Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - INSTANT REACTION: Kansas Jayhawks Football Escapes Nevada Wolfpack 31-24 to Move to 3-0

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we are talking KU Nevada. They escape the Wolfpack, able to get through in a late night game in Reno. Let's talk about it because a lot of thoughts kind of going back and forth on how this one went. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. 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're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:00:46 And on today's edition of the show, we're breaking down the KU Nevada game. Kansas survives against Nevada in Reno. They found a way to get through with it. They're 3-0. Those are positives. But how the game went probably doesn't have you feeling great, especially if you're comparing to how you were feeling after the Illinois game. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of Locked On.

Starting point is 00:01:12 Make every moment more. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get 200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Visit FanDuel.com slash Locked On to get started today. Okay, so KU wins 31-24, a game that was 10 to 10 at the half. And I don't think you ever trailed in the game, but it always felt kind of in doubt, especially when you're even only up by like a touchdown at the end of the game and they have the ball.

Starting point is 00:01:39 It's one of those situations where with them being an underdog, you know if they score a touchdown, they're going for two in the win. So you start getting yourself geared up that like, oh, no, if they're going to have the ball here, this could lead to some disaster. You've seen enough games where something weird happens at the end of a game, especially in a late-night game. There's some Hail Mary or whatever. You ended up closing the door and avoiding anything weird happening

Starting point is 00:01:59 for the final drive. And, you know, coming into the game, the biggest thing we said as part of our preview the biggest key that we talked about here was Kansas dealing with external factors a lot of external factors coming into this game uh the time zone change right it being a late game where your body clock not used to playing this late into the night dealing with the altitude that can be something that affects you early in the game that can be something that affects you early in the game. That can be something that affects you late in the game with kind of the attrition that brings to your body and your team. Just trying to get your focus level up. You had that great performance

Starting point is 00:02:34 against Illinois. It is human nature to kind of have a letdown the next week. And that's one of the big things that the coaches kind of preach. And that's one of the biggest jobs that they kind of have in having to overcome that sort of stuff and that was disappointing that didn't happen for kansas um but that is something that is human nature you come off a great performance you think you're all this and then you play against a team who's lost an fbs uh high right now 12 straight games and you just see them lose 33-6 to Idaho, and you start getting in the mindset of, oh, yeah, this is going to be easy. We're going to roll this team. We're going to go right through them, right?

Starting point is 00:03:10 It's easy to have human nature that way. This is probably going to be a lesson for Kansas from that perspective. KU did not do this well. KU did not handle the external factors well. Now, there are going to be some external factors from this game that are going to lead into next week. We'll get to that later in the show. We'll also get to our goats of the game and everything. But overall, I was looking at the stats, and obviously, the game felt super close, and it was. It was back and forth. Kansas never worked out to a double-digit

Starting point is 00:03:38 lead. Nevada never had the lead. It was just back and forth. They were always within either seven or being tied. And obviously, you had the chance. There were some things that were mismanaged. Like the end of the first half, Nevada just was able to run clock out and score that touchdown. Why did Kansas and Lance Lightpool not use timeouts? That maybe you could have got a field goal at the end of the first half and taken the lead, especially since they started with the ball

Starting point is 00:03:59 in the second half. But I guess everything ended up working out, I guess, in the end. But overall, the defense, as much as like it was, oh, you gave up 24 points to Nevada? Like, that's not a very good offense. You only gave up 262 total yards. I was surprised when I looked at that. You also had Jalen Daniels averaging 11 yards per pass,

Starting point is 00:04:20 which that's, you know, going to be a great number each and every week that you have that. Devin Neal had 148 total yards and three touchdowns. Your defense had 10 tackles for loss, and Nevada only had four tackles for loss. You look at all those numbers, and it's like, oh, and you didn't miss any kicks. You made all your kicks. You didn't have any special teams mistakes. You had one turnover on a lost fumble, but it's not like you had four or five of them.

Starting point is 00:04:45 You look at some of those numbers, and you're like, wait, why was this game as close as it was? If I would have told you those stats, if I would have said on Friday that I will guarantee you that Nevada is going to have only 262 yards of offense, that Jalen Daniels is going to average 11 yards per pass, that Devin Neal is going to have almost 150 yards and three touchdowns, that your defense is going to have six more tackles for loss, and it would only be minus one in turnovers. You'd be like, oh, yeah, they probably smashed them like you're expected to. Maybe they didn't cover the 28, but they probably won by 21,

Starting point is 00:05:11 probably won by 24, right? They were just too sloppy. They had that not smart thing happen at the end of the first half. You had way too many penalties, which goes back to being sloppy. You had some things that went against you, like the fumble luck, in a game that you probably overlooked the opponent and you shouldn't have. And you shouldn't do that in general. And it was obviously problematic, but you can also understand from the human nature why it would happen and how it would lead to it. Again, you don't want it to happen, but you can sort of

Starting point is 00:05:41 understand it. And I will say this,, to back up the idea of just, just find a way to win in a scenario like that and move on. Obviously it becomes problematic if that continues how you play like that, but there are a lot of, a lot of other, I mean, these are, they're college kids. These are 18 to 22 year olds. You're going to have games like this. I can go through less. In fact, in fact, I have a list. I compiled a list of games from week one, week two and week three that you had teams who were better than the opposition or were playing a bad opponent or maybe your teams that are, I don't know, power five teams that struggled against lower tier opponents

Starting point is 00:06:16 or lower conference opponents in that some of them have bounced back, some of them have not. Sometimes that is just the difference in college football. You're not going to have a great week every week. You're not going to play like the Illinois game, which was your A game every week. Sometimes you're going to play your C or your D game. And I think that's what we saw against Nevada. Week one, Vanderbilt got pushed by Hawaii. Hawaii hasn't been so great since then. Vanderbilt won five games a year before. That's only one win off from what Kansas had a year before. Okay. So there's an example. Iowa only beat Utah State by 10 points.

Starting point is 00:06:47 Well, they followed up with a couple of wins since, and they're not 3-0. Boston College lost to Northern Illinois. And now this week, all of a sudden, Boston College is only losing by two points to Florida State. Baylor lost to Texas Tech in week one. Oklahoma State barely beat Central Arkansas in week one. Okay. Fast forward to week one. Oklahoma State barely beats Central Arkansas in week one. Okay, fast forward to week two. Utah escapes Baylor on the road, even though Baylor just lost to Texas State, and Baylor hasn't looked so good this year, but they found a way to win. Utah, I think,

Starting point is 00:07:13 is still a good team. That was just kind of an off for them. Boston College barely beat Holy Cross. Again, this next week, they almost beat Florida State. Kentucky, I think, is a good team, and they're kind of right on the edge of the top 25. They only beat Eastern Kentucky by 11 points in Week 2. Missouri, who just got a huge win over Kansas State this past weekend, only beat Middle Tennessee State by 4 points in Week 2. Rice beat Houston. Hawaii almost loses to Albany after playing close with Vanderbilt. Then this week, Florida State, I mentioned, almost loses to Boston College.

Starting point is 00:07:44 Wake Forest only beats Old Dominion by three points. Iowa State loses to Ohio. Alabama struggles with the South Florida team that is only winning like, I don't know, one, two, three games every year for the past handful of years, it seems like. Cincinnati loses at home to Miami of Ohio, who is a good MAAC team. But the point is this, there are a lot of crazy things and upsets that happen in college football. It's not all just because of craziness and scheme and a bunch of players around the country and so many teams. It's also because these are 18 to 22-year-old kids who are susceptible to falling into those external factors,

Starting point is 00:08:19 whether it's a rest thing or partying too much or not focusing on the right thing. And I'm not saying any of those are the case for KU or maybe there's one more than the other, whatever it is. But just around the country, these are things that can happen, right? These are things that do happen. And that's what makes college football so great, that you get this chaos and you get the unpredictability of it.

Starting point is 00:08:38 And we saw that on display in this game. So this is not me saying that KU's performance is good. No, it wasn't a great performance. If they have more performances, especially consecutively, it's a bad thing. You start to string them together, even if you win ugly for two or three straight weeks, which I guess if you won ugly in two weeks against Texas, that's a different conversation. But if you won ugly again against BYU, although I don't know how much you can win ugly there either because they're 3-0 and they just beat Arkansas.

Starting point is 00:09:04 But if you win ugly consecutively against bad opponents, eventually you're like, okay, maybe this means something. If you do it every once in a while, if you do it as a one-off, it's fine and just find a way to win. And if this is a one-off where you just overlooked your opponent when you shouldn't have, and you should have gotten better turnover luck with them having five fumbles, but recovering all of them, them and you out yarded them by almost 200 yards and Jalen played well passing the ball but didn't have his dynamic running game for whatever reason whether that was him or he wasn't healthy or they were trying to protect him and you didn't have Kobe Bryant and Austin Booker for the first half and you played poorly and you played stoppy but you still won the game this will just be a

Starting point is 00:09:43 quick teaching tool where you avoided what would have been the worst loss of the Lance Leipold era. And I guess we're still not that far removed from the days of KU pass. I mean, just two years ago, two years ago, you would thrive for any win. You didn't care who was against. So I guess from that perspective, celebrate the win, burn the tape, or maybe learn from it as much as you can, because there is a lot of learning to do. This wasn't their best performance, but you'll take the win, burn the tape, or maybe learn from it as much as you can, because there is a lot of learning to do. This wasn't their best performance,

Starting point is 00:10:08 but you'll take the win any way you can. All right, let's get on to our goats of the game. First though, this episode of the show is brought to you by BetterHelp. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Do you ever have your thoughts start racing before you go to bed? Maybe you're going to bed late tonight and you just can't, or maybe at inopportune moments, maybe you're getting ready for a big job interview or something. And you start going through all the worst scenarios you possibly could in your head. Well, it turns out one great way to make those racing thoughts go away is to talk them through. Therapy gives you a place to do that. So you can get out of your negative thought cycles and find some mental and emotional peace. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try.

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Starting point is 00:11:07 That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P,.com slash lockedoncollege. All right, on to our GOATs of the game. Let's start with our good GOATs here. I thought about putting Jalen Daniels in here. I mean, 11 yards per pass is really good. He hit some big ones when you really needed him to. He didn't have any mistake plays. I did think some of the altitude was bothering him from at least in the first half.

Starting point is 00:11:30 You saw him have some overthrows. Obviously, the ball is going to sail further in the altitude in the first half. You saw that the overthrow to I think it might have been Trevor Cardell on like the corner route toward the sideline. You saw it on the one that was almost intercepted over the middle in the first half. But overall, those stats were good. I didn't put them on good or bad. It wasn't the normal dynamic, Jalen.

Starting point is 00:11:48 We didn't see him running as much. I don't know if that was just preserving him in a game like this. I don't know if that was he's still dealing with some injury stuff from earlier this week. You did see him run toward the end of the game when they really needed it at the end. So that tells me it was in there. Maybe it was just, you know, protect him in a game like this.

Starting point is 00:12:03 I thought he played well. I just thought these guys really stood out devin neal 17 carries 89 yards and three touchdowns also had one catch for 59 yards was wide open on that kind of throwback play it was a great design play by andy kotelicki too and uh you know devin neal um looks like an nfl running back all throughout the season i thought that in game game one. I continue to think it now. The play where he gets the touchdown, it should have been like a two-yard loss, and he works his way back up. I mean, there were several plays where he turns zero-yard gains, one-yard gains into three- or four-yard gains,

Starting point is 00:12:36 and that's the sign of a really good running back in addition to the big plays that he was making. So Devin Neal, fantastic. Overall, 148 yards on 18 touches. All the starting receivers get a good go for me here Quentin Skinner had four catches for 50 yards he had a couple great catches and the one that really comes to mind that was probably the catch of the season so far to me for kids and there have been already some good catches too but when Jalen Daniels throws it over to the sideline reaches up as high as he can with that 6-5 frame reels it in as he's getting hit taps the toes down

Starting point is 00:13:04 great catch by Quentin Skinner. And earlier that drive, he had a great catch too. Luke Grimm had some big catches in key moments. He ended up with five for the game for 55 yards. Some big plays. He had the one time where he came out with like the injury at the beginning. It was good to see him get back into it. And L.J. Arnold with five catches for 46 yards.

Starting point is 00:13:19 He did a lot of his work early in the game. Did have a catch in the second half too. But, you know, totaling up for those three starters, that's 14 catches for the three of them for 151 yards. That's good work for the three of them, especially when you're looking at, you're going to be running the ball. You're going to be passing to your running backs.

Starting point is 00:13:34 You're going to be passing to your tight ends. You're going to be passing to, we saw Doug Emelian make a catch. We saw Tanaka Scott make a catch. So good stuff from those guys. Speaking of the tight ends, Mason Fairchild had himself a nice game. He wasn't as utilized in the first two games.

Starting point is 00:13:46 That was something Andy Kotelnik he talked about earlier this week, that it was just how it goes. Like, you know, you're just going to throw to the open guy. We're designing plays to just get an open guy, and sometimes it's going to be your game. Sometimes it's going to be somebody else's based on the scheme or who's open or whatever. Five catches, 74 yards.

Starting point is 00:14:03 Oh, so close to a receiving touchdown there. He was really good. And then the defensive side of the ball. I wanted to give a nod to Kenny Logan. Nine tackles. I thought he made some really sure tackles on plays that Nevada could have broke for a little bit further, but he was able to bring him down and avoid a explosive play coming from the Nevada offense.

Starting point is 00:14:21 Ended up with nine tackles, two and a half tackles for loss. So he was being aggressive coming up there and making some key plays. And I think he played into the KU pass defense being good too at the back end. Overall, I'm going to give the KU pass defense a good go in addition to Kenny Logan. So this would go for a lot of guys. I know Melo Dotson gave up the one deep throw where he got called for a pass interference too. I'll be honest, looking back at the replay, it looked like the receiver was kind of hooking his arm to get the pass interference onto Mello. It was a heady play by the receiver and it worked to his benefit. He ended up catching it anyway. But outside of that, I thought Mello Dotson was really good. And I thought the KU pass coverage was good. Bell, the good receiver for Nevada,

Starting point is 00:15:00 was held to 21 yards. He came into the game with 16 catches for like 160 yards. He held him to 21. And overall, Nevada had 22 throws. They only had 113 passing yards. That's 5.1 yards per throw, which would be one of the worst numbers in the country if you average that for a season. So pass coverage was actually really good for this game in KU. What about the bad goats though? Things that didn't go as well for KU well one is fumble luck Nevada had five fumbles you had zero recovered um on average you're gonna recover about 50 percent of the fumbles that go your way also on average turnovers are worth about four four and a half points per game according to certain analytics uh places so that means in theory if Nevada's fumbling five times, Kansas would be expected to recover two and a half of them.

Starting point is 00:15:48 And obviously, you know, that's kind of an arbitrary thing. You're not going to recover two and a half, right? So let's just say you had a slightly less lucky game, but you still were more toward the mean. That would mean you recover two. Well, that means on average, you're probably going to put up nine points something like that that's a nine point swing right there and if it's a game where you cover three of the five fumbles then it's even more and if it's one of the fumbles where it's the one where they're driving in and

Starting point is 00:16:14 about to get the touchdown that's a seven point swing because it takes the points away from them so that was a big difference in this game and if Kansas even recovers the one fumble when they're about to score if you win that game 31 to, it feels a little bit different than having to survive on a last drive. Not that we would view it much better of a performance, but we definitely would view it a little bit better from that standpoint. Defending the quarterback run gets a bad goat here. That was something Luke Altmyer had the long touchdown run. Missouri State had the one long rushing play for the quarterback. Lewis, the quarterback for Nevada, 11 carries for 58 yards and two touchdowns. Going back to last year, guys that are not mobile, they don't really have a problem with, but the guys that are mobile,

Starting point is 00:16:54 they have had a problem with, and that has kind of carried over into this year. So I don't know what the solution is there, but certainly something to watch moving forward. Good news is there's not always going to be mobile quarterbacks now on the schedule for KU. Keaton Slovis, the quarterback for BYU, isn't the most mobile guy in the world. Quinn Ewers, he's not really known for his mobility. So this might actually be something that's going to be okay moving forward. I guess we'll wait and see. And John Rice Plumlee, I don't know. I'd imagine UCF going to have a mobile quarterback no matter what. So that is one that scares you a little bit down the road. Clean good football gets a bad goat here. You had the fumble issues yourself.

Starting point is 00:17:26 You had two fumbles. Daniel Hyshaw just continues to fumble. That is very scary. And he is so talented, so impactful, such a good power runner. So it's a shame that he has this issue because if he could just hold on to the ball, he would be an all-league type of running back. But that's what's holding him back and almost makes you want to say we need more. I mean, look at the end of the game. Dylan McDuffie's on the field on the third down and six

Starting point is 00:17:47 for you at their end of the field, trying to close out the game because you need to make sure he holds onto the ball. So that's something to worry about as a team. Also the penalty discipline, the penalty discipline, way too many, seven in this game, key moments. The one where you had the fourth down and Austin Booker, I think, was the one who jumped off. That stuff cannot happen. Too many sloppy plays for a team that is well-coached and needs to emphasize the small things to win games.

Starting point is 00:18:16 Also, the clock management at the end of the first half, that wasn't great either. I personally would have gone for the fourth down at the end of the game, but I understood what they were doing. They were making them go. I don't really have super big qualms with that one. That's just kind of personal choice. My last bad goat here is Jacob Borchilla.

Starting point is 00:18:34 I thought we were done with him causing issues for KU. He was last in the Big 12 in field goal percentage the last two years at Kansas. Goes to Vanderbilt, transfers, and he misses a game-winning potential field goal, which prevents KU fans from watching really till about like six or seven minutes left in the first quarter, which means you missed the Kansas football touchdown drive, which was the best run of play that Kansas had for the entire first half. And you had to miss it because Jacob Borchilla continued to cause Kansas fans nightmares. All right, we're going to get on to what's next for a brief overview of things. And you had to miss it because Jacob Borchilla continued to cause Kansas fans nightmares.

Starting point is 00:19:08 All right, we're going to get on to what's next for a brief overview of things. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. Now time for your game changer of the week brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. I thought the game changer for Kansas in this game was that catch by Quentin Skinner on the sideline. Jalen Daniels throws it to the side. Skinner goes up as high as he can, gets it, somehow gets the toes in through the hit, maintains the reception on the play. Unbelievable grab by Quentin Skinner in a key moment when you're trying to score there at the end of the game.

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Starting point is 00:20:39 BYU comes into the game at 3-0. First week, not overly impressive. 14-0 against Sam Houston State. Offensive line struggled. Week two looked a little bit better, but a worse opponent was Southern Utah, 41-16. So it's like, eh, whatever. But then they looked impressive. The offense looked really good. 38-31

Starting point is 00:20:56 at Arkansas. We obviously saw that Arkansas team. There are a lot of returning faces, especially on the offensive ball. Defense, not as much from the Liberty Bowl team. And they just beat that Arkansas team that you lost to whatever that was like nine months ago. At this point, again, different Arkansas team, but still you get the point. BYU has your attention. I think the good news is because of this performance you had against Nevada.

Starting point is 00:21:17 And because of what BYU just did, you're going to not like be caught off guard with what they are. What can catch you off guard is they will hit you in the mouth. They're a physical football team, and they have really good fans that travel very well. So pack the booth. Otherwise, it's going to be filled with a slightly different colored blue with BYU coming in, and BYU is more than good enough to win this game. I'd imagine the line on this, whoever's favored,

Starting point is 00:21:42 it'll probably be around three points. It'll probably be kind of a coin flip game. And this is a big one for KU because I don't know if they'll be ranked after this week. Probably not after not looking great against Nevada. If you beat BYU, there's probably a good chance you're ranked. BYU might be ranked this week. And if BYU is not, if they beat Kansas, they'll probably be ranked. So it'll be a big one.

Starting point is 00:21:59 And you have to overcome this long travel coming back. They're going to be leaving tomorrow morning and then having to practice, or I guess today since it's Sunday, later in the day, Sunday. So Kansas has to overcome some more of those circumstances that they weren't able to as well for this week. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us anywhere you get any of your podcasts or on our YouTube page. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - INSTANT REACTION: Kansas Jayhawks Football Escapes Nevada Wolfpack 31-24 to Move to 3-0

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