Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Game Week: What We Can/Can't Learn From Lindenwood Game + 3 Most Underrated

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, it is officially game week. We talk about the things that do and don't matter from playing a overmatched FCS opponent and the three most underrated KU football players for 2024. 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 find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. And thanks for following along with the show all offseason long.

Starting point is 00:00:34 We are almost here, just a few days away from the first game of the season. So we're going to be talking about the KU-Lindenwood game and things that you can and can't take away from a game where you're playing an FCS opponent where you are over a 40 point favorite, because there are certain things that, oh, look, that looked great, you know, but it's like, well, maybe part of that's just the competition. So we're going to get into some of that stuff. We're also going to get into our three most underrated Jayhawks for 2024. Thank you to every dayers tuning into each and every show. Thank you for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:01:01 You can find us anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page, where you can like and subscribe to the show. Before we get into KU Football Game Week, the things that do and don't matter for this first week against Lindenwood, this episode is brought to you by Ultimate College Football Head Coach. It's a brand new mobile game that's completely free. It has no ads and is 100% playable offline. That checks three big boxes for me when I'm playing an app on my phone. Use the promo code LOCKEDONCFB, all caps, inside the game store to receive a free boost to your program. Begin your coaching legacy today.

Starting point is 00:01:33 All right, let's start right here. We're going to start with the things that do matter, the things that you can take away from this game. Because like I said, if you go out there and Jalen Daniels, you know, throws for six touchdowns against Lindenwood, are we going to sit there and go, wow, Jalen Daniels, you know, throws for six touchdowns against Lindenwood, are we going to sit there and go, wow, Jalen Daniels is the greatest quarterback of all time? I mean, maybe in a fun way, but like,

Starting point is 00:01:52 is that going to all of a sudden win him the Heisman for what he did against Lindenwood? Like, no, it's not like you're expected to win by a lot. So in a certain sense, there's almost more you can learn if they struggle than if they do well, which is a bit of an unfair place to be. If you are, you know, a Kansas or a team like this, but you kind of play these FCS games to work on some of this stuff and kind of ease your way into the season. So that kind of comes with all of this stuff. So like, yeah, if you only beat Lindenwood by three points,

Starting point is 00:02:18 that's going to be some negative takeaways versus if you do win by 45, it's like, well, that was expected. Let's see what they can do in week two against a much better opponent in Illinois. But the things that you can learn in this game, I mean, number one is kind of just not losing. Like, you know, we feel distanced enough from the David Beatty era, I guess, but like it's in the previous areas before that, right. Turner Gill and Charlie Weiss and so on, but it's still not that long ago that we were talking about Kansas going into a season playing an FCS team and it

Starting point is 00:02:49 was like can you just not lose to the FCS team and now it's it's almost a a given part of that is this FCS opponent I think that's part of it too like Lance Leipold did probably a little bit more strategic with the FCS opponents he's playing I remember the first year he came in he was like yeah don't schedule Missouri Valley conference foes, which they kind of did. They had a good South Dakota team their first year, and it was a close game that they needed a Jason Bean late touchdown drive and fourth down conversion to win the game.

Starting point is 00:03:16 So that's part of it, right? Colorado's playing North Dakota State on Thursday night. Oklahoma State's playing South Dakota State, who's like the back-to-back champion. Don't do that, right? So part of it is that, that you're playing not one of those teams. But the other part of it is just the idea that it feels like Kansas is in a better place. And so it's not thought of as much, but like that still is a thing

Starting point is 00:03:37 because that can easily just kind of wreck your momentum in a season in the early going. So, you know, just win the game. Don't lose to an FCS opponent. I know that sounds simple. But other things that you can learn or take away. I do think like, even though there's going to be a certain line here, like if Kansas shuts out Lindenwood, is it going to be all about, okay, the KU defense is totally fixed. Is it going to feel good? Is it going to feel like, okay, this is the first step to showing that maybe they could be a really good defense this year. Like, yes, those will be real conversations, but if you shut out Lindenwood, it's not, like I said, going to be, okay, see,

Starting point is 00:04:13 we're the best defense in the country now, right? Like that's not going to happen. So there is a line there, but I do think there is a level of not giving up a ton of points. Like that's something you can take away from this one, because if you give up 30 points in this game, you win this game 55 to 31, where it's like, yeah, you still won by over 20 points. You won this game going away. There's going to be some questions, though, about the defense if you give up, say, 31 points.

Starting point is 00:04:36 I almost think even though these two scores would be identical in terms of how much you won by, 38 to 14, that would be a more important win, I guess you could say, than 55 to 31, because I don't really have questions about the offense. My questions about the offense are just, can people stay healthy? My questions about the defense are, and I am high on what some of these positions that lost players like defense tackle and linebacker can be this year. I love the secondary for KU. I do think they're going to take a step forward as a defense, but if you have 31 points to limit to Lindenwood on Thursday, I might be like,

Starting point is 00:05:08 Oh, like what's going on here in this first game of the season. Does anybody have pass rush juice? So this is something where yes, on one end, you should just be able to overpower the Lindenwood offensive line. Theoretically, this will be the weakest offensive line you play against this season. And so if you dominate against Lindenwood's offensive line you play against this season. And so if you dominate against Lindenwood's offensive line, there's no guarantee that you're going to dominate against any other opponent on the schedule. But to that notion, if it's the easiest one to go against, now that said, there are things working against that. First game of the season, shaking the rust off, still getting to know the scheme, still getting into the momentum of the season. But if you can't do it now, how do I expect you to do it all of a sudden at Kansas State later this

Starting point is 00:05:49 season right and again for the young players maybe that's a little different right if you're Sean Warner Dak Brinkley by joke you haven't played a ton of football um at the collegiate level like it's going to take some time so like yeah those guys of course will be better later in the season than early in the season but here's the other reason I bring this up. You know, even though it didn't necessarily like Lonnie Phelps in the FCS game against an overmatched Tennessee Tech offensive line. He had three sacks. He had four tackles for loss. Now, did he ever have another three sack game? No. But it was clear like he was a dude on the defensive line in that first game.

Starting point is 00:06:22 And that carried over through the rest of the season because he was a really good defensive end for KU. You look to last year with Austin Booker. I can't remember if he had any sacks or TFLs. I could have sworn he did have a sack, but I definitely remember there were a few plays where he at least had like hurries and quarterback hits where you saw him have a great jump off the line of scrimmage. And you were like, oh, that looks a little different. Like he's got a little twitch. He's got a little athleticism coming off the edge and you could tell right away. And so even if like the competition you're going against, it's all going to get better from there. If you think about it this way, okay, well, which KU defensive players play best, even in this game, that can kind of signify which KU players are going to play best against better competition.

Starting point is 00:07:05 You might not play as well against the better competition, but you're still going to be set up to play among the best of your peers, right? So seeing some sort of pass rush juice, not everything will be translatable. Some stuff will, but like there are certain physical traits, like I said, with the Twitch, with Austin Booker, with some of the stuff Lonnie Phelps is doing, that you want to see some flash plays from some of the past rushers in this game, because I do think you'll be able to take that away. Staying healthy. That's kind of an obvious one. Like anytime you're playing an FC spot, like just stay healthy.

Starting point is 00:07:32 All the starters, all the guys in the two deep and the earlier you can amass that lead and amass a big advantage in this game, the earlier you can go to the backups, the earlier you can go to the third strings. Ideally, by the time you get to maybe the fourth quarter or something like that and trying to keep guys healthy for the long season ahead. Young players and backups getting some action. I do think that is something you can take away because we're not always going to see the third stringers coming into games, right? Now, like defensive tackle, you're going to rotate around. Like defensive end, you're going to rotate around. There are certain positions that you're going to get into the depth a little bit more than others. And obviously, there will be injuries throughout the season at certain positions that you're going to get into the depth a little bit more than others. And obviously there will be injuries throughout the season at certain positions where you will see some of the depth.

Starting point is 00:08:08 But ideally, you don't want to see the third and fourth strings play over the course of the season. Nothing against those guys. You want them to develop and be good players. But that typically means if it happened, either something's failing at the top or somebody got injured. So this is an opportunity for those guys to get game reps and for you to feel like, hey, I want to see what Johnny Thompson, I want to see what Harry Stewart can do out there. I want to see Isaiah Marshall play or Cole Ballard see the improvement that he possibly has.

Starting point is 00:08:34 You want to see some of these guys that you may hear about in practice or you may hear about from media members or you may hear about from people that you talk to or something who are inside the program that are like, oh, yeah, they're doing really well in practice or they're progressing in this that is or that way but you want to see it on the field yourself because you might not see them like for a full season in game reps for a year or two right and so it's cool to have that opportunity to see them in this game and so that's something you can take away and then the last thing here is um you just don't want to see the like offensive line getting, I guess. The one exception I'll have, if the offensive line gives up a sack or two in the game on a weird blitz,

Starting point is 00:09:11 on something that the defense has diagnosed that's a super creative structure or scheme, and it leads to an unblocked man on a blitz, no, that is not ideal. But that's something where it's like, okay, it's so early in the season. You're working in a new center, right? That could just be a growing pain. That could just be a learning thing. Now it's tough because week two you're at Illinois. So they'll see that on tape and be like, Oh, let's try to take advantage of this. That wouldn't be great.

Starting point is 00:09:38 But you'd at least have it on tape to kind of teach everybody and have that moment. As long as it doesn't happen a bunch, right. If it happens like one time, that's fine. But that do matter. Like the offensive line should be able to punish the defensive line in this game. So if the offensive line is struggling to make a push, if the offensive line is struggling in normal pass rush, that can be a problem in this game because again, the defensive lines are only going to get better from here. What are some things that don't matter that we won't be able to take away from the result from this game?

Starting point is 00:10:07 We'll talk about those on Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by Ultimate College Football Head Coach. Hey, Locked on Jayhawk fans, let's take a moment and get a new heads up on that brand new mobile game that I think you're going to love as much as I do. Ultimate College Football Head Coach, it's an amazing game and simulation where you can step into the shoes of a head coach and lead your college football program to glory. Can you imagine being the national champion coach at Kansas? From recruiting players and hiring coaching staff to overseeing training camps and handling school scholarships, you control every crucial detail of your program.

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Starting point is 00:11:44 We'll work on that moving forward. But you want to start getting an early scout on what Illinois is up to, you can check out that show and maybe the West Virginia show, whatever you want to do. So things that don't matter. As I was kind of talking about there with the offensive line, if the offensive line struggles, that is something you can take away, and that's a bad thing you can take away,

Starting point is 00:12:03 but it is something you can take away. I don't know that you can take away the offensive line dominating. You take it away in the same bucket as like, okay, it didn't teach us anything, which is a good thing, right? You don't want bad things to pop up in the Lindenwood game. So from that perspective, it is good. But as I kind of said, with some of the stuff, if the KU offensive line dominates, and they're just able to run halfback dive every play or halfback stretch or the wide zone or whatever, like every play, that's a good thing, but that's not going to be super translatable to each and every game.

Starting point is 00:12:32 So it's something you should be able to do in this game, but it's not something where if they do it, I'm going to all of a sudden be like, yep, if Kansas played Alabama, they're just going to dominate them in the trenches. Right. Okay. If you win by 24 versus if you win by 60 or I don't know I don't know the exact points but like somewhere in that range like there's a range of points if you win by 30 versus 50 I don't know somewhere in that maybe not 24 maybe that's a little bit low there is a certain range where I think it no longer becomes like

Starting point is 00:12:59 I don't know how good is Kansas and a little bit of it becomes how bad is Lindenwood. Like remember the Rhode Island game, you know, this team might be similar to that Rhode Island team in terms of where they rank. Maybe they're a little bit better in some of the stuff, but Kansas is in a much better place as a program than they were then. And is a much better team. So like if Kansas wins 38 to seven versus if they win 52 to 14, is it going to be that big of a difference? No, I don't really think so. Like what was the score of the KU Missouri state game last year?

Starting point is 00:13:31 I certainly don't remember. I remember it was kind of close in the first quarter. It might've even been winning at the end of the first quarter. And then Kansas kind of pulled away and did their thing. Right. And Missouri state better FCS team here. And there is a line, like I said, like if you only win by 10, that's probably not a good thing. But if you win by 40 versus winning by 60, like, I don't know that that's that huge of a difference that you can take away from this game. Whatever the stat line is for Jalen Daniels, I don't really think that's something you can take

Starting point is 00:13:55 away from this game. We already know Jalen Daniels is a really talented quarterback, a really good quarterback. The bigger thing for Jalen that you can take away is just, does he stay healthy? Like that is something you can take away. Does he stay healthy? Does he get through the end? Something you can't really take away. He could go 12 for 12 for 200 yards and four touchdowns. And that's awesome. And would certainly signify how good he could be,

Starting point is 00:14:14 but we already know how good he could be. He's a Heisman candidate quarterback when he stays healthy. He is one of the most talented quarterbacks we've seen run through Lawrence. Like we already know those things. That ain't going to change with how he does in the game. And I guess you could even say that the opposite way, right? Like if Jalen Daniels goes out there and he has, I don't know, 11 of 18 performance for 120 yards with two touchdowns, two picks,

Starting point is 00:14:36 I'm not going to be sitting there like, oh, I don't know, man. We sure Jalen Daniels is the same guy coming back from the injury through two picks and the FCA. Like, no, we're not going that it's like he's still a dude he's still a dude so I don't know how much of that can change it's more so just can Jalen say healthy the last one here for that doesn't matter I think the occasional breakdown as with all of these there is a line and this is kind of something we talked about earlier with some of the blitz stuff you're going to have some mistakes that happen early in the season. That could be a penalty.

Starting point is 00:15:07 That could be a turnover. That could be a fumble. That could be a mistake not picking up a blitz. That could be a guy running the wrong routes. That could be a coverage bust. Ideally, none of them would happen. But in the first game of the season, to me, it almost feels inevitable that it's going to happen for

Starting point is 00:15:25 every program and in at least one way, in at least a few ways and a few plays, and you want to limit it as much as possible. Those are going to happen. First game of the season, getting over some of those stuff, right? They happen even mid season, right? I mean, stuff happens all the time, right? But you just don't want consistent mistakes. You want guys learning from their mistakes. You want guys learning from their mistakes. You want guys moving forward and not having the same issue again. So if you have four coverage busts, that's a problem. If you have one coverage bust, not ideal, but it's like, okay, we'll get that fixed moving forward to next week.

Starting point is 00:15:58 So the occasional breakdown, I'm not going to take away. If it's a consistent issue, then you do take it away. If that kind of makes sense. Okay. We're going to finish up my three most underrated KU football players heading into the 2024 season with Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you five hour energy. As a new parent, I'm constantly up. I don't know.

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Starting point is 00:17:22 so just go to 5hourenergy.com. Thank you again. Tune in to Locked on Jayhawks. We're going to have on Tuesday, we'll get into the two deep that came out for KU football on your Monday and maybe some of the comments that Lance Leipold had leading up into the week.

Starting point is 00:17:41 We're going to have Nick Schwert on with us later this week. We'll get to our game preview. Of course, you're not going to want to miss. We will have a postcast out after the game ends on Thursday night into Friday morning with the results of the game and talking about that. And we'll have some more content coming at you over Labor Day weekend. So what we're going to do in this segment is going to be my three most underrated KU football players for the 2024 season. A couple honorable mentions. Honestly, like this might sound ludicrous being that he's one of the best players on the team in the

Starting point is 00:18:09 conference in the country, but that's Devin Neal because I think he's like getting underrated. Like you look at the ESPN list, the ESPN came out with like the top 100 players. Devin Neal wasn't on it. You look at some of these preseason magazines and publications, some of them have him as a first team All-Big 12 or second team, all American or something like that. But a lot of them don't have him on either of those things. I consistently seen him behind Taj Brooks, which if you caught our preseason, big 12 episodes, all the lockdown, big 12 episodes, I kind of went into that. Like Devin Neal's getting punished for just having less carries because KU has a good backup and runs less plays per game and stuff like that. Anyway, Devin Neal is being underrated nationally,

Starting point is 00:18:48 which is weird to say because he's an absolute stud and he's still getting underrated. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. Also, honorable mention, I would love to just, for the three players, just pick all three KU receivers. You know what I mean? I absolutely could. But because I wouldn't really know if I'm just picking like one of them which one to pick because I could make a case for all three and pretty much an equal argument of why they're being underrated um I don't know I guess I've seen LJ Arnold pop up on like all week 12 third team or fourth teams on some of these preseason magazines so maybe you'd lean more towards Skinner or Grimm but still I feel like Trevor Wilson have a big role on this

Starting point is 00:19:22 team uh but just because it's the KU receiving court as a whole, I feel like is underrated. I'm just going to say the whole receiving court is underrated, and that would be the most underrated position group in probably the conference and one of them certainly nationally when you're talking about that. So now that we got those out of the way, in no particular order, I'm going to say Michael Ford. I continue to say that he is one of the best guards in the Big 12.

Starting point is 00:19:41 That was proven by his PFF grade last year. He was also good the season before that. Now he's back for another year. I think he was banged up a little bit during fall camp, but I don't know that there's any expectation other than him starting the first game of the season. He's a smart player. He's a very good guard for KU,

Starting point is 00:19:58 and he helps things go in the middle of that offense and a good pass blocker in the middle of that offense. I think Michael Ford is one of the best guards in the middle of that offense and a good pass blocker in the middle of that offense. I think Michael Ford is one of the best guards in the country, and you don't really hear his name pop up very often. Now, you look at ESPN College Football 25, the video game, it rated him very well. But a lot of other places, you don't really see him on some of those preseason award lists and stuff like that, and I think you should be getting more credit. J.B. Brown, another guy on here, and he's somebody who it sounds like

Starting point is 00:20:25 has had an awesome summer, an awesome camp for KU. I was so high on J.B. Brown ever since last year. He had great PFF grades at Bowling Green, came over to Kansas, and just kind of a different player at the linebacker position. KU had a lot of Rich Miller, good leader, cerebral player in there. J.B. Brown, a physical freak and will absolutely thump you. And he made some big impacts on last season's team. Obviously, you think of the Oklahoma forced fumble.

Starting point is 00:20:52 He's going to be able to come up and hit you. And when you look at Kansas trying to improve their run defense, I look at having J.B. Brown in there more often as being able to help you do that and impose some will and impose a little bit of fear in the opposing offensive guy who has the football. There is still an element of fear and physicality in football. And so I think J.B. Brown is going to be a huge addition there. I think both J.B. Brown and Cornell Wheeler are going to be good linebackers for KU.

Starting point is 00:21:14 I think this could end up being KU's best linebacker core since, I don't know, whatever the – was there a crossover with Drew Prox and Joe Dineen? I think there was. Like that's a good linebacker core. It's different, though. This one might be even more athletic. Athletic might not be the word. This one might be more physical than that one in another way.

Starting point is 00:21:32 But anyway, I think this will be a good linebacking core, and J.B. Brown is a big reason why. And then DJ Withers is the last one here. It feels like Withers, you keep hearing about him having that good summer, having that good camp. He already showed a lot of progression. Really, every year in his career and earning a lot of starting reps and a lot of uh you know snaps that he played a season ago and now it feels like he might be taking the next step now it feels like he could be going from this is something i kind of talked about in the defensive

Starting point is 00:21:59 tackle room preview thank you to the everydayers if you already caught it it feels like you have a lot of good solid solid defensive tackles, but can somebody, at least one person, make the step up from being a solid player to being a great player, from being a quality player to being an all-Big 12 player? And it feels like DJ Withers might do that. And as much as we have questions about, okay, what's the pass rush going to look like, although it feels like some of those have – you feel a little bit better about where you are now than where you were at the start of fall camp. If you have a good interior pass rush with DJ Withers, right,

Starting point is 00:22:27 we see with Chris Jones with the Chiefs, that's something that can kind of alleviate some of those questions on the outside too and make things a little bit easier for the guys on the outside if you're having to double that guy on the inside. So I think DJ Withers could be in store for a huge season and be kind of a beast for this defense. And I think that's a good sign that I just picked a bunch of guys who are in the front seven on the defense and the front on the offense

Starting point is 00:22:47 that you're going to have good play at the line of scrimmage this year for your KU. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts. We're just a few days away from KU Lindenwood, so make sure you subscribe to the show. Tell your friends about it. And thank you so much for listening.

Starting point is 00:23:00 Couldn't do it without you. We're here, guys. See you tomorrow for another episode of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Game Week: What We Can/Can't Learn From Lindenwood Game + 3 Most Underrated

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