Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jalon Daniels Emerges as Kansas Football's UNDISPUTED Leader | Can He Carry the Jayhawks to Glory?

Starting point is 00:00:00 the 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 happening? Derek Johnson here at D Johnson radio on Twitter. This is locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And thank you that every day is catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and

Starting point is 00:00:46 subscribe to the show. Let's get that thing up to 4k on the subs list so please do if you haven't and if you have a family member you know log into their account and subscribe. On today's edition we're talking a little KU football Big 12 media day action some of the most notable quotes from Lance Lightholding company out at Big 12 media day and what it means for KU football. Let's get started with some of the things that Lance light pulled said on the podium. And I found this one very interesting and him just talking about kind of building the program and

Starting point is 00:01:16 where they're at. Now there was another quote that he gave kind of talking about, you know, what are some of the things that you tried to like bottle up that you did differently, maybe in November last year, when you were on that hot streak, when you won those three straight ranked games, you kind of tried to bring into this season. And it was a lot of process oriented stuff and the routine oriented stuff that they were trying to do. But I found this interesting too.

Starting point is 00:01:37 He said, as we continue to build our program is one that we want to continue building consistency. You know, one of the things that has come up, you know, through a national media writer is that in the last two seasons of Portal changes is that we've had the fewest scholarship players enter the Portal. And at Kansas, and for us, roster retention has been a big factor for us,

Starting point is 00:01:56 important ingredient since our arrival, because to be quite honest, there was a lot of attrition before we arrived, and to be able to keep that, that's going to be a big part in the new rev share model, we want to be competitive again, and obtaining players, we still want to be able to develop players through the high school ranks as most of us do. And of course, then supplement with

Starting point is 00:02:13 players through the transfer portal. And you could probably look at that answer and say, oh, so they want to do a little bit of everything like at the end, or it's like, yeah, they still want to do, you know, the, I just, I find it interesting from a standpoint of like, they're still going to make their backbone. And I think we saw it on last year's like, yeah, they still want to do, you know, the I just I find it interesting from a standpoint of like, they're still going to make their backbone. And I think we saw it on last year's team. I know it didn't, you know, have the end result that everybody wanted with not making a bowl

Starting point is 00:02:32 game. But you saw it where the majority of resources went to retaining players went to making sure this player who could potentially be an all big 12 player doesn't transfer to another school that it didn't necessarily going out and getting new talent. Now, obviously, when you have a year like this year where you're losing a bunch of players, you're going to have to backfill that with transfer portal talent, which they did. But that remains their focus. And as we look to where they're at with their high school recruiting, which has been really good the past couple of years, especially compared to, you know, past times past coaches

Starting point is 00:03:04 at Kansas, that is going to add to the importance if you're bringing in better recruits than other Kansas coaches, other Kansas teams have, okay, well, if you got to develop them, which I think we know the staff is pretty good at developing. And then from there, you also have to retain them. And so if that is the focus, I think that's a good thing for KU and where you look at as you try to get an idea of where this program is going to be. He also talked about

Starting point is 00:03:30 Jalen Daniels, did Lance Leipold. And here's part of the quote of what he said. He said, you know, the thing I love about Jalen is he's the same person he was four years ago. He's humble, he's hardworking. You know, it's been an interesting road for Jalen and the Jayhawks. When you see Jalen playing his best, I think there's not many better, that's for sure. At the same time, as he's had to persevere through some injuries and doing some things, he's stayed the same person. He doesn't make excuses. He doesn't know. He's been positive. He walks around, do it the same smile on his face. And he's never once, like I said, made an excuse or deflected anything that hasn't gone his

Starting point is 00:04:01 way. And that alone is something that I know our locker room greatly respect about him and his energy and his positivity is very, very contagious. You know, I think as much as last year you had a bunch of seniors on the roster to me last year was it was, I don't know, I guess, Devon Neal's team. You know, the thing with football is there's so many guys on the roster and things do get segmented out sometimes positionally

Starting point is 00:04:24 or offense and defense. But last year, I think of like Devin Neal's team. And it's funny because you're talking about last year, Jaylen Daniels at that point is a I mean, depending like parts of four seasons starting quarterback for KU. But this is really his team. I feel like you know, this is really his season last year was about Devin Neal and Kobe Bryant and maybe the year before was about those guys and Jason Bean. You know this is Jaylen's Jaylen's team and it's that final run for him and I think it's just cool because every interaction yeah that I when I was working in radio that I ever had with Jaylen Daniels was that positivity that infectious energy even before he was the starter it was like a parent see that like this guy lights up a room and that was cool to see.

Starting point is 00:05:09 And you know, you never know how somebody is going. Like it almost in a weird way. I know when you're living in the moment and things are going bad and that, you know, things did not go well for Jaylen in the first five games or whatever you want to say of last season, that it's easy when you're in the moment when we're in the moment we're talking about this sort of thing like, yeah, they're like, do they need to make a change? Do they need to, you know, change offensive coordinator, like you get to the some of those questions. And I think looking back on it now, though, you almost look at it.

Starting point is 00:05:41 And you're like, it's almost a level of like respect, at least for me of like how you handled that situation, you almost look at it and you're like, it's almost a level of like respect, at least for me, of like how you handled that situation. You stayed positive through it. You worked through it. You had a much better back half of the season and you never threw anybody under the bus. You never like got too down on yourself. Maybe we could point two times on the football field where, you know, it looked like maybe your confidence was a little shaken and like, okay, you know, that's

Starting point is 00:06:05 going to affect your your level of play but like that's natural. He never let that be like an outward thing and that's important to from a leadership perspective, which the quarterback position just kind of inherently is a leadership perspective. All right. There's some other quotes from Lance light pole talking about Bryce Foster talking about kind of overcoming some of those one score games situations like that.

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Starting point is 00:07:24 Thanks for joining us on this bonus episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. Don't forget to check out our episode talking about Noah Shelby leaving what KU does from there or some of our other episodes from this week. We talk plenty other KU football during this week here on Lockdown Jayhawks and don't forget to you can check out Lockdown College football and or Lockdown College basketball for second and or third. Listen every day. Okay, so Lane Flightbolt also beyond

Starting point is 00:07:44 the podium. Those to me were the two quotes that kind of stood out the most from his podium conversation. He also had a conversation with the ESPN crew as they did as they're down there. He talked a little bit about situational football being a big focus this off season. The quote was the unlucky so to speak start to last season. There's been a huge emphasis on so to speak, start to last season. There's been a huge emphasis on the the little plays over the course of the game. I think he said those three to five like very impactful plays that can kind of pop up that can be the difference in you

Starting point is 00:08:15 winning or losing a game and this is definitely so critical in the Big 12 where majority of the games are going to be maybe not a majority, but a lot of your games are going to be one score and we went back over the previous years. Kansas in the Lance Light Bull. They were coming into this year was firing at about a 500 clip in one score games. This year they went one in five and obviously the one they won

Starting point is 00:08:36 had a little bit of luck revert back their way with where the pooch pond landed against BYU. At the same point, I mean, you do earn some of your luck. Like you still have to make plays still to score the touchdown make plays, you still have to score the touchdown after that. You still have to make the stop after that. But point being, you know, if Kansas is even a similar team to where they were last year, but they're just better in one score games, you're going to get a better record. Like there's a chance that if you played the 2024 Kansas team against the 2025 Kansas team

Starting point is 00:09:04 in a seven game series, that maybe the 2024 Kansas team against the 2025 Kansas team in a seven game series, that maybe the 2024 Kansas team wins, you know, in seven games or in six games. But maybe the 2025 Kansas team based on the schedule they're gonna have this year and maybe a little bit more luck and maybe a little bit better, especially if they're focusing on it, created luck, so to speak, or like making your own. I guess, I don't know, like making your own history, so to speak.

Starting point is 00:09:31 That this team ends up with a one, two, three game better record, you know, just by being better in one score games. And, you know, part of that goes back to the Jalen Daniel stuff, where it's like if Jalen's rock and if Jalen's on, you're probably going to do a little bit better in one score games if your defense is good at closing out games like there were times where cage defense was good in the first three quarters and then maybe struggled at the end of game like maybe you'll focus in on this sort of thing. Maybe

Starting point is 00:09:54 having better depth maybe that helps in both of those areas. But that was good to hear that that's been a big focus for them because yeah, I mean that was the difference in a lot of games for them probably five or six losses a season ago. That was definitely a difference in them not making it to a bowl game. We also found out about Bryce Foster, who was not there at media day. DJ withers was there. I want to talk about those two things specifically because there's a quote on Foster,

Starting point is 00:10:23 and I just find the withers one being there I don't know interesting fun in a good way. So let's get to those next. This is Locked on Jayhawks Thanks for joining us on LOJ again anywhere you get your podcast and or our YouTube page So Bryce Foster was supposed to be going down to Big 12 media days ended up not happening Here was the quote from Lance Leipold Bryce had a little procedure done That's going to hold him back a little bit and they didn't want him to fly. So he'll be ready for the opening game and stuff, but it was just a decision we made. He's disappointed and I'm disappointed for him because he deserved to be here as well. I just spoke to him yesterday and

Starting point is 00:10:54 everything is good. Good news. Sounds like he's going to be good to go for the start of the season. I guess we could go back and point to past like Dailan Daniels injury stuff that, you know, we've been told something and then it was actually worse than it was. So I guess there is a little bit of that in the back of your mind. But I think the hope there is that he's going to be okay. Obviously stinks. He's not able to come down. But that would be, you know, it's gonna be very imperative to get him back because he is the rock of your

Starting point is 00:11:17 offensive. You can make the argument he is the the best player on the team. If you know, all big 12 center returning like he's a very good player, obviously. But I did find interesting is that DJ Weathers went down and DJ Withers. He wasn't the replacement he was going to go down whether Bryce Foster went or not. But the reason I find it interesting is that KU has a group of what I think is a really good, I don't know, five or six man defensive tackle rotation, like I feel I feel really solid about KU's defensive tackle rotation, you know,

Starting point is 00:11:48 and regardless of who's in there, I feel good about the depth they have. I feel good about the rotations they have. I feel good about a lot of those players. The big question I think I have for the defensive tackle room is more just about, OK, can one of these guys, right, if you have five solid guys who are all, you know, who could all start for Kansas and you'd be cool with it, you'd be okay with it, but can one guy maybe emerge from going from being, okay, you have a group of five good players who

Starting point is 00:12:15 can rotate in, can one guy emerge to being great? Can one guy emerge to being an all big 12 player? Can one guy emerge into being an NFL draft pick or something on the defensive tackle room? 12 player can one guy emerge into being an NFL draft pick or something on the defensive tackle room that would take the room and the whole defense and the defensive line to the next level. And so as we try to figure out who it is, like, I don't know, like I like Blake Harold maybe makes some sense because he played a lot as a redshirt freshman and played

Starting point is 00:12:38 really well. So it makes sense that he's going to get even better as a redshirt sophomore. Gage keys coming back after maybe learning a little bit from Auburn, like that would make sense. We've seen a lot of Tommy Dunn and DJ Withers over the years. There's a lot of guys that you could go to. Kenan Caldwell saw some good flashes from him last year. Maybe this is a signal,

Starting point is 00:12:55 and maybe it's more of a leadership thing. Like maybe DJ Withers is kind of the leader of the defensive tackle room. But as we do try to figure out, okay, who is the best candidate for that to happen? Maybe this is served on a silver platter to be like, DJ Withers is the best candidate for that sort of path, that sort of thing to happen to. So that's why I just found that at least a little bit interesting there. The other thing that we found out is that Jalen Daniels has brought out

Starting point is 00:13:22 his receiver group to California to throw with them. And that is awesome news. That is a great thing because you look at last year and you know, I think you can probably also attribute a little bit of KU offense, Jalen and KU's overall struggles in the first four or five games of the season last year to Jalen Haniels maybe being a little bit rusty. You're learning a new offense. I know a lot of the stuff was the same, but still, there's new concepts and different

Starting point is 00:13:47 things Jeff Grimes wants to do. And you're doing that, you haven't thrown to the receivers because you missed summer ball, you missed spring ball with the injury. Well, this year you missed spring balls, you start to worry about, okay, is there going to be a rust issue at the beginning of the year again? No, because this time now you're getting to throw in the summer and now you're getting all your group of receivers to come out in California and throw with them and establish that chemistry where you can avoid having those early season rust issues. That's great news,

Starting point is 00:14:12 I think for KU too. The last quote, last thing I wanted to touch on was from Travis Goff. He said, quote, we're going to have an announcement in the fundraising space in the next few weeks that I think maybe is one of one in college athletics history. Now, Travis Goff spoke a little bit on some other stuff, the stadium where things are at, you know, they're going to get the grass into it. It's obviously going to be ready for week, week zero for KU, their first game of the season and how exciting that is. And, and you know, obviously that's, that's all great. This will be very interesting too, right? And in a world where you are trying to fund a stadium, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:49 you always still do have to worry about facilities for, you know, your other sports. You do have to worry about, OK, what are scholarship numbers going to be at for some of the sports? Like how many are we going to go deep on some of these different sports? Paying the different players rev share with building a basketball roster, building a baseball roster, football roster, all these different sports, paying the different players rev share with building a basketball roster, building a baseball roster, football roster, all these different things that you have to kind of counterbalance and weigh in. If you were Travis Goff, so anyway, you can get that money. But what I do find interesting, I'm saying that this is a one of one

Starting point is 00:15:18 in college athletics history. Now, does that mean that it's one of one in terms of somebody is donating like an exorbitant amount of money? I guess part of it too is like, is him saying this is one of one? Is it actually the first time this donation has ever happened? Or is it like a sponsorship with a company that has never happened? Are they looking into private equity? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:15:40 I'm just like tossing things out there for instance. Could it just be a number that has never happened for KU. If it's entire college athletics, though, that makes me think bigger than that, because like a guy like Boone Pickens gave an insane amount of money. So it's like, is somebody given that much money? Or it's like even above that? I don't know. But it is exciting. It does make you think, okay, what's going on here? And you know, get you excited for for where it's going

Starting point is 00:16:04 to be and what that sort of money is and what you could possibly do with it but all right that'll do it for this episode a bonus episode of Lockdown Jayhawks don't forget to check out our normal episode today as well we'll see you next time for another edition of LOJ right here anywhere you get your podcast including on our youtube page see you next time

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jalon Daniels Emerges as Kansas Football's UNDISPUTED Leader | Can He Carry the Jayhawks to Glory?

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