Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KU Flips The 2nd Half Switch + Update on Position Battles

Episode Date: September 14, 2022

After struggling in 2nd halves in 2021, the Kansas Jayhawks Football team showed out in the 2nd half against West Virginia to earn the win. Plus, update on some KU position battles and why the only real 'moves' are players distancing themselves. And finally, a What-If Wednesday: What if Clayton Tune stayed committed to come to Lawrence?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.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.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!UpsideDownload the FREE Upside App and use promo code Locked to get $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more.Underdog FantasySign up on underdogfantasy.com with the promo code LOCKED ON and get your first deposit doubled up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we look at how impressive KU was in the second half against West Virginia. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 on KLWN. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we'll get to another What If Wednesday. We've got a fun one for this week. We also are going to revisit some of the KU second half stuff. We talked a little bit about this on an episode last week.

The idea of how much KU struggled in the second half a season ago and whether it was the lack of depth whether it was still just kind of I don't know getting to know the system and the scheme or the not as you know not being as talented as other teams and over the course of time more possessions things just start to kind of work out away from you. But certainly that was an issue for KU a season ago. And would that get better this year? And if it did get better, would it lead to some extra wins? I'm here to tell you that KU won the West Virginia game for that very reason.

KU is down 28-21 at halftime. And they had that big drive to end the or to end the first half where they get a touchdown and that allows them to kind of double dip at the start of the second half that third quarter was the biggest quarter that KU played obviously the overtime in terms of what it meant and really giving finality to the game was the most important but the third quarter was the most prominent for KU it goes in at half 28-21 West Virginia has scored touchdowns on all four of their drives KU takes over and they convert a big third down and four on a pass that goes to Quentin Skinner

for six yards so that keeps the drive alive avoids a three and out at the start of the second half and just side note the the ability of jaylen daniels to convert all these key third downs like that was the biggest part of the game for ku and that's the biggest beauty of having that good quarterback and having the ability to i guess be good in those situations then there's a third and three later in the drive again jaylen daniels converts this time he does it on the ground with a 13 yard run and just two plays later they score touchdown they have the 40 yard pass to Quentin Skinner then they have the three yard rushing touchdown on first and goal by Daniel Hyshaw that set the tone for the second half it ties the game at 28 KU's defense goes out the next drive they almost

get a three and out West Virginia converts the first first down, but then they stop them from there. It's 20 yards in total on the play, and West Virginia has to punt away. So if we really wanted to add in the last drive of the first half, then this second half or third quarter looks even better. But again, the point of this was to talk about the second half and how pivotal that can be and how much KU struggled a season ago, how much different it was in the West Virginia game. KU punts on a three and out on their next drive, and there's the muffed punt from West Virginia. So KU gets the ball. They again face a third down.

Jalen Daniels hits Luke Grimm for seven yards. Then they're facing third and goal at the two. Devin Neal runs it in for a touchdown. So now you have gone stop, score, essentially score again after you were stopped and you're dominating in the third quarter. Things go into the end of the third quarter. West Virginia has the final plays of the third quarter on offense as they're driving the ball and they get down into Kansas territory. But heading into the fourth quarter, you have outscored them 14-0 in the

second half of play. You do give up a field goal in the fourth quarter. Now, what happens in the fourth quarter can be looked at two ways. It can be looked at on one hand, KU blows an 11-point lead that forces overtime. On the other hand, in the fourth quarter by itself, KU was only outscored 14-7. But you total it all up, KU outscores West Virginia 21-14 in the second half. Once you add on overtime, KU outscored West Virginia from the third quarter on 34-14. So they finish the game on a 34-14 run. And really, once you count in the final drive of the first half,

KU finishes the game on a 41-14 run against West Virginia. That is a dominant string of play on the road against a Big 12 team. 41-14. Think about that. Because when's the last time you've seen kansas football overwhelm a team 41 to 14 in a half of football that's what kansas did from the last drive of their first half offensively to the end of overtime in that game against the mountaineers but back to the conversation we were having last week about ku in the second half and again if you wanted to boil

it down to okay it's a lack of depth this year's team has much more depth well that seemed to show right just look across the board at running back KU obviously has a lot more depth this year we ran for over 200 yards and you were able to really split it up between three guys carrying the load between Jalen Daniels and two running backs one of which you didn't have last year with Daniel Hyshaw. The other in Devin Neal you had most of last year, but you didn't have for the West Virginia game specifically. You look at the tight end position. Mason Fairchild and Jared Casey were great.

Mason Fairchild was injured for the West Virginia game. You didn't have as much depth at the tight end position that you did last year. Offensive line we know might not have as much depth this year, but certainly the starters were good in that game, and that was something that carried over from the end of last season. You look at it defensively. KU struggled against West Virginia in the game defensively. They did. You give up 42 points in the game, but you look at the run defense, it was better than it had been in a lot of the Big 12 games from a season ago. You go up less than four yards per carry, which that'll play every single week for KU. And that was never something that, oh, it's all done in the fourth quarter, the defense is tired,

now they're running over KU, where it was, hey, they averaged two yards per carry in the first half, now they're up to six yards per carry in the second half. No, West Virginia was never really able to, like they would have, they would have you know a four five six yard run every now and then on first down but for the most part it was two three four yards it it was never establishing themselves and even as the game went on and you could have maybe those questions of depth or guys getting tired it didn't really affect KU in the running game which I think speaks to them having more depth this year at the linebacker and defensive line positions. And yes, you could say, well, they didn't get enough pass rush or they didn't have many tackles for loss, but that happened

all game, even at the beginning when they were fresh. That was just West Virginia's offensive line being good, West Virginia having a quick and good passing game. So everything we questioned about, you know, with the glass half empty or the glass half full, as far as all their struggles in the second half of games and in the fourth quarter of games a season ago, it seems to me that in that first game against West Virginia, you kind of proved to yourself, you proved to the world that things are going to be different in the second half. Things are going to be different in the fourth quarter of games this season. You have more depth, you have more confidence confidence you feel good about your quarterback play like

that helps you in the fourth quarter of games when games are tight and you need clutch moments as well you have more trust in what you need to do with the coaching staff that's going to help you in moments where things are close and things are determined in those small margins. And exactly what we talked about last week with the glass half full was that, okay, if KU is better in those areas, that should make you more reasonably not tired and a better team as games go on, as the second half of games in the fourth quarter does come, then maybe all of a sudden the TCU game is a win. Maybe all of a sudden the West Virginia game is a win maybe all of a sudden the West

Virginia game is a win maybe some of these close losses the Oklahoma game all of a sudden turn into wins and what did KU do against West Virginia they closed strong and they got the win and I think that is a big reason why in addition to just having a quarterback that went inferno and an offense overall that kept West Virginia guessing all night was running triple option was throwing it around was converting big third downs master class on offense by Andy Kotelnicki but quite the turnaround if you're looking at it from that standpoint of how KU approached second halves last year versus how they were able to manage it in this season in just a moment we are going to get on to some of the position battles that we think are interesting moving forward into this week's game against Houston and ahead for the rest of the season.

We've also got a what-if Wednesday to get to you. But first, BetOnline.net is your number one source for all your pro and college football betting needs and sports information this season find all of the latest football league developments game matchups news and podcasts including this year's opening weeks games through the rest of the season bet online is also your continued source for all sporting wagering information including live betting esports and scores the fastest and easiest way to check in on all your favorite sports and events including mob mma boxing and golf head to the website on all your favorite sports and events including mob mma boxing and golf head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends in action bet online where the game starts you can get kansas a plus nine against houston at

least that's what the number opened up as i think i like ku there they're coming off a win you do worry about a little bit of the letdown and that's certainly a conversation that you can always have Houston coming off a tough loss to where maybe they're going to be chomping at the bit that's a little scary there I just think Kansas has shown they can compete with teams of Houston's nature and you know Houston played a double overtime game against Texas Tech do I think Kansas is that much worse than Texas Tech no I, I don't. That one was not played at Houston like this one will be, but I see no reason why Kansas can't at least keep this game close in this one at Houston. So I kind of like Kansas plus the nine points there at BetOnline.

Coming up on tomorrow's show, we're going to be joined by Scott Chasen. We're going to talk some more KU football with Scott. Should be interesting discussion with him as always here on Locked on Jayhawks. So what position battles are most interesting headed into this week's game? Well, you look at the two deep for Kansas and no changes from last week to this, which I think is maybe a representation. Actually, I don't know. I don't know what that is a representation of.

Is it just like, you know, they don't want to offend anyone? Is it just they just don't want to offend anyone is it just they just don't want to really spend time on it and they're like we have bigger fish to fry you know we're trying to get ready for a game i'm not going to go through the ins and outs of the depth chart but like for instance gavin potter and craig young are listed as or once again as they were for the first two weeks gavin potter played a lot of snaps in week one so that was i guess a real thing that both of them were going to play a bunch Gavin Potter played two snaps last week against West Virginia so is it really an or with him and Craig

Young who played one of the highest snap counts on the team no I don't really think so um so as far as position battles go like even though that's listed as an or still on the two deep doesn't really feel like a position battle to me I'm kind of to a point where the Eric Gillyard and Lorenzo McCaskill I know I've said all along well it's going to take those guys some time maybe they'll start by week five week six in the middle of the season snap count went down for both of them in the West Virginia game it was 17 and 14 for the two of them and Rich Miller led the team in tackles Taiwan Barry Hill continues to play a lot maybe that's not really a position battle. Maybe that's just no longer a thing. So I don't even know if that would be up there.

I think that the biggest position battles right now seem to be just guys distancing themselves on position battles. Daniel Hyshawn, Devin Neal got all of the work at running back. It was two carries for four yards for Kai Thomas. He was one carry for Savion Morrison. Those guys look like they're distancing themselves at the running back position. Maybe that one's different because you do have more room to give a bunch of guys different carries and at different times keep guys rested or if guys get dinged up, whatever it is. But right now, those two guys are kind of emerging. Maybe Tanaka Scott factors back in at receiver.

But what has Quentin Skinner done to make you think that he isn't going to keep retaining the job? He had the big catch in week one. He has the game-winning touchdown in week two. He had three catches. He had that other big catch for like 40 yards on the drive we were discussing earlier. So what would make you think that's going to be the case?

Jared Casey's been awesome so far, but Mason Fairchild's been really good too. Trevor Cardell has kind of disappeared, so so seems like those guys have distanced themselves every position battle that we had in the offseason are coming into the year feels like you're starting to gain separation there you look to the defensive side of the ball Jeremy Robinson Eddie Wilson played a little bit less than maybe they did in week one or that we're used to so maybe those are positions where you have somebody who's kind of winning out there but again that just goes back into the category of maybe it's being distanced out in some way maybe one guy or a couple guys at a specific position are emerging more than the rest and that i think kind of seems

to be the theme here even at safety where you where you had OJ Burrows and Marvin Grant, both those guys are going to have an opportunity to carve out playing time because even if one is the starter over the other or is the clear-cut player over the other, you're going to play formations where you have extra defensive backs in, whether it's a nickel or a dime set. But OJ Burrows had like 20 more snaps than marvin grant so again a situation of a guy distancing himself more and what's even more interesting when you

look at that and that theme of position battles starting to distance themselves for specific players and individuals from week one to week two a lot of the guys who distanced themselves in week two or had a lot more playing time versus the other guy than they did in week one, it was the returners. So that idea of, hey, these guys transferred in, it's going to take them some time, they'll eventually start getting more playing time, it went the opposite way with another week under their belts. Maybe that's more of an indication of hey you played Tennessee Tech of course everyone was going to play and week two against West Virginia was going to more so be like what week one normally would be in terms of the guys who were ahead of the knowledge on the playbook and the scheme we're going to just play more because it is your first game like that and

maybe that opportunity still is there for guys like Marvin Grant and Lorenzo McCaskill. But right now, it looks like those guys who came into the program as transfers, a lot of them are kind of sitting there in situations where, you know, maybe you are in more of a backup situation where you are just a rotational guy, and maybe the road to being a starter isn't quite what you once had, which for KU to beat 2-0 and beat West Virginia, and if I were to tell you before the season started, KU got all these big transfers coming in,

and certainly they have helped with the depth and have helped your No. 2s in a lot of ways and some of the backups that are coming in. It helps to a situation where, yeah, the drop-off from the 1s to the 2s isn't as bad when you do have those subs. So it has helped there. But if I were to say before the season that, hey, you got all these great transfers, but guess what? Eric Gilliard and Lorenzo McCaskill, they're going to be the backup linebackers for the first two weeks. Kalon Girvin isn't going to

be the for sure starting corner. Marvin Grant's going to be playing less than OJ Burroughs. Kai Thomas isn't going to have a huge role so far through the offense, but they're going to be 2-0. They'll have won at West Virginia. You would have said, what? But a lot of the best players we got were coming from other schools, and they're not playing much, which also speaks to the development side and what KU already had on the roster coming into this year,

which is pretty darn impressive. You're listening to Locked on Jayhawks. In just a moment, we are going to switch gears and get to our What If Wednesday, that coming up. Our What If Wednesday moment here for Locked on Jayhawks. Clayton Toon, the starting Houston quarterback. He had 30 touchdowns to 10 interceptions a season ago, over eight yards per attempt.

He was awesome last year. This year, he hasn't put up quite the efficiency that he did last year, but he's still been a solid quarterback so far. He was originally committed to KU. Ended up decommitting based on who you ask, lack of interest from the other party, again, kind of based on who you ask. Ends up going to Houston, and obviously things have worked out pretty well for him since he got thrown into the fire early when De'Ara King was injured

and obviously has had these really productive seasons over the last couple years for Houston. The what if Wednesday is what if he just never decommitted from KU? What if he winds up at the University of Kansas? He would have arrived in 2018. That was when he was a true freshman to Houston. So that would have been the Peyton Bender season. I don't think he would have got playing time over Peyton Bender or anything like that in 2018.

Then you have 2019, which Carter Stanley obviously was really good for KU, and Clayton Toone's numbers don't really jump off the page in 2019. So I don't think that would have been the year either. But then 2020 is certainly interesting because at that point, you're probably starting him to be in the program for three years then over the new Thomas McVitie. You're starting him over Miles Kendrick. He's getting all that playing time over Jalen Daniels, who played a bunch as a true freshman when he was 17 years old and was getting beat up by that offensive line. It might not have really mattered whether he had a veteran quarterback or a more experienced quarterback. That team was just so bad. The offensive line was so bad. Who knows if Clayton

Tone even makes it through the season. Maybe you could argue that with a more experienced quarterback that year, they win the game in Lubbock against Texas Tech because that was 16-13. But really outside of that, the what if doesn't really register a ton uh for that specific season 2021 last year is is where it's interesting to me because you could argue obviously clayton last season was really good 30 touchdowns at the 10 interceptions and everything um that obviously would have been an upgrade on your quarterback play from what you got from jason bean over the first portion of the season. Is that boost enough for you to win an extra game that maybe you wouldn't have? Because a lot of the games that you were competitive in to begin with were games that Jason Bean had good

games, right? Like the Coastal Carolina game, he played really well. The Oklahoma game, he played really well. So it'd be easy to say, oh, well, you played Oklahoma close. If you have an upgraded quarterback with Clayton Toon, then yeah, you're going to win that game. But Jason Bean played really well in that game. So I don't know. It might have had an effect on wins. It might not have. But I think the bigger discussion here is what would it have done with Jalen Daniels?

Because assumedly, if Clayton Toon's your guy all of last year, maybe Jalen Daniels never takes over. So on one hand, maybe Jalen Daniels has already redshirted one of the years. He took the COVID year, whatever it is. But maybe Jalen Daniels never breaks out. Maybe we go into this year, Clayton Toon is now a super senior at Houston. And on one hand, you're sitting there going, man, Clayton Toon really good as a super senior. And we're excited to see what he looks like for this KU team, his experience and everything so far this season Jalen Daniels has outplayed Clayton Toon and you look at the numbers that Clayton Toon has put together through the first two games and I almost wonder if

I guess like harder competition because UTSA is tougher than Tennessee Tech by a long shot and you know Texas Tech West Virginia those are probably about pretty even there so you do have to factor that in but Jalen Daniels has looked better than Clayton Toon like if Clayton Toon is KU's starting quarterback right now do they lose the West Virginia game or do they still come away with a win in that game and what does it do for Jalen Daniels long term if you have Clayton Toon on the roster and Jalen Daniels is sitting behind him for three years, would Jalen Daniels have transferred away at some point? You know what I mean? And he would never be with Kansas.

Or would Clayton Toone have transferred away along the way sometime like we saw with, you know, whether it was Ryan Willis or Miles Kendrick or whoever, because things weren't really working out and the offensive line wasn't protecting you and you had elsewhere I don't I don't know the answer to that but certainly I think it would have an effect on maybe the development or you being with Jalen Daniels right now which honestly made it for the best that Clayton Toon ended up decommitting and going to Houston now you might not say that specifically for this Saturday's game because

Houston could end up beating Kansas but just in terms terms of, you know, for Clayton Toone's career, because he's done good things at Houston, for KU's future, eventually, a couple years after he eventually went to college, with Jalen Daniels now getting things humming and getting that development going for whether it's this year and or the future for KU, I think it kind of worked out for all parties involved. That's going to do it for this edition of Locked on Jayhawks. Coming up on tomorrow's show, we're going to be joined by Scott Chasen of Booth Review. If you miss any of our previous shows,

check them out and subscribe to our podcast wherever you're getting your podcasts. I'll see some of you later today on Rock Chalk Sports Talk from 3 to 6 here on KLWN in Lawrence. Until then, later.