginning of the year. But the first five games in season,

Starting point is 00:06:53 Jayland Daniels is not a top 35 quarterback in the country. If you look at statistics or quarterback rating or touchdown interception ratio, whatever. But if you look at Jaylen Daniels over the last seven games of the season, you know, the touchdown interception ratio gets much better. It doesn't jump off the page, but like the quarterback rating stuff, the total QBR, that all of a sudden is back to being one of the better numbers in the big 12.

Starting point is 00:07:13 And you are over the last seven games. the season. Jalen Daniels was a top 35 quarterback in the country over the last seven games. And what Jaylon Daniels was at the end of 2021 and what he was in the games we saw him play, you know, in 2022 and 2023. That guy was a top 35 quarterback, if not better in college football. So there still is a wider sample that says he would be, you know, you know, the case. But when he wasn't, that's when you have the bad start. If we look at when he is, which is when this list comes applicable, Kansas B three straight ranked opponents and was much better over back half. So if Jalen Daniels is playing like a top 35 quarterback, which I think based on the back

Starting point is 00:07:50 half of last year, I think based on having Jim Zabrowski and Matt Lubick is your offense coordinators where it's going to be more comfortable, I think having more receivers who are going to do work with yard after catch, I have full expectation that Jalen Daniels will be a top 35 quarterback this season in college football. And I think Lance Leipold is going to continue to be one of the best head coaches in college football, that I think it is definitely worth something. Again, we go look at the schools on that list. Ohio State, that's the team who just won the freaking national championship. Texas, that's the team who played in a college football playoff semifinal in is one of the betting favorites to win the national championship this year.

Starting point is 00:08:22 Oregon was the number one overall seed headed into the playoff last season and is, again, preseason top 10 team. All of those are, Ohio State, Texas, Oregon. Clemsons, a preseason top 10 team. Some people have them as a kind of dark horse national title pick. That's what Phil Steele said. If you're in every day or in, you know, subscribe to what he's, you know, selling there. Penn State, a team who, you know, some are again picking to be one of the national champions this year, one of the heavy favorites, their top five and odds to win the title this year. Iowa State, who was in the Big 12th title game last season and brings a lot back outside of those two stud receivers. LSU, who is always just, you know, loaded

Starting point is 00:08:57 with talent. And even though it feels like Brian Kelly has kind of had down seasons by LSU standards, they're still in like nine, 10 games. Utah, who yes, didn't have the season they wanted in the first year of the big 12, but I think is going to be in store for a much better season in year two in the conference and has consistently been one of the, you know, better programs across the country. And then you have Kansas. So I think it's definitely worth something. And I don't know that it gets talked about enough probably because Jalen struggled in the first five games last season. And so, you know, that's par for the course. But I would just say the bigger sample size on Jalen Daniels, especially working with Lance Leipold, that he is going to be one of the

Starting point is 00:09:34 better quarterbacks in the country, one of the top third quarterbacks, one of the top quartet of quarterbacks in the country. And that's clearly worth something when you pair with a good head coach, as we can see from that list. I think that's something that Kansas has going for them coming in to this season. Let's take a look where some of the national media magazines and prognosticators are kind of pegging some interesting stuff about Kansas coming into the year. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier. With Monarch money, it can.

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Starting point is 00:10:47 50% off your first year that's monarchmoney.com code locked on college for half off your first year with monarch money thanks for joining us on this episode of locked on jhawks don't forget you make locked on college football or locked on college basketball your second listen every day okay so looking at some position rankings phil steel who we had on the show also pick six previews who i think does a really good job that's a really good preseason magazine if you haven't he just focuses on the power schools he's not that high on kansas though i would uh i i think there are some things that that go into that the reason why but anyway looking at those to give us an idea how we're i guess national media viewing this kansas team and i wanted to look at

Starting point is 00:11:29 conference position ranks there's obviously 16 teams in the big 12 uh at quarterback Phil Steele gives Kansas the eighth and pick six previews he gives them the seventh this goes back in line where you know for for a lot of people Jalen is probably kind of an enigma where do we rank him I think you can probably see like Phil Steele picks six previews I'm sure they said okay if we're getting the good Jalen he is going to be top four in the conference but we don't know you know with some of the stuff that that's kind of gone the other way so because of that we are going to you know split the difference running back Phil Steele has it seventh pick six previews has it 12th I think that'll end up being better than 12th when you look at high Sean Williams. Receiver, Phil Steele has at 12th. Pick six previews has at 16th. Not buying the, not drinking the Kool-Aid there. I definitely don't think they're going to have the worst receiving court in the conference. Offensive line, Phil Steele has fourth.

Starting point is 00:12:16 That's kind of a trust thing with where they've been, what they've done. Whereas pick six previews only has him 10th. Now, he and his magazine, I think he published it before they added Enrique Cruz because he has him as part of the Syracuse preview. That helps the offensive line. He also didn't mention Calvin Clemens, who seems to be taken down that job. So probably better than 10th there. Defensive line, Phil seal has him 12th.

Starting point is 00:12:34 12, pick six previews, has him 14th. I think that's the most underrated position group for KU as this D-line, because that's one I feel very confident in for Kansas this season. Linebacker, Phil Steele has him 13th, pick-six previews has him 10th. So pick-six is kind of buying the, you know, additions they made. Phil Steele is kind of more a trepidacious approach. And then this is something else I've been thinking about.

Starting point is 00:12:54 So Phil Steele and Picks-6 previews have the DB room for KU ranked 15th and 16th, respectively, in the Big 12. I do think there's more talent there than you would indicate. I understand why you get there with. the loss. I'm not saying they should be picked top five because of losing all the key players that they did. I do think, like I said, there's more talent there than you would expect. Here's something I was thinking about, though. When you look at some of the team passing defense stats for KU the past couple years, even with having Kobe Bryant and Mello-Dotson, KU hasn't

Starting point is 00:13:21 been one of the best past defenses in the conference or in the country. Like, they've still giving up a good amount of yards per attempt. And, you know, they've been fine at it. They just haven't been a lead at it, as you would expect with some of the talent they've had. And that's where I think the scheme comes into play. And that's where I think DK McDonald comes into play where KU could theoretically have a little less talent in the DB room this year, but be more productive if they have, you know, more of that like Iowa State type of scheme, which has been so successful as a past defense. So I do think that one will be interesting by the end of the day. I also wanted to mention ESPN FPI, which gives percentages, chances, whatever you want to call

Starting point is 00:13:56 it for KU this upcoming season. And ESPNFPI is actually really high on Kansas. It has Kansas tied third in the Big 12 for projected win total. It has them 30th nationally in terms of, you know, their power ranking, so to speak. And it gives them an 87% chance at making a bowl game. That, you know, from five years ago, Derek, or five years ago, you know, yourself as a KU football fan, you might be sitting there going, man, I would love to have an 87% chance coming into the season to be thought of to make a bowl game. That's pretty cool that we're at that point, even off a season where Kansas didn't make a bowl game last year. Here's the fun ones, though, 11% chance for KU at winning the big 12.

Starting point is 00:14:42 If I told you when Kansas hired Lance Leipold, you know, whatever, four years ago, four and a half years ago, that come 2025, they were going to have a one in 10 shot to win the big 12, a little less than that. A closer to a one and nine shot to win the big 12. You'd be ecstatic at that, you know? Because in the past, it was like, oh, yeah, Kansas says a, a, a. 250 to one shot, a 400 to one shot at winning the Big 12. That's pretty cool. 13% chance of making the college football playoff. Obviously, the odds there are built on, okay, if you win the Big 12, you're probably

Starting point is 00:15:12 going to make the college football playoff. And then you get an extra, you know, a little bit of a bump there just from the standpoint of like, oh, what if you did make it as an at large, right? And then this kind of a fun one, too, 0.7% chance at an undefeated season for KAU, which, again, we're talking in the past, like 10 years ago, Kansas might have been going off at like 500 to 1 odds, 400 to 1 odds to win. in the big 12. They're basically saying you have those types of odds similar to them going undefeated as you did in the past of them winning the big 12, which I don't know, that's kind of cool as well.

Starting point is 00:15:42 I'm not obviously picking them to go undefeated, although in the big 12, the beauty of it is you go in each and every week convincing yourself that, yeah, Kansas could beat that team. You could also convince yourself, oh, they could lose that game because that's how many coin flip games there are in the big 12, but it's like, so you're saying there's a chance for Kansas to do some fun things. The other ones I wanted to mention, Phil Steele has some KU football draft prospects up on there. Jayland Daniels, number 25 quarterback, Daniel Hyshaw, number 24 running back. Bryce Foster, the number five center. Dean Miller, the number 27 defensive end, Joseph Sipp, the number 53 inside linebacker, DJ Graham, the number 41 corner, and Laif Marjohn, the kicker, the number 21 kicker.

Starting point is 00:16:20 If I was picking somebody from that list to end up being ranked higher than that at the end of day, if Daniel Hyshaw can say healthy, I think he's a physical marvel. He just, he just appeared on on bruce feldman's freaks list and so that would be somebody that you're kind of looking at okay he could uh certainly jump up in that area and then it would probably be somebody who's not even like on the list right like i mean could justice fincly or bengali kamara or um gosh i don't know like a lyric ralls or like emmanuel henderson could one of these guys really emerge one of your linemen in a real way that starts you know popping up on on draft boards in a real way uh for Kansas. Like, yeah, that would be entirely

Starting point is 00:16:58 possible. All right, I'm going to finish up here on the show with a little bit of a rant on a KU ticketing thing that I just can't stand. Thanks to join us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We will be back tomorrow to talk. Does Bill Self have his best lead guard group of his Kansas tenure? At the very least, where does it slot in and a little bit of a point guard, lead

Starting point is 00:17:20 guard preview with Darren Peterson and company coming tomorrow. On Friday, we're going to talk about the heart of Big 12 play, an early look at the Kansas State, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State games for KU football. And don't forget you can check out Locked on College football or locked on college basketball for your second listen every day. Okay. So here's my gripe. So this is, you know, going to be, I don't know if this is something that like, you know, people are going to just completely not care about. Some people just might view it as complaining, which it is. So, you know, fair to you. At the same point in time, I don't know if this is something

Starting point is 00:17:52 that's happened to other people. So I do want to at least amplify it. here to give them the opportunity to feel like their voice is heard and like they're not the only ones getting screwed. I purchased KU volleyball season tickets coming into the season. And it wasn't just for me. It was for my wife. It was for my 18 month old daughter. It was for my in-laws who were planning on, you know, I have a lot of night work, right? I have the normal day job. I do this at night. I have broadcasting work that I do at night. There are a lot of nights that I'm away. And my wife is awesome she helps take care of the baby in a lot of ways i want to do something fun for them she's a big volleyball person and you know so so bought tickets and we went in with them on with my

Starting point is 00:18:33 in-laws her parents um to kind of be like hey we're going to have an opportunity to like if i'm out and about i'm doing some broadcast go take the the our daughter to a game and go have fun or you know go with your mom and go enjoy a night or whatever like like watching some k u volleyball and it'll be fun get season tickets yada we got the uh we got the uh basically the area we got season tickets for was the uh the overhang area i don't know if you've been to the horse you know where where there's the uh kind of the i don't know mezzanine area i think is what it's officially called we bought those um you have to pay like a donation for them and and yada yada so we we bought those in gosh i don't even know it might have been march april february somewhere

Starting point is 00:19:14 in that range February to April somewhere in that range um bottom select a seat was the other day and I get a call, and the call is, hey, we oversaw. I forget it was oversold or we sold out of the tickets in the mezzanine, but we can move you to one of these cheerbacks over here. And I'm sitting there like, wait a minute, the higher tier is the one, is the mezzanine one. So like, you know, it's just like, oh, well, it's okay. You know, you're going to pay more expensive,

Starting point is 00:19:44 but we're going to move you to the other ones. And I'm sitting there like, wait a minute. Also, part of the reason we bought these tickets is because my 18th bundle, the old daughter, she's a hurricane. She loves to run around. She loves to have fun. So those are great because they can, you know, watch the game, but also have space to walk around, move around. If you've been to Horish, I'm a taller guy, like my legs barely fit into the, I don't know, where the chairbacks are in terms of like seating view. So it's just like, you know, that's why we did that. And it's just this idea of like, it almost feels like a setup of like,

Starting point is 00:20:13 hey, if you, it's like if you go to a restaurant, you know, and you order a steak, you order filet mignon and the waiter comes out and brings you a hamburger and he's like listen we actually were out of the filet i know you ordered that but we were out of it i just figured you'd want this this really good hamburger it is a really good hamburger and then he leaves and he comes back with the bill and it's still the bill for the filet mignon and you're just like what the heck dude and it's like one of those things where it's like you're not even going to try to take care of the situation like if it was like hey we screwed up if i got a call in june because that's the other thing they've known for less than the four months five months whatever it

Starting point is 00:20:49 was since I bought the tickets. If I would have got a call in June, like, hey, we screwed up. We accidentally oversold this section. Can we move you around? It's like, okay, that's fine. Thank you for letting me know. Or if I get the call when I'm doing the select a seat and it's like, hey, by the way, this ended up happening. Like, we're going to take care of you. Here's a, I don't know, here's a gift card to this. Or here's like some free hot dogs during this. I don't know, something to make it feel like you're not trying to screw somebody over and be like, hey, we're going to take the donation money. We're going to make you pay more and then give you were seats and we're not going to like that just doesn't sit right with me and so i don't know

Starting point is 00:21:21 if this has been somebody's situation with other ticketing with k u whether it's football or whatever but it just feels like you're kind of being taken advantage of it feels like you're kind of being lied to a little bit in a real way and it's really unfortunate that it did go down that way and so i i don't know i've had other pleasant experiences with my k u ticketing you know i don't career or whatever you want to call it that you know it is what it is but like i at least wanted to amplify it that's just kind of a messed up system. Like, if it was sold out from the get-go, why did you even have it up on the website to purchase those from the get-go? And again, if you screwed up, just let someone know, no, don't just all of a sudden. No, it's like to see day, hey, we're moving you to a different.

Starting point is 00:21:57 I don't know. Just grinds my gears a little bit, but, you know, maybe you just viewed that as four minutes of Charlie Brown teacher talk and somebody complaining. Either way, we'll be back at you tomorrow for another edition of Lockdown Jayhawks. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. And we'll see you then on LOJ.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ELITE: Kansas Football's DYNAMIC DUO | Can Lance Leipold and Jalon Daniels SHOCK the Big 12?

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