Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - How Much Will Jalon Daniels Run for Kansas Jayhawks Football + Devin Neal 4 Heisman

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, how often is Kansas going to let Jalen Daniels run the football in our running back preview? Why Devin Neal could be a Heisman candidate in 2024? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can give me a follow on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can find our show. It's called Locked On Jayhawks anywhere you get your podcast,

Starting point is 00:00:33 including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. Thank you to the everydayers tuning in to each and every show, and thank you for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are going to be talking how aggressive is KU going to be letting Jalen Daniels? How aggressive is he going to want to be running the football this season? And how does that impact the offense? We'll get to our running back room preview. And what is the limits on what Devin Neal could provide this season for KU?

Starting point is 00:00:57 We are also 21 days away. How about that? Three weeks away from KU football against Lindenwood. Latest camp news, all that sort of stuff on this episode of the show, which is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply with GameTime.

Starting point is 00:01:15 So how aggressive is Kansas going to be with Jalen Daniels running the ball? I guess the why behind all of this is if Jalen Daniels is running the football, I mean, I remember a couple years ago, Andy K Kotelnicki mentioned he has the vision of a running back. It adds another element to this offense. We know the Kansas offense can be explosive, can be really good without Jalen Daniels being, you know, as you go back to some of those early games, 2022, he has like the Houston game and the West Virginia game where you're running for just, you know, giant numbers in terms of what you're providing there. And that can take it to another level. But we know Kansas can still be a good offense without that, right? You have good receivers, you have a good offensive line,

Starting point is 00:01:54 you have good running backs. But it does add another element. But I think the key for Jalen Daniels running the football, it's not that you have to have him, you know, take this large amount of carries or this large total of rushing yards. It's that he needs to have him, you know, take this large amount of carries or this large total of rushing yards. It's that he needs to be able to run when it is asked for it. Is it a key third down and you need to pick it up? Is it a play where you're not actually going to be running the football, but you're going to be scrambling in the pocket, buying more time to create a big pass down the field? Those are things that are requirements. but how much is that going to be a part of the KU playbook? I think that kind of remains to be seen.

Starting point is 00:02:28 So I remember at Big 12 Media Days last year in 2023 talking to Jalen, and he was kind of talking about that, yeah, that wasn't in the plan as much. He didn't want to run the football as much in 2023 as he did in 2022, which, by the way, in nine games in 2022, he had 77 carries for 425 yards in three games in 2023, he had 27 carries for 74 yards. So the carry actually paces is not that different. Um, but what he talked about at the media days was like, you know, um, if we're at the one yard line, I'll run it in, right? Like if we're at the two yard line, I'll run it in, right? Like if we're at the two yard line, I'll run it in. But I'm not looking to make that the primary part of my game. And I think that

Starting point is 00:03:11 makes sense. I think that makes sense from KU's perspective. I think that makes sense from his perspective where it is that awareness of, hey, if I really got to have it, like I'm going to use my legs, I'll do it. But let's not, you know, try to get injured here doing something that I could pick up five yards running versus throwing the ball away. Or I could, you know, and we saw KU be successful last year with Jason Bean, even though he's a faster runner than Jalen Daniels. He's not as good of a runner between the teeth of the defense, breaking tackles and stuff. So I think that's just fine. But, yeah, you go back to last year. If you look at 27 carries in three games versus his 77 carries in nine games, you actually end up with 81 carry carries over a nine game pace last season.

Starting point is 00:03:54 So you would actually say he ran the ball on average more than last year. What gives? Well, for the one, the nine games in 2022 was really eight and a half games because the TCU game, but even then it'd still be neck and neck. I think what we saw is this. I don't think this is something where it's like, okay, Jalen's no longer going to run the football or the running carries is going to look way different. I think what we're going to see is the difference in how he's running the football. So in 2023, you notice the carries might be similar, but the yardage is way different.

Starting point is 00:04:24 425 rushing yards in 2022 in nine games versus in 2023. That's 74 rushing yards in three games. And on a nine-game pace, that rushing yards, so if we're just equaling out what both would be on pace for during their games, it would be the difference of 425 rushing yards in 2022 versus 222 rushing yards in 2023. So about a 200-yard difference between 2022 and 2023 with similar carries. One year, 2022, he averaged 5.5 yards per carry. The next year, 2023, 2.7 yards per carry. That is about half, a little more than half, of what you average yards per carry.

Starting point is 00:05:02 So what does that tell us? At least what it tells me is that he is becoming a more aware runner or a more cautious runner because his health is more important to staying on the field and having him play than it is for that extra couple of yards. Again, there are certain moments where that changes. It is fourth and five. You got to have it. You're down by four late in the game. Okay game okay you're gonna kind of put your body on the line and that's kind of the expectation right but it's first down in 10 and you're on your own 25 yard line why fight for three extra yards just run out of bounds take the four you don't need the six or the seven it's a long drive it's a long season and for Kansas to be at their best

Starting point is 00:05:41 they need Jalen Daniels healthy so if you have to sacrifice a yard or two here or there to keep you healthy over the course of the season, where, you know, just having you on the field for that much longer is going to make a bigger impact than those little plays. So I think that's what that kind of defines is that, yeah, maybe the amount of runs is going to be similar, but the times that you slide, the times that you're not fighting for yards, the time that you run out of bounds are going to be more often than what you were doing in 2022 when Kansas was using him a lot as a runner, especially in a lot of those kind of triple option, spread option type concepts. But that brings us to this upcoming season, because that's just looking at the last two seasons. That doesn't

Starting point is 00:06:20 necessarily define what they're going to do this year. You're coming off another injury. Does that mean it lessens it even more, right? You would think in general that probably would, or is it more of the same of just what 2023 was? I don't think it's likely we get back to what that was in 2022. How much does the offensive coordinator switch, and not just the switch of Andy Kotelnicki to Jeff Grimes, but also losing Matt Lubick, who was an offensive analyst, who is now the offensive coordinator at Nevada. And he seemingly had as much to do with a lot of KU's really successful running triple option spread option concepts as anybody else on staff. He's now gone. Andy Kotelnicki now gone. Jeff Grimes now in. How much does that affect things? So I went back and looked at the recent seasons that Jeff Grimes

Starting point is 00:07:11 had and how much the quarterback ran the football. And I think Jalen Daniels is probably a better runner of the football than these guys I'm going to compare him to. Again, you go back to the Andy Kotelnicki comment saying that he has like the vision of a running back, but I think it gives you an idea. So you go back to 2020 at BYU. Zach Wilson, not as good of a runner as Jalen Daniels, but Zach Wilson, still pretty good athlete. He ran the ball 74 times. He had 254 yards, and then he had 10 rushing touchdowns. You go back to 2021 was Jeff Grimes' first year at Baylor.

Starting point is 00:07:42 Jerry Bohannon goes 76 carries, 323 yards, nine touchdowns. 2022 at Baylor, Blake Chapin, 76 carries, 96 yards, two touchdowns. And Chapin, Bohannon definitely more of a runner than Chapin. 2023 at Baylor, Chapin had 67 carries for 29 yards, four touchdowns. Also Sawyer Robertson had 35 carries, 69 yards and a touchdown. So total it up because they had to kind of play those two guys. You had 102 carries for 98 yards and five touchdowns. So for the most part, you look at the 2020 to 2022 seasons,

Starting point is 00:08:18 the 2023 Baylor, I kind of want to just throw away because A, you have two quarterbacks. B, that Baylor offensive line was not very good. I think at one point, like half your guys in the two deep were freshmen. So a lot of those runs are actually sacks that you're taking, that you're taking more in that year. So you look at 2020 to 2022, every year you're between 74 to 76 quarterback carries,

Starting point is 00:08:37 which basically means on average, you know, that's about six carries per game, right? If you're playing 13 games, maybe closer to like five carries per game. that is not really that much. And then if you're counting in that, maybe one of those per game is a sack in the college game, which it counts as that it's even less than that. So I don't think that this is something that Jeff Grimes offense is going to demand of him to do that, which could work out well for what you're asking and to try to keep him healthy over the course of the season. But I did find one thing very interesting there, and that's the 2020 season with Zach Wilson and the 2021 season with Jerry Bohannon at Baylor. 10 rushing touchdowns for Zach Wilson, 9 for Jerry

Starting point is 00:09:16 Bohannon. Again, not a ton of yards. 250 for Zach Wilson, 323 for Jerry Bohannon. Yet they combined for 19 rushing touchdowns. Taj Brooks, who had like 1,600 rushing yards a season ago at Texas Tech, he had 10 rushing touchdowns. So what does that tell you? It's that maybe they're not going to be asked to run the football over the course of the 20-to-20 yard line. Once you get in the red zone, once you get in the goal line, once you get to those money downs and those money plays in key situations

Starting point is 00:09:44 in the red zone, they are going to ask the quarterback to run the football and I think that actually lines up perfectly with what you're looking to do with Jalen Daniels this season let's get to our running back preview here how good can Devin Neal be can he take it to the next level can he be a Heisman candidate why I think all those things are very possible in 2024. This episode is brought to you by Game Time. I love going to MLB games during the summer. You know, you kick back a cold one or a soda. You maybe have a ice cream and a helmet. You have some peanuts outside, tossing the shells everywhere, making a huge mess. You get a hot dog. Hot dog is required. Well, not necessarily hot dog. Hot dog, bratwurst, whatever. But none of this can be possible unless you get tickets to the MLB game.

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Starting point is 00:11:20 Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Thank you to every dayers tuning tuning into each and every show and uh thank you if you're new to the show don't forget to subscribe on our youtube page you can listen wherever you get your podcast friday show we're going to talk the 10 biggest storylines for ku football in 2024 our running back room preview and some devin neal talk here so who are all the players in the running back room for KU football? Devin Neal, obviously he is a true senior. Daniel Hyshaw is a redshirt junior. I think technically he's a, is he a fifth year junior? Because the COVID year maybe and the redshirt, either way, I think he has a chance to be a six-year player, I guess, basically. So yeah, Torrey Laughlin, he is a redshirt senior. I think he has a chance to be a six-year player, I guess, basically. So, yeah. Torrey Laughlin, he is a redshirt senior.

Starting point is 00:12:05 I think he is a six-year player. Harry Stewart, incoming true freshman. Johnny Thompson, Jr., he is a redshirt freshman. And then you have Savion Morrison, who's a redshirt junior. And then a group of walk-ons, Micah Johnson is a freshman. Carson Morgan, redshirt freshman. And Jack Schneider is a redshirt freshman. Obviously, you look at this, and it's pretty easy to talk about the order of these guys.

Starting point is 00:12:28 Devin Neal's your starter. Daniel Highshaw's your backup. And then the third string battle, that kind of brings us to our biggest storylines. Who is that going to be? Before I get to that storyline, though, because it's not as important as this one, Devin Neal's pursuit of legacy for the biggest storylines. I think that is a huge storyline this season. And this isn't just a individual thing. I think this is a team thing. Like

Starting point is 00:12:48 if Kansas has all the success in the world, wins double digit games or goes to a big 12 championship, wins a big 12, whatever like this season is going to be, there are obviously a lot of good players on KU, right? I mean, you think about the all big 12 guys, Kobe Bryant, Mello Dotson, Jalen Daniels, Lawrence Arnold, like all these guys that could possibly be. But Devin Neal is kind of the face of this. And it's not necessarily that he is a better player than Kobe Bryant or Jalen Daniels. I don't know. All those players are really good, right? You're talking about all being in that top tier, right? So it's splitting hairs who you pick. But the point is, Devin Neal is the local kid. He's from Lawrence. He decided to come to KU on the heels of turmoil and stick through as a commitment when Les Miles was let go, right? And they were not coming off

Starting point is 00:13:37 a good season. They were coming off an 0-9 season when he decided to come to KU. There have been other local kids who have come to KU. There have been other local kids that have chose not to come to KU. There have been other local kids who have come to KU. There have been other local kids that have chose not to come to KU. Devin Neal chose to come to KU. And for what he has done for the program, for what he has done individually, I mean, I really do think he has a chance to have a statue up somewhere around the stadium when it is all said and done. And you look at it from the individual perspective, he is just under 800 yards from passing June Henley on the career rushing list. He is just nine touchdowns away from being the all-time career rushing touchdown leader. And you look at some of the individual seasons he had. I mean, it's hard to say he's going to go down as the

Starting point is 00:14:22 greatest Kansas running back ever, because you've had guys who are in the NFL Hall of Fame and guys who also had production in college like Gail Sayers and John Riggins, and you've had guys who had unbelievable production in college, whether it was June Henley or Tony Sands or John Cornish. You can go on and on and on, but he has a chance to be in that conversation, and that's pretty darn cool. And you look at what he's meant to the program and now an opportunity this year to really stamp it with,

Starting point is 00:14:49 here is the one thing that he has an opportunity that those guys never did. And what to me would make it that it's the case. If Devin Neal ends up getting an invite to New York, heck, maybe if he's even top 10 in the Heisman, does that seal it? Because in theory, if he finishes top 10 in the Heisman, he's probably having, I mean, he probably breaks the school record for rushing yards in a single

Starting point is 00:15:10 season, right? Because he probably needs at least like 1500 yards. That would break the single season school rushing record. That would therefore break the career. You're probably breaking the rushing touchdown record for a season and career. If you have the rushing yards and touchdowns record for a season and career for both of those, and you're the only Kansas running back to ever finish top 10 in the Heisman voting, because Kansas only had three players finish top 10 in the Heisman voting. All of them were quarterbacks, right? So when you're looking at this, like he has a chance for some real legacy things here. And can he be an All-American? Can he be a Heisman candidate?

Starting point is 00:15:43 I actually think he's KU's top Heisman candidate. Like jaylen daniels he has the better betting odds you go to fanduel you can get him at like 30 to 1 i haven't been able to see devin neal on there if i see it i'm going to sprinkle on it um but it's just the fact that like jeff grimes gonna run the football and with jaylen daniels he's an unbelievable player but we've seen this before like and we've talked about this before the on pace numbers for him might be 3 000 passing yards right because they're going to be balanced they're going to run the football they're not going to run a super high tempo and that's going to be a little bit harder to win i think that's more plausible with devin neal so yeah i i think if kansas has the season you want

Starting point is 00:16:21 them to winning double digit games going 102, making the Big 12 championship game. Devin Neal puts up 1,500, 1,600 yards, has 20 touchdowns. I don't know if it gets you an invite to New York because it's so hard for running backs nowadays, but I think it at least gets you in the conversation, especially because you have the storyline of what Kansas is. The other big storyline here, as I mentioned briefly, how is the rest of the depth going to play out?

Starting point is 00:16:42 Who's going to win that third-string battle? Now, on its own, Kansas gives a majority of their carries to the first and second string although I guess that could be a little bit different with Jeff Grimes but we did see you know a time and place for Dylan McDuffie as the third running back last year and you know he wound up with a productive season and what he was asked to do and if Daniel Hyshaw would have had an injury similar to what he had two years ago, then you had to have that third guy prepared to be the backup. And I would have felt comfortable with Dylan McDuffie being that guy last season, right? So you have to be ready

Starting point is 00:17:13 at a moment's notice. Savion Morrison comes in as the veteran, right? And former highly recruited guy, very fast running back. But it sounds like Harry Stewart is really making things interesting here in terms of what he brings to the table as a young freshman and I do think at the running back position like that's one of those positions where I think age and classification and all that stuff matters a little bit less like obviously there are small intricacies knowing the playbook uh pass blocking is usually the big one for running backs getting on the field early but like if you're just talking about in a specific role to maybe take some carries here or there, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:17:48 Like maybe he ends up kind of being the guy. And there have been some comparisons from Harry Stewart to Devin Neal in terms of their running style and everything. And that third string battle does have a big impact on 2025, too, because like what if your third string is Harry Stewart and he keeps coming on? And we saw Hyshaw kind of struggle a little bit over the last four or five games in season last year. What if he eventually becomes the backup? I don't know. But if Hyshaw looks like vintage Hyshaw that we're used to, then you go into 2025 being like, oh, Daniel Hyshaw is going to be an all-Big 12 running back in 2025 now that Devin Neal's not taking some of his carries away, right? So that depth and that conversation, I think not just is interesting for this year, but is interesting for

Starting point is 00:18:29 2025, 2026 and kind of beyond as well. So overall, better, worse or the same for this position group than last year? I think you have to say better. You could argue, I guess, the same if you were just like, well, Devin Neal just is who he is. That's already one of the best running backs in the country. Like how much better could it get uh but I would say okay he's back for another year maybe it's just a little bit better and especially because it felt like with Devin Neal he got even better over the final what like five six games of the season so if you're getting that version of Devin Neal for a full season as opposed to just the final five six season not that he was bad in the first five or six games. He was still really good,

Starting point is 00:19:05 but it felt like he took it to an overdrive level over the back half of the season. If you get that for the full season, that would be an improvement. Daniel Hyshaw, I think the reason that I look at that maybe it did fall off a little bit when you look at the yards per carry, stuff like that over the final four or five games season

Starting point is 00:19:19 was that he was coming back off that season long injury and that he, you know, it takes, you're kind of building the rust off. And sometimes, you know, if you're injured and he had never played a full college football season, maybe you start to tire out a little bit more. So I think he'll be better this season, right? I think as good as Dylan McDuffie was

Starting point is 00:19:37 in the third running back role last season, I think you have more potential with a redshirt junior Savion Morrison and a true freshman Harry Stewart. So I think this position group is actually better than it was a season ago. All right, 21 days away from KU football. Let's talk about it in the latest round camp on Locked on Jayhawks. Don't forget, you can check out our Locked on podcast network.

Starting point is 00:20:01 You can check out Locked on College Football for what's going on around the country if you really want to get in that football mood because we're three weeks away, baby, from KU against Lindenwood. That means we're even less than that. Whoa, that'd be like 17 days away or something like that from week zero of the college football season. That's exciting, man. So check that out.

Starting point is 00:20:16 Or if you want to check out our conference or one of the other schools, you can find that across the Locked On Podcast Network. So we are 21 days away. What does that signify? Well, we were just talking about Daniel Hyshaw. He had 121 carries. I'll be interested to see what the number is this year because I think Devin Neal,

Starting point is 00:20:31 a guy who had in the low 200 carries a season ago, do you get him up to like 250? Like Taj Brooks, for instance, had like 290. So that would still be below a guy like that who was just an ultimate workhorse. But does Neal get, you know, he's had like a 20 carry increase year to year. Does get up to like two 20 to 30 to 40 to 50, something like that. And does that eat into the numbers of Daniel Highshard? Does it just eat into more of the

Starting point is 00:20:54 numbers of, of the third and fourth backs and what they're kind of getting a gauge keys had 21 tackles last season. I think that's interesting because if you go look at college football, 25, the video game gauge keys was rated a 79. He would have been KU's highest rated defensive tackle in the video game. He would have probably been projected to start on this year's team, though. I don't think it's like that big of it. And we'll end up seeing like what happens over the course of the season with guys like DJ Withers, Caleb Taylor, Tommy Dunn, Javier Derrick, Keenan Caldwell, like how big of a difference is what he's doing versus what those guys are doing. But I think he probably would have been a favorite

Starting point is 00:21:30 to start on this team. And now I don't know that he's a favorite to start on Auburn. So kind of unfortunate there, but I guess he got his money and he'll be able to make a nice start to his life out of that. So can't blame him for it.

Starting point is 00:21:42 And then here's a bit of an interesting trivia. Who's the last KU football player to wear the number 21 now you've had enough time it is a trick question it's now retired john hadle wore number 21 for ku he is one of three ku players to have their jersey retired so obviously you see a lot of players in the ring of honor their jerseys are not retired only three ku players not players in the Ring of Honor. Their jerseys are not retired. Only three KU players, not just in the Ring of Honor, their jerseys are retired, and John Hadle is one of those. So that's why you won't see a player wearing number 21 for KU football. All right, the latest around KU football, I did just want to mention this.

Starting point is 00:22:17 They did just have a scrimmage. So we'll try to gather some intel, talk to some people about who looked good, stuff like that. Obviously, that could also mean injuries if you're having live scrimmages with tackle and everything like that. So be on the lookout for some of that stuff. But we'll have more KU football talk on tomorrow's episode, talking the 10 biggest storylines for KU football in 2024.

Starting point is 00:22:38 We'll also get to our defensive tackle room preview on the show as we bounce around between the offense and the defense. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. Make sure you're subscribed and we'll see you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - How Much Will Jalon Daniels Run for Kansas Jayhawks Football + Devin Neal 4 Heisman

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