Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks and Jalon Daniels Comeback Bid Falls Short in Triple Overtime Liberty Bowl Loss

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

The Kansas Jayhawks football team made a 25-point comeback on the Arkansas Razorbacks in the 2022 Liberty Bowl but fell just short, 55-53 in triple overtime. Jalon Daniels once again showed how great he can be, with heavy contributions from Luke Grimm, Lawrence Arnold, Mason Fairchild, Jared Casey, OJ Burroughs and other GOATs of the game. What was up with KU's final 2-point conversion attempt? And an overall look at the season and 2023.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!NHTSADrive sober or get pulled over. Click HERE to learn more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to recap the Liberty Bowl, excruciating loss for Kansas, but an unbelievable comeback, unbelievable season. We'll talk about that on today's edition of the show. 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. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 on KLWN in Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen

every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. Also, you can subscribe to us on YouTube. And on today's edition of the show, we're going to be recapping the Liberty Bowl. Kansas falls just short of Arkansas, 55 to 53 in triple overtime. A unbelievable game and just unfortunate that Kansas came up on the wrong end of things. Certainly a game that, you know, I don't know. The further you distance yourself from the game, I think the more fond memories you're

going to have of it because of the fact that it's the first bowl game of the light bulb era. It's almost the signaling of what you would hope is more to come. And as excruciating as it was to lose the game, if you're watching, and for Kansas not to come out on top, I think it showed a lot about the positivity of where this program is going and where they are with guys like Jalen Daniels in the fight that they showed to get back into the game and almost come up with the victory in the end.

This feels like one of those sports movies that ends up with you, the team who, you know, you love the movie and then they fall just short at the end. Like it felt like it was going to be a Hollywood script, but then you just get kind of like stopped by a brick wall somewhere along the way. I don't even know where to start into getting, you know, diving into this game because, I mean, you saw the worst of Kansas, right? They get down 25 points. You have 24 in the first quarter.

You saw the best of Kansas with that comeback and some of the things they were doing along that second half. You saw Jalen Daniels be inconsistent early. You saw Jalen Daniels look like an absolute killer, a Heisman candidate late. You saw Jalen Daniels look like an absolute killer, a Heisman candidate late. You saw the offense go off late. You saw the defense struggle at the start and the end, but be actually pretty good in the middle.

Just a wild, fun game that unfortunately doesn't fall your way and obviously just an excruciating way to finish with the final play of the game on that two-point call. Clearly, there is a lot of ins and outs to go in to that two-point play call. Personally, didn't love having the biggest play of the game at that point, which, I mean, there were many biggest plays of the game, and they just keep stacking on each other once you get to those situations in overtime, but didn't love having, you know, your backup quarterback who's cold hasn't really thriving he had the one pass earlier in the game coming in to make the biggest play of the

game and i do understand that there are layers to this it isn't as simple as just saying well you had this because you know the play did work you had mason fairchild open you also had the option to run the ball in and either one of those probably scores it for you so in that sense the play did work and also k you said they they were running out of two-point plays they'd used so many to that point i think that was like their sixth different two-point play they had to use so you're running out of options and yes i know some people would say isn't that a low number to only have six well Well, in theory, maybe it is, but also that's like all that most teams have because how often do you have a game where you really go for more than two or three two-pointers,

if even one in the game? So that's not that uncommon that you would have a list that small. Ideally, you would be able to say, well, we can just run halfback dive. We can just run this running play with a standard running play, and it doesn't matter whether it's a two-point call or a regular call because we should be able to execute it Kansas could not run the ball at all so you basically had that out the window you had to pass you had to use one of your two points you ran out there now ideally maybe in the future after a game like

this Kansas is going to start having a list of 10 two-point plays instead of six I don't know personally though even though the play does work, you do have to factor in, hey, we have Jason Bean as opposed to Jalen Daniels as part of that place. Even though schematically you could say it works, you do have to factor in schematically who the players are. And what have we known along the way for Jason Bean? He's not someone who loves taking contact. So if you're going to try to run that in, you're going to have to take a hit and reach the ball over the goal line. That's not really something. I mean, think about a couple times like the Oklahoma game last year or the one this year in Norman, where he like slid at the one

yard line or ran out of bounds at the one yard line instead of getting into the end zone. That's not really his forte. A guy who's cold, who's not as accurate or consistent of a passer. It's almost the equivalent of me asking, you know, I don't know, maybe this is too harsh of a comparison and it probably is. But if I ask, you know, my nephew to go grab me a drink from the fridge versus if I ask my wife to go ask me a drink from the fridge, who do you think is more likely to accomplish that goal properly? that's kind of how it is so it's unfortunate jaylen daniels was the best player on the field for the second half on kj jefferson was great too so so he'd certainly be in that conversation but uh you take the ball out of

the hands of the best player like imagine if the chiefs go for two in a game that's in this same situation and they say you know, Isaiah Pacheco, he does have 100 rushing yards today. We're just going to let him run the ball here as opposed to giving Patrick Mahomes, your MVP candidate, the ball. It's not that it's the wrong call, and schematically it could still work, but it just, I don't know.

Sometimes I have problems with that, where it's like, hey, we have the guy who's been the best player on the field in the second half, and you're going to go to a different option to pass the ball. But again, they're out of play. So there are different layers there. It's not just the overwhelming well that was that was horrible there are certain ways that it could have worked and if it would have worked everybody

would have been like Andy Kotelnicki is a mad genius and that's good to bring up as well so all that being said you feel good about how the season went and where this program is going into the game itself early on that was everything that had kind of plagued Kansas over the back half of games. You had self-inflicted mistakes, special teams issues, turning the ball over, not forcing turnovers in the early going missing tackles,

the defense, just being bad in general, all those things that kept coming up for you over the back half of the season. When you finished losing six of your last seven came up early in the game. And, you know, at least then they showed fight. You could have really just laid down, especially when it was 38 to 13 or even half when it was 31 to 13. And they continue to show a lot of fight.

That's been a season long theme. You think back to the Baylor game, you get down 25, you fight back. The Oklahoma game, you're kind of at arm's distance the entire game, but you continue to just push forward. Kansas State, like you never gave up in a game this season. That was a theme from last year too, which is always good to see that you're continuing to fight for your coaching staff and for the players around you.

And they didn't just fight. They were Rocky Balboa in that game. They kept getting knocked, they kept getting up, and they kept players around you. And they didn't just fight. They were Rocky Balboa in that game. They kept getting knocked. They kept getting up, and they kept going for it. And I guess it ended up similar to the first Rocky movie. Sorry if I'm spoiling anything, but it's been out for like 40 years. So whatever. But keeps fighting, keeps getting up off the mat.

In the end, loses just a little bit short. So there we go. Kansas is Rocky Balboa. Kansas is the movie, not the TV show one, the movie Friday Night Lights where it's like this epic comeback and then they just end up a yard short. That was Kansas. They are that team in this game where it's like they are the great story. And to a certain standpoint, there is a beauty in that. If you've ever seen the movie Tin Cup, to keep with the movie references, it's not that you know he ends

he doesn't end up winning the tournament but he ends up making the big shot and making the storyline of the game when people think back to this bowl game which i don't know how much people are really going to reminisce on the liberty bowl you know 10 years from now outside of just local fans but if they do what they're going to talk about or what people are going to remember, it's not going to be the Arkansas won the game. It's going to be the Kansas made this remarkable comeback and made it into an absolutely unbelievably fun game. So that's kind of cool in its own right. Obviously the goal is to win games and you would have liked that, but you almost pulled off one of the football comebacks for an ultimate lure, so to speak.

Offensively, you couldn't run the ball at all, which is concerning. But what Jaden and Daniels did after the first half, just the turnovers in the first half were really the bugaboo. If you take those away, they were moving the ball. KU receivers, great again. KU tight ends, great again. Run blocking struggled, but the pass blocking, man, the pass blocking was, the past blocking was nothing short of amazing in that game. Jalen was an absolute assassin down the stretch. He was

locked in. He had the shaky start early. Uh, and maybe you were a little bit worried about him. I saw some people being like, go to Jason mean, well, funny how that turned out. But, uh, after seeing the way that he finished, you feel so good about where his health is and about where the trajectory is heading into 2023. Because after the injury, you're like, is he ever going to be the same? And what we saw early in the season, was that just a product of maybe an easier schedule or maybe a hot start? I want to see it when he comes back to make me feel like we'll still have the Heisman candidate guy for 2023.

And I think you very clearly saw that with your lasting impression from Jalen defensively you struggled but you also did make some key stops which are good to point out like again it's like the two-point conversion it may not be the best thing but there are layers to it that actually were positives out of it you were especially good in the second half there you did have to deal with all those offensive turnovers you have three turnovers and you had the special teams one, which led to an immediate touchdown. The problem was just the bad start. You give up 24 points, which is the most scored in a quarter by any team,

and Arkansas does that in the first. Again, it's not all your fault, but you didn't offer much resistance either. You give up a play on the very first play after the special teams as a touchdown, and then you give up the double move touchdown. You weren't offering a ton of resistance to begin with, but also you did get kind of screwed over by how everything went there. And maybe if you don't have the kick return touchdown, you do end up holding them to 31, and that would have probably been enough. But you also made stop after stop in the second half

just to allow Kansas to get back into it and force overtime. Unfortunately, though, you could not stop them in overtime. They had six plays in overtime if you count the two-point conversions, seven if you count the PAT, and they went, they scored on five of the seven or four of the six plays in overtime. So you, I mean, it was, it was like holes in Swiss cheese, the defense, you give up over 400 rushing yard or almost 400 rushing yard.

So it's hard to grade them anything positively in the game, but they do at least deserve credit for what they did. Like kind of at the end of the third quarter to the fourth quarter of whatever it was like four or five consecutive stops to allow you to even force overtime. Bottom line, still ultra impressive. The Kansas made a bowl game. The whole experience was more about a celebration of just that. The practices are going to help long term.

They displayed their fight once again. Jalen Daniels displayed how much of a dude he continues to be. And how could you not be excited about next season with the big number of starters due back i mean as of now you never know what the portal in the draft but could have 17 starters back and a handful of other players that didn't start but are essentially starters with the amount they play and i think that the way this one went should lead to great offseason motivation right you showed a lot of positives you feel like you're building the right way and that you almost won the game feel like you're building the right way and

that you almost won the game and that you showed your comeback and fight and showed off a lot of good things, but you also lost in such an excruciating fashion that you're going to be even more motivated to kind of finish and make that extra play and make that further jump headed into next season. And I know the schedule could be difficult. We don't know with big 12 play as of yet with the new teams coming in, But the expectation absolutely should be to win at least seven games, I would think, for next season. All right, went a little long in the open there. We're going to take a timeout,

and then we are going to get to our goats of the game. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by BetOnline. BetOnline.net is your number one source for sports betting information, stats, news, and analysis. Get the latest odds and trends for every professional and amateur league out there. From pro football to college bowl season to basketball and the World Cup,

or obviously that over, but other soccer going on, Premier League, they've got it all at BetOnline.net. If you love sports podcasts, you can find those at bet online as well. They're the fastest and easiest way to get your betting info. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more. If you would've got Kansas at plus two and a half would have paid off for you in the end. Um, I mean, as soon as they were going to the two point conversions,

you knew it was going to pay off. Hope you hit the over. There was the guy with the sign that said, we need more points. Ended up doing just okay there. BetOnline, where the game starts. So game on to the good. We have a lot from the offensive side of the ball. Jalen Daniels after halftime.

So in the first half, Jalen struggled with turnovers. And this was kind of a theme throughout the game. This was definitely kind of weird, throughout the game this was definitely kind of weird although it got locked in a lot less over the final you know quarter or overtimes there were a lot of throws that were kind of sailing on him going high on certain guys now that could just be a product of hey you're you're juiced up in a bowl game first game back you finally got your rpms and your arm power back, and you're letting it rip a little bit too much.

And I think that would add up to the fact that you make those interceptions. The second interception he threw was very odd. I don't know if there was miscommunication with the receiver, but it was very, like, offline with the throw. The first one was just kind of a bad – well, I don't know. It was a good play by the corner. He undercut the route after he was behind it to begin with but uh maybe just not the smartest throw there but i mean the second half was unbelievable the second half in overtime he put up numbers that would have been a great game for the full game he went 23 of 35 for 342 yards

three touchdowns no interceptions he also added a rushing touchdown unbelievable performance and a reminder of how good he can be headed into 2023 Luke Grimm good goat 10 catches 167 yards a touchdown made a ton of contested catches as well key catches throughout the game he had an unbelievable season I know the stats aren't gaudy, jumping off the page with like 600 receiving yards for the year. But if you, you know, view it from the lens of Kansas is a team this year, you know,

with Jalen and Jason being, they had like 3,200 passing yards and it was very balanced out between a bunch of different players. You know, if you raise that up to, to being one of the teams that has like 4,000 passing yards and you look at the percentage you would have, he'd be closer to a thousand yard receiver. But again, with how balanced it is, it was more about take advantage of your opportunities

when you get them. And he more than did that. He had a great season. Lawrence Arnold, the same exact thing. Over 700 receiving yards. I think he's talent. I, that, that game, eight catches for 119 yards and he's been great all season long. But that game for me was

a realization that Lawrence Arnold's going to be an NFL receiver he's got the body for it he's made so many leaps and bounds in his game and he looks really good man and I think you know you look at Luke Grimm and LJ Arnold like it would not surprise you if either one clears the thousand yard mark next season Mason Fairchild good goat uh Six catches for 80 yards and a touchdown. Arkansas hadn't given up a lot to tight ends coming into the game. I think 25 catches over the course of their first 12 games. Maybe that's just a cause of where the game is today. Less teams use their tight ends as much in the college game,

where maybe it is more like spread of receivers. But he was great and made some key plays. Jared Casey, stats aren't gaudy. Two catches for six yards. But he had the touchdown. maybe it is more like spread of receivers but he was great and made some key plays jared casey stats aren't gaudy two catches for six yards but he had the touchdown he had both your two of your two-point tries and just blocking again like continues to be make key blocks for you on the outside if you just follow him a lot of times that's where the ball is going to go tory lachlan i wanted to throw in here again not gaudy numbers three catches for 50 yards he did make some big plays but just the ultimate glue guy like special teams ace uh tied for the team lead and fumble recoveries

this season I thought he deserved something after uh the strong season that he had just the ultimate glue guy that we more so talk about those guys in basketball than football. OJ Burrows is going to be the one defensive player on here. He won Kansas' defensive MVP at the Liberty Bowl. Eight tackles and one interception in the game. He had that interception kind of kept you around, keeping it at a 18-point game at halftime. And he was in a game that Kansas struggled making tackles. He was kind of the one guy who was making sure tackles for you uh at the

safety position and coming up into the box kai thomas's patience deserves on here now i don't know if the individual stats would be good goat status but for sure his patience he had 10 carries for 11 yards doesn't jump out there wasn't a lot of room for anybody to run though so i think that was more of a just their front was beating you on the run blocks he did have 46 total yards when you add up the receiving yards he had two touchdowns so clearly made a big impact in the game but just after the way that the season went for Kai Thomas battling injuries you're behind Devin Neal and Daniel Highshaw at different points for him to stay patient and stick with it you know you heard he he had good practices. If you were listening to the radio broadcast with like David Lawrence and stuff leading up that, that he

was looking a lot better and earned some more playing time here, which was good to see. He stayed patient and he stayed with it. And I think it kind of paid off with those two touchdowns against Arkansas and the Liberty bowl. And you hope that that leads to an even stronger 2023 from him. Last one for the good goats, Kansas fans absolutely showed out. Attendance was over 52,000. I know that's not just the Kansas fans. That's, you know, you got to have good attendance from both teams to fill out a bowl stadium. And Arkansas had really good fan attendance too. But KU more than pulled their worth.

And for any fans who had to deal with hotel cancellations, who had to deal with the water issues, sticking around for the game too. If you stayed when they're down 38 to 13, and you stayed till the very end, and you dealt with all that stuff, and watched that game, salute to you. You get a good goat of the game.

On to the bad goats. I mean, just defense is kind of a hole obviously, but they did have that, that fine stretch kind of in the middle there. Rushing defense specifically though, you give up 300, uh, over 390 rushing yards, almost 400 rushing yards. That's kind of what we said coming in. We were like, you know, if you can give up 150, maybe even 200 rushing yards, you might be okay.

Just don't have the game where they have 300 where they have 250 and they almost had 400 in the game which uh they just kind of sliced through you like butter especially as the game went on and i will say i do think that fatigue definitely played a factor in the overtime periods which is not ideal but i think it's further proof that yes kansas improved on their depth on the defensive side of the ball this season from last year very much improved it but it's still not even close to where it needs to be depth wise to maintain over the course of games and also like you know we didn't know how much Kansas was going to lose out of the transfer portal or or was going to be missing for this game I guess I should say specifically they could have used a guy like Eric Gileard in that game just to rotate in,

keep other linebackers fresh, be a run-thumping linebacker, right? Like that would have actually been a little bit helpful in a game like this. I don't know how much it would have moved the needle, but certainly wouldn't have hurt, that's for sure. Tackling overall gets a bad goat. I swear, if Lonnie Phelps would have had a good tackling game, he would have ended up a good goat, and maybe Kansas wins the game. He had a couple times where he almost had a sack

but couldn't bring down KJ Jefferson. KU had a problem with that all year long, tackling big quarterbacks. Also, though, it's hard to blame him when KJ Jefferson is just an absolute bowling ball of a human. It's very hard to bring him down. But if Lonnie Phelps would have been able to bring down another tackle or two, then who knows what happens in the game. But overall, tough tackling game for Kansas,

really outside of kind of OJ Burroughs. The self-inflicted mistakes certainly gets a bad goat of the game. You had, you know, whether it was coaching decisions, not wanting to go for it on fourth down um turnovers just little things that kind of added up for you and i will say i didn't put special teams on bad goats specifically like this goes into the the self-inflicted mistakes the savion morrison fumble on the kick return but actually outside of that savion morrison fumbled kick return special teams is actually good for kansas Now, unfortunately,

in the special teams world, because there are so few plays, there are limited plays. If you just have one bad blow up play like that was, that can be bad enough to tank your entire unit for that game. And that's kind of how it was. But again, outside of that, okay, you made all their kicks. They went four for four on PATs, one for one on field goals. They did not give up any big returns. They were solid in the punting game on both ends, and they had the big onside kick recovery. Actually, special teams outside of that was good, but unfortunately, because it's one blow-up play, probably ends up being, what, an average game? Something like that. And then the last play call, I would put it on bad goats of the game. I know others might disagree, but yeah, that's it for me. Okay, we're going to finish up here with just an ode to the team.

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Drive sober or get pulled over. Finishing things up with an ode to the 2022 Kansas team here. We're going to have a preview of the KU Oklahoma State basketball game on tomorrow's show, and then on Monday we'll recap the game. Overall, I know it's unfortunate that you finished with a losing record, 6-7, after as great of a year it was. It doesn't feel fitting for that to happen. And as great of a comeback as it was, it doesn't feel fitting

that you came out on the losing end of things. but from where we were at the start of the year if you pull back you know a thousand foot view and you say well kansas came into the year they're over under was two and a half we said if you win you know four games mild success we said if you win five big success if you win six storm and mass street and that obviously didn't end up happening but you won six you went to a bowl game um this can lay the foundation for future years both in terms of being hungrier to win that bowl game and to have even better success and also because you got those extra practices but it was such a fun ride over the course of the season obviously down the stretch you didn't have as many wins as you would have liked,

and that can put a bummer on things with the way things finished. But just think to all the things Kansas accomplished this year, making it to a bowl game after not being in one for 14 years, after not even winning more than three games for 14 years, having Jalen Daniels be a Heisman candidate for the first month or two of the season, hosting College Game Day, ending the unranked streak, being ranked for a few weeks in the poll, beating some opponents that you haven't beaten quite some time, going to a bowl game, even though you lost it, having an incredible game.

And now the future is bright, man. You can bring back nine starters on offense and that doesn't even account for guys like Daniel Highshaw and Kai Thomas and Jared Casey, guys who aren't starters, but play a big role on this team. You can bring back eight starters on the defensive side of the ball. And again, that doesn't even account for guys like Marvin Grant, who may not be a starter, but plays a lot of snaps for this team. Or a guy like Jeremy Robinson, who, for all intents and purposes, you had three defensive end starters, but, you know, is Malcolm Lee getting the start?

So he won't count as a starter, but he basically is. So, I mean, realistically, you're looking at bringing back not just 17 starters, but maybe 18 or 19, depending the way you look at it. And you never know where players are going to go, if they're going to leave for the portal or go to the draft. like Lonnie Phelps is going to have a decision with the draft I guess but overall the future is bright and a lot of those guys can come back for 2025 as well again you never know what players are going to do especially in a two-year span nowadays

but how could you not be excited about where this program is headed and I know the schedule is going to be tough next year a lot of people pointed that out. I will say Big 12 schedule is not out yet. They have not released it because there's four new teams. So you don't really know who you're going to be playing. Non-con features Illinois, who's a good team. But you bring everyone back. There's no reason to expect this team should just fall off to be not a bowl team anymore. It's not like they were a fluky bowl team that, hey, they just won six games because

they had a plus 22 turnover margin. No, they were like barely above even on the season. You know, they, they won a few close games, but even some of their close games, you're like, Oh, they should have won by more. They beat Duke by eight Duke might end up ranked at the end of the season, right? You, you beat West Virginia on the road. Unbelievable season. It'll be a fun one to look back on in years to come, especially if they do grow as much as you think they could at the end of the year. We'll have exit interviews on maybe the players and the units and everything through the coming weeks of the offseason for KU football. Also take a look at where things kind of stand for the team coming up in later

episodes, but tomorrow's show will be devoted to KU Oklahoma State in that preview. That's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Kind of a long one, but tomorrow's show will be devoted to KU Oklahoma State in that preview. That's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Kind of a long one, but figure why. Last game of the season. If you want the show to talk about anything, hit us up at DJohnsonRadio on Twitter, comment section on YouTube. Have a good rest of your day. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you find any of your podcasts or on the YouTube channel,

and we'll be back for tomorrow's show. You can also hear me on Reportstock later.