Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Offensive Line is Loaded From Top to Bottom Led by Mike Novitsky

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're previewing the KU offensive line position. Doesn't sound sexy, but this might be one of KU's best and deepest positions overall. Are they ready to break through from being a good unit into being one of the more dominant ones in the conference and in the country? We discuss on today's episode. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Derek Johnson, you can hear me as well.

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Starting point is 00:01:01 We've had some talk about the KU football stadium renovations recently, so you can check those out in past episodes. We're previewing the offensive line today, and more so with this offensive line, is this arguably the best position on the offense for KU? Is it the deepest position overall for this team? Before we get into any of that, make every moment more right now with FanDuel. You can bet on a Super Bowl winner and get bonus bets every time they win in the regular season. So go to FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started with that. I guess the first thing here is, is how is KU going to set this offensive line? You know, last year, this was a really good unit for KU.

Starting point is 00:01:45 Awesome in pass protection, didn't give up a lot of sacks. There were a lot of times where, whether it was Jalen Daniels or Jason Bean, had a ton of time in the pocket to throw downfield and eventually unleashed. Eventually, the receiver came open, or they were able to make a play because of that. In the run game, on the option game, KU had a lot of good linemen, I think, being athletic and being able to get to the second level and find those blocks that were going to open up further holes. I think the one thing that the offensive line to me felt like you could gain the most

Starting point is 00:02:14 growth in this year was on standard run plays. Maybe you're more just typical, like halfback dive, halfback stretch, wide zone, those sorts of things. Your, your normal kind of just simple running plays your bread and just simple running plays, your bread and butter type running plays. Felt like there were a lot of those last season that ended up being, you know, maybe shorter gains that ended up leading to a decent amount of second and nine, second and 10, second and 11s last year. That if you can take that next step up,

Starting point is 00:02:41 maybe that'll take your next step up as the offense overall, that it'll allow you to get on the simple plays even more four or five yard gains then you can become a really dominant offense uh kind of add on to what you already did last year which was very impressive but this is a unit that you have four out of five starters back you brought in some transfers you brought in some impressive freshmen you have guys who were on the roster last year that weren't really key contributors but gained another year of experience and maybe had experience in previous stops before. This is not just a very talented unit overall in the starting lineup. This is a very talented unit of backups.

Starting point is 00:03:17 You'll hear the coaching staff talk about with the running back position that they're looking for a pair and a spare, you know, three running backs basically, two guys to kind of carry the load. And then your backup, maybe it's more because of some of the past injuries. Now with the offensive line, you hear it's more so that you want eight solid guys. Obviously,

Starting point is 00:03:35 if you have more, even better in this unit might have more, but they have five starters on the offensive line, which you feel good about. And can you have those three backups? One can play, you know, maybe left tackle, left guard. One can play have those three backups? One can play, you know, maybe left tackle, left guard.

Starting point is 00:03:48 One can play center, right tackle. One can play either guard spot, or maybe one can play either tackle spot. One can play either guard spot. One can play center, right? Like, it doesn't matter how it is. You just need those three guys to be multi-positional and versatile. They can cover multiple positions

Starting point is 00:04:01 that you don't really need a true two deep. You just need three guys that can cover those five positions over the course of all of them. Overall, though, it is a good unit, a unit you feel very good about. Now, it's hard when you rank it among the other positions on the KU football offense because there are a lot of really good positions on the KU football offense. Quarterback, you have Jason Bean and Jalen Daniels. Running back, you have a ton of talent from Devin Neal to Daniel Highshaw, Savion Morrison, Dylan McDuffie, Torrey Laughlin.

Starting point is 00:04:28 I mean, on and on and on down the line. Johnny Thompson. Receiver, you have all your starting receivers back. You have a bunch of depth back at receiver. You just brought in three freshmen. The tight end group is super deep and super comfortable at the top with Basin Fairchild, Trevor Cardell, and Jared Casey. Offensive line, you feel comfortable too at the top. But maybe what's different about

Starting point is 00:04:45 this one and maybe I would save tight end here for this maybe even quarterback is that the second unit of the offensive line is like good enough to me that you could probably still win a lot of games with it the second string receivers you would still feel comfortable but I feel like there is a good drop off the second string end, you probably feel the closest to about. I feel still really good if it's Trevor Cardell or Jared Casey. I guess same with quarterback, but there is still drop off Jalen Daniels to Jason Bean. Running back, I guess you could say the same, but I almost view Daniel, Hyshawn, Devin Neal as 1A, 1B to where then it'd be dropping to your second strings after that.

Starting point is 00:05:21 This offensive line is good. It's deep. And when you look at the options they have to put this together, when you look at the center position, Mike Nowitzki is the guy. Now, I'll be interested to see who the backup center is on the two deep. That could be a couple different guys. I am under kind of the estimation, though, because this is what happened in spring ball. If Nowitzki were to miss some time or you had to plug somebody else into center, it would be Michael Ford as the backup center. And then you would just move Ford over from one of the guard positions and somebody else would fill in for Ford at the guard position. But I'll be interested to see what they do with the two deep there. Mike Nowitzki,

Starting point is 00:05:53 feel very certain he is going to be, you know, the projected starter at center. Then you look at the offensive tackle positions. Dominic Poonie is someone who played guard for you last year and was excellent at it. I didn't think he got enough postseason recognition for the play that he brought to the table. It seems like he's kicking out to tackle this year, and he's going to be a projected starter at the left tackle position. Bryce Cabledew spent some time at left tackle, spent some time at right. We just heard from him in some player interviews, his media availability, and he actually asked the staff, he said he just felt a lot more comfortable at right tackle than left tackle. So he's, I would kind of pencil him in right now to be in the starting right tackle, but I guess it wouldn't be crazy if, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:32 Kobe Baines were the starting right tackle. I think he's playing more right guard right now than right tackle. Logan Brown is the ultimate talent guy that if he can put it together, if everything can click, if he can figure it out and of what the staff is wanting from him, maybe he can impact this in some way. But those are four real options that you can play at the tackle position. I would put Poonie at left tackle, Cable to right tackle in terms of what my projection is right now for who starts in addition to Novisky at center. Then you have the guard position.

Starting point is 00:06:57 If Baines isn't starting at one of the tackle positions, that means Baines is now in the competition at a guard spot, along with Spencer Lavelle, Michael Ford Armage Reed Adams we had a KU football media availability it was KU football media day I don't know if you read into this too much but they did send out Armage Reed Adams Spencer Lavelle was also there so was Kobe Baines I don't think I don't know there were a couple offensive linemen that weren't there. I can't remember if Michael Ford was there or not. But nonetheless, with Armage Reed Adams, like him being there,

Starting point is 00:07:31 this is the part I'm talking about you want to read into, kind of goes back in line with the coaching staff really talking him up lately. And I think it was Lance Leipold who said that he has really emerged and playing like at a starter level right now. Obviously, nothing is still guaranteed, and they're going to still push the competition for the next week of camp until things wrap up, and then they get into kind of the game planning week and your first week of really ramping kind of a different style of practice up.

Starting point is 00:07:56 But Armage Reed-Adams is impressed so much, and I got to talk to him earlier today, and he was talking about how he's playing at a comfortable like 325 now, how at times he's fluctuated I think it was Scott Fuchs the offensive line coach said he was like 400 pounds at one point when he came in at one point he got down to like 290 something now he's up to like 325 and he said this is the best I've been from a like muscle max mass index in addition to being 325 but he said he also feels good moving as a part of this body weight. So he's physically as good as he's ever been.

Starting point is 00:08:26 He's putting the consistency together, which that's what the staff really values. Consistency. Can you not just do it, but can you consistently do it? And that's how you'll see a lot of these starting decisions across the board is, are you not just the best at it? Like if you have the option between the guy who's the best at it, but it doesn't, it just comes in flashes versus the guy who's, you know, maybe good at it, but not quite as good as that on his high note, but he's going to do that good more consistently.

Starting point is 00:08:52 That's the guy that they're going to go with. So right now at the guard position, I'm projecting our Majoreet Adams would be the starter at one of the guard spots. And then Michael Ford would be the starter at the other guard spot. And then when you go down to those depth pieces, that becomes interesting because let's go back to that conversation about who are those next three to kind of fill those two deep spots. But I want to talk about that depth coming up here and maybe some future players to watch out for.

Starting point is 00:09:15 And is this second team offensive line unit for KU? Is it better than any KU offensive line over the last decade, maybe save last year's team? I want to discuss with that next with Locked On Jayhawks. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Football season is about to kick off, and FanDuel is giving you the chance to win all season long. Because right now, when you bet on Super Bowl winner, you can get bonus bets every time they win in the regular season. This is an unbelievable deal.

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Starting point is 00:10:01 You can bet on Kansas to win the Big 12. You can bet on more even odds of them to go over the six wins so visit fanduel.com locked on and start earning bonus bets with America's number one sports book that's fanduel.com locked on okay so the depth of this unit is super increased as you heard me going through the guys that I kind of put in contention for starting roles um Novitski Pooney Cable do Brown Baines Reed Adams Lavelle Ford I mean that gives you eight guys right there right um but there's more guys even in it that I think will at least compete for the backup spots from left to right I'm going with Dominic Pooney um I guess I don't really know which one would

Starting point is 00:10:43 be left guard and which right guard between Armage Reed Adams and Michael Ford, Nowitzki in the middle, and then Cable to a right tackle, at least to start off. The way that I view it, maybe Kobe Baines would be kind of a guy who you could fill in at guard, at right guard or right tackle to be your backup at both of those positions. Like I said, Michael Ford would be your backup center, where if Nowitzki got hurt or had to miss some time, Ford would move to center. And then maybe you plug Baines in to guard at that point in time. And then you would possibly have, I guess,

Starting point is 00:11:14 at that point, like maybe Logan Brown would be your swing tackle that he could kind of occupy either spot for you. Maybe Baines, if it was your right tackle. And then your other depth piece, probably Lavelle, who maybe you can play him at tackle or guard or just kind of fill in wherever you need there's also the Dre Doran who's the guy who started double-digit games at Buffalo before transferring over was with the program last year he's someone who you feel like you get good depth from Nolan Gorchika former transfer from Buffalo uh I don't expect him necessarily to be on the two deep but that gives you more depth

Starting point is 00:11:43 James Livingston heard some good things about him as he progresses through the young portion of his career. And Calvin Clements, who comes in as a freshman, heard really good things about him so far and how he's translating over from the high school level to here at the collegiate level with KU. I guess back to the question here, is this backup offensive line unit?

Starting point is 00:12:04 If you throw out a backup offensive line unit of, let's say, I don't know, Logan Brown at left tackle, Spencer Lavelle at one of the guard spots, let's just say Michael Ford at the center spot, even though he's a starter, backup center, whatever. Michael Ford at the center spot, Dre Dorian at the guard spot, and then then gosh, who does that leave me with? Calvin Clements or James Livingston or Nolan Gortica at one of the tackle

Starting point is 00:12:31 spots. Is that offensive line is your backups this year. Is that better than outside of last year? A lot of offensive lines over the past decade. I think it probably is. You've had some really talented guys over the past decade. I don't want to, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:43 just get rid of that. Like you go back to around the 2011 range. Tanner Hawkinson was really talented. You go back to Hakeem Adeniji starting from freshman year. They've had some good offensive linemen. They've had some offensive linemen who have been all big 12, third team or all big 12 honorable mention since then. So it's, it's, you know, maybe not as a whole, but I mean,

Starting point is 00:13:02 I don't know, man, there've been some tough offensive line units for KU and if your backup offensive line is better than a lot of those or at least on par and your starters are even way better than that you feel very good about getting through an entirety of the season with that position that you know KU was lucky because last year we went into the season saying they have the starters back the starting offensive line is going to be good but we don't know about the depth if there's starting offensive line is going to be good, but we don't know about the depth. If there's some injuries, that's going to be a problem.

Starting point is 00:13:27 Fortunately, they were very healthy over the course of last year. And maybe that speaks well to the training staff and what they can do and the availability of the players that they have in the roster. But it's tough to count on that year in and year out at any position, let alone offensive line where somebody can easily roll up on somebody's leg. It's easy to get banged up because you're going at contact each and every play of each and every game. And so you need that depth of this position, and KU has it.

Starting point is 00:13:53 You feel very good about it for this year. And yeah, you feel better with even that second offensive line unit. You feel more trustworthy than a lot of past years over the last decade or so. I'll be interested to, not just with the depth, how that impacts it in case you do have any injury or need to rotate somebody in, but how does that push the starters to be even better? I think that's kind of an interesting conversation in this too.

Starting point is 00:14:15 Does having more depth, does having more adept backups, does that push the starters or push the guys who have been in, you know, kind of competing to be starters? Does that push them to be even better players? Does that, you know, kind of iron sharpens iron type of thing where now the starting offensive line, because the backups are so good and they're being pushed by them each and every day, does that make the starters even better too?

Starting point is 00:14:39 And if so, that's obviously a huge boon to Scott Fuchs, the offensive line coach, Lance Leipold, Danny Kolnicki as the offensive coordinator, and that is something that I think absolutely could happen, and when you have breakouts like Armage Reed-Adams to a unit that already you felt good about, those are the types of stories that can

Starting point is 00:14:56 take a unit and take an offense and take a team to that next level, and it seems like KU is getting some of that production on the offensive line. I want to finish up here. Who is a maybe future name or future names to kind of keep an eye on in this offensive line group with Locked on Jayhawks? Finishing things up with Locked on Jayhawks with players to keep a future eye on or names to keep a watch in the future for this offensive line unit that maybe they will, maybe they

Starting point is 00:15:21 won't see the playing field this year, but keep an eye on them in the future. And by the way, on Friday's episode, we're going to be talking about the defensive ends. Jeremy Robinson, is he the top breakout candidate on the defense? Is he one of the top breakout candidates on the team? And what can you expect from this defensive end group? So make sure you're subscribed to the show and give us a positive review if you could.

Starting point is 00:15:42 It helps us out on our end of things. And stick around for more position previews coming up here with Locked on Jayhawks. So future names to keep an eye on. Calvin Clements, I think, is the one that consistently pops up here. He's gotten really good praise so far.

Starting point is 00:15:57 Came in as a top 10 recruit in the state of Kansas. You were able to flip him from Baylor, comes, stays in state, stays in city, was a really good player at Free State High School down the road. And now you've heard that good praise. Now I will say, and this is not necessarily what I'm saying about Calvin Clements, but I do think it is important to know this. Sometimes leakouts and things we hear about certain players can be a little overly much at times because you'll hear good things about young players and it might just be staff trying to get that comments out or get those comments out

Starting point is 00:16:34 from a standpoint of you know if we can get this information out there then the player his camp his parents whoever are going to hear that we're very high on him so that they feel like they have a real future, a real direction with the program that in a year or two they could be playing to avoid that player from being like, ah, but I'm the second string. I'm the third string this year. I'm not getting on the field. I'm just going to transfer at the end of the year. If you hear those positive comments,

Starting point is 00:16:59 then it feels like it gives you and your camp reinforcement that we're doing things right. Now, some of that, would that mean that it's a lie and that a staff could do that sort of thing to try to keep a kid from leaving? Or could that be truthful and it's being used to keep a kid from leaving? That's not at all what I'm saying is happening here from Calvin Clements. But I will say just when you do hear some good things about young players over the course of camp, you do have to be a bit trepidatious and cautious because you have to figure out, okay, is it just because they are the fifth or sixth string and maybe their future is that by the time they're a junior or senior,

Starting point is 00:17:32 they can be a really good player and the staff wants to make sure they're happy because they do think they'll be a good player down the road, but it might take some time and they want to keep that camp kind of happy. I don't think that's the case necessarily here for Calvin Clements. Obviously, it doesn't hurt if it is, but I think he's someone who wouldn't shock me if he was on the two deep at one of those tackle spots. Now, if there is an injury to one of the tackle positions, let's say he's like the backup left tackle, for instance, Dominic Poonie. If Dominic Poonie had to miss a series or had to miss a play, like Dominic Poonie, his helmet comes off and you

Starting point is 00:18:03 have to miss a play for that with college rules. His helmet comes off, he has to miss a play like Dominic Poonie you know his helmet comes off and you have to miss a play for that with college rules his helmet comes off he has to miss a play I don't think Calvin Clements is necessarily coming in I think it goes back in line with okay we have even though on the two deep you're the backup we really have three guys as our backups that are filling our primary positions and they're just kind of playing swing roles we're going to bring this other guy in so I don't think he's quite there yet but it wouldn't shock me either if he was on the two deep. And even if he's not, he's got to be close to being there. You look at this year, whether he redshirts or not, because you can still get in those four games and redshirt. Dominic Poonie is your starting left tackle.

Starting point is 00:18:36 He's going to graduate at the end of the year. Bryce Cabledew has this year and one more year after that. So when I look at it, like at the tackle position, Calvin Clemens is probably going to be a starter if he stays on this path by 2025 at the latest. I mean, that would mean he'd be either a true junior or redshirt sophomore. And there is an outside chance that by 2024, he is either impacting that starting lineup or one of your top depth pieces on the offensive line. So he's definitely the name to keep an eye on. And somebody who clearly has a lot of talent, he's got that pro body. He's got that division one power five conference body that, you know,

Starting point is 00:19:11 you're going to continue to add weight to him. You're going to continue to add strength. You're going to continue to add the mental acumen to the game. And he's someone to be very impressed with in the future. Maybe some other names to keep an eye on. I don't know. I'll be interested to see the role for Dre Dorian. But how about Logan Brown? Because Logan Brown, it doesn't seem like he's going to crack into

Starting point is 00:19:28 that starting lineup. And I don't know what's going on there. You look at him being a former five-star recruit. That's not the be all end all. We've seen former four and five-star recruits come to Kansas, whether it was via transfer or to other schools, and it just not work out. Sometimes you just don't live up to that hype. But the weird thing with Logan Brown is that he kind of was living up to that hype at Wisconsin. Maybe not to the level of being a five-star top 20 recruit where that would make you think he was going to be a future first-round draft pick. Maybe he wasn't doing that at Wisconsin. But you look at the pro football focus numbers and the impact he was having,

Starting point is 00:20:01 he was like a good offensive lineman. He was grading over the 70s. He would have been one of KU's like a good offensive lineman you know he was grading over the 70s he would have been one of KU's highest rated offensive linemen last year he was good player at Wisconsin so you do have collegiate production there that's why this is kind of weird that it's not hitting so far I don't know if there's a hurdle that needs to be overcome with you know understanding the offense or getting used to the system or the scheme or the coaching staff what's being asked of you maybe this goes back in line with the idea that, you know, the KU staff is going to value consistency over top tier play.

Starting point is 00:20:31 And so maybe for Logan Brown, it's just about working on the consistency, maybe a little bit more there, but I'm going to continue to buy into the talent. And even if you tell me Logan Brown is a backup this year, maybe it just does take another year fully immersed in the program. He does have another year after this year, maybe it just does take another year fully immersed in the program. He does have another year after this one, if he wants it. And come 2024, something clicks as a fifth-year senior,

Starting point is 00:20:54 and he can become that kind of dude. I'm not going to give up on him. So he is a future name that I'm kind of watching because I don't know if he's going to be a starter this year, but I'm not going to give up on that talent quite yet, if that is the case. That's going to do it for our offensive line preview. We're going to get to the defensive ends on next show. This is locked on Jayhawks. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:21:12 You can find us on our YouTube page with locked on Jayhawks. I can subscribe to the show. You can hit me up on Twitter at D Johnson radio. Have a good rest of the day. Later.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Offensive Line is Loaded From Top to Bottom Led by Mike Novitsky

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