Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KEYS TO A KANSAS WIN: Can Daniel Hishaw Dominate and Help Lead the Jayhawks to a Win at Iowa State?

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks chase bowl eligibility in a high-stakes showdown at Iowa State—can Jalon Daniels and Daniel Hishaw overcome the Cyclones' rugged defense? Derek Johnson spotlights KU's keys to victory, from containing Abu Sama's explosive runs to leaning on standout linebackers Bangally Kamara and Trey Lathan. With both teams fresh off bye weeks and program knowledge on the line, will aggressive play-calling and strategic in-game adjustments tip the scales for Lance Leipold's squad?Plus, KU women's basketball surges with a 5–0 start and lands elite 2026 dual-sport recruit Cydnee Bryant, boosting expectations for Brandon Schneider's rising program. Breaking down S'mya Nichols’ stat-stuffing performances and the impact of new recruiting classes, Derek Johnson examines how KU’s youth movement could spark a deep postseason run. Don’t miss insights on matchups, players to watch, and the Jayhawks’ building momentum across both football and basketball.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's Locked-on Jayhawks, how does Kansas find a way to get to bowl eligibility and beat Iowa State in Ames? Plus, Kate Woman's basketball cooking right now just landed a big time to sport athlete. 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 to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. You can find us anywhere at your podcast, including on YouTube.

And thank you for making the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network. On today's episode, we're breaking down the KU keys to getting a win in Ames, how they get it done. We're getting into our key players to watch for both Kansas and Iowa State. And I'll finish up with a little KU Woman's Basketball who just beat a really good Minnesota team. Great start to the year. And now they have a big time recruit who just committed to the programs. We'll break that all down on this episode of the show, which is

brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase today with Game Time. So KU takes on Iowa State on Saturday. And obviously this game is incredibly important for KU to win and become bull eligible and the like. But how do they get it done? So they come into this one is a bit of an underdog. It's not a huge underdog right now. It's certainly less than the spread of the Utah game is going to be for KU. But right now they come in and Fandual at three and a half point underdogs. They're plus 148 on the money line. The over under is 55 and a half. And it's a series where KU's won three straight. So they've found the way

of how do you beat Iowa State. They found that ability. And it's interesting because they've done it in different ways in some of those recent outings, right? You think of the 2022 edition. That was mostly about the defense and a little bit of fortune on the missed field goals, maybe a little bit more than just a little there. But it was the defense and the missed field goals. When you look at the 2023 edition, it was KU making a lot of unbelievable contested grabs, Jason Bean playing well, just doing a little bit of kind of your most balanced win of the two.

And then the most recent edition was you just torching them on offense, scoring 45 points, Devin Neal Unstoppable, Jalen Daniels had a good game. So it's interesting because your offensive performances have slowly gone up as you played in this series. So what are the keys this go around? Well, let's start here. KU covers if what. So basically they keep it close. I think KU keeps the Iowa State passing attack where it's been most of the season. You look at some of the numbers like EPA per play.

This is basically a team who's in, you know, around 100th in the country and EPA per play passing. I think it's 109th, to be exact. And it's not a team who has had the most success throwing the football. It's an experienced quarterback in Rocco Beck, but they lost some of those key NFL receivers on the outside. And it hasn't been the most productive passing game or passing unit to this point for Iowa State. Now, the problem is for Kansas is that we've seen games where the secondary has looked really bad. Now, to the secondaries credit, it actually played well or better, I would say,

over the last couple of weeks. So, you know, with a young unit, you would expect them to get better. coming off a buy, maybe a chance to get even better there, that maybe it won't be as big of an issue in this specific game. But if it is, that's one way Iowa State wins running away. If you're able to keep them that way, it's hard for me not to see this at least be a close game. Now, we know KU struggles in close games, but nonetheless. I'll also say KU covers if Jalen Daniels doesn't have a disaster game. What does a disaster game look like? It looks like a bunch of interceptions. It looks like a bunch of turnovers.

It looks like, I don't know, the 2022 edition, he goes seven of 14 for 93 yards. If that happens, this go around, KU's probably not even covering the spread. But the good news is he was really good in this matchup a season ago. If he can carry that over again, I think you like KU's shot to at least keep it close here. If KU can at least run the ball okay, the interesting thing about Iowa State running this three down front is they still consistently are good at swarming to the ball and stopping running games. Now, we mentioned earlier that Iowa State's 1 and 3 this year when they give up 140 or more rushing yards in a game. And the one win is a close win over an Arkansas state team.

So if you can get to that number, which, you know, 140 on the ground isn't like an absurd number for KU. That would be running the ball okay for KU. So can you get to that mark at the very least you would think that keeps you in the game? And then I would say this. KU isn't stale off the biweek, especially with Iowa State off the by week too. It feels like the teams that have come off by weeks against Kansas have had the edge the other way around where, you know, getting that extra prep for KU has really paid off for Cincinnati and Kansas State to this point. So don't be stale. Don't do all the same. Like the amount of times we like the fake triple option play that turns into a pass really cool the first couple times you do it. But then

eventually teams start to see it on film and it doesn't become as much of an advantage. Do you have a counter to that maybe, right? Can you work on something like that in the by week? And just those sorts of things where you're not coming out stale where you do have that extra preparation over Iowa State. I think that's going to be important in this one. Can Kansas kind of show those extra flashes, so to speak. Now, to take this step further, not just keep it close, how does KU win the game? How does KU come into Ames and win on their senior day? I would say they take advantage of the turnover opportunities they're given. So we mentioned this in the preview episode. Thank it every day, or as if you already caught it. But Iowa State has eight turnovers over the last four games

from their offense. Kansas, though, is not forced a turnover in their last two games. They've only forced three in their last six games. They're not getting enough turnovers. But there were opportunities in the Arizona game. It's not like they didn't have any interception chances. They had a couple. I mean, they really had probably three or four interception chances. One of them wiped away by a penalty. But certainly you think of the Said Gibbs one, which would have had an opportunity to be a pick six. And that's not been new for this Kansas team. I don't think they're an elite turnover forcing unit. It's not Jacob Rodriguez punching out every football for the Texas Tech linebacker, but you think back to

the Cincinnati game. You dropped an interception at the end of the game. You think to certainly the Arizona game. There have been moments this year where KU has not taken advantage of the turnover opportunity headed their way. And this is a game where you need to do that because you're probably going to get a chance or two, but are you going to actually take advantage? Because if you don't take advantage, it doesn't matter, right?

And we saw that in the Arizona game. But if you can do that, I like your chance a lot better to win the game. be aggressive enough to win this game. Now, it was interesting, Lance Leipold in the press earlier this week, mentioned that, you know, he had regrets over not going for the fourth down. Obviously, the Jalen Daniels hurt situation, certainly, you know, altered his thought on it, but he kind of went over the fact that, like, yes, I was, you know, that played into it, but I still might have should have gone for it.

And I do appreciate the kind of, I don't know, the evolution or at least like reflecting on it to think about it more like the idea is that you know all of us make mistakes i make mistakes on this show like a coach may it might make a mistake a player might make a mistake are you going to learn from it are you going to learn from it and try to get better and that can be the key here and so are you going to play aggressive in this game to go win the game and i think that would give you the edge because honestly matt campbell hasn't always been the best at game management himself either so i do think these are two kind of similar programs and similar coaches obviously iowa state is hit higher ceilings under Campbell than what light pulled has done so far at Kansas,

but Campbell's also been at Iowa State a little bit longer. But yeah, be aggressive enough to win this game because your back is against the wall. You want to make a bowl game, act like it, right? And then I would say KU wins the game if D.K. McDonald has some sort of inside knowledge on Matt Campbell that helps them win the game. DK. McDonald, the KU defensive coordinator, spent a good amount of time as like a DB and secondary coach at Iowa State. If he has some sort of inside knowledge about something that can help KU,

whether it's against the Iowa State defense, whether it's against the Iowa State offense. Maybe that could be the swinging piece in a game that is projected by Fandual to be a close game. Now, the flip side to that is what if Iowa State knows a lot about D.K. McDonald's, you know, and then it becomes kind of the chess and checkers situation there. So how is that one going to go for KU, especially with both teams coming off the buy? All right, let's continue on with our players to watch for both Kansas and Iowa State. It will finish up with KU Women's Basketball. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

Thanks for joining us on this episode of the show, and today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. You can get tickets for this game. If you want to make the drive up, either Friday night or early Saturday morning to Ames, you can get tickets on Game Time with the KUII. State game. You can also get tickets if you're going to be out in Vegas

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Okay, players to watch for Kansas against Iowa State. Let's start with the visiting Kansas Jayhawks here. And we're going to start with Daniel Hyshaw. So Daniel Hyshaw is on the season, 94 carries, 430 yards with four touchdowns. He's averaging 4.6 yards per carry so far. And over the last four games, which is what coincides with him returning from his injury, he has 49 or 59 carries, excuse me, for 252 yards with three touchdowns, that is 4.3 yards per carry.

But obviously a more difficult part of the schedule than the early part when maybe it's easy to, you know, rack up a bunch of yards against Wagner or Fresno State or something like that. But as you look to Iowa State, I keep going back to that key number, 140 rushing yards allowed as they're one and three this year. Well, it's not easy to run against this Iowa State defense. high shaw has looked good in recent weeks this would be huge if he could establish the running game on the road and against an iowa state team that has missed a lot of tackles so far this season that if you can get into

the second level there's a lot of injuries in the back end and highshaw probably not a fun guy to tackle he's somebody who can can really help k u try to steal this one on the road my other two players are on the defense side i thought about picking jaylon daniels but you know quarterback very obvious there we're going to go with bengali kamara and again i thought between okay Kamara and Tray Lathan. It's kind of the same idea here with linebackers. We'll get into it here. Bengali Kamara, 42 tackles. He has three past deflections. He has one and a half sacks, one force fumble, just a 62 PFF grade, which is fine. That's just kind of like recently we haven't seen as many flash plays as we saw earlier in the year. And that's kind of backed up by some of the recent game grades on pro football focus. He had a 51 and 50 PFF grades over his last two games with five combined missed tackles over the two games compared to. do six completed tackles. So his tackling is struggled a bit, and that hasn't been new this season,

but he's also, some of the missed tackles have been, you know, he shot through the gap and was going to tackle the guy for a four-yard loss. The guy breaks the tackle, but because Guevara got there, it allowed somebody else to make the TFL. So it's like he's getting dinged for that on PFF when I don't think he should for the game. But in the recent games, that hasn't as much been the case.

He's also been in those last two games targeted three times in the passing game and given up a catch on all three. I bring this up to say, for Kansas to win this game, Bengali Kamar has to play well again. He has to get back to playing, you know, like the guy we saw over the first, whatever, eight games of the season where you did see those flash plays and kind of the athletic moments of time. And I think he can get back to that.

I think coming off the buy will certainly help there. Let's not forget, he's probably been playing through that injury that he suffered early in the year mostly throughout the season. So I think coming off the buy will probably be pretty helpful there. But I just think in general, like linebacker is going to be really important in this game. We're going to get to some Iowa State players to watch. They use their tight ends a lot. So they're automatically, you know, linebackers,

safeties both kind of come into play if you're KU in the passing game. But also when you look at Iowa State having two good running backs with both Hansen and Sama, the linebacker comes into play there. And then Rocco Beck can be a quarterback who they like to get out of the pocket and be mobile with it. And then you're kind of stressed of like you're in that situation as the linebacker of, am I guarding the guy in the flat or am I going to come up and hit the quarterback? just a lot that the linebackers are going to be doing in this game. And I think this is where Bengali Kamara, you know, coming off the by,

can have a big game for KU, and they certainly need him to. The last guy up here is Leroy Harris. And Harris has 25 tackles, four and a half sacks and four pass deflections, the lanky defensive end for KU, 74 PFF grade this year with 20 pressures. He has a 71 pass rush grade. And honestly, like, just real quick aside, he has 41 pass cup. coverage snaps this year. That feels really stupid to me. You're putting a really good pass rusher in the past coverage 41 times. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Iowa State's

lowest graded offensive lineman is their left tackle. He has a 54.2 grade. And that includes just a 41 grade for their left tackle and pass blocking. Iowa State has been sacked it's either 18 or 19 times this year, which isn't like a huge number, but it's not a great number either, and it's eight more than they've gotten sacks on their end of the field. Harris has six pressures over his last two games. He's a really talented defensive end for KU. Can he be kind of a game wrecker against the Iowa State offense in this game? That would certainly be helpful for KU to get off the field.

I'm moving over to the Iowa State players to watch in this one. Let's start with that running back spot, right? Carson Hanson's the leader in rushing yards, but I'm going to go with Abu Sama here. Both of them are good players and could certainly have big games in this one. Sama specifically 110 runs, 588 yards. He has four touchdowns, 5.3 yards per carry. Both players are over 5 yards per carry. And again, Hansen's the leading rusher.

But the reason I picked Sama here is when you look at KU's defense, KU's defense has actually done a good job at stuffing runs. Like they're top 30 in the country in run stuff rate this year. So that basically means a zero yard run or a loss. So they're doing a good job of limiting a good amount of runs to zero or negative yards. The problem is there have been way too many explosive runs against KU. How many times have we seen a guy crease a big alley for a 20-yard gain for a 70-yard touchdown against this KU defense?

If they could just limit those things and turn those big plays into six or seven or eight-yard gains instead of, you know, 30 or 50-yard touchdowns, they might be okay there. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened. And that's where Sama comes into play, where I think, you know, both are good running backs. I think Sama's even more explosive than Hanson. So that's why he's somebody I'm highlighting. Can KU keep a way, find a way to keep him bottled up?

The next guy is Benjamin Brommer. He is a tight end. I mentioned Iowa State likes to use their tight ends. They'll get them involved in the passing game. They'll use multiple throughout their different personnel, which will also be interesting how KU matches up. Do they play more of the basically bare front, the basically five down front to match up with the tight ends?

Do they play, you know, more four down front where they get an extra linebacker on there? Do they use an extra safety? Like, if ever you were going to play just the standard four, three, does it make more sense this game where the third player, instead of being a safety of Mason Ellis, it is a linebacker to match up with the size? I don't know. I don't know.

That'll be very interesting. But Benjamin Brommer is a very good tight end. He's one of the better tight ends in the Big 12. And he was actually just hospitalized with an injury. I think it was about two weeks ago, or I guess it would be three weeks ago, because the by week against Arizona State. But he actually came back last game even after that. And he had a touchdown catch against TCE.

On the season, 33 catches for 388 yards, five touchdowns this year for Brommer. He is an excellent player. How does KU match up? Do they put a safety on them? Do they put Lathen? Do they put Kamara? It's going to be very interesting, but it's going to be very important as well. And then the last one here for Iowa State, Marcus Neal Jr.

This was one of the most talented on-paper DB rooms in the conference coming into the year. Then the injury bug hit for Iowa State. They had an injury bug last year, but it was mostly the linebacker spot. This year, it's really reeked havoc. on their DB room, and Marcus Neil Jr. is one of the guys who has continued to play really well this year, even with some of the injuries around him. 70 tackles, three pass deflections, one sack, one force fumble, one interception, six pressures. So he'll come up and hit you, he'll come up playing the box, he'll come up in blitz, but he'll also work back in coverage.

He's given up just six yards per target in coverage, and he has a 78 pro football focus grade. He's a really impressive player for Iowa State. You avoid throwing him the ball, but also he's somebody you have to keep an eye out for, because he can stuff a running play that you have kind of coming his way as well. Or to play your matchups between these two teams, the KU Interior Offensive line against Dominic Orange, the defensive tackle from Kansas City, who is a real NFL draft prospect for Iowa State. 18 tackles, that doesn't do it justice. He's playing nose tackles, so you're not going to end up with like a ton of tackles. He's just taking up a lot of blocks and making life difficult. He's got 70 PFF grade, 13 pressures. Meanwhile, the KU Interior

your offense line's been really good this year. Don't look now. Bryce Foster had a bit of a slower start to the year. I think part of that was he had the injury at the beginning of the season. He's slowly picked up his play and the PFF grades have been rising. Did you know that Kobe Baines is the third ranked guard in the Big 12 among Big 12 guards with at least 50% of snaps blocking to third? And then Amir Herring's actually fifth. So KU has actually had one of the better interior offensive lines so far in the Big 12. And that's going to be a really fun matchup between these two teams. Then you would say, I'm going to go on the interior at the other end. The center for Iowa State, Jim Bonafos, against KU defensive tackles.

Bonifos has a 74 grade on Pro Football Focus at the center spot. He's a 79 in pass block and a 69 and a half in run block. He's their highest rated offense alignment. And the KU defense tackles are, you know, the strength of the defense. Keenan Caldwell really had a strong season. Blake Harold, huge flash play. He seems like he's making at least two of them every week now. And he's an Iowa kid.

So maybe that's a little extra there for him. Dun & Withers have just kind of stayed solid all year long. And then Marcus Calvin's even had a flash play here, there for the youngster over recent weeks. I think both the battles of the interior are going to be important because both teams want to run the football, but also it's really just good matchups because I think it's good on good for both teams. All right, let's continue on with a little KU Woman's basketball.

They landed a big time commit, who's a two sports star, going to play volleyball as well. We're going to break that down and their 5-0 start to the season. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Fanduals Sportsbook. College basketball is back. The NBA is back and there's no better place to get in on the action than with Fandual, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand,

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Thanks for joining us again on Locked on Jayhawks and part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. Okay, KU Women's Basketball is cooking right now, man. They're off to a 5-0 start, but they just landed a big-time recruit today, I guess depending when you're watching this, Thursday. KU basketball lands Sidney Bryant. She is a four-star recruit, 95-rated four-star in the class of 2026, 33rd-ranked player on the 24-7 sports composite.

She's a 6-foot-4 center, so giving Kansas some much-needed size when she'll join the team in a year. And becomes the third commit in the class for KU, the class of 2026, joining Molly Ernst, who is a 89 graded three star, so just a notch away from being a four star. And then Brooklyn Wren, who is a four star, a six-foot-three forward. And then, of course, like, these are stacking recruiting classes. KU just brought in a top 10 national class in the class of 2025. And we've already seen that pay off a little bit with Jaliyah Davis. Of course, in recent years, players like Reagan Williams,

and Samaya Nichols have come in and made a big impact as highly recruited players coming in right away as a freshman. And so, you know, Bryant looks to kind of add to that for KU here. There was a big, I guess there's been a big need for Center for since Tiana Jackson left for KU. And it feels like, you know, she's going to kind of fill that. But Athletic Center, going to be a two-sport player at KU. She's going to be playing volleyball for Matt Ulmer as well. I don't know how that'll work with the schedule and everything. like will she not start playing basketball till like January or something or I don't know it's going to be interesting how that works out but clearly a very good athlete and she's got great size at six foot four to be able to play both so big time commit and man what they're doing on the recruiting trail these past two three four years for brandon schneider really really impressive to say the least and I think it's paying off now on the court right a young team overall you do have a junior semai nichols who is killing it right now for KU but it's overall pretty young team they're off to a five and no start this season.

season. So, you know, a couple of the wins, UMKC, Northwestern State. Those are non-top 200 teams on Torvick. Lamar is barely inside the top 200. But the last two games will raise your eyebrows a bit. So Missouri ranked 71st on Torvick, so lower end for power four, but KU beat them on a neutral site. And this last one was the most impressive of all. Minnesota is ranked 15th on Bart Torvick. So that's just one site. I don't know the history. You know, Bart Torvick hasn't had like a super long track record of having women's basketball on the website. I'm glad they do have it now. So I don't know if maybe it's, I don't know,

and not as accurate as the men stuff. But still, Minnesota basically saying, hey, we beat a top 20 team by six points. And on top of it, Jaliyah Davis, one of your best players was not even playing in the game. This KU Women's Basketball team is certainly raising the bar of what maybe the expectations could be for this upcoming season. And then you start to think to 2026, like if you can have that good

season this year make it back to the tournament win a tournament game or two right and then you're really setting up that come 2026 you're going to have a player like bryant you're going to have a senior year sima nichols all this freshman class that's really talented that came in this year would be sophomores uh that could be something special next year and what smy nichols is doing right now deserves to be talked about so we're going to talk about it 20.4 points per game six assists per game she's shooting 52 43 90 that is 52 from the field 43 from 390 from the free throw line and then julia Davis, who again missed that game, that's a player's averaging almost 18 points per game as a true freshman on 65% shooting. And you beat Minnesota even without her. Ellie Evans, Reagan Williams have both

been solid to start this year. Lily Meister has been given them eight and seven solid contributions from here so far. I think the key will be can they continue to develop kind of the depth behind them as the season goes on. But this has been a great start both on the court and in the recruiting game for Brandon Schneider and the KU Women's Basketball program this year. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. I'll see you next time for another edition of Locked on Jayhawks.