Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Q1 Report Card: Stocks Up on KU, Devin Neal's All-American Status & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, the first quarter of the KU football regular season is over. Three games down, nine to go. We're giving you your first quarter report card for KU football. Where is stock up? Where is stock down from when things started from the beginning of the year or recently headed in to quarter number two and what we're looking for in the second quarter of the season upcoming. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked

Starting point is 00:00:29 On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN and Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're talking some KU football. First three games of the year, so the first quarter of the regular season are in the books.

Starting point is 00:01:07 Let's give a first quarter report card. Where stocks up? Where stocks down for KU football after the first quarter of the season from where they were maybe comparatively coming into the year. First of this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE college for 20 off your first purchase with game time all right so let's start with uh where is stock up in the first quarter the first three games of the ku football regular season

Starting point is 00:01:36 certainly this was the quarter that you had the uh best chance to put up a three and oh record or at least two and one and you did just that so it's a great first quadrant of the year. You are just overall as a program, stock is up, right? Like you're 3-0 for back-to-back years. It's the first time you've done that as a program since 1991 and 1992. Interestingly enough, that 91 season you went 6-5. Now there weren't as many bowl games back then, so you didn't make one that year, but that was probably similar to, you know,

Starting point is 00:02:05 last year for KU. And then the next year, 92, you win the Aloha bowl, you go eight and four overall. So I think that becomes an interesting conversation because if they did that this year where they go, you know, eight and five and they win a bowl game,

Starting point is 00:02:18 it's a successful season and a big improvement from where they were a season ago. Also though, and that's different because you were seven and four in the regular season. So would the equivalent be going seven and five this year? Or would the equivalent be going eight and four this year? where they were a season ago. Also, though, and that's different because you were 7-4 in the regular season. So would the equivalent be going 7-5 this year or would the equivalent be going 8-4 this year? I think that can kind of change how you view things. But the reason I say that is if I asked you the question right now,

Starting point is 00:02:35 would you take Kansas going 7-5 this year with a bowl win? If I guaranteed you that right now, that they would finish 8-5 with a bowl win, would you take that or would you roll the dice? I'm kind of in the camp right now where I'd roll the dice big 12 fields open three and oh to start been impressed with some of the things even after the Nevada if I would ask you this question after the Illinois game I think for sure you would have said you know you roll the dice maybe after the Nevada game you are a little bit closer to taking it but I would roll the dice there but either way program, program up. And that is one thing, even if Kansas were to finish this year 6-6 again and not technically be an improvement on wins from the regular season,

Starting point is 00:03:11 that would still be improvement and stock up for the program because building consistency and a year-in, year-out winning or competitive team, that is improvement from where they've been. But yeah, overall, the program stocks up. Devin Neal stocks up to the NFL after the season because this dude is putting on an absolute show this year. And honestly, maybe his All-American candidacy stocks up. I wondered before the season started.

Starting point is 00:03:36 I thought Devin Neal was talented enough, a good enough running back, that he could be an All-American level running back for you, an All-Conference level running back for you. My biggest question was in regards to would he get enough carries? Would he get enough opportunity? And we don't know that that'll still be the case at the end of the season. It sounds like he's been dealing with certain stuff like going into the Nevada game with certain injury. And you never know how that's going to go with bumps and bruises throughout the year. But last year he had 180 carries. It's hard if you're only going to get 180 carries,

Starting point is 00:04:03 which that's still 15 carries a game basically. And obviously that counted the bowl season last year. It's hard to put up all American level numbers because when you look at all American level running backs, they're putting up 1400, 1500 rushing yards, maybe even more in a given year. And if you're only going to have 180 carries, you could average six yards a carry, but that's only going to be about 11100 yards. So it's just really tough to get there. And because KU rotates the backs, uses Daniel Hyshaw and Dylan McDuffie and some of these other guys and runs the quarterback,

Starting point is 00:04:32 I wondered if you were going to have enough. But so far you've seen Devin Neal get enough carries, and he is just doing the most in terms of efficiency with what he can. 303 rushing yards so far through three games. That's with limited carries. He's averaging 7.6 yards per carry he also has uh over 100 and uh almost or 131 receiving yards he has six total touchdowns so if you put him on pace for a 12 game regular season that would put him on pace

Starting point is 00:04:58 for over 1700 total yards and 24 touchdowns that's's All-American status for Devin Neal. Now, the conversation of him being an NFL running back, of being a pro running back, that's separate from being an All-American because he can have 1,100 yards, but looks good and has limited carries and goes off to the NFL. I see an NFL running back when I'm watching him.

Starting point is 00:05:19 I could see him going pro at the end of the season. So enjoy him while you can, I guess, is part of this. But also, if he keeps on the pace he's currently on, and who knows, that pace he's currently on is even without him having one of those like 200-yard rushing games, which come Big 12 play, maybe you have an opportunity to do so more because they're going to ride you a little bit more in a given game if you're hot that specific game. Maybe that is all American-level numbers for Devin Neal.

Starting point is 00:05:44 He's been so good in what he's put up and had some unbelievably big plays for KU to beat Nevada this past Saturday. Stock is up on the KU pass rush in the defensive line. We went into the season not totally knowing what you were going to get here. This was a bit of an unknown. You lost Lonnie Phelps, who was your best defensive lineman, maybe your best defensive player from a season before, and he provided a majority of your sacks and pressures

Starting point is 00:06:04 and attention needed from the offensive line to the opposing defensive line. Well, so far this year, you have nine sacks, you have 26 hurries, and you have five quarterback hits. That's a total of 40 pressures over three games. So averaging about 13 per game with three sacks per game. Last year, Kansas had 24 sacks. So that is less than two per game because that's counting the bowl game

Starting point is 00:06:24 against Arkansas, less than two per game because that's counting the bowl game against Arkansas. Less than two per game. Now you're at three per game. Obviously, that includes the Nevada and Missouri State games, but you didn't get huge sack numbers in either game. You had the bigger sack number in the Illinois game, so it's not like you just feasted against lesser competition in that area just to boost up what your numbers look like.

Starting point is 00:06:42 And so, you know, it slightly stocks up from last year in terms of the stats, what you're looking at there. But I just really like the depth overall of this position. You've already had strong contributions and seen some good flashes from, whether it's Tommy Dunn, Hayden Hatcher, who's kind of dealing with an injury right now, Dylan Brooks, Jeremy Robinson, Austin Booker, DJ Withers, Dean Miller, Davion Westmoreland, Keenan Caldwell, Devin Phillips, Gage Keys, Patrick Joyner.

Starting point is 00:07:12 Like that's a lot of names that you're kind of rotating in there and getting levels of play. And a few of those guys that I named don't have great like pro football focus grades yet, or maybe haven't had their impact totally felt as much as maybe you would thought. I think Devin Phillips has been solid, but he hasn't been, you know, all conference level or anything like that. And maybe that's still to come with more familiarity in the offense.

Starting point is 00:07:31 Point being that you had some players who have shown flashes, who played limited snaps. You've had some other players who maybe haven't lived up to the potential quite yet, that there's more to be shown that they're going to have better ends to the season. And even beyond that, you've shown to have good depth and good pass rush so far this season especially in that illinois game when you probably needed it the most so i think stock is up on this

Starting point is 00:07:53 position whether you're looking at it from if you compare it from this year to last season's team i think stock is slightly up i think if you're looking at it from where we thought it was in the off season it's big time up from where it was. KU's corner duo is seeing their stocks go up this year. You know, we knew Kobe Bryant was a first-team all-Big 12 corner, but you knew part of that was, yeah, he's kind of a big play guy. Like, can he be a shutdown corner in addition to being the big play guy? And then the question with Melo Dotson was that, okay, he's an experienced guy.

Starting point is 00:08:23 He's been in there. He's gone through his battles. He's shown some good play and had some good games. But overall last year, you looked at the numbers and the passer rating against and the completion percentage against we're a little higher than you would have liked. So what was that secondary? What was the two corners that you had where they've been multi your starters for you now? What were they going to bring? Could they be,

Starting point is 00:08:43 would they be a solid unit? Would they be a good unit? Would they be a great unit? So far they've been great. Combined Mellow Dots and Colby Bryant have been targeted 18 times this season, according to Pro Football Focus. They've given up 12 receptions. Now that number doesn't sound great. We're like, wait, they're giving up 67% completion rate. Okay. That doesn't sound great. But a lot of them have been like easy passes. They have allowed just 127 yards on the 18 targets. That's 7.1 yards per target. So that's not an unbelievable number. That's not a bad number either. If you're giving up 7.1 yards per pass, you live with that.

Starting point is 00:09:19 But when you add in that you're giving up 7.1 yards per pass and you have two pass breakups and you have two interceptions, I'm getting an interception every nine targets your way is really impressive. Melo Dotson has a 59.4 NFL passer rating against, and Kobe Bryant has a 73 NFL passer rating against. So both guys are 73 or less for nfl passer rating against when targeted for reference in 2022 in the nfl zach wilson was last among 33 qualified nfl quarterbacks with a 73 passer rating so you're basically making every quarterback that's targeting them zach wilson or worse that'll work

Starting point is 00:10:00 all right let's get to uh where is stocks down or maybe stocks neutral from where we were from last year, the beginning of the offseason to where we are now through the first quarter of KU football play. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Snap into the action this NFL season with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet.

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Starting point is 00:10:51 especially after their win over Arkansas. I would wait till closer to game time to get in if you want on Kansas, but you'll be able to bet on some of the player props, the over-unders, whatever you want to do for that game. So visit FanDuel.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season. FanDuel, an official partner of the NFL. Where is stocks down? Where is stocks neutral for KU through their first quarter report card of the season?

Starting point is 00:11:16 Well, let's start with neutral. I think the receivers, the tight ends, stocks just neutral because both in terms of being good and in terms of usage. We went into the year knowing the tight end and the receiver groups were both really good. And that both of these were underrated positions in the conference and in the country. They've both been really good so far on the season. And not only that, but we knew that the usage would be you'd spread the ball out, get a lot of different guys involved, get a lot of guys targets, play a lot of guys in different formations.

Starting point is 00:11:47 That's happened to right. The ball's getting spread out with Luke Graham and Quentin Skinner and Lawrence Arnold. And you're seeing some guys mixed in there like Doug Amelia and it's not Scott and Trevor Wilson. And same goes for the tight end. You're seeing a lot of Jared Casey, Mason Fairchild and Trevor Crudell's mixing in,

Starting point is 00:12:01 saw some to Vita. No one like some goal line packages, the past game, right? We knew there was going to be a lot of usage for a lot of different players and different packages and spreading out of the football and that they would make big plays when they need to, and they've done just that so far.

Starting point is 00:12:12 So living up to the billing there. Also, the offensive line, I would put in neutral here. We had expectations that the offensive line would be good and that they would have good depth. Well, we've seen that. Amarj Reed Adams misses your first couple games, but you're able to survive it, or whether it was the first game or first two. I forget.

Starting point is 00:12:26 I think it was just the first game, actually, now that I'm thinking about it. But Kobe Baines has been good, kind of rotating in off the bench. The offensive line depth has shown out to be good so far, and the offensive line has not really caused any issues. You've done a good job running the football. Your first two games, not as well in the Nevada game,

Starting point is 00:12:42 but you still opened up at least enough. Pass blocking was really good in the Nevada game and pass blocking has been good all season long. So they've been good so far as expected and the depth has been good so far as expected. If we're going to stocks down from either where we were in the off season or from last year, I think number one on this list has to be being your confidence level, I guess, your confidence level about Jalen Daniels making it through the season. It's not that stock is down on Jalen Daniels or stock is down. Like Jalen Daniels, when he plays, he's so good.

Starting point is 00:13:13 And he looks so electric when he's out there. It's just that after going through the offseason and hearing the bulletproof term and that they were working on getting him so that he could be more healthy over the course of the season. Well, obviously that changed in the first three games of KU football. He missed the first game. Seems at different points kind of day-to-day at practice. And in the Nevada game, most recently,

Starting point is 00:13:34 we didn't really see him unleash his full running game, whether that was planned because he wanted to save it more for the BYU game or conference play, whether that was planned because he's still kind of nursing that back, whether that was just what the game plan said. I don't know. When he's healthy, he's just phenomenal. It just feels like an uncertainty how this is going to go the rest of the season. And hopefully Jalen is healthy the rest of the way. Hopefully he's good to go for the remaining games on the schedule, the remaining nine games plus a bowl game possibly. You hope that is the case.

Starting point is 00:14:11 It's just based on how this has started, there is some uncertainty there, a lot more than you would have thought coming into the season. So for that standpoint, this is like the number one stock down type of thing. Stock is down on Daniel Hyshoff figuring out his fumbling issues. You know, he had some fumbling issues last year, fumbled his last couple games that he played. I think he had fumbles in, because he played the Iowa State game. That was the game he got injured. So he would have played five games last year. I want to say he fumbled in three of the five games a season ago, then gets injured against Iowa State, fumbles in week one

Starting point is 00:14:37 against Missouri State, but they're able to get the football back. I can't remember. I don't think he fumbled in the Illinois game. I think Devin Neal fumbled, but KU got it. And then he fumbles in the Nevada game. So with Daniel Hyshaw, he's such a talented running back. He's so good, man. He's unbelievably powerful. He's got great speed, runs so hard, fights for every yard.

Starting point is 00:14:59 He is so much fun to watch on the football field. The big key for him is just holding on to the football because that's the difference of becoming, I guess, Devin Neal or getting more usage or avoiding having Dylan McDuffie take away some more of your carries, right? Like that's going to be a key. And this is a different team when they're able to get Daniel Hyshaw healthy and on the field running the football, right? Because it provides that physicality element. You know, Devin Neal can be a physical runner. Dylan McDuffie can be a physical runner. But that's not their, like, A-plus trait, right?

Starting point is 00:15:29 It might be cutting or vision or, you know, stiff arm or speed or something like that. With Daniel Hyshaw, you give him the ball straight up the middle. Like, there were games that you clearly missed that last year. I think back to the Baylor game, you needed that physical runner up the middle, and you didn't really have it that game, and you struggled a little bit more running the football against Baylor. Daniel Hyshaw helps you in a lot of ways with this offense.

Starting point is 00:15:49 Very talented player, but you've got to figure out the fumbling issues, and that has not been solved so far this season or over the course of his career. Stock is also down on the schedule a tad. This is actually a good thing for KU, so in one sense, stock's up, but stock's down on how difficult the schedule might be. The schedule will still be difficult. Playing BYU this week, their team receiving votes, they're undefeated. That's a good BYU team. Just one at Arkansas. Next week, you're at Texas, top five team in the country, playing them on the road. Okay. Very difficult, right?

Starting point is 00:16:23 Week after that, UCF, who is a team who surprisingly is not receiving votes right now. I thought they would have been, but if they win again this week, I imagine will be for next week. So those are all tough teams. And then you're looking at still having to play, even though Oklahoma State and Iowa State and Cincinnati, I don't know how good they are. They might not be very good. They're still road games and Power 5 road games.

Starting point is 00:16:39 I mean, we saw KU go on the road to Nevada and almost lose. It's tough to win on the road in college football, right? You still have Oklahoma. They're a top 25 team. Kansas State's still a good team, right? They're ranked in the top 25. So it's not to say the schedule is easy. It's still a difficult schedule, and that still is the case.

Starting point is 00:16:54 It's just that when you look at it, it's a little easier than maybe we thought before the season started because Oklahoma State might be a little worse than we might have thought. Kansas State might be a little bit worse than what we thought, even though I still think they're a really good football team. Iowa State might be a little bit worse than where we once thought. Texas Tech might be a little bit worse than where we once thought. And that could be a good thing for Kansas trying to break the right way if they are going to have a season where they win more than last year,

Starting point is 00:17:17 if they win seven games or if they can win eight or nine games or contend for the Big 12 title. That is obviously a very important piece among all of that. All right, we're going to finish up with what you're hoping to see in the second quarter of games. The next three games for KU football. First of those episode of the show is brought to you by game time.

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Starting point is 00:18:47 Download GameTime today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. So what are you hoping for in the second quarter? I mentioned the next three games. It's BYU at home. That'll be at 2.30 this Saturday. Texas the following Saturday. That'll be in Austin again at 2.30.

Starting point is 00:19:01 That'll be on ABC, so primetime for Kansas. How about that? And then the following week, they'll be at Austin again at two 30. That'll be on ABC. So prime time for Kansas. How about that? And then the following week, they'll be, uh, at home on Saturday against UCF. That game time will come out, uh, next Monday. Um, so we'll see when, when that one is, but I think if, if you told me Kansas goes one and two in this stretch, I think you'd be okay with it, right? At that point, you'd be sitting four and two. Um, you'd, you'd be heading into the Oklahoma state week, then a buy, then Oklahoma. And then, uh, I think Iowa state At that point, you'd be sitting four and two. You'd be heading into the Oklahoma State week, then a bye, then Oklahoma, and then I think Iowa State after that one. One and two in the next

Starting point is 00:19:30 three would be okay. I think realistically, you're hoping you go two and one. Win your two home games at the very least, and if you lose at Texas, you lose at Texas. I mean, you're nine and a half points, seven to nine and a half point favorites against BYU. I'd imagine for UCF, I guess it depends if you win or lose to BYU and what happens in the Texas game. But realistically, right now, you're probably looking at being somewhere between 3 and 7 point favorites against UCF too. And if it goes 2-1 by you losing to BYU but beating Texas and beating UCF or something like that, that's totally fine too.

Starting point is 00:20:00 If you go 2-1, I think you're going to feel great about this team's chances and winning more games than last year and maybe being a big 12 title contender all those sort of things especially if you go two and one and the one loss is the Texas but it's like a competitive loss you lose by seven you lose by 10 points uh where you show up pretty well there which by the way I will say as much as Texas you do think highly of them and they won at Alabama and it didn't look so good at UCF or USF so maybe it is back to being a little bit more winnable, even though that's probably KU's least winnable game. Again, they're all winnable, though,

Starting point is 00:20:31 when you're looking at the game down in Austin. I think what you want to see, though, is you want to see them. You want to see Jalen running the football. You want to see him being healthy over the course of these next three games. I think defensively, you want to see, is this team for real? We saw flashes. I mean, even in the Nevada game, you have 24 points. You only give 262 yards in the Illinois game. Defense was really good in the Missouri state game. You have 17, but seven of that was after the fumble by Daniel high shop defenses passed the test sort of so far. They haven't been elite, but they've passed the test. These next three are going to tell you more about the defense

Starting point is 00:21:06 than the offense side of the ball. We think we know the offense can be elite. I guess show how elite you are, though. Are you just a top 25 offense? Are you a top 10 offense? Are you a top five offense? We're going to learn some of that these next three games, too. We'll learn a lot about the offensive and defensive line.

Starting point is 00:21:19 BYU is a big physical team. Texas is a team with a lot of athletes and is big in physical on the offensive and defensive line. I'd imagine Gus Malzahn has UCF pretty loaded on the offensive and defensive line. So you're going to learn a lot. And that's what you want to see. You want to see the trenches perform well. You want to see guys stay healthy. And ideally, if you can go at least two and one in these next three games, I think you're going to feel really good about headed into the back half of the season. We'll do our second quarter report after those three games. We're going to switch to some KU basketball talk on our next episode, though, of our four-man preview, the power forward spot for KU basketball.

Starting point is 00:21:52 We'll also have Nick Schwert on later this week with us, and we'll get to our KU BYU preview later in the week. This has been Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us anywhere you get any of your podcasts or on our YouTube page. Have a great rest of your day.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Q1 Report Card: Stocks Up on KU, Devin Neal's All-American Status & More

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