Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Spring Football Review: Top Storylines, Position Battles, and What's Different?

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Catching up on Kansas Jayhawks spring football with the top storylines like Jalon Daniels and the QB position to running back injuries as well as position battles such as at offensive tackle with Logan Brown and Kobe Baynes and all across the defensive line. Plus, what's new and different about this Spring under Lance Leipold compared to the last or recent ones for KU?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we catch up with where things are at with spring football for KU. What are the top storylines? What should we be on the lookout for position battles? What's different about this spring than springs of KU past? You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. The Spring Showcase comes at you on Friday, so I figured we'd catch up with the spring. We'll have tomorrow's episode talking about what to look for or expect in that Spring Showcase.

But today we're catching you up on the KU football spring action that you might have missed while you've been paying attention to KU basketball in the NCAA tournament and the KU women's team winning the WNIT. What have you missed? So let's talk about it on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can also hear me, Derek Johnson, should probably mention that, on Rock Chalk Sports Talk

Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of the show, we are catching up on KU football, their spring game action to this point in time. So let's start here. What have been the top storylines so far of spring football for KU?

I think number one is just the QB love. Just in general, you have Jalen Daniels coming back into action, who is seen as one of the top quarterbacks in the conference and in the country returning to college football next season. And with the way his season went, where he was injured toward the end of the season, came back at the end of the year, then plays amazing in the bowl game. Now he has that extra time off in between to get even healthier.

What does he look like? Does he have that Jalen zip back on those passes? And yes, the answer seems to be yes through spring ball, that he's looked really good. But this spring has also been about him building up and trying to become more, I guess, injury-free for the future and trying to be more, I think the term that was used by Matt Gildersleeve, the strength and conditioning coach, was for him to be bulletproof.

And so that's what they're trying to do out of him. But it's the QB love, and anybody you talk to talks about how good he looks and everything. As you would imagine, coming back for another year after he was a Heisman candidate through the first you know five or six weeks of the season but it's the QB love overall because it's not just Jalen having him back it's it's Brayson being back and what he is doing for this team is having that veteran backup still in there and then beyond that even Ethan Vasco we've heard a lot from different coaches from different players about the then beyond that, even Ethan Vasco, we've heard a lot from different coaches,

from different players about the potential in the future that Ethan Vasco could do and that he's taken some nice steps moving forward. And I think the staff was high on him to begin with last year. We obviously didn't really get to see much on the field. We saw that brief drive against Texas tech where it's hard to take away much from because, you know, the stats looked okay, but I thought he looked fine going out there, but he was thrown in the fire as a young freshman. I expect him to be a dude for KU in a few years whenever the quarterback position

does open up for him to start possibly. I don't know. Maybe Jalen goes pro after this year. Maybe it's two more years of Jalen Daniels. Who knows? But he seems to be getting a lot of love and hype. That is kind of the trendy thing to do with backup quarterbacks sometimes, as we know, but I'm kind of thinking that it's real that you could expect him to be a solid QB for you in a couple

years. I think everything about the defensive line is a top storyline for spring ball right now. You lost a ton to that defensive line. A lot of seniors graduated from the interior of it. Then on the outside, you lose your best player on the defensive line and maybe your best player in the entire defense with Lonnie Phelps to the NFL draft. How are you going to replace those guys? That comes in two waves. One,

the additions you made via the transfer portal to the internal growth of guys already on the roster. So on the interior of the defensive growth of guys already on the roster. So on the interior of the defensive line, guys like Tommy Dunn and DJ Withers, we keep hearing their names, guys that have progressed, guys that have taken steps forward. After last year, they showed some flashes and potential as backups, whether they rotated in or just in the practice realm of things. And this year, especially with Tommy Dunnn has maybe taken that next step forward. That's very important from both a, you know, individual, this team perspective, as well as a macro program perspective, because in the macro for you to be a successful program,

you know, you're going to consistently lose good players year in and year out. You're not going to keep your good players for all eight seasons of a given stint of time. You have to be able to develop your internal guys. And even though sometimes it's the unknown of, well, what is that guy going to give us next year? We haven't really seen him much. You have to be able to develop those players into future starters, into future role players for you. And it seems like that direction is happening with Tommy Dunn and DJ Withers. You have some other guys who decided to, you know, maybe like red shirt for an extra season to come back this year.

The returning guys trying to take another step forward, like Hayden Hatcher. We've heard some good things about him at the defensive end spot. Maybe part of it has been, he's getting more reps because of some injuries to some other defensive ends out there like Patrick Joyner, but that he maybe is trying to take another step forward from the guy that he has been. So some of that internal improvement mixed with the transfers you brought on,

obviously a lot of them to give you more bodies there. Devin Phillips is as wide of a body as you can imagine, perfect for stuffing the run, but he's a heck of an athlete as a defensive tackle as well. The two Minnesota transfers that you bring in on the defensive line are both guys that seem to have very high ceilings and are very athletic players on the defensive line. So everything about the defensive line,

and that's not even mentioning all the returners and all the players they brought in via the transfer portal, I think certainly is a huge storyline, both because I think there is a lot of potential there. I think the ceiling of this defensive line, like, yes, I don't know that there's a Lonnie Phelps out there. Maybe Jeremy Robinson will take that next step and be that guy because we certainly did see some real good flashes from Jeremy Robinson,

and I am bullish that he is going to have a really good season. But maybe there's not somebody who is the Lonnie Phelps type. But I think overall, the overall unit, the overall four starters, the overall two deep, however far you want to go, has a higher ceiling. Doesn't mean you're going to get to that ceiling, but has a higher ceiling than last year's team on the defensive line. And I think there is possibly maybe some more overall talent and athleticism on the defensive line. But again, that doesn't mean you're going to get there. If you can, you should be in better shape than you were last year. But clearly it's a unit that needs to get better than they were last year because the defense struggled so much and that was a part of it. Another top storyline I think has been the running back injuries to this point. The running back room when healthy looks really, really good for KU. Devin Neal, we know, is a guy who can shoulder a big load and be a thousand yard rusher in the Big 12. We know Daniel Hyshshaw when healthy is a really freak talent i mean ultimate power

runner uh there was that clip going around recently from from him just like uh i think it was from mike renner who pulled it up and was you know doing some work on ku and uh for the draft and just happened to see daniel highshaw like just annihilating guys as a pass blocker um the the play he had against duke as a receiver where it was a little dump off and he just, you know, 60 yards after the catch or whatever it was with the spin move. He's obviously an incredible talent. You bring on Dylan McDuffie from Buffalo and Georgia Tech

who can add a little bit more. And obviously you bring back Savion Morrison as well, the former four-star transfer from nebraska so like it's a it's a really talented really good running back room uh you're also going to add on like johnny thompson coming up here with some of the so it would be a really good running back room but so far in the spring you've had to deal with a lot of injuries devin neal has been kind of nicked up daniel highshaw is still working back like we've seen him full participant some days.

Other days hasn't been the case, which I think that's more of just a they're trying to kind of ease him back into things, certain things that he can and can't do. With Savion Morrison, he's had to deal with some injury stuff. So sometimes Dylan McDuffie has been the lone scholarship running back. And, yeah, you are going to have Johnny Thompson, like I said, for the fall team. He's not here right now. But that certainly is a bit of a worry because last year you did

see the the negatives of some of those running back injuries toward the end of the season which it was a really good running back room last year when healthy and we thought it was deep because usually you know three four running backs is going to be deep enough to get you through the season but by the end of the year we're seeing tory l Laughlin, who Torrey Laughlin's a very helpful player for this team, but he's getting meaningful snaps in the Kansas State game. And I think it's just very interesting to see what KU would do if all those injuries happen again. Do we see Jason Bean at running back a little bit more, right?

Do we see more Torrey Laughlin? I don't know. To a lesser degree, I think there's some storylines of safety injuries, like Kenny Logan, Marvin Grant have been out. but that's kind of just at the top. It's a much deeper offensive line than it was last season. You brought in some good transfers. You have a lot of returning players. You have some internal growth from some guys coming back who are younger guys. And that is going to be certainly the biggest position battle to monitor. Let's get into those position battles, what we're looking for right now.

That seems to be the talk of the town of those position battles for spring football coming up next. First, though, this episode of locked on jay hawk brought to you fanduel sportsbook the nba playoffs are almost here and now is the perfect time to download fanduel america's number one sportsbook because new customers get a no sweat first bet up to one thousand dollars that's bonus bets back if your first bet doesn't win just download the fan dual sportsbook app safe secure super easy to use then you can bet on everything from the money line to point spreads to point scores to three pointers drained you can build your favorite same game parlay and you can combine your bets for a chance at a bigger payout with those same game parlays i've been doing some of

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I got him at a, I think it was plus two 40 on FanDuel just just to finish top 30 so you can join that with me make every moment more with fanduel an official sports betting partner of the nba position battles that seem to be happening right now in spring ball obviously quarterback not really a position battle right um running back you've had all the injuries and that's just going to be kind of figuring that out and so forth. I'm sure receiver is certainly a contested position like everything really is a competition for this team and the staff. So if I don't mention a position battle for a player or a certain position, that doesn't mean that they can't compete their way up or that doesn't mean that everything is set in stone right like at the receiver position you bring back your top three receivers but would it be crazy if Tanaka Scott who was playing really well in in fall camp last year

before the off the field stuff happened that kind of sideways to his season would it be crazy if he re-emerged and usurped someone no like, like something like that, that would not be crazy. I don't necessarily view those as full competition. It's the same thing with like the tight end room. Like Trevor Cardell has kind of been close these past couple of years. Would it be crazy if he starts getting more playing time? Like no, like no. But the true, I think, position battles,

there's three main ones that I want to talk about here. The first is offensive tackle. Right now, it is mainly right tackle, but it could be both tackle spots. You look at the interior of the offensive line right now, Mike Nowitzki is dealing with injury stuff. So like Michael Ford has been sliding over. They've had a couple of players slide over and take snaps at center, but it's mainly been Michael Ford as the backup center. But when all healthy, you'd assume Mike Nowitzki at the center position, you'd have Michael Ford at one of the guard spots.

At the other guard spot, you would have Dominic Poonie. Ford can kind of play all over for you. You could even bring in Spencer Lavelle at one of those guard spots, whether there's an injury or if he beats out one of the guys. Obviously, Armage Reed Adams as a backup guard. He's kind of an experienced backup guard for you that can come in as well. So you feel stable about that interior. I think you feel good about some of the tackles as well.

I just don't know that it's totally set in stone for when the season starts. Now, as of right now, it would most likely you would have the left tackle spot be Bryce Cable do who's been your right tackle for the past couple of years, and he would slide over the left tackle. And then a right tackle for the past couple of years, and he would slide over the left tackle. And then at right tackle, you have the competition between two of the transfers, one of whom who came in at the end of like fall camp last year, and the other who signed up for Kansas or committed to Kansas, I guess would be the way of putting it about halfway through the season. You have Kobe Baines and Logan Brown. And there's some young players as well who are competing at right tackle and left tackle.

And like I said, like maybe you could always move one of these guys out if you really had to. But it's really at that right tackle that I think is the most interesting dynamic of those two guys. Baines, someone who transferred over from Louisville, clearly a talented player. He continued to impress as the season went on. And toward the end of the year, he started getting some snaps in games and i think impressed in those limited snaps so he's someone i'm excited for what he can do but it's tough because logan brown comes in he is a you know the the highest graded transfer you've had he's tied with i think jb brown and lonnie phelps from last year since like 24-7 sports have been grading those transfer portal entries.

He's a former five-star recruit, had really good numbers in his time at Wisconsin, to where you'd expect him to be one of the dudes. You don't see guys at Kansas that are built like that too often, and that's a heck of a competition. I think ideally, I almost wonder if for KU, they would love for Logan Brown, for instance, to emerge so much and work as hard as possible and have a super competitive offseason to where maybe he could even usurp Bryce Cabledew at the left tackle position. But right now, it's more of a competition between those two guys at right tackle with Cabledew at left tackle.

Now, Cabledew is an interesting story because he's someone who probably got thrown into the fire too early a few years ago than what you would like because of lack of maybe depth or experience on the offensive line. Realistically, you like your offensive line to come in and, you know, maybe redshirt a year or take a year or two to just get their body right under the conditioning program. And Cable Dew didn't have that luxury. And so he had kind of an up and down season showed some flashes last season kind of an up and down season as well at the right tackle spot so there could be some questions there but maybe finally because

he is an upperclassman player and because he didn't have that luxury of sitting back for a few years and working on his body a little bit more maybe now is the year that he can make that jump and be a guy at left tackle. And also maybe he's just a better fit for being a left tackle than right tackle. Sometimes some guys are better on one side than the other. But I think those tackle spots are certainly one of them watching

because in theory between Cable Dew, Baines, and Brown, those are three starting level tackles for you. And obviously you only start two offensive tackles. I think all over the defensive line is a big position battle we talked about this as being one of the top storylines with so many new players like jeremy robinson to me feels like a go-to starter uh he had good production last year he's coming back into play this year he's probably going to be the leader of that unit after that it is wide open you've had some injuries during fall camp um guy like joint

patrick joiner the transfer from ut from Utah State and Miami who came over. That's maybe opened things up for Hayden Hatcher. But I think clearly at the defensive end spot next to Jeremy Robinson, that's going to be a competition that goes into fall camp. In the middle of the defensive line, sure, I might expect it to be like Devin Phillips next to maybe Tommy Dunn or something. But I don't think anybody has – I don't think it's very clear that if somebody has a nice week of practices once we get to fall play, could a DJ Withers, you know, emerge past one of those guys,

or could you get some extra action from another transfer coming into the program? I don't totally know what to expect at this point in time and that'll be interesting to see with the spring showcase but i think all over the defensive line there are spots wide open there's some talented guys with high potential but who's going to take advantage of that right away and then i think the two linebacker spots next to craig young this is kind of similar to the d line like i expect jeremy robinson to start i expect craig young to start again at that kind of linebacker nickel safety hybrid position, but who are going to be the two other linebackers last season? It was Rich Miller and Taiwan Berryhill. You rotated in Eric Gillyard.

You rotated in at times early in the season when you had him, Gavin Potter, you rotated in Lorenzo McCaskill throughout the year who Who are going to be those guys? I think Rich Miller, clearly he is a leader of the team. You almost expect him to be one of those starters. But the way that J.B. Brown is playing, man, and you keep hearing from players across the program how impressive he's been. You hear from coaches. And I don't know because you heard some impressive stuff about Eric Gilliard in fall camp from some of the coaches.

Like I remember one of the coaches saying he'll come up and thump you. And also like fundamentally he does pass coverage as good as anybody in the linebacker room. And it was like, oh, so he's a good run stopper and he's one of the better pass coverage linebackers. Why would he not start? But then he didn't end up starting. Sometimes that can kind of just be smoke blown up or just like more of,

Hey, we're impressed with what we got of him coming in, but he hasn't usurped past starters yet. So I don't totally know what to expect there, but Brown had an 88 transfer grade coming in. That's the same as Logan Brown. Same as Lonnie Phelps last year. He had solid pro football focus numbers at bowling green a season ago.

He's someone who will hit you. I'm excited to see what he can do. I would not be surprised if he ends up being your best linebacker, not of the Craig Young classification, because, again, that's almost like a different position entirely. You have Jason Gilliam moving up kind of behind Craig Young in that position. So I'm interested to see if J.B. Brown emerges, and if that does happen where he's a starter,

that means that one of your two returning starting linebackers with Tyrone Berryhill or Rich Miller would be competing for the other starting spot instead of both of them starting. Clearly the other one would just rotate in because you know you're going to be rotating through the linebackers. But I think that position is very interesting. Let's finish up. What is different about this spring than last year's spring or maybe spring balls of KU passed in just a second with Locked On Jayhawks. What is different about this spring than maybe last year's spring or springs of the past? Obviously, the spring two years ago was very different

because you had the head coaching change, and that was wild and crazy. Then last year, you had kind of the first spring under the Leipold staff. That means that this one is a little bit more normal and you get everything a little bit more in. And now instead of it just being like a fast paced whirlwind of the staff takes over and now they're just seeing these guys for the first time in fall and now the season happens and now we're straight into spring for the first time and guys don't know what to expect.

Now it's become more of a routine. Now it's become more of a routine now it's become more of a process but i think beyond that it's just more experience whether it's the players in the program older players players who have been around this staff players who have been around the program it's better talent now than it was and it's higher expectations this is no longer hey can we build up to being a bowl team? You just did that. It's now, can you build up from being a bowl team? Can you sustain that success you've had and add to it?

Can you sustain to being a bowl team? Can you, instead of being a one-off team that, oh, hey, we made a bowl, that's cool, and then you fall back off. Can you get back to that point? And can you get then beyond that to eight or nine wins? Can you be a Big 12 title contender you get then beyond that to eight or nine wins can you be a big 12 title contender can you take that next step up that is a really tough thing for programs to do and that's what you're seeing if kansas can do this year i think beyond that they're

also full-on scholarships we haven't seen that lately and obviously uh some players don't end up joining until you know fall side of things i'm sure we'll see maybe some players um leave the program at the end of spring ball and then it'll be kind of a one in one out type situation where until fall side of things. I'm sure we'll see maybe some players leave the program at the end of spring ball, and then it'll be kind of a one-in, one-out type situation where it's like, hey, if this player goes in the transfer portal, we're going to add someone else via the transfer portal in the summer. Saw a couple transfer portal ads last year in the summer.

Most notably, it was Lorenzo McCaskill. But they're full-on scholarships, and that added depth and those added players in the program of talent is so critical. It is nice for moments like this in the spring where you don't have your full roster yet because you do have certain players who don't join you till the fall season so having full scholarships allows you to have much more full and plentiful practices in the spring where you do have like i i remember times where i forget if it was like during the Beatty era or the Miles era where they couldn't really even do anything for the the showcase, whatever. They could only do like drills because they didn't have enough scholarship bodies. And that's different about this year as well.

And I think the last thing is and this goes back to the expectations part. Coaches are getting on the team even harder than they have been in the past because the expectations are growing because the the line is moving up for this team because they're not trying to let this team be content with hey you finally did it you were the team that broke the bull drought for kansas be happy with no they are pushing even harder because they're saying that is just the the appetizer that is just the taste you should not be content with that. There's an entree coming. Let's try to make it a steak dinner. That's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We will be back for tomorrow's episode

with a KU Football Spring Showcase preview. It'll be a little different than this one, like what to expect from the showcase. Maybe some players to watch. Players to watch that aren't going to be in the Spring Showcase on a couple more editions of football shows for a lockdown Jayhawks. I'm Derek Johnson.

You can hear me as well. Rock truck sports talk Monday through Friday from three to six on KLWN. You can subscribe to us here, wherever you get any of your podcasts, you can find us on YouTube. You can hit me up at T Johnson radio on Twitter. See you next time with lock Jayhawks. Bye.