Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jalon Daniels Status, WR/RB Battle, DK McDonald's Defense and More Kansas Football Spring Storylines

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, the KU football spring preview. What are the biggest questions? What's going to happen at quarterback with Jalen Daniels being injured? Who's going to emerge as the receiver one for KU? What's the defense going to look like with DK McDonald to get into all those questions and more on today's Locked on Jayhawks? 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?

Starting point is 00:00:35 Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the every dayers catching each and every show. You can find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. You can find us anywhere free and available that you get your podcasts. And on today's edition of Walk Down Jayhawks, we got a little KU football spring ball primer, spring ball preview for you because that gets going any day now. And we're going to get into the biggest competition areas and questions for KU football. And a

Starting point is 00:01:04 little bit, I have some thoughts on what the defense could look like from DK McDonald's because we heard some interesting quotes last week from some press conferences like Lance Lightwood and some of the other coaches and I find it very interesting for a couple reasons that we'll get to in today's episode of the show. Let's start right here. One of the biggest competition areas and you know some of the biggest things to keep an you know, some of the biggest things to keep an eye on during spring ball for KU football. Let's start with QB because quarterbacks that position everybody loves to talk about, right? And it's not as much of a conversation of who is QB one for KU that is Jaylen Daniels. He's coming back for another year.

Starting point is 00:01:41 She's coming off a strong final seven games of the season this year for KU and obviously had a really good two years prior to that and the games that he was available for. But he is obviously, you know, limited right now and to what extent he is going to be able to play. We don't entirely know because, you know, we just don't entirely know what the injury is and how limiting it is for him. Obviously, it's, you know, problematic anytime't entirely know what the injury is and how limiting it is for him. Obviously it's you know problematic anytime you have to get surgery regardless of if it's you know invasive not invasive if it's you know minor it's still surgery right and so what does that mean for Jalen is he's just going to be able to you know not do anything is he going to be able to start

Starting point is 00:02:20 receivers what does that mean because it certainly has an impact on building the chemistry we saw that make him look a little bit rusty last year by missing a lot of spring ball. So what is that going to mean? And so then you also get to the standpoint of, okay, it was good that we got to see a season of Jaylen Daniels being fully healthy for Kansas last season. But the previous years he had been the starter, he had gone down with an injury at different points in time. And the reason I bring that up isn't to, you know, I hope it doesn't happen. I hope Jalen plays every single game and every single snap for KU football this upcoming season, just like, you know, last season.

Starting point is 00:02:51 But you do have to at least be aware of it in the back of your mind in terms of getting the backup prepared. And that is the one maybe positive spin you could have on all this with the Jalen injury is now there are more reps, there are first team reps, there are, you know, it just funnels down, right? I mean, because you're always going to give your most reps to the first team, and then your second most reps to the second team, and then, you know,

Starting point is 00:03:11 it might funnel down to the third team. Maybe the fourth strings get like some snaps or some reps here and there. I don't exactly know how KU does their practices, but point being, you know, now if you're sliding everybody up on the depth chart, whether that guy is Cole Ballard, Isaiah Marshall, David McComb coming in early That's gonna be extra reps for those guys to get ready and it's extra reps for Marshall and McComb

Starting point is 00:03:32 Specifically and I guess Ballard if we want to toss them in there because one of those guys are gonna be your starting quarterback In 2026 when Jalen is gone So maybe this spring ball kind of jump starts them into being in that position of need But I think it'll also give more reps and opportunities to figure out who has the inside edge on that QB two position and therefore the QB one of 2026. And that could be the one positive out of all this. Another interesting competition, I think in the spring is going to be at the running back

Starting point is 00:04:00 position. I view it as almost like two sets of competitions. It's the first set of like Daniel Hyshaw versus Lashon Williams to transfer from Iowa, who is going to win out on that battle? Now, realistically, both of them are going to play a lot. We know Kansas likes to rotate backs and use two guys. Obviously, they got away from that a little bit of times last year when Devon Neal was rolling because it was Devon Neal.

Starting point is 00:04:20 But like, you know, you go back two years ago when Devon Neal was was kind of starting to break out, I guess you could say, I mean, he was good ever since he was a freshman, but you know, that was more of a two running back with him and Hysha on 2022. And I think that's what they're going to do more of this year. And then that other competition in the running back room is I think between the two, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:40 youngsters that you've recruited in back to back classes, Johnny Thompson is now a redshirt sophomore and Harry Stewart as what will be a redshirt freshman come the fall in 2025. Who wins out on that battle? Because then you're looking at, okay, hi Sean Williams, they're all seniors. So whoever wins that battle is looked at as being the next running back. And on top of it, could get some carries as soon as this year. I think staying on the offense side of the ball, who is going to emerge at receiver,

Starting point is 00:05:04 both in terms of being the top three guys, ball, who is going to emerge at receiver both in terms of being the top three guys, and then who's going to be receiver one is going to be very important. And maybe part of that is something you won't be able to answer, because Jalen Daniels could be limited and you won't find who has that best chemistry with him. But right now you look at it, Emmanuel Henderson, the Henderson, the senior transfer from Alabama, Bryson Canty, who is the red shirt senior transfer from Alabama, Bryson Canty, who is the redshirt senior transfer

Starting point is 00:05:26 from Columbia. You have Levi Wentz, the redshirt senior transfer from Albany, you have Cam Pickett, the redshirt sophomore transfer from Ball State. You add to the guys that are returning, Keaton Quebec, our redshirt sophomore, Doug Emelian, redshirt senior, right? And then you add the group of freshmen,

Starting point is 00:05:40 which I don't know which all freshmen are gonna be here for Spring Ball, but eventually you will have four freshmen into the system with Nick and Tays, Nagy and Cook. And specifically when I look at the transfers and the two returning guys, Emilia and in Quebec, seemed like Quebec was picking things up his first year. Things plateaued, I think a little bit last year, but I think that was because of an injury like, so how healthy is he going to be for spring ball

Starting point is 00:06:01 that he can kind of show what he can do exactly? And which of those transfers are going to step up and break out and show that they can be the guy? And ideally, you know, multiple of them, if not all of them show out to be the case where you have that depth and rotation, and maybe there just is more rotation from the receiver room this year, then there ends up being in some of the past years when you had those three guys kind of set in a very real way. I think that'll be very interesting for you to find during spring ball on the defensive side of the ball. I think a lot of competition for departing snaps in the secondary in the DB room, right? You lose Kobe Bryant, Mello Dotson. Obviously, there's going to be a ton of snaps to be had from the corners, but you also lose a lot from the safety position too with OJ Burrows and Marvin Grants to where you just have all sorts of snaps available at both. And you added some transfers,

Starting point is 00:06:50 you have some young talent in there that you're looking to take another step. You have some players that, you know, maybe we thought would take a bigger step last year that will they now this year that you have questions about that it's gonna be very interesting. So you look at like the corner room, you bring in DJ Graham,

Starting point is 00:07:04 who is more of the ready-made corner. That's why you bring them in as redshirt senior. And then you bring in a guy like Julia Harley, who kind of joins the the young guys who Harley will be redshirt sophomore. And he joins like the Jamal Croft, Jacoby Davis, Austin Alexander, Andre Gibson, eventually Chris McCorkle, as guys who will be, you know, underclassmen by their eligibility on the field as being talented players that any of them could break out at any given moment. Now I didn't mention Jaylen Todd there who fits the billing because I feel like Jaylen Todd is going to be one of those starters.

Starting point is 00:07:33 And then Demarius McGee, like where does he fit into all this? You look at the safety positions. I think it's going to be very interesting how this all shakes out because maybe KU plays more three safety looks this year and that opens up another role know role and playing time and starting opportunity for one of these guys but Taylor Davis acquitted himself very well as a redshirt freshman this past season. I think he's going to take an even bigger jump here in year two. Lyric Rawls got brought in from Oklahoma State to play a big role on this defense and then you have like a Damani Maxson who redshirted in year one. I don't know if he you he figures to make that step this soon

Starting point is 00:08:08 or if it'll come another year or two down the road. You have the two Dye brothers who I think struggled a bit last year, but Devin I know was, I think both of them had injuries they were dealing with, but Devin specifically had more injuries. And then Mason Ellis, who's like this athletic freak, like could he get on the field?

Starting point is 00:08:20 So I'll be very interested to see how the DB room kind of shakes out because it feels like a lot of talent and a lot of pieces right now, that I don't know exactly how they're all going to go into the puzzle. And then the last big one here for spring football is who joins the incumbent starters on the offensive line?

Starting point is 00:08:37 So it's really two, but it's kind of three with an asterisk. Kobe Baines and Bryce Foster are the incumbent starters. Baines, a starter at the guard position, Redshirt senior has been playing for you for a couple of years now. Started getting in, leaking the season in 2022 was one of your top six offensive linemen in 2023 and was one of your your starters last season. And then Bryce Foster, the transfer

Starting point is 00:08:59 he brought over from Texas A&M who by some accounts was the best center in the Big 12 this past season and one of the best centers in the country. He could have gone off to the NFL decided to come back. And so when you look at Bryce Foster and Kobe Baines, that's a great start to the interior of the offensive line. How are you going to fill out the rest now with Calvin Clements? That's the third guy who I said is kind of asterisk because we've seen him start games, we've seen him play, and it just feels like he

Starting point is 00:09:22 is kind of a shoe in one of those spots. Obviously, it is open competition, and they're going to leave that open and that's what this program does. But it feels like, you know, if everything goes as planned, he will be that guy. So that would really leave two positions open and that would be one of the tackle spots and one of the guard spots. Now, the beauty of it being one tackle spot, one guard spot, as opposed to being like two tackle spots or two guard spots is that you don't necessarily have to like, if you have two players or you're like, yeah, those two are best offensive linemen. But let's say you had, you know, your two tackle spots figured out, but you needed two guard spots

Starting point is 00:09:55 and you were like, oh, our next two best offensive linemen, both of them play, or one of them can only play tackle. He can't play guard. You know, the fact that you have guard and tackle available means that, okay, just whatever the next two best offensive linemen are, right? If this guy's better or one of them can only play tackle. He can't play guard. The fact that you have guard and tackle available means that, okay, just whatever the next two best offensive linemen are, right? If this guy's better at guard or tackle, you just fit him into that one and you work the other way. And I think they have some guys that are cross-trained

Starting point is 00:10:15 and can play different, like Tavaki, Tuiko, Lovato, the transfer from UCLA, he could play tackle or he could play guard. Nolan Gortjieka, he could play tackle or he could play guard. So I think that helps in some of that stuff. And then you have, you know, guys like the transfers you brought in, like Amir Herring,

Starting point is 00:10:30 who brought in a season prior during, I think right around spring ball, right? Tyler Mercer, who had a really good freshman season, Deandre Harper and Jack Tanner, some of the other freshmen that you brought in to the offensive line. How does it work? But also how does the two-deep figure out? that you brought in to the offensive line. How does it work? But also, how does the 2D figure out? Because

Starting point is 00:10:46 you want depth on that offensive line. And certainly that would speak to who the future guys are going to be for KU. All right, other questions for Kansas. Let's get to that next. And then thoughts on what the defense could look like with DK McDonald. This episode of the show is brought to you by Roy. Attention locked on Jayhawk fans, the future of college sports is here and it's transparent. Before the Roy app, NIL negotiations often happened under the table and fans didn't have a clear way to directly support the athletes they love. Now with Roy, you get to be a part of the change and support Jayhawk athletes in the

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Starting point is 00:11:56 Join now by downloading Roy and supporting your favorite players. Continuing on with this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, other questions for KU, I think coming into spring ball. Is any of the defensive ends the young guys going to emerge? Because you bring in Justice Finkley, a transfer from Texas as a senior, to play a big role right away and probably be the favorite to start at the strong defense events ball right now. Dean Miller comes back for another season after being all big 12 second team by one place. Dylan Brooks, upperclassman, but he's coming off the injury. You have a lot of talented youngsters in that defensive end room. Now are they gonna end up being players

Starting point is 00:12:36 in a year from now and two years from now? That kind of remains to be seen and not everyone is probably going to hit, but with the two freshmen you have coming in, Adrian Hawley and Garrett Martin, with the two redshirt freshmen now, Dak Brinkley, former four star and Caleb Redd, redshirt freshman who transferred in from Kentucky and by Job, who's a former, you know, near five star crew, high end four star recruit as a redshirt sophomore, former transfer from Michigan State. Can one of those guys break out this season? Can one of those guys play a big role on this team? And, you know, can another one of them

Starting point is 00:13:07 at least be a rotational player where you're starting to see a little bit more there? You know, obviously Dak Brinkley went a little bit more under the radar because of DJ Warner at his same position and Warner got the playing time. And Brinkley, I think, had an injury his senior year of high school.

Starting point is 00:13:22 So, or maybe it was a junior, I don't remember. That certainly impacts things, but, you But you can one of those guys step up and break out. I think that'll be a very interesting question because there is more than enough talent for that to happen. And it would certainly add to another level because I like the starting defensive end group of Finkeley and Miller. I feel good about that. But how good do you feel about the depth? I'd feel a lot better if I knew one of those guys was

Starting point is 00:13:43 was going to break out for KU. The other part of this, will this be the best linebacker group that Kansas has had under Lance Lightbulb? So you look at it, three transfers, Bengali Kamara, Joseph Sip, and then Trey Leith. And obviously you do have Jason Gilliam back who's got an opportunity to still compete for snaps and stuff like that. Logan Brantley trying to make a step in year two. A guy like John John Kamara, J'Cory Stewart, I mean Malachi Curvey who you're bringing in here. Even Tristan Fletcher who, I don't know, I'm probably more of a special teams player, but still you look at the linebacker room for KU and it's twofold.

Starting point is 00:14:20 It's one the question of can they mesh together well enough being possibly if you're starting, you know, are they gonna start to where they can start three. That's another conversation here. But if you're starting all guys who are transfers, are they going to mesh enough? And if those are the guys who are calling out plays in the defense now, who knows, maybe the DK McDonald defense, it'll be a safety calling out place. I don't know. But if that is the case, are they going to be able to mesh well enough and quick enough as transfers into the program?

Starting point is 00:14:47 Beyond that, will it be the best linebacker in the CORE? Well, JB Brown was pretty good last season for KU. I think I should probably make the argument that JB Brown has been the best linebacker of the Lance Leipold era during KU so far. Rich Miller would probably be the best leader, I guess you would say, from that linebacker group. I thought Cornell Wheeler was playing really well last year until he had the injury. Unfortunately he's playing through the injury of the backup season and you saw some of the performance suffer I think because of it. Kamara is maybe the most talented linebacker the kid you was had since I don't know maybe

Starting point is 00:15:19 you would go back to because even even as productive as Joe Dennean was I don't think he was the most talented like Bengali Kamara might be bigger faster stronger man. Maybe you go back to like Ben Heaney like Ben Heaney was big fast strong So he's very talented with sip. You have a very productive player at his previous stop and then with Leif in you have the guy who Was clearly at another power university in your own conference and has some potential to him. PFF grades not great last year, but he was also playing coming off a season ending injury from the year before. So like with another year of shaking off, how does that look? So I do think there is a real chance this winds up being the best linebacking core or linebacking season,

Starting point is 00:16:02 you would say, the Lancelot Blair. And I think they need it to be because with all the players you lose in the secondary, even though you have a lot of talent and a lot of young players back, there are going to be some questions like, are you really going to be better without Kobe Bryant and Melo Dotson? You know, it's maybe you can be close to it, but are you really going to be better? I don't know. It seems silly to think that. And so if you think the defense tackle room is good, which I do think it is, are you really going to be better? I don't know. It seems silly to think that. And so if you think the defense tackle room is good, which I do think it is, and you think the defensive ends can be at least comparable last year and hopefully a little bit better, then you're kind of looking to

Starting point is 00:16:33 the linebacker group to be like, if you guys can be indeed better, that's how the defense can get better overall, even despite losing, you know, all conference all American level corners and some productive players at the safety position to let's finish up here more about the defense specifically, what do we think you could look like in year one? under DK McDonald's mentioning quotes say least from Lance Leipold and some other coaches

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Starting point is 00:17:53 subject to underwriting and health questions that is fabric finishing up on this episode of locked on Jayhawks some thoughts on what the defense could be under DK McDonald. So let me go over some quotes and then we'll kind of get into this. This was from Lance Lightpool about a week ago talking about the defense and what to see this year differences, whatever. He said, quote, I think we'll be simpler in some ways. I don't want to get into comparisons of overly past or whatever.

Starting point is 00:18:22 I think expectations of how we're going to do things, how we're going to rally to the ball, what we're going to do and fundamentally sound were things that I just really liked. The daily approach of how he addressed his position group and how that's going to carry over into our defense and make us what we'd expect to be a better unit. Okay. So basically the key takeaway there is I think we'll be simpler in some ways. Basically think of more, you know, maybe less complexity, more of just let's just play hard and swarm the football type of thing and try to force turnovers. I don't know. Then you have Brandon Shelby, who is like the assistant DB

Starting point is 00:18:55 coach, I believe, a new hire this year. He said, quote, the defense has to be simple where they can learn it and they can go out and implement it at a high level. So again, you hear the term simple. There's certainly something interesting there. Okay, then D.K. McDonald's, here's a quote from him from like a week ago. He said, quote, you really want to see this defense play fast. The way we can do that is by being really simple. Playing physically, this is still a violent game played by violent men and I enjoy that

Starting point is 00:19:21 part. I enjoy the physicality part of this and then playing for each other. You always go a little harder for guys that you care about. So getting this group just to come together as one unit is fun because we got a lot of new guys. And so the joy of coaching is getting these new guys and these young guys to come together as one unit. So if we can play fast, play physical and play for each other, I think

Starting point is 00:19:37 we're going to play the type of football that we need to play and the type of defense we need to play here. So you keep going back to the simplicity here. And there is like this is one of those things where I don't know exactly where to go on this because first of all, let me say that there is a little bit of alarm bells that is going off in my head under the idea of how true is this but the other part of this is is it true if it is, then what does that exactly mean?

Starting point is 00:20:08 Okay, let me start with the first thing. Here's where the alarm bells go off in my head. A couple of years ago, 2022, if you remember, Kansas kept it a huge secret that they were gonna be running option concepts, right? It's so much so that in their first game, their FCS game, I think it was against Tennessee Tech, they ran like a speed option. It was like once or twice all game long, you know, just to maybe,

Starting point is 00:20:30 maybe get a little practice. But then all of a sudden game two against West Virginia, it's like a primary part of their offense. And it caught some teams off guard at the early part of the season, West Virginia and Houston, and Kansas gets off to a great start, and they ended up making it into a bowl game. Great. But that was not talked about all off season. They tried to keep it under wraps and they did a good job of it. And I don't blame Lance. I pulled in the staff for doing it. That's your prerogative and clearly that works. Clearly that surprised other teams.

Starting point is 00:20:59 There is a part of me that is sitting here going, OK, this is all a ruse. They're saying how simple it's going to be, how basic it's going to be, how it's not going to be all this complicated scheme and yada yada yada. And then they're going to go out there. And in the first game against Fresno State, they're going to or it's an FCS school, whatever they get to an FCS school. They're not going to show anything, and it is going to be simple. Then it gets Fresno.

Starting point is 00:21:28 They'll mix it in here and there unless it's close game and they have to get crazy. And then in the Missouri game, they're going to be like, hey, we're dialing up blitzes. We're having this exotic coverages. We're doing all this crazy stuff. That would not surprise me based on how this has happened in the past.

Starting point is 00:21:42 So I'll be interested to see how that goes. But the other side of me is maybe it is true, because there's a really good movie. It's on Netflix. I don't know if it still is, you know, that it's been a handful of years since they came out and stuff. But it's like a documentary. It's called gyro dreams of sushi. How do you recommend checking that very good documentary, but it's about this guy in in Japan who basically has like, or had, again, I don't know, sense it, but like the best sushi place in the world.

Starting point is 00:22:10 But it's not like this insanely extravagant, oh, we're making these lobster rolls and we're frying oysters and putting it on this and then we've got these like fish eggs or whatever. No. They do like a very simple way about going. And basically they just master every element that they do of a simple level. And it's like the best sushi place in the world. And so there is a part of me that's like, okay, maybe if you are a little simpler and you know, you think about Kansas having some struggles against teams who have run up

Starting point is 00:22:41 tempo, right? Maybe if you're just a simple defense that just plays to your kind of fundamentals and to your rules of the defense and this is something DK McDonald would know better. Like he was at Iowa State. Is that what Iowa State does? I mean, they've had a really

Starting point is 00:22:55 good defense here recently to where you just have guys who are going to play hard. They're going to play fast. They're going to play physical. They're going to know exactly what they need to do in their given rule. You know, I don't know, maybe that is the right way to approach it. I honestly don't

Starting point is 00:23:09 know there. Of course, there's a part of me that's like, oh, I feel like sometimes they were too basic in their past defenses with Brian Borland. And so sometimes I'm like, I don't know if that's the answer. But then again, you I don't know, like this is one of those things where I would love to talk to like a former J.U. player or something. So I don't know, like, this is one of those things where I would love to talk to like a former KU player or something. So I don't know, hit me up at D Johnson radio. I'd love to know if that is the case. But I think you can go either way, right?

Starting point is 00:23:33 Because if you do have players who are fully committed to it, and the additive here being that you are adding all these players that are transfers that could be starting, right? Justice Finkeley from Texas. You look at that linebacker core we just talked about that could be be like all transfers, DJ Graham, and the secondary like Lear across, there's gonna be a lot of transfers on the field for KU. And so maybe there is some truth to that a little bit too, where it's like, hey, we have a bunch of transfers in and nowadays with the transfer portal, you're always going to have transfers

Starting point is 00:23:59 into the program, maybe it does make more sense to simplify things. And if in years past, you know, what if for all we know, a lot of KU struggles and guarding things have been just miscommunications with guys because they've tried to make it more complicated and it just hasn't worked. And I don't know that that's the answer to that. But again, I can understand what they're maybe going for

Starting point is 00:24:18 if that is the case. But again, like I said, in the back of my head, there is a little bit of, I'll believe it when I see it. All right, that'll be all for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. We'll see you next time with a Kansas Texas Tech preview on L.O.J.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jalon Daniels Status, WR/RB Battle, DK McDonald's Defense and More Kansas Football Spring Storylines

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