Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Just How Good Will Jalon Daniels be for Kansas in 2022?

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

Following a strong finish to the 2021 season for the Kansas Jayhawks, Jalon Daniels is back at QB, providing more stability for KU than there's been in maybe a decade plus. Nick Schwerdt joins along on the show as guest to break it down.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks, we're joined by Nick Schwert to talk KU football and Jalen Daniels. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday from three to six on KLWN. And thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're joined by Nick Schwert, producer of

Cody and Gold on 610 in Kansas City, host of Waving the Wheat podcast and basketball friends. So we're going to be talking some Jalen Daniels and KU football. But first, I'd like to thank LinkedIn Jobs for being the official college football recruiting sponsor across the Locked On College network. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply. Nick joins us now.

Nick, I appreciate you hopping on. Does this feel weird at all with me being the host and you being on the other end no it doesn't feel weird at all in fact it's it feels better than normal because i don't have to do as much work and therefore there's less pressure on me to perform or say anything insightful well on today's show like i said we're going to be talking some jaylen daniels and you know the way last season finished it felt like all offseason it was leading up to this point Lance Leipold then goes and I think the first day of fall camp which I don't know why they call it fall camp it's like 100 degrees and says that Jalen Daniels is

going to be the week one starter and he kind of left a little bit of a door open there that he said yeah but there's still going to be a competition and everything is up for grabs and everything. And since then, we've heard that Jason Bean has been playing the best football of his life and he's had all these great practices. But I think it would still probably be pretty surprising if Jalen wasn't the week one starter in the end there. And I don't know, like, is this the most stability that it felt like that it has felt like for KU football at the quarterback position since Todd Reising like are you kind of buying into the idea that it's just going to be this fine and dandy for the entire season um yeah I am and I think it's more about the coaching staff and when you think about the stability that not just

Leipold's had but with Andy Kotelnicki for all the years he's been with him, with Brian Borland, the defensive coordinator, all these guys that were with him at Wisconsin-Whitewater and then went with him to Buffalo where they didn't win right away. And I think that's important to remember too, because when you're not winning, that's when coaches can start to feel the pressure. We've seen that here at Kansas.

That's when you start pointing the finger, firing guys, firing offensive coordinators. We saw that with Charlie Weiss and David Beatty and Les Miles. All of those guys were constantly changing things. And when that's how the guys at the top of the food chain are operating, that kind of trickles down. And we saw that happen with the quarterbacks as well. So I think it's a chicken versus the egg scenario as well, where you wonder, okay, was the lack of stability from a play caller standpoint, the reason that no quarterback could ever get comfortable and produce, but you have that stability now with the coaching staff.

And it's not as much as I trust Lance Leipold when he says that Jalen Daniels is going to be the quarterback this year, as much as I just look at his track record. I said, okay, this is a guy who has had stability around him everywhere he's been. And if Jalen Daniels is that guy week one, unless he is an abject failure at the quarterback position this year, I don't expect him to week three, week four, week five, all of a sudden turn to Jason Bean to try and switch something up. Yeah, and I think that's good to point out. You look back at, like you said, the track record there.

You look at what he did at Buffalo. I don't know. When he was at Buffalo, there were a few quarterbacks that played in a few seasons, but for the most part, those seasons were where guys got injured and like there were points last year where it's not like Jason Bean blew it away every game right he had the Oklahoma State game where he went three of ten had two interceptions he had the Texas Tech game where he went 11 of 21 for 80 yards in an interception the Iowa State

game was a non-competitive game goes 10 for 20 for 20 for 120 yards. The Baylor game, 8 of 17 for 57 yards. There were other points throughout last season that they could have easily just pulled the plug and said, hey, let's go with the other guy. I think to that point, if they find this is the guy we're going to stick with, that's going to be the guy. If they make that immediate decision, they're going to say, hey, there's a reason we made that immediate decision. Let's stick with it. Really, the big question to me is just, is there going to be

enough health? Because, I mean, Jalen Daniels got beat up as a freshman. We saw him miss games due to injury last year. Like, the reason Jason Bean lost time to Jalen Daniels and eventually he took over and ran with it was because Jalen Daniels came in for an injured Jason Bean in the Kansas State game and took the job from there, got the start against Texas, because Jason Bean couldn't start, that's the biggest worry for me. I know the offensive line improved at the end of last season, but do you ever go into a season just going, yeah, that quarterback's never going to take a bunch of big hits?

No, but do you think that this coaching staff didn't know that Jalen Daniels was a higher upside player all season? Because remember, Jalen Daniels came in and he was, what, 17 his freshman season as a true freshman? And I wonder if they even went into last season knowing that, okay, this kid's probably our best quarterback and this kid's probably got more potential higher upside but jason being is more stable he is older more mature he is better suited to lead us right now like i know the way it played out was because of injuries but there's part of me that thinks that the coaching staff knew what jaylen daniels was capable of and they weren't completely shocked when he came in and was a better option at quarterback the last month of the year yeah it's important to bring up

that going back to the injury conversation like he was hurt at the beginning of camp last year and so for a staff that took over so late if they've only seen four weeks of ball before they have to make that decision and Jalen Daniels is injured for two or three of them of course they're going to go with Jason Bean and then of course you can see Jalen Daniels kind of be the guy over the course of time I do think it's interesting too that just based on some of the comments we've heard from the coaches along the way here it almost feels like um Jason Bean is almost the better practice quarterback but that's not like new new to the KU position. You would hear stories all the time about Todd Riesing being a terrible practice quarterback or other past KU. I was talking to someone who was telling me Bill Whittemore

wasn't a good practice quarterback, but once the game came on, they were the guy between the lines, and I think there is a little bit of that. Todd Riesing was an infamously terrible practice quarterback. That's what I'm saying. Go ask anybody who played with him. Because they're gamers, right? And Jalen Daniels is that to a T, where some guys have that in them. And I'm not saying that they don't care or they don't try during practice.

It's just that extra level of intensity that brings the best out of guys like that. All right. We have to uh move aside real quick after this quick break in the action here i want to talk about what are kind of the actual realistic expectations of the season for jaylen daniels in terms of impact and stats and then i got a fun question for you on the other side bet online.net is the fastest and easiest way to check in on all your betting needs. Find all your favorite sports and events at the number one online source for odds, lines, and games. Find reviews and news of every league, including Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA, NHL, combat sports, esports, and even golf, which is a Nick Schwert favorite.

BetOnline continues to be the top online resource for all your sports wagering information from live in-game betting scores and podcasts they have you covered head to bet online today to use your mobile device to learn more about the action happening today and obviously you're going to want to get your futures bets in before the start of the football season i don't know i think i'm leaning the over on the two and a half for kuOnline, where the game starts. On tomorrow's show, we're going to be joined by Scott Chasen, and we'll talk some more KU football. We're going to have a What If Wednesday with Scott, where we kind of look into some hypotheticals with Scott.

So, Nick, as I was mentioning in the previous side, realistic expectation for Jalen Daniels coming into this season. You know, you look at the total QBR that he put together in the three and a half games that he played, it would have been the second best quarterback in the Big 12. But putting those expectations on Jalen Daniels seem a little high coming into the season. So what is your actual realistic expectation? And what do you think the stats would back it up? Because there is a world where Jalen Daniels, maybe he is the fifth best quarterback in the Big 12. But when you look at all the pieces around him, are they going to run a lot? What does the receiver core look like? Maybe the stats don't back that up.

Yeah, so to me with Jalen, when I think about his season, either from a statistical point of view, or if we're just talking about watching him on Saturdays, how impressed are you? It's a lot about the environment around him, and it's a lot about how the rest of the offense is performing. And I don't say that to cop out of giving you an answer, but when you look at those final three games for KU last year, the Texas game is the one that sticks in everyone's head. And even though Jalen was kind of the guy who made the play that we remember,

KU was in that game because Devin Neal was incredible and Texas turned the ball over four times. And if you want to look at it differently, you would just say that KU had four takeaways. And those last, I think it was the last three games, KU had eight takeaways defensively. So Jalen was given the opportunity to continue to put up numbers and to make the plays down the stretch because of other things that were happening

around him. So to me, I can't answer that question unless I know, is the offensive line going to play like they did the last three weeks of the season? Is Devin Neal going to emerge as one of the top four or five running backs in the Big 12 this year? And can that defense continue to – we know it's not going to be a stout defense. We know it's not going to be a defense that keeps the other team from moving the chains. But can you be a bend but don't break, big play, opportunistic type defense? If all of those things happen, I think Jalen statistically can have the best season that we've seen from a Kansas quarterback since Todd Reising. And right now that distinction would

belong to Carter Stanley's last year. I think it was 24 and 11, 24 touchdowns, 11 interceptions. And that was in a Les Miles offense. So regardless of what you think about this coaching staff, I think that stability that we talked about earlier, that to me leads to quarterbacks getting comfortable, whether it's Daniel, Jason Bean, whoever. You get more comfortable. You've got a running game that you can rely upon. And making the plays that come to you, that to me is the big thing with Jalen. Can you be the guy who's not just making the off script stuff, but standing in the pocket, watching things happen around you and sort of dicing up the defense, being that sort

of tactical style quarterback. If he can do that, like, I don't see why this guy couldn't put up 25, 26. I know that that seems unrealistic just because of the history of quarterback play over the last 12, 13 years at Kansas, but I would be hard-pressed to name another quarterback in the last decade who's had more talent than Jalen Daniels has had at Kansas. From just a pure talent standpoint, is there anybody else who you would put ahead of Jalen in the last 13, 14 years of Kansas football? I mean, I was, I was really high on Tyreek Starks for a minute, but no outside of that. I mean, he's more talented than Carter Stanley, but yeah, cool. Carter wouldn't even be number one, right? I wouldn't, I wouldn't put Carter

number one in that list. He ended up having the best career. He ended up having the most production, but in terms of talent, like I would probably put montel cozart yeah cozart ryan willis both guys who went on to have success in other programs at more stable programs and like right away too it didn't take him an extra year or two years like ryan willis went to virginia tech immediately really productive carter or montel cozart goes to boise state immediately was better than he ever was at Kansas. It's not as if they became different players overnight there. Like it's, it's the stability. And when is the last time there's another question. When is the last time a

quarterback at Kansas was entering a second season as a starter with the same offensive coordinator he had the year before? No, it doesn't happen. Even the year with Carter Stanley, he wasn't the starter headed into the year it was like a big question and remember i mean in the miles to go series it's like the boston college game he almost got benched yeah so i think the the fact that jalen's gonna have a second year in a system and it's not just a system where it's uh whether it's you know know, Brent Dearman or, man, they could play, have a fun trivia game trying to name the eight different offensive coordinators. John Reagan, Rob Likens, Doug Meacham, David

Beatty, Chip Lindsey, forgot about Chip Lindsey, never even called a game for KU, Les Canning, Brent Dearman, Mike DeBoard. And now you've got Andy Kotelnicki going into his second year. And like, KU could go winless this year, and Andy Kotelnicki will be back at Kansas as long as Lance Leipold is. Yeah, I think three of those coordinators on the list, with Koenig and DeBoard and I forget the other one, would have less –

Dierman. Well, I don't know. Would have less career games than kodelnicki just combined right so that that sort of that because we always we always ask the question during those years of is the lack of talent at quarterback the reason why the offenses can't produce? We're going to find out over the next couple of years because we know Andy Kotelnik is not going anywhere.

As long as Lance Leipold's here, which I have no reason to think he's not going to be here for the next four years, then you're going to have the same play caller and we're going to find out like what stability at the coaching staff level can do for these players and daniels has the talent like in any of those guys brent dearman who brought him to kansas like he would be the first to tell you like this kid has it it's now can you put all the other pieces together to make a you know a successful college quarterback okay here is uh my fun little hypothetical for you you are obviously a

heisman voter uh something that i know you take a lot of pride in what has to happen to get a kansas player a heisman vote like if kansas goes bowling after the long just awful period that they've had they go six and six seven and five and Devin Neal rushes for 2,000 yards or Jalen Daniels throws for 35 touchdowns like is that enough well let's start with because I would say and oddly enough even though you almost have to be a quarterback at this point let's say that Kansas goes bowling. Even at a running back spot, you'd have to have 2,000 yards and like 28 touchdowns. Seriously, Kenneth Walker, Michigan State last year,

he had 1,600 yards, 18 touchdowns. Michigan State went 11-2. He didn't finish in the top three. Yeah, but we're grading on a curve. We're grading on a curve. It's Kansas football. What's the curve? It's Kansas football.

Okay. So you would just give them bonus points and be like, he did it at Kansas. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, we're not going up against Big Ten defenses every week like Kenneth Walker was. So I think it would have to be Jalen Daniels

for that reason alone. It's so impossible. Even though I think Devin Neal is the most talented player on this roster. You're at the wrong position in 2022 if you want to win the Heisman, which sucks, honestly. I think we're starting to see a little bit of a curve towards maybe giving more credence to defensive players like we saw Aiden Hutchinson and Will Anderson,

I think, has got a great shot this year from Alabama. But still, there's just some sort of faux pas about voting for running backs based off of the impact they have, even though I do think they have more impact at the college level than they do in the pros. So Jalen Daniels then, let's go with him. What would Jalen Daniels' stat line have to be? I still think you've got to win like eight games. You have to win eight games.

Even on the canvas curve, you've got to win eight games. So let's just start there. But I guess in this hypothetical scenario, if you win eight games or if you have a Heisman candidate, they kind of go hand in hand. You have a Heisman candidate quarterback, you're probably going to win a lot of games. How often do you see like one of the best quarterbacks in the country and they're like a 500 team. So let's assume Jalen Daniels becomes one of the best quarterbacks in the country. KU wins eight games. What about 38-6? And then he's got seven rushing touchdowns. Okay, so if that happens, you will vote for him.

Promise? Yeah, well, I don't know if there are rules against this, but I'm willing to break a rule today if there is one in place. If Jalen Daniels goes 38-6 with seven rushing touchdowns and Kansas wins eight games, I will place one of my three votes. When you vote, you vote for first, second, and third. One of those spots on my ballot will be reserved for Jalen Daniels. That's a promise.

Okay, we got the promise. Well, Nick, I appreciate it, man. Excited to have you on every Tuesday. Thanks, Derek. Looking forward to it. All right, that was, man. Excited to have you on every Tuesday. Thanks, Derek. Looking forward to it. All right, that was Nick Schwert. Going to have him on every Tuesday here with Locked on Jayhawks. Coming up in just a moment, we're going to continue on with our series of the top 10 questions.

We're excited to get answered for the KU football season. Yesterday on Locked on Jayhawks, we answered the number 10 question that we're most excited to get answered for the KU football season. We move up to number nine on the list today. And the question, can the offensive line carry over how they finished last season? You look up and down the list. You look at maybe pro football focus grades. You just look at the tape. You look at the pure numbers of KU and their success offensively, whether it's yards per play, yards per carry, however you want to dice it. The KU offensive

line played miles better over the final three, four weeks than they did over the first eight or nine weeks of the regular season. Obviously, there are exceptions in there. The offensive line was able to get a good push in the game against Oklahoma, and there were moments against Coastal Carolina they were able to do the same thing. But more consistently so, and against Big 12 competition, they really showed it off in the last three weeks of the regular season. You would think with the continuity of starters back that that would be the case. Like you just go across the offensive line. Earl Bostic starting at left tackle for this year's team.

Okay, he was a double-digit game starter a season ago. Mike Nowitzki back at center, double-digit game starter a season ago. Michael Ford played a ton of football for you last season, projects to be one of your starting guards this season. Then you have Armaje Adams-Reed who took more of a step back last season as kind of a backup rotation player who played a few games took a red shirt but did play a lot in 2020 and I think that given his weight transformation and everything he's a guy that a lot of people are high on and certainly has experience in his past and then Bryce Cabue, who played a lot for you last

season and really took off as the season went on. I mean, if you're looking at guys who improved the most by like pro football focus grade, Cabledue had kind of the biggest rise over those last few games of offensive linemen for KU. Having all those guys back who have experience, experience playing together, we hear that all the time with the offensive line, that chemistry is of the utmost importance on the offensive line. It just is. And so to have guys that have played together, in addition to having another year in the system and with offensive line coach Scott Fuchs and with everything that Andy Kotelnicki wants to do and Lance Leipold with the offense. All those things should make you think it should be even better than how it finished last season.

You had this whole offseason to get together. But also we've seen in the past KU offensive lines struggle early in the season, come together as the season goes on. I think that's certainly because of the chemistry playing with each other. That's the position that maybe you have the most to gain for every team across college football as the season goes on the big question for the offensive line I guess the question in the question here is how much will the lack of proven depth be a hurdle to allowing them to carry over how they finished last season and the way they finished last season it didn't all of a sudden turn into hey hey, this is an Alabama or Georgia or Michigan or whatever offensive line.

But it came from an offensive line that wasn't getting any push early in the season and was giving up way too many tackles for loss, way too many chaotic plays that would put you in second and nine, second and 11, second and 12 12 where you're not going to be on schedule and your quarterback and the rest of your plays aren't going to be as successful you're not going to have as open of a playbook but as the season went on and in those last games you were able to stay on schedule and have more of that success on just kind of you know your first down making it second and six or second and five and that led to the offense putting up 28 points in the last two games 57 in the game against Texas it allowed your skill players would you have a really good running back

room right now and you seem to have a good quarterback room as well it allows them to show off their abilities so how much can they carry it over I would think a good amount and that will be a little worrisome if you're not creating a push early in the season, just that maybe the backups haven't played as much with the starters, but it's that there's a lot of unproven depth there, right? You have Nolan Gorsika, who's the transfer over from Buffalo. DeAndre Doran, who was a double-digit game starter for Buffalo a season ago but hasn't played with these guys. He was a freshman last season, so it's not as if he even got to play with Mike Nowitzki and Michael Ford when they were there.

How much is Dominic Pune going to get playing time, right? He's a transfer who had a lot of success, but at the Division II level, how much of a jump is that? So if there are any injuries, which at the offensive line, typically you can expect there's going to be guys who get tired or get injured throughout a game, throughout a season. And so typically you need about eight to ten guys you feel confident in who can play on that offensive line and who can play together to get through a season. And so typically you need about eight to ten guys you feel confident in who can play on that offensive line and who can play together to get through a season.

There are going to be guys who, yeah, I can play left guard or right guard, or I can play left guard and left tackle. And that's going to allow you to maybe cover it with three good backups. And maybe KU does have that, but it's a bit more unproven. So can they carry over how they played, how the offensive line looked at the end of last season, and all of a sudden bring that into this season? I think the offense improving back to our first episode, to what they need to to be a more competitive team to win three or four games, it has to do what it did at the end of last season.

I mean, KU gathered 17 tackles for loss on defense. They gave up 12 over the last three games over the first nine games of the season they were out tfled by you know double digits by a couple dozen and to turn that around over the last three weeks and be plus five there a lot of that has to do with the offensive line and sure enough the success came to play and because they have so many bodies back i'm expecting similar success. But if you get any injuries, that's where the problems arise. Coming up on tomorrow's show, we're going to be joined by Scott Chasen

to talk some more KU football. If you have anything you'd like for the show to talk about or want to follow along on the action, you can reach out at DJohnsonRadio on Twitter. And don't forget to subscribe to the show so you're getting all the latest with Locked on Jayhawks. That'll do it for today's episode. Have a good rest of your day.

I'll see some of you on Rock Truck Sports Talk later today. Deuces.