Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jalon Daniels Back for Kansas Jayhawks Football vs Illinois + Right, Wrong & TBD from Week 1

Starting point is 00:00:00 Bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Brett McMurphy reporting that Jalen Daniels back for week two. We're going to discuss that and also where I felt most right, most wrong, and still what's still to be determined about the team after the week one performance against Missouri State. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:34 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. And you can also find us, like and subscribe to the show on YouTube. We're doing a bonus episode today. We had our Sunday episode that's Sunday for Monday, sort of with our recap

Starting point is 00:00:51 of the game. But I wanted to give a little extra because there's this report from Brett McMurphy about Jalen Daniels. I also wanted to get into a little quick thoughts on where I felt most right, most wrong, and what's still to be determined moving forward after week one and go a little bit further into the game. Let's start right there with the Brett McMurphy report. So this was from Brett McMurphy, who's a college athletics, college football national writer, and he reported that Kansas quarterback Jalen Daniels, who missed last week's game versus Missouri State with back tightness, is expected to play Friday versus Illinois,

Starting point is 00:01:24 a source told Action Network. Daniels is the Big 12 preseason offensive player of the year. So that was his tweet. That's what he said out there. I'll say this. I am taking this with a grain of salt from one standpoint. I think given how Jalen Daniels' injury has kind of gone so far, would it shock you, would it shock me? Would it

Starting point is 00:01:46 shock anybody at this point? If all of a sudden the intent is for him to start and then come Wednesday or Thursday, all of a sudden the back injury flares back up and he can't go, right? So even though I am going to take this report as a, the intention is for KU to start him. I'm also not going to take it as it's a 100% thing that he is going to start. I guess nothing's ever a hundred percent, but even a 99% thing, right. There is still that thought in the back of my head that,

Starting point is 00:02:16 yeah, what if it flares up again? There is still a thought in my head of like, okay, but Lance Leipold has been very like odd about how he's handled this and, and has kept everybody in the dark here in what's going to happen with all of this so is this something where I don't know he's doing this for Illinois to try to prepare differently in some way or another right could this be a leak that way

Starting point is 00:02:37 or could this be in in regards to Kansas who's going to be having the blackout with the black uniforms trying to build up more hype for the game, whether he's playing or not. Again, I am taking this as truth. I am taking this as it's the real thing and that the expectations for Jalen Daniels to play this Friday. But there still is in the back of my head that worry that, yeah, what if something does flare back up? Because, you know, back injuries are not something that tend to go away. And we've seen that so far now over the course of fall camp. We've heard days that Jalen Daniels has practiced and then has missed practice we uh heard that Jalen Daniels sounded like he was going to be

Starting point is 00:03:08 the starter then later in the week something flares up and he doesn't end up being the starter so I'm not taking it as an absolute but it is obviously a good sign that Jalen Daniels could be back and so much so that I saw the line already moved from like Kansas minus two to Kansas minus four for the game on Friday against Illinois certainly would be a big help for you and you hope that he's not rusty at all coming into the game after missing last week. It'll be a very big, interesting discussion all throughout the week on what's going on there with Jalen here.

Starting point is 00:03:34 I wanted to get into where I felt right, where I felt wrong, what's still to be determined here with locked on Jayhawks as far as for KU football after the first game and what you can and can't take away. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. They have completely changed the non-alcoholic beer game. They make non-alcoholic beers that actually taste good. And now it's time for your Game Changer of the Week,

Starting point is 00:03:57 brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. I think for this upcoming week, it might just be Jalen Daniels playing. If Jalen Daniels ends up playing, I think you are good enough to beat them with Jason Bean, but that might take you over the top, especially if Jalen's the guy who we remember from last year in the back isn't causing any sorts of injuries. He is an ultra-talented guy that I expect to go out there and make Kansas that maybe even, you know, the line goes even more up, and maybe they get closer to a touchdown. Brews at Athletic Brewing Company are great tasting, award-winning,

Starting point is 00:04:27 and they beat out full-strength beers in global competitions. You can find Athletic Brewing Company's non-alcoholic brews at a store near you or buy online at athleticbrewing.com. First-time customers can use code LOCKEDON to get 15% off your first order online. That's code LOCKEDON at checkout for 15% off at athleticbrewing.com. Near beer, exclusions and conditions apply. Athletic Brewing Company, fit for all times. All right, where did I feel right after the first game? You know, I think going into the first game and hearing from Brian Borland, it felt like Marvin Grant was ready for a big role on this team

Starting point is 00:04:59 and to make another step up. You heard about some of his improvements in the work ethic off the field, watching more film, getting more studying in. He's always been a good athlete and a hard hitter and somebody who's willing to kind of sacrifice their body in that way. He had a really good coverage game. He obviously had a big role. He was on the field a ton. So that's something I feel right about.

Starting point is 00:05:18 Devin Neal being really good at football. That's something I feel right about, feel good about. Jared Casey always being around big plays and being used as kind of that H-back and kind of Swiss Army knife tight end. Feel good about that. Feel good about Trevor Cardell having a good fall camp and that leading to 14 snaps in the game, which would have been one of the totals of his games last year.

Starting point is 00:05:40 That was even, you know, with week one being an FCS foe where you're not going to play those guys super deep into the game. They threw a screen for him to try to get him involved. It's clear they want to get him involved because he had that strong camp. So those are all things you felt good about. What about things that I felt wrong about right away? Well, one was Jalen starting. I thought he was going to start going into last week.

Starting point is 00:06:03 Obviously, things changed maybe the night before, the day of when the tide started to shift there. But that was something I kind of felt wrong about going into the game. Maybe the role for Quentin Lassiter. You know, when I was doing depth chart projections and talking about how deep the corner room is, I would throw Quentin Lassiter in there, but it was more so as a kind of back end of the depth chart kind of guy.

Starting point is 00:06:22 He was on the field for a good amount of time, even with the ones. He obviously had that really good interception in the second half. I thought Quentin Lassiter, his role was more than maybe I was expecting it to. And it's not that that's a bad thing. There's a lot of talent in that room. So the fact that he's earned that spot as a senior, obviously we know how meaningful his family and the other Lassiters have been to the KU program.

Starting point is 00:06:44 It's cool to see. It's really cool to see that he's earned that spot and will be on the field a ton. One thing that I feel wrong about early on is definitely that, you know, if you go to the early part of last year, Devin Neal and Daniel Hyshaw were pretty much splitting carries. Like maybe it would be one or two more carries for Devin here, but a lot of the numbers were the same. And there were games where they had the same amount of carries. I kind of wondered if that was going to be more of the same this year. It seems pretty clear that Devin Neal is another notch ahead

Starting point is 00:07:11 of Daniel Hyshaw at this point, whether that's Daniel Hyshaw still coming back from the injury and trying to shake the rust off, whether that's Devin Neal just hitting another level. The fumble obviously doesn't help with Daniel Hyshaw, but I kind of view it now more so to being like, yeah, maybe Devin Neal is going to be the workhorse back, and then it'll be kind of a rotation for that second guy between Hyshaw and McDuffie as opposed to being a rotation for the number one guy.

Starting point is 00:07:34 I feel like that might be something that was a takeaway that I might have been wrong about after the first game. I'm going to finish up on things that I think are still to be determined, though, that maybe we haven't figured out quite yet or aren't going to know even through the first week of the season against an FCS opponent. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Get ready for the NFL season with incredible offers from FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed, plus all customers who bet $5 will get $100 off NFL Sunday ticket

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Starting point is 00:08:23 Obviously, I'd imagine it might be a little bit longer on those because of the Jalen Daniels, maybe some of the questions there, but we'll wait and see, and we'll give you a good prop bet later in the week. So visit fanduel.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season with an offer you won't want to miss. FanDuel, official partner of the NFL. Finishing things up, what are some things that are to be determined? I think both the offensive line and defensive line kind of dominance in that game.

Starting point is 00:08:48 You know the offensive line should be a strength for KU. The defensive line has some talent there. You know that. But to what level was the dominance? Will that carry over into other games? Is the offensive line going to be good for Kansas this year like it was last year? Or can it be dominant? Can it average 250

Starting point is 00:09:05 rushing yards per game can you be just road grading teams that even when they know you're going to run halfback dive you still gain three four yards on the play right those are going to be questions but the defensive line I thought it was better uh 14 um hurries in the game from the defensive line your pass rush grade was good uh you did good against the run you had a good run grade in this game. And you had a lot of guys that showed flashes, Jeremy Robinson, Austin Booker from pass rush perspective. Gage Keys and Dylan Brooks, I thought, looked good.

Starting point is 00:09:32 I liked some of the flashes from Tommy Dunn and DJ Withers. Hayden Hatcher obviously had himself an awesome game. The defensive line, I think, could be better than it was maybe holistically last year. Obviously, you don't have the star with Lonnie Phelps. And in that game, they looked really good. But also, you looked really good in the FCS game on the defensive line. And while that was proof that the defensive line was maybe better than in years past, it still was not up to snuff in some of your Big 12 games.

Starting point is 00:09:56 So that we don't remain to be seen. But it was at least an encouraging first sign for the defense. J.B. Brown being a dude, I think, is TBD for me. I really liked what I saw. I noticed him on a couple plays, but I'm trying not to. Like, it could have just been confirmation bias, right? I am expecting big things from J.B. Brown. I'm high on him.

Starting point is 00:10:15 And then I see him make a couple plays. Like, he was the one who batted the ball that got tipped up and then eventually intercepted by, I think it was Kobe Bryant. He had a big hit earlier. Like, I was impressed with what he did, but again, is that just confirmation bias? I look at the pro football focus numbers. Those didn't love him necessarily.

Starting point is 00:10:31 So TBD on JB Brown, but I kind of liked what I saw in the early going. And I think overall a lot of player performances or games, you kind of look at and say, okay, you did it against an FCS opponent. Let's see how that carries over into the bigger games moving forward, but still some positive signs for KU football in the first game. We're going to have more episodes coming out this week with Locked on Jayhawks. Most encouraging and worrisome things from week one.

Starting point is 00:10:55 We'll get to our re-evaluation of the KU football schedule, right? There were some struggles for some of the big 12 teams. So we're going to re-evaluate the KU football schedule after one week of the season. We get to our preview of the Illinois game and we might have some basketball content in the middle of the week too, with an early point guard preview. Cause I think we're like five weeks away from late night in the fog as of this Friday.

Starting point is 00:11:17 So all this stuff kind of meshing together and coming up quickly for this episode of locked on Jayhawks, find us anywhere you get any of your podcasts or find us on our YouTube page. You can like and subscribe to the show. Please do. It helps us out on our end. Have a great rest of your day. See you next time on Locked on Jayhawks.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jalon Daniels Back for Kansas Jayhawks Football vs Illinois + Right, Wrong & TBD from Week 1

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