Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks PIVOTAL BATTLE with West Virginia Mountaineers in Big 12 Opener | KU vs WVU PREVIEW

Starting point is 00:00:00 The last two times that Kansas has faced West Virginia, it's been the difference in KU making or missing a bowl game. This is a really important game. We preview Jayhawks Mountaineers on today's episode, Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And thank you so much to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcast, including on YouTube where you can like and subscribe. And on today's edition, we're talking KU, West Virginia. Preview

Starting point is 00:00:47 of the game. We'll get into West Virginia scouting report, our top storylines and news leading into the game and our matchups of the game that are going to determine whether KU or West Virginia comes out on top. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. You can get action on the game and new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the Fandual app today. So Kansas, West Virginia, Saturday, 5 o'clock game in the booth.

Starting point is 00:01:18 And to me, like the biggest storyline of this, I mean, it's obviously the start of Big 12 play. It's starting a new, so to speak. You're starting fresh. This is where the record matters most if you want to be, you know, big 12th title contender for both teams it is that new season new opportunity and that in itself is a storyline but i look back to the last two times that kansas played west virginia both of them determined you know obviously didn't know this at the time they were early games in the season in fact i think both k u's big 12 openers so this will be the third straight time you've played west

Starting point is 00:01:51 virginia where it's your big 12 opener and they ended up at the end of the day being the determining factor whether K you made or missed a bowl game. You go back to 2022, Kansas goes six and six in the regular season. That opening win, the new era game from Jalen Daniels, where you win in Morgantown, that was the difference of making a bowl game. You go back to last year, you end up losing that game where you're up by 10 with four minutes to go and you can't hold on to the lead, you end up going five and seven, you miss a bowl game by one game. So ideally, this team is going to be good enough that they're not just teetering on winning five or six games, that this isn't the difference between that, but you never know.

Starting point is 00:02:30 And I think we've seen that the last two times you've played. And who knows, maybe the difference of this game this year isn't, did you make or miss a bowl game again? Ideally, you win enough games even regardless of what happens in this one. Maybe the difference here, like if you do want to be a big 12 title contender, you win this game, right? That's the thing. If you want to be a team was winning eight, nine, ten games in a season, this is a game

Starting point is 00:02:51 you'll have to win. You're a double digit favorite at home coming off a bye week. against a team who is coming off an emotional high that it's going to be hard to ramp back up after beating pit. These are the games you win if you are one of those teams. So from that perspective, it could be important just showing like what exactly is this Kansas team. And both teams are coming off a rivalry for that sake. KU coming off Missouri, they did have the buy week in between. Also a little different probably feel for the players like the West Virginia rivalry, they've still been playing. They feel it a little bit more. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:03:26 that, you know, from the fan perspective, yes, maybe you feel that crushing defeat with the Missouri game. I don't feel like from the player perspective, it probably didn't feel the same way of when they lost to K-State in some recent years. I don't know. So maybe it's a little different emotional level that they have to get off the mat from. With West Virginia, you can make the argument both ways. You could say, hey, now they beat Pitt, they have this crazy comeback. Now they're hot. Now this led to or is going to lead to a real charge of momentum for them. And that is entirely possible. It's also entirely possible that we see this all the time with 18 to 22 year olds in college football that you go out, you have like this big, you know, sometimes we see it with schools who they pull an upset win and then the next week you just, you know, you're just not fully there. In this case, it's, you know, crazy comeback at the end, you win in overtime, you beat your rival, emotionally exhausted, physically exhausted.

Starting point is 00:04:13 They didn't have the buy week in between to kind of shake that off and move on and get ready for this one. So you do wonder if that has some sort of lagging impact on West Virginia. you coming into this game, that would be good news for KU if that is kind of the case. Beyond that, this is also going to be, it seems like the KU blackout game. Like, that'll be cool. I can't remember if they did a blackout last year for one of the games in Arrowhead in Kansas City. But they obviously did the blackout game. The Illinois game was the first time that they did it on the Friday in 2023.

Starting point is 00:04:44 Ended up having a great start to that one. Illinois kind of came back late. You let them into it, but you still ended up winning by double digits against a Power 5 school or I guess Power 5 at the time in Illinois and you would love for that same success against West Virginia this go around with the blackout. I think those uni's are sweet, love the helmets, love the jerseys, so going to be cool to see again in this one.

Starting point is 00:05:04 Although I guess that means West Virginia will be wearing because you can't do the blackout of West Virginia is going to wear their like, you know, dark blue uniforms, right? Like that'll just be like same on same color. So they must be wearing like white or yellow or something coming into this one. Now as far as injury news, coming into this one.

Starting point is 00:05:24 We have a full breakdown of that on a bonus episode for the injury report, which is cool to see. I think the biggest piece of news probably from the West Virginia side is just the fact that obviously they had some season ending injuries, Jeanne White. That was before the pick game. So we got to see what they look like, you know, post that as well as one of their receivers. But I think one of the biggest pieces of news in terms of player personnel, are they playing or not, is about Jamori Robinson.

Starting point is 00:05:49 So Jamori Robinson was arguably West Virginia's. his biggest prize transfer edition out of the transfer portal. They made a lot of transfer portal editions. He was probably the biggest and brightest star among them. And the reason why he was at UTSA, he was a guy who was kind of garnering, you know, draft type. He had 10 and a half sacks last season at UTSA. Very, very good pass rusher, very good like PFF grades and everything that kind of back up some of those production numbers from a sack department.

Starting point is 00:06:18 Very good player. He has not played so far this season for West Virginia. I don't know exactly if it was all in eligibility stuff or there was an injury in there as well. But he began the, like West Virginia had like a handful of transfers that weren't ruled eligible by the NCAA and Robinson wasn't ruled like academically eligible. And then they like sued him. And I don't know if they won or what. But yeah, basically he, the thought was he might be played last week against Pittsburgh. And then that ended up not being the case.

Starting point is 00:06:46 So he's going to be playing this week, Rich Rodriguez announced earlier this week, on his radio show. that he's going to be playing. And that becomes interesting because, A, it's just a really good player that Kansas is going to have to go up against, but it also makes West Virginia a tangibly better team. I mean, you're talking about adding, and we'll see, too, like, is he going to be starting and playing a full load or because it's his first game, is he going to have a little catch-up and he's going to be on like a snap count restriction or something? That'll be very interesting, you know, how ready is he or is he going to be a few weeks

Starting point is 00:07:17 behind some of these other guys? That'll be interesting, but he's a very talented player. and it's a West Virginia defense that already has a ton of sacks so far this season. And now you're adding a player who arguably could be your best pass rusher to a team that has a lot of those sacks. What does that do for the West Virginia defense? What does that mean for the KU offense and trying to block these guys? West Virginia's defense overall has been very good this season. We're going to get to that as part of the West Virginia scouting report.

Starting point is 00:07:43 But Robinson certainly adds to that even a little bit more than, you know, yeah, from the KU perspective, yeah, it is about guys who kind of banged up. and it's not just about the guys that are going to be missing the game or are going to be playing in the game. It's about how effective are they going to be, how close to 100% are they going to be? Because we've seen games where guys have played, but they're playing through injury and they're not the same and you're not getting the same impact from them. So kind of going to kind of be interesting with some of that stuff. But yeah, from West Virginia's perspective with like No Jeheme White, he was out for the season a couple weeks ago, Jaden Bray as well. But they filled in admirably without those guys and we're able to beat Pete Pitt nonetheless. All right.

Starting point is 00:08:17 Let's get to that West Virginia Scouting Report next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of LOJ is brought to you by DoorDash. It's almost a weekend. Time to look back and crown this week's MVP on Who Delivered? Powered by DoorDash. Just like you can win every Saturday with DoorDash streaks, saving more every time you order these players delivered when it mattered most.

Starting point is 00:08:41 Let's break it down. Obviously, KU didn't have a game this past weekend, but I don't know. If you were watching some of the other college football, game's a really good weekend of college football this past weekend. Like I was watching a lot of that, some of the Georgia Tech game and the Clemson game, went back, rewatch some of that and watched the end of it live. Haynes King, man, that dude delivers in a big way seemingly every week.

Starting point is 00:09:00 That dude puts his body on the line. He is fun to watch. And just the grinding performance that he put up against Clemson leads him to that what ends up being like a 55-yard field goal to win. It seems like when the pressure was on, Georgia Tech delivered, no delay. And if you've been watching, you know, Georgia Tech a little bit more, I saw him a little early in the year when they played Colorado, wanted to see against fellow Big 12 school.

Starting point is 00:09:22 This dude is just a gamer. He's just a gamer man. And Georgia Tech's kind of a fun team to watch. And they're on a hot streak because of it. And so just like Haynes King delivered for the Yellow Jackets, hopefully we'll have somebody to talk about for KU this next week. DoorDash delivers your Saturday. So DoorDash streaks, you save every Saturday for your order.

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Starting point is 00:10:52 Thanks for joining us on this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can give me a follow at D. Johnson Radio or at L.O. underscore Jayhawks on Twitter. And don't forget to make Locked on College football or Locked on College of Basketball your second listen every day. All right, West Virginia scouting report, and then we'll get into our matchups of the game. So West Virginia comes in two and one on the season. They defeated Robert Morris easily handled their FCS opponent, 45 to 3, looked to. impressive doing it, but that's what you would expect. And they had a loss in week two at a max school, 17 to 10.

Starting point is 00:11:23 Now, kind of weird, you're playing a max school on the road. We've seen KU do that, obviously. Ohio's a good team. I mean, I remember they beat Iowa State a couple years ago. They've had a lot of wins. Parkin Navarro is a good quarterback. They actually got three picks off in that game, but still lost. And Ohio ended up playing tough with Ohio State for a little bit there, too.

Starting point is 00:11:39 So, like, I don't think that's that bad of a loss. But certainly, you would think if you want to be one of the better teams in the Big 12, of you should win that game. Now, they did come back and beat Pitt 31 to 24 in overtime. You could maybe make the argument that Pitt was the better team for three quarters, but I guess it doesn't matter. It matters who wins the game at the end of the day. And West Virginia now sitting at two and one. Obviously, the coach is Rich Rodriguez, takes over for Neil Brown, comes back. He obviously, you know, had some of those unbelievable years with West Virginia with Pat White and Steve Slayton and we're just such a fun team to watch. And then

Starting point is 00:12:14 he took over the Michigan job, and that just wasn't a great fit for him. But like everywhere he's been, he's, it hasn't always been a sustained winner. He was, it seemed like he was having a sustained winner his first time of West Virginia. It hasn't always been a sustained winner, but he's won at a big level everywhere he's gone, except for, I guess, Michigan. Because you look at the time at Arizona, and I think it finished there in Arizona, they only won like two or three games that didn't go well. But like, there was a year with, was it, Khalil Tate was the quarterback,

Starting point is 00:12:41 where he was like, oh my gosh, could this guy win Heisman the next year? where he was really good. There was a year where Arizona went to the Fiesta Bowl. So like it wasn't sustained, but he had some really highlight seasons there. You look at what he did at Jacksonville State. That was sustained, but it was shorter period of time, but did really well there. Everywhere he's gone, he's been able to produce winners. And you expect that to be the case now that he's back at West Virginia where he's proven he can do it before. But the question is how much of that winning is going to be this year, right? Could they be a six and 16 this year? Or how much of that winning is going to be in year three or year five? You know, like that's kind of the question

Starting point is 00:13:12 here of how this is going to work about. But he's clearly a good coach and he's clearly made it work at West Virginia before. You look at the preseason, like some of the preseason magazines had them projected at or near the bottom, basically in the bottom half, bottom quarter. I think Phil still actually had them last in the Big 12 preseason, which was a lot about they had so many new bodies and transfers, not just that they brought in, but that they brought in post spring ball that was going to be tough to adjust. But so far they're off to a solid start to the season. So I don't think it's bothered them that much up. They're currently 64th on ESPN FPI. Kansas is 31st there for what it's worth. And then on ESPN SP Plus, Kansas is 36th. West Virginia is 55th on SP Plus. So it thinks

Starting point is 00:13:54 this one's a little bit closer than maybe FBI. SP Plus, though, also has West Virginia rated as the number 51 offense, number 51 defense, the balance there, and number 21 special teams. Now, do keep in mind, SP Plus takes into account like past year's historical data. I don't know how accurate that's going to be for a school that has a new coach in West Virginia. And honestly, like, I know ESPN, FPI gets like a lot of heat from people sometimes about like, oh, like, why is this team ranked here and stuff? It's actually been kind of accurate the last couple years in a lot of different ways. So I would be taking that one a little bit more there.

Starting point is 00:14:28 Anyway, also fun fact, K-State is one spot ahead of West Virginia on SP Plus right now. So this is similar to playing the K-State game at home outside of the, you know, whole rivalry fanfare. You look at the player personnel for West Virginia. So coming into the year, both pick six previews and Phil Steele really like their running back room. One gave them number two. One gave them number one in the Big 12. Obviously, the Jehem White injury hurts that.

Starting point is 00:14:49 But clearly, if they were ranked that highly, you're going to have other dudes, which they do. Kind of the weakness position groups that you're looking at on both those kind of consensusly were offensive line. Neither loved the offensive line in terms of that. and then everything else kind of muddled somewhere in between where it was like, yeah, lower half of expectations for the position group. Quarterback had some questions and stuff. Now, as far as that quarterback, they've used three different ones so far this season. Nico Marquial is been the main guy.

Starting point is 00:15:23 Then they have Jalen Henderson and Scotty Fox Jr. By far the most passes have come from Mark Yall to this point. And Mark Yoll is completing 72% of his passes for 594 yards, 8.4 yards per attempt, two touchdowns, one interception. So not a kind of TDs so far, but high completion percentage, good yard per attempt number. But the QBR not very good, just a 45.8 QBR. That's only 96th in the country. So it's like, whoa, those stats actually look decent and okay.

Starting point is 00:15:51 What's the deal here? Well, one of the reasons, so QBR measures, like, if it's third and eight and you throw a six-yard completion, you're going to get dinged for that on QPR. Your raw stats is going to say, hey, you completed a pass for six yards. Like, that's not the worst thing in the world. So maybe that is indicative that he's checking down too much. I don't know. But I think one of the other reasons the QBR's down is in the FBS games,

Starting point is 00:16:14 the numbers have dropped since the Robert Morris game. There's still, 67% is still good, but it's 5% down. But the yards per attempt is the big dropper, 8.4 yards per attempt on the season, which is a good number to, like usually the leaders are around 9, 10, somewhere in that range. So being in the 8th is a good number. Sevens is like kind of average and then in the 6th is not very, good. 7.3 is his numbers in the two FBS games.

Starting point is 00:16:39 So you're kind of looking at more average in the yards per 10th with one touch and one interception. So that's why I think the QBR's down a little bit more because the games that you've needed to perform better, like it's going to dock you for that. It's interesting, though, because you normally think of Rich Rod quarterbacks because they want to run that, you know, speed option, triple option type stuff. You think of them being mobile. You think of Pat White.

Starting point is 00:16:58 But Mark Y'all isn't the biggest runner in the world. Like, he can run. He's just over 60 rushing yards. If you do take out the sack stats, he's at 99. yards rushing, but it's still less than four yards per carry. He doesn't jump off the page. So you can do it, but it's not something that's like a huge strength of his necessarily. Henderson and Fox, meanwhile, they've struggled passing.

Starting point is 00:17:18 They're combined four of 14, but their combined rushing stats is 118 rushing yards on almost eight yards per carry. So if we see a rotation or different quarterbacks, if it's Markeal, you've got to expect short, quick completions and kind of smaller gains in the running game, grinding things out versus if it's one of the other guys who comes in for a specific package or a play or whatever with either Henderson or Fox, you might expect like, you know, not as much consistency in the passing game. Maybe they can hit more big plays because the defense has to come up against the run, but a lot more in the running game. And it does make it a little

Starting point is 00:17:53 difficult for the KU defense to prepare because you really do have to prepare for different guys in how you want to call defenses if you're D.K. McDonald based on who is out there. But as far as where Mark Yel succeeds, throwing the ball over the middle and underneath. He's got almost half of his attempts this season over the middle of the field. He's also 16 of 16 on the year between zero to 10 yards on the outer thirds. So sounds like a lot of outrouts, sounds like a ton of hitches, stuff to the flats for quick gains. Basically it tells me that, you know, you're probably not going to get tested deep a lot in

Starting point is 00:18:26 this game. Maybe you do a little bit more because you have a young secondary and they want to test that. But a lot of the test is going to be those short. underneath routes. How do you guard them? How do you tackle on the underneath stuff if you are KU? Now our key stats for the game, five happy stats for West Virginia. Well, their defense ranked 16th in the country and EPA per play. They're eighth nationally in success rates. Very good there. PFF gives them a 52nd nationally ranked coverage grade, which helps them rank 19th in EPA per play against the past. I mean, you combine their pass rush, what they've done, second in

Starting point is 00:18:56 the country in sacks with above average coverage grade. That's where you get that. They've overall done really well, limiting explosive plays. They're 81st percentile nationally there in limiting explosive plays on defense. They're also in the 89th percentile nationally on defense in early down success rate, which means they're forcing teams to a lot of third and longs. And in fact, the average third down distance against the West Virginia defense so far has been 8.11 yards. That'll be interesting because KU has a very short average third down distance. So that's kind of a strength on strength there. And then they are second in the country in plays per second on offense. We had our episode earlier this week. Thank you,

Starting point is 00:19:34 the everydayers who already caught it, talking about tempo, how KU has struggled versus tempo in past years. That's the episode if you haven't already. Five sad stats for West Virginia. Their offensive line ranks just a hundred and twenty-third and run blocking grade on pro football focus, and they are just 29th percentile in offensive line rush yards on game on paper. They are better against or with the past 76th on PFF in pass blocking, but still, that's not something to write home about either. They're also 91st nationally on pro football focus and tackling grade. So maybe not the best tackling start to the year for them.

Starting point is 00:20:09 So we'll see if KU take advantage of that. They are 127th nationally in EPA per play passing the football. So, you know, they're not, again, they're maybe getting a lot of completions. You're looking at a 72 completion right there, but how effective are those passes actually being? One big reason why they're 0th percentile, zero. in explosive play rate. So they are the worst in the country at explosive play rate with the past, past play rate, explosive past play rate.

Starting point is 00:20:40 So they're not getting explosives, that's why. And then the last one here, seventh percentile in late down success rate on offense. So they are struggling on third and fourth downs. And that is very opposite to what KU just experienced against Missouri, who is money on third and fourth downs? Is that going to be helpful for KU? Because their first and second down against Missouri was actually pretty good.

Starting point is 00:20:59 So if they can do that again against West Virginia, you're in a much better situation. All right, matchups to the game next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of LOJ is brought to you by Mazda. Mazda crafts cars for those who do more than simply move. From footwork to breathwork, athletes sweat all the details. Mazda brings this same intention to how we craft every model.

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Starting point is 00:22:07 All right, matchups of the game. First down here. Kansas defensive back tackling. So when you look at Mark Yell, going back, he is 16 of 16 between zero to 10 yards on the two outer thirds. What does that tell you? Probably a lot of out routes, hitches, short routes that are basically extending the horizontal running game with short and quick passes to try to get high percentage completions, get the ball out of your hand. Mark Yale's done well. them. And so basically what you're going to test there if you're KU defense is you're going to get

Starting point is 00:22:36 your tackling ability tested in the secondary, especially those safeties and corners. Linebackers running sideline to sideline too. But Kansas has missed 36 tackles this year. 24 of them came against Missouri. And 14 of those came from the defensive backs in the Missouri game. And that's what's interesting. If West Virginia is going to complete a lot of short passes to the outside, how do those KU defensive backs respond and tackle? I do think that, you know, West Virginia, they do have good skill players, they're probably not quite as talented as the Missouri skill players. So maybe that helps you a little bit there. It's a young DB room two. You're coming off a buy. Is that something they can get better? But so far, five mistackles for Alexander,

Starting point is 00:23:14 five for Davis, five for Rawls, two for Gibbs, one for Todd and Grammich. That's 19 mistackles by the DBs this season, or about six per game as a team if you're KU. If they're not tackling on the outside, West Virginia, some of those short passing plays that haven't gone for big gains this year are going to go for bigger gains against KU. They have to do a better job that's tackling in the secondary this week against West Virginia. Second down, taking what the defense gives them and being patient. West Virginia allowed just an 8% explosive right to pit. That's a good number, solid number, and then a 5% explosive play rate to Ohio. That's a very good number. Those are their FBS games. Overall on the season, include everything we mentioned

Starting point is 00:23:55 earlier, West Virginia, 81st percent out nationally in explosive play rate or limiting it on the defense side of the ball. So they've been good at preventing big plays against them. KU has not hit explosives well this year, which is odd because that's been something they've been really good at the past couple years. But Kansas is at just 6.8% in explosive play rate this year. That's just the 21st percent down nationally. So they're not hitting enough of those big plays so far this season. Part of that has been they're not really getting any in the running games. That certainly hurts. They actually are getting an okay amount in the passing game. But that means for KU to score, it's most likely going to have to come on a few longer drives. And that's where

Starting point is 00:24:34 West Virginia, if it's a longer drive, is going to hope for a bend, don't break, or hope that eventually you make a mistake. You have a big penalty that takes you out of it. You have a turnover, just extending the drive and being bend, but don't break. And then this becomes more dangerous because they add to Mori Robinson back into the fold. But for Kansas, you be patient? Can you avoid having the turnovers? Can you have a couple drives that maybe are 10, 12 play drives and you still punch it in for a touchdown and it doesn't stall? Third down is Kansas offensive line against the West Virginia pass rush. So West Virginia has 13 sacks so far this season. That is second in the country. And you add Jamory Robinson to

Starting point is 00:25:13 that. Jamory Robinson 10 and a half sacks last season at UTSA. This will be his first game. It'll be coming against Kansas for West Virginia. The pass rush is something that is a bit of a concern how KU handles it, right? Now, KU had a, I know the PFF great doesn't love it against Missouri. I thought it was an okay game. You had two sacks. Like there were some plays. Yeah, there were a couple plays where it was a bad pass blocking. But I think for the overall, it was a decent game. And I mean, there were some plays where, yeah, it was like Jalen Daniels has like five seconds to throwback here and then can uncork one down the field. I think overall the KU pass rush has kind of shown some highs and lows this season though, right? You think of the Fresno State game

Starting point is 00:25:50 and there were a lot of hits on Jalen Daniels. You think the Wagner game was perfectly clean. You think of the Missouri game and it was a little bit of both in one game. So how are they going to do this week? Another week of the bye week and kind of meshing together as an offensive line. They need Calvin Clements to get going. When you look at Jamory Robinson coming back, just a 33 pass block grade so far this season for Calvin Clements, 60 pass block grade for Bryce Foster to this point in time.

Starting point is 00:26:12 Daniel Highshaw, who's typically been a pretty good pass blockers running back, just a 27 pass block grade so far this year as a running back. So there's some guys that need to, you know, get that going for KU. And, you know, this is one of those games where it's going to be tough to do so because West Virginia is very good at that pass rush and they're adding another good player to it. But that'll be a key. Can you keep Jaylon Daniels upright as much as possible?

Starting point is 00:26:37 Fourth down, who can establish the run better? This is something both teams want to do. West Virginia, though, has been kind of middle of the pack in the country and most rushing stats, but they haven't been bad. They just haven't been elite. It's clearly something they want to do under Rich Rod. And it was very good last week against Pitt when you look at what Ty Edwards did over 100 yards rushing well over 100 yards against Pittsburgh. It'll come in a variety of ways, too, with the quarterbacks, with the running backs. Yeah, that game from Ty Edwards is very impressive. Good news for Kansas is I know you think back to the Missouri game. You think of like the 250 rushing yards they gave up to the Tigers. A lot of that came on that, I guess you'd say like a quarter of it came on that rushing touchdown by Missouri to kind of seal the game. KU's defense coming into the Missouri game was actually given up less than two yards per carry.

Starting point is 00:27:23 And you look at that Missouri game, they actually got good push overall. It was just, I'm telling you, like, Amad Hardy, he legitimately could end up being a Heisman candidate. That dude was breaking like all these tackles. It was unbelievable. He is legitimately a pro running back. And are you going to face that again? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:27:40 So I think it'll be a little easier. But here's the thing, even though Kansas gave up over 200 rushing yards in Missouri, Kansas still with that game in the input, ranks in the 86th percentile in rushing EPA. defensively. It's like that tells you that they're doing it actually overall on aggregate on the season, a pretty good job. Now on the other side, we saw KU not be able to run at all against Missouri. And now in the season, Kansas ranks in the 20th percentile. So that's bad in run EPA per play and just the seventh percentile. That's very bad an explosive run play percentage. They're not getting anything there. Can you get more here? Because for so many

Starting point is 00:28:14 games, we've seen Kansas be able to lean on the running game in the Lance Light Poldera. Can you get back to that in this game. So essentially, this is like a solid thing for West Virginia versus what has been a good thing, but for the KU defense, but if we're just looking at the most recent game, it would be an advantage for West Virginia. And then on the other end, you're looking at what's been a weakness so far for the KU offense against what's been a strength for the West Virginia defense. And again, if you're looking at the most recent game, it would be a bigger advantage for West Virginia in that one. Can Kansas even kind of equal this up? You know, like if you told me, could, could Kansas have the same amount of rushing yards as West Virginia?

Starting point is 00:28:51 If you could do that, would you feel good? Because I feel like Kansas has the quarterback advantage on paper. On paper, West Virginia's defense actually has the statistical advantage. But part of that is that, you know, they haven't had to play in Missouri and Kansas did. So I don't know where you go with the defense or where you go with the special teams. But I'm thinking you're playing at home, juiced up crowd, blackout. If you can be equal, to them essentially in the rushing game. I think I would be okay with that if I were KU.

Starting point is 00:29:22 All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Well, plenty more to talk about with the game, players to watch, how KU wins the game, all that coming up on Friday's episode. And this has been Locked on Jayhawks. See you next time.

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