Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Rides Explosive Offense to Win vs Iowa State as Devin Neal Makes History

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas upends 17th ranked Iowa State 45-36. We recap what went right for KU. 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. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every show. On today's edition of LOJ, we're recapping Kansas 45, Iowa State 36. Everything looked good for KU in this game, and we haven't always seen that this year for KU. This becomes their best win of the season, and three and six now on the year. I guess they keep their bowl game hopes alive. We're going to break down what went down in the game with KU's offense looking so explosive against one of the best defenses in the conference and in the country.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Go to the game and what's next for KU. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, where you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets. If you win your first $5 bet, just visit FanDuel.com to get started today. Kansas 45, Iowa State 36, the final score here. Just an awesome Friday, Saturday, I guess, I don't know, 24 hours, 22 hours of a swing for KU Athletics and for KU football, KU basketball

Starting point is 00:01:37 between the KU North Carolina and the KU Iowa State results here. And it didn't start that way at all. Like the opening of this game felt horrible for KU. You get the football, you go down, your first play of the game, you get like a 15-yard run from Devin Neal and we came into the game saying run the dang ball because Iowa State came in one of the bottom two running defenses in the conference but the best passing defense in the conference. And so you run on the first play, you get 15 yards up the middle, and then you don't give Devin Neal another touch.

Starting point is 00:02:07 And on third down and 11, you run to Daniel Hyshawn, get seven yards, to which it's like, okay, if you're going to run on third and 11, that's one thing, but you better be prepared to go for it on fourth down. Like you must be doing this to set up a fourth down that you can go for it. And they get a fourth and four, I like the plus 40, and they punt it. And they get it down at the one, so it's good execution, then iowa state goes down quickly and gets a 99 yard touchdown drive lead seven nothing and immediately at that point it's like what are we doing here like shouldn't you be aggressive you're sitting at two and six you're playing a top 20 ranked opponent right now why

Starting point is 00:02:38 aren't you running the ball like you have all these questions that we've had over the course of the season about game management about play calling calling. And then KU was resilient. And that's been a common theme this year, even though it hasn't always led to wins for KU, they continue to get up off the mat, right? They're like Rocky Balboa. And it's like Rocky Balboa in the first Rocky, spoiler alert, if you haven't seen it 40 years later, he loses the fight, but he keeps getting up over and over again. And it's like KU's lost a lot of these fights, but he keeps getting up over and over again. And it's like KU's lost a lot of these fights, but they keep getting up over and over again. And eventually you're going to win a fight.

Starting point is 00:03:10 And that's what happened with KU in this game, that they showed the resiliency. You get down 7-0, you overcome it. The offense was so incredibly explosive. You had 532 total yards of offense. You out-yarded them by 70. You had 237 yards on the ground. Like we said, run the dang ball.

Starting point is 00:03:26 Well, you ran the dang ball. You had 46 carries for 237 yards, 5.2 yards per carry. So you accomplished that. The big surprise in this one was how well you did passing the football. 295 yards passing for KU. It came via big plays. And they weren't, you know, it wasn't a super, like, I mean, 50% completion rate. It wasn't like super like I mean 50 completion rate it wasn't

Starting point is 00:03:45 like a ton of like consistent underneath completions it was Jalen Daniels letting it rip downfield and KU finding exploitations in the Iowa State defense and give credit to the KU offensive line who did a great job keeping Jalen upright and blocking to allow you to throw the football downfield and you found those openings in the secondary and so when you combine 24.6 yards per completion with 237 yards rushing you end up with an unbelievable offensive performance and 45 points I mean 14 rushing first downs 10 receiving first downs against that defense is pretty incredible what KU was able to produce and uh tip the cap for the KU offense. And I mean, Jalen Daniels, I think it's official to say he's back, right?

Starting point is 00:04:30 Felt that way coming into the Kansas State game. Like, is he getting close to being back? Played pretty well. Had to fumble at the end of the game, but overall played well. And then in this game, he was just dynamite. And I think it's pretty official to say Jalen Daniels is back. The rust is shaken off. And he is that dude once again to where you go into each and every week feeling like you can have the best quarterback in the game.

Starting point is 00:04:49 And that's how you feel right now with, with what he performed. I think on the defensive end of the ball, you do get up 36 points. You do give up 461 yards of offense. It wasn't the best performance in the world. Clearly at the end of the game, you're, you're playing prevent defense and, you know, just trying to run clock and stuff. And I'm not ever a fan of that. And so, you know, that's not going to be great, but I will say you did a lot of stuff actually well on the defensive end of the field. I mean, after that opening drive where they get the touchdown, you pretty much just stonewalled them for until the fourth quarter. I mean, they only had what, 13 more points until the fourth quarter after that first

Starting point is 00:05:25 drive, and you only give up 78 yards rushing. The defensive line was really good in this game, both in terms of run defense and pressuring the quarterback with Rocco Beck. And so I thought the defense played better than the 36 points allowed, and part of that was scheme the end of the game that I don't totally agree with. but also when the game was most on the line, your defense played really good for you. So what a win for KU. And yet in, I hate to go here, but I think a lot of people feel the same way. So I'm going to go here anyway. It's impossible for me. And I think for a lot of other people to in the back of your mind, not be able to separate at least a little bit, seeing a performance like that, where you win, you know, by nine points against a ranked opponent, but a game that you were up at certain points by basically 21 or, you know, 18 points or whatever, to where you felt

Starting point is 00:06:14 like you were dominating that game at certain points in time, it's impossible not to like, in the back of your mind, be just like, man, if they could have just won a few more of those, you know, one score games early in the season right if you just win two of the other one score games you lost early in the season flip whichever ones you want now instead of sitting at three and six you're sitting at five and four where it's like yeah you're probably going to make a bowl game and i guess maybe not probably because you have a tough schedule to finish but like things would just feel a lot more likely to make a bowl game in that situation and it just does become a little bit of you get the taste of how good things can be for KU when they blow out Houston,

Starting point is 00:06:50 a Houston team who beat Kansas State and who, you know, hung with Oklahoma and all this stuff. You beat Iowa State handily, a team that was coming in at seven and one on the season. Like, it's hard not to get a taste of that and be like, man, how is this team not better than three and six? And so I guess they showed that stat in the game. I mean, they were the first two and six teams since at least like 2000 to have that good of a point differential. It's just incredible. I guess they are the best three and six team in the country, but what a win in the end

Starting point is 00:07:21 and removing that thought. Enjoy the Saturday. Enjoy the end. And, you know, removing that thought, enjoy the Saturday. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy the top 25 victory because it was a fun Saturday. It was a fun performance. And I guess if you want a big picture of this thing, like bottom line, even in a down year, you still found a way to win three games. You still found a way to win two conference games,

Starting point is 00:07:41 which I know doesn't sound like much. But in your pre-Lance Leipold era, that was your high point year, right? Winning three games was your high point. And so if this is your down year, winning three games was still a chance to win some more games down the stretch, especially if they play like that. They're going to win more games if they play like that down the stretch in another game, right? But in your down year, quote unquote, to win three games when that was your top year in pre-light bulb eras.

Starting point is 00:08:07 And even in a down year to come away with a top 25 victory, to come away with a memory fueled game and to keep the support of the fan base. Right. Over the course of season, basketball season has started. People are super fired up about KU basketball. It'd be very easily to move on. and for a lot of people not to even worry about what happens the rest of the way for KU football. I know there's only one more home game, but to win this one, maybe it is the difference of an extra couple thousand fans that come out to the game in Arrowhead for KU.

Starting point is 00:08:36 And everything counts when you're talking about revenue, when you're talking about NIL, when you're talking about recruiting. It all kind of adds up in one way or another. Let's get to our GOATs of the game. KU wins by 9, 45-36. Talk about the good and bad GOATs of the game next on Locked on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook.

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Starting point is 00:09:35 Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fanduel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Continuing on with our Goats of the Game, this is Locked on Jayhawks. Don't forget, you can check out the postcast, the postgame recap of the KU North Carolina game as well right here on Locked on Jayhawks. Check out Locked on College Football, Locked on College Basketball. So if you're new to the show, Goats of the Game, we give our good goats to kind of the new age, new wave of the word, greatest of all time.

Starting point is 00:10:02 Bad goats goes to, you know, a while ago, goat was a bad thing. You were kind of the scapegoat of the game. Let's start with the good goats here for KU, and we go with Jalen Daniels. He was, you know, it wasn't his most accurate game, but I think part of that was intentional with the game plan. It seemed KU, and if you go back and watch the Iowa State Tech game from last week, Tech hit a few big plays against Iowa State. So Iowa State came into the game, the number one defense against the pass in the Big 12. And when I say the number one defense against the pass in

Starting point is 00:10:33 the Big 12, I'm referring to yards allowed per pass. They came up basically giving the same amount of yards per pass as they were yards per run. And they had only given up seven passing touchdowns compared to 14 interceptions. They were also the number one passer efficiency defense in the Big 12 coming in. And so I think KU probably saw some stuff on tape like, hey, maybe we can exploit them with some deep balls. And that was something that we talked about in the pregame that I thought it was going to be in KU's best interest to just run the dang ball, which they did and they did efficiently.

Starting point is 00:11:00 And that was a big part of this. But for Jalen to be more of a game manager. And he was way more than that in this game, and I am so glad to be wrong, because Jalen Daniels, 12 of 24 for 295 yards, 25 yards of completion basically, two touchdowns, no picks, and he also ended up running the football really efficiently, really well in this game. They ran those options from time to time. I mean, this was by far the best that KU ran the football in a game against Iowa State in the Leipold era. Jalen Daniels ends up with 12 carries, 68 yards and a touchdown. He was really good in just every facet of the game. And like I said, I'm ready to declare that Jalen Daniels is back. And now it starts to become a little bit of, you know, can you convince him to

Starting point is 00:11:44 come back another year at Kansas for next season, the way that this is kind of gone. Devin Neal gets a good goat for KU. Man, he just continues to grind away and produce each and every week for KU. It's not always wins. It's, you know, sometimes wins and sometimes it's losses. But, like, that dude is just doing everything in his power for KU to win or to stay on schedule.

Starting point is 00:12:04 Ends up with 18 carries, 116 yards, two touchdowns, 6.4 yards per carry, two more catches for 22 yards. And in all of it, he breaks the KU record for career rushing yards, career rushing touchdowns. It has been an unbelievable season and career for Devin Neal, even if the team's success hasn't been there this year. You will still look back on his time at KU. He was having team success for making the back-to-back bowl games

Starting point is 00:12:28 the last couple years, and again, hopefully they can finish even stronger for this season, but he was great again for KU right from the word go against Iowa State. I think Daniel Hyshaw, I'll give him a good go here. It was nice to see him as the change of pace back. 12 carries, 56 yards, 4.7 for carry. Nice to see him coming back, coming off the bye week if you're KU. And by the way, that's becoming a nice trend here.

Starting point is 00:12:52 Lance Leipold off bye weeks at KU. Things have gone pretty well for KU in those situations. Quentin Skinner gets a good goat. Four catches, 135 yards, a touchdown. He continues to make these unbelievable catches. I don't know how in college football 25, the video game, his spectacular catch is not like 99 because he just excels at those unbelievable catches. So Quentin Skinner was great in this game for KU.

Starting point is 00:13:16 And it really was about the deep ball, the big play. And so from that standpoint, Quentin Skinner, typically if you're thinking of like, oh, KU's going to have a passing plan or a passing game plan where they're going to try to hit a bunch of deep plays, you think of immediately like Quentin Skinner being the recipient of that, and that is indeed how things kind of ended up being. As far as the offensive line, I mean, hope that Bryce Cable is okay and everything like that.

Starting point is 00:13:41 The offensive line was really good for KU overall. So you look at this one and tackles for loss. Iowa State only had two. That's a really low number for a specific game. Now, Iowa State's not typically, like they don't really pressure much. They only have like three down linemen on a typical rush play. So they're not typically getting a lot of sacks. They're typically sitting back, but you still need to do a good job of pass blocking. KU did zero sacks for Iowa State in this game.

Starting point is 00:14:10 And on top of it, you average 5.2 yards per carry. You keep your quarterback clean. Offensive line gets an A performance in this one for KU against a really good defense, even if that's not typically their forte necessarily. I think the defensive line for KU gets a good goat here I thought you know that first drive of the game was tough for really everybody on the KU defense but then the KU defensive line really showed up he ended up with four quarterback hurries he ended up with three sacks the total loss of 14 yards if you're KU you also had five TFLs in the

Starting point is 00:14:39 game and there were there were uh I guess plays from a little bit of everybody. You saw Blake Harold come up with half a TFL. He had four tackles. He had a quarterback hit. Caleb Taylor had that sack. I think that was in the fourth quarter of the game. Jeremy Robinson had the sack and that was in the first or the second quarter of the game. Dean Miller had a sack. I think that one was in the second quarter. So you got production from a lot of different guys in a lot of different areas. And it was just a really impressive game for the KU defensive line. We thought that could be an advantage for the edge players, Miller and Robinson, coming in. I thought that showed out for KU in how this one was.

Starting point is 00:15:13 J.B. Brown also gets a good go, led KU with 10 tackles. Honestly, if I want to give it to KU's two starting linebackers in general, because Brown and Wheeler combined 19 tackles, one TFL. The reason I highlighted Brown even more was that seven of his 10 tackles were solo, which is pretty incredible. Wheeler, in comparison, one of his nine tackles were solo. That doesn't take away from Cornell Wheeler. I think it's more boosted up how good J.B. Brown was.

Starting point is 00:15:36 He was just a heat-seeking missile. He had that big fourth down stop on the outside on Iowa State. He was awesome for KU. I don't think it was the best game for KU's pass coverage. I do think, like I said, some of it was I didn't like the schematics of just sitting back as we've kind of talked about before and that you gave up some easy completions, especially when you got up big that you were just kind of running the rest of it. We could give to Melo Dotson though. He had the pick six for KU that certainly sealed the game

Starting point is 00:16:02 for KU and those are very important game swinging plays. As far as the bad goats of the game here for KU, you know, it's hard to have many bad goats in a game like this. I guess you could say, I don't know, like Damon Greaves averaged 33 yards per punt, but two of them were inside the 20. He was just trying to pin teams deep. So I wouldn't give him one, certainly in this game. I guess you could say it wasn't KU's best pass coverage game. Like we just talked about Rocco Beck ends up with 383 yards, three touchdowns to the one interception. Jalen Noel and Jaden Higgins combined for 15 catches for like 250 yards and two touchdowns. But again, I don't know that I would give that to a specific player. It might just be kind of a scheme thing and with the score and time of the game and in terms of how that went for KU I do think I based on how the beginning of the game start like the results of the game great but again if we go back to the beginning of the game if we're talking

Starting point is 00:16:56 about process over results that was not good process on that first drive both in terms of the play calling and then the um the punting the football away. Like, those are things that lose you close games. This ended up not being a one-score game. But if it was a situation where you end up losing a close game, we'd be pointing back, right? Like, if you would have lost this game, if you would have lost this game the same way that you lost the UNLV or the Kansas State game or lost by three points, we would have pointed to the first drive and said that was bad process or that was bad play calling or whatever it ended up being.

Starting point is 00:17:36 And so from that standpoint, you still need to work on that. So I guess that would be kind of the bad goat in the game for KU. I guess you could say special teams in general. Iowa State did have like a long kick return here or there. You missed a field goal that gave them a little bit of juice, a little bit of momentum. So maybe that one would be the other one that I would point to for Kansas in this one.

Starting point is 00:17:54 All right, what's next for KU? We discuss on the other side of Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by GameTime, which has a new feature called GameTime Picks. It makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play live even easier. GameTime Picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats, so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. They have all-in pricing, where you can toggle that feature and chose the total up front with no surprise fees at checkout.

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Starting point is 00:18:52 What time is it? Game time. All right, don't forget to check out our Locked on Jayhawks recap of the KU North Carolina game. We will be back later this week to have a KU Michigan State preview. So be ready for that one on Locked on Jayhawks. What is next? Well, maybe some people heading over to the KU soccer game.

Starting point is 00:19:14 Hopefully the Jayhawks come through with that one over Children's Mercy Park. KU Volleyball, unfortunately, did fall in that game to Arizona. So two straight losses, tough trip for them on the road. But still been a great season. Still going to have a chance to host in the NCAA tournament, just looking to get back some momentum at the end of the season. Now, as far as for KU football, they're going to be on the road against another ranked big 12 opponent. This will be their third of what is planning to be four straight with BYU and then Colorado. But this time on the road at BYU, and this is going to be a

Starting point is 00:19:44 really difficult one. BYU has been the best team in time on the road at BYU, and this is going to be a really difficult one. BYU has been the best team in the Big 12 to this point in time. And you have to battle the time zone, time zone change. And it's going to be a late night game. So the time zone change becomes more apparent than if it were like a 2.30 game. It's like, if it's a one hour difference and it's a 2.30 game, like who cares? But being like a nine o'clock game, you know, maybe that hour does matter. And it's an altitude game. And we saw KU go with a time change in altitude in Reno and Nevada last year which was not a very good Nevada team they won the game but it was much closer than you'd expect so if you don't play up the par but you're playing a really good BYU team on the road that's not going to go

Starting point is 00:20:17 well and most of all that is the bottom line it is a really good team but a chance to play another ranked team chance to win another ranked game and we'll see if KU can accomplish that one. And then the following week is your final home game, which will be Senior Day, and I really hope there's a good crowd for that one because you can say what you want about how the season has gone or that you don't like the game management or this or that. I think Kansas has a lot of talented players. I think Kansas has a lot of players that have shown resiliency, that haven't quit on this season, that have provided so many great memories for KU fans

Starting point is 00:20:44 that I hope they get the Senior day send-off that they deserve against a ranked Colorado team. So I think that should be a fun one for senior day in a couple weeks against the Buffaloes. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll see you next time with LOJ with a little KU Hoops content.

Starting point is 00:21:04 See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Football Rides Explosive Offense to Win vs Iowa State as Devin Neal Makes History

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