Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KU Football Expectations + KU Basketball Crossover Questions

Episode Date: October 25, 2022

Expectations for KU Football seem to have changed with the 5-0 start and how to look at the Baylor game big picture. Plus some Kansas Basketball talk with crossover questions for the two teams featuring Gradey Dick, Ky Thomas, the Jayhawks' center position and more. Rounding things out by pitching a Heisman candidate with Nick Schwerdt.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!SweatBlockIf you or someone you love is experiencing embarrassing sweat or odor try Sweatblock. Save 20% with promo codeLocked On at sweatblock.com. Also available on Amazon.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!Underdog FantasySign up on underdogfantasy.com with the promo code LOCKED ON and get your first deposit doubled up to $100!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnCollege to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we go over some KU football at the game against Baylor, and then look ahead to the KU basketball season with Nick Schwert. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk in Lawrence from Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 on KLWN. Joined on our Tuesday edition of the show by Nick Schwert, who you can hear on 610 in Kansas City with Cody and Gold.

You can also hear him on the Wave in the Wheat podcast. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to go over some thoughts from the KU Baylor game and also look ahead to basketball season with that starting up next week. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Sling TV. Sling has something for everyone, especially when it comes to the college football coverage. With a massive lineup of games across the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12, Big 12, and SEC.

I can always catch whatever games I want to on Sling, and you can too. Check out Sling TV now to see the massive lineup of games. They have all season-long Sling, the TV you love for a price you'll love too. Try it today. So Nick, KU falls to Baylor in Waco in the first half of the game. Felt like, you know know just pluck any game from 2010 to 2020 for Kansas they're down 28 to 3 they fight back they showed why things are different now and on one hand if you play better the whole game you win that game probably or at least it's it's even tighter down the stretch but on the other hand we have kind of further proof that this team is better than they were last season so

how do you kind of go about taking inventory on this program and this team for this year as a whole after that loss well i think both of the things you said are probably true uh your first half you put three punts and two fumbles on the board. The second half, you put three touchdowns on your first three possessions. This is not a team that's going to overwhelm you with talent. Therefore, your margin for error is going to be relatively slim. You can't afford to have two off quarters and expect to win a game against a good football team. I think this team is still better than they were a season ago, but you're starting to see the injuries take a toll. You're starting to see the real differences between Jalen Daniels and Jason being at quarterback. And you're starting to see the lack of execution

cost Kansas in a way that maybe didn't the first month of the year. Yeah. And the way I look at it you know through eight games every single team that ku has played this year that they also played last year it's been a better result like just in terms of the points the only exception is tcu so like baylor you played closer this year oklahoma you technically played closer this year although last year was maybe actually a better game west virginia beat him after you lost last year i Iowa State got blown out last year. You beat them this year. TCU, the lone exception, you lost by three last year. You lost by seven this year, but this TCU team is way better than they were a season ago. So realistically, every single team you have played this year, you played last year, you've

played better against, which I think you can take something away from that, that yes, they just are better. But I feel like a lot of the negative uh i guess takeaways from that game are a lot of the pressure that feels like to me that is being built up with this football team just all derives from the start of them being five and oh and them being one win away from bowl eligibility if they were sitting at four in one through the first five games and you didn't have that carrot dangling in front of your face of hey one more win and you're in a bowl game. I wonder what the thought process would be around this team right now.

Yeah. That West Virginia game is the one that sticks with me. That was the one that very easily could have went either way. And you could argue West Virginia should have put that game away late. That's the game that I'm going to continue to look back on. If Kansas does end up making a bowl game to say that was the moment, that was the game that I'm going to continue to look back on. If Kansas does end up making a bowl game to say that was the moment. That was the moment where you sort of clinched this opportunity to be a bowl eligible team.

I know you could look at the Duke and the Iowa state one as well, but I still think with four games left, you got a bi-week. Maybe you get some guys back. I still think that if you are any of those teams that you mentioned, and we'll, we'll see these last four games as well, ask yourself this. If you're the head coach of Oklahoma State or Texas Tech or K-State, do you view this Kansas team differently than you did a year ago? Is your preparation going to be different?

Are you taking them a little bit more seriously than you did last year? I think we know the answer to that question. Of course you are, whether it's Jalen Daniels or Jason being in a quarterback. Moving forward the rest of the season, four more games to go. What do you feel most certain about that you know about KU football or that you think they will do well, I guess, identity wise over these last four weeks? Well, at this point, you can't say that because I would have said before last week, I would have said, well, they're going to be able to run the ball well. We saw them kind of get exposed up front against Baylor. I guess, oh, big picture, I would just say, I expect them to give you a reason to watch for the last four weeks.

That's not to say that Oklahoma State can't blow them out in two weeks, which I think, I don't know what the line will be. I don't know if there's any look ahead lines, but I'd imagine that's going to be a pretty sizable spread. It wouldn't surprise me to see Oklahoma state kind of take care of them there. But what they showed you the last two weeks, even in games that weren't particularly close, you look at the final score for Oklahoma and Baylor, and they would indicate those games were closer than they really were. But they showed you that they're going to fight till the end. They're going to keep things competitive. And that's sort of what I expect. Even if the

individual final game box score, final scores would indicate that, you know, Oklahoma state's better than you or Texas tech's better than you. I expect them to continue to fight and continue to push because that's kind of the juncture that you're at this season. You start five and ho riding high college game day ranked for the first time in a decade. Now you've dropped three straight. Now you've done what everybody said you were going to do. Like, right. All the naysayers said, once you start playing good teams, once you start going on the road in the big 12, you're going to get exposed. That has happened whether they've been exposed or not. The losses have come. Now you're at this juncture where you kind of decide how the rest of the season is going to go are you just going to bottom out is this just going to be who you are back at the bottom of the big 12 or can you sort of fight

and make things competitive this final month which if the first two months of the season were an indication i would expect they will yeah and it's it's weird because the more I think about it like if you're talking about like a playing style like identity you're right we don't really have an answer now like they're not really running the triple option because I don't think Jason Beans is good at it as is Jalen Daniels you know doesn't want to take as many hits or the staff has said not to take hits he's not as good as breaking tackles he's not as good at reading the actual like read option like when to give it when to not and so they've changed up from that so that's no longer an identity like you said with the running game didn't really have that against Baylor is honestly I kind of wonder if offensively the team's biggest identity might just be hitting deep plays like on on deep passes because no

matter who we've seen whether it's Quentin Skinner Lawrence Arnold Trevor Wilson this past week like even Luke Graham a little bit. And regardless of the quarterback, because Jalen Daniels has a good arm, Jason Bean throws a really catchable deep ball, I think. That's kind of been the identity at this point consistently through the season for the offense. It's just hitting big plays. And then defensively, I think it's just kind of been being opportunistic.

They're never going to be an elite defense this season. They're never going to be a team that causes all these three and outs but can you be opportunistic they didn't really do that against oklahoma i guess maybe you could say they did because they forced a couple turnovers but uh you know i uh think against baylor you kind of got back to it especially in the second half you know the deep plays are interesting because early in the season when you're winning games you're saying that's part of our identity. That's what we do. That's how we're winning games, big explosive chunk plays downfield. Past couple of weeks, you've said, those are just what are keeping you in games. If it weren't for those chunk plays, you'd be getting blown out. And which kind of indicates

that those chunk plays are nice and you want to have them and every team wants to have them, and every team wants to have them, but you need them to be pieces around your core identity of running the ball, getting those chunk plays on the ground, being able to get those 10 to 15-yard plays, running, which they were doing with Jalen Daniels early in the season, what they were doing with Daniel Hyshaw and Devin Neal. Those have not been as consistent since Jalen Daniels went down so now you're just relying on the big plays downfield which are great but it's clear you cannot do that for four quarters you can't make your money doing that and expecting to beat teams deep because

and the only way you're doing the only teams at any level of football that are doing that either have elite talent a quarterback elite elite talent at wide receiver, or both. And right now, Kansas doesn't have those. In just a moment, we're going to get over to some crossover questions, talk a little KU football, little KU basketball. As everyone knows, athletes rise and fall in the ranks, but when it comes to saving money, SimpliSafe always stays on top. And right now, you can save big with SimpliSafe Home Security. They're giving listeners 40% off their advanced security system. SimpliSafe was just named the best home security of 2022 by US News. You can use it super easily and you'll love it because it's SimpliSafe. Your safety is the only thing that matters. The SimpliSafe's advanced technology allows you to control your

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Go today. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. I've got some fun crossover questions here between KU basketball, which starts up next week for the first exhibition game at least, and the rest of the KU football season. So starting first things first here, Nick, more bowl wins for KU football this season or final four appearances for KU basketball?

Or maybe even the better way of asking this is what's more likely? KU wins a bowl game, so they not only have to make a bowl game, they have to win it, or KU basketball, or maybe even the better way of asking this is what's more likely KU wins a bowl game. So they not only have to make a bowl game, they have to win it or KU makes the final four. Oh, bowl game for sure. You made me think for a second.

And then I started doing like the percentages in my head, the odds of Kansas making a final four are minuscule compared to winning two more games for football, right? Like, okay, let's just say, let's just assume that Kansas basketball is a great team this year. Let's assume they're a top four team in the country. Even then, the odds are stacked against them

to go to the final four. We know about how random college basketball is in March Madness, so I will take Kansas football, essentially winning two more games against average opponents, win one against Texas tech, and then beat another six win team in a bowl game versus Kansas having to have a million things go their way. I agree with you from that standpoint,

but you're running out of opportunities on the football field, more KU football players on the football field uh more ku football players on the all big 12 first and second team or more ku basketball players on the all big 12 first and second team it's a numbers game yeah i'm trying to think of the guys who will make the all i don't know anything about uh line play. So don't even ask me if like Mike Novitski is going to get a spot. So I know it. I think Mike Novitski and Dominic Poonie have, have a real chance.

Both of them do. Okay. I'll make it though. That could just be, you know, third team or honorable mention. I don't know if they do a third team. I mean,

Jalen would have been a lock. You would have felt like, but obviously he takes a ding. I don't think any of the Kansas running backs. I don't think any of the wide receivers will um jacoby bryant no he's injured now too yeah bonnie phelps is banged up too i think bonnie phelps could still make it though right i mean yeah so i'll say let's just say i'll say two i think that case and fairchild is gonna have a good chance at it okay a good

chance is not making the team though like we'll say that every year here's what you're here's what you're doing you're priming the pump to be outraged when kansas gets no guys on the first team in football i'm not i'm not for mason fairchild the thing is like there's not a lot of great tight ends there just aren't in college football anymore there's not in lot of great tight ends. There just aren't in college football anymore. There's not in the Big 12. So I don't know, like Mason Fair, Ben Sims, for instance, the Baylor tight end. He was the preseason pick, first team all Big 12 at tight end. Mason Fairchild is just as good in numbers,

better numbers than him this year. I don't think Fairchild making it would be crazy at all. Okay, but making it is one thing, or being in consideration is one thing you need a lot of votes to go your way and you need them to continue to play well the last four weeks i'm still going to say two is the max they're not getting more than two they're just not so but it actually doesn't matter because i still think that's probably the max for k Kansas basketball as well. So I'll take, I'll say Kansas basketball gets one and I'll say Kansas football gets two. But so if you, if you think Kansas basketball is only going to get one,

that tells me that you don't think they're going to win the big 12. Would that be accurate? What do you mean? No. What are you talking about? Why are you putting words in my mouth? Why are you assuming? If I don't know this for a fact, I would love to go back and look.

But I feel like if you win the Big 12, you're going to have at least two players, maybe even three on the first two teams. Okay. You just said it, though. You'd have to go back and look. So you didn't look, and you're just assuming that you're getting three guys. There's only five. No, no, no. first and second team first and second okay okay i thought we were just talking first here see i didn't first and second for both football and basketball okay okay then yeah yeah okay check your head then i'll say i'll say jalen gets on the first team. I'll say DeJuan.

Will he have the numbers? See, DeJuan is that typical guy where fans will love him. Other coaches will love him. Bill Self, everybody will love him. But like, will he have the numbers to wind up on a first team or a second team for that matter? He screams honorable mention to me. He screams honorable. So then you're basically saying who's

going to have the breakout year kevin mcculler grady dick are they both getting on so i'll say two uh which is a wash so then i'll say since now i'm going back and adding a second team for football as well i'll say football gets three kansas basketball gets two okay uh i i do agree with that because i think they'll get one of Novitski. I think Novitski will make first, second team. Wouldn't be surprised at Poonie. I do think that Fairchild's got a real shot at it. And then, yeah, you add in Lonnie Phelps.

Who knows? Maybe Kenny Logan. I know some of the grading stuff like hasn't loved him, but sometimes it's just, hey, you were all preseason to begin with, and you had a fine season. So we're just going to vote you back there because we didn't pay attention to everything. More Kai Thomas carries the rest of the season, or more Grady Dick made threes in the month of November.

They played nine games in November, I believe, with the battle for Atlantis. Well, we know he's going to shoot the ball. How many carries does Kai Thomas have all year? It can't be that much. He had zero against Baylor. I'm looking now, 26. So he's got 26 in seven games. He missed one with injury.

So if you just want to make it simple, you could say he's getting about four carries a game. Okay, so nine games in the month of November. I'm guessing Grady Dick on the high end is going to shoot five or six threes a game I mean he's going to be the best shooter on this team and I think he'll probably as long as he can stay on the court he'll lead the team in volume how about that quote from Bill Self at Big 12 Media Days by the way that gets you a little that gets you a little uh what's the palette for basketball season hearing him just gush about the way that brady grady dick loves to just let it rip and doesn't care

how many he misses um six seven high release unlimited range i'll take grady dick i'll take grady dick i'll say he has a game where he hits like five or six and that might be enough dude honestly not really a part of this backfield i i think that's what it is like numbers wise you can make sense of it that oh he'll get four carries you know whatever it is and you could make an argument for either and if grady dick hits two threes a game per game it's it's pretty close but it's just it seems like there has been a lost confidence in kai thomas we saw more savi on morrison than kai thomas and we didn't even really see that much of Savion Morrison

outside of the early going. I think, yeah, Grady Dick is going to be the most important three-point shooter on the team. So he's going to have to kind of rev it up in the non-con. And, yeah, I think he'll make more than Kai Thomas, who isn't really a part of the offense right now. More likely, KU beats Texas in football, or they sweep Texas in basketball?

Texas basketball might be kind of salty this year. How many times have we said that over the years? Hey, watch out for Texas basketball. Did you see that recruiting class they brought in? They just lost last week. So it just seems like eventually one of these years, Texas football is actually going to be prepared for a game against kansas you know and they've got the talent this year k use obviously doesn't have things rolling

their way what did texas basketball go last year under beard 20 made the second round lost to but they finished i think top 15 in ken palm Ken Palm, 16th, something like that. Have you seen the new Ken Palm ratings, by the way, for the season? I just I saw somebody tweeting about him. I haven't actually pulled them up, though. Texas, too, right? Yes. It's funny.

Ken Palm ratings are not great at the beginning of the year. They're predictive measures. So you kind of need data to input into the old algorithm there. I'll still say basketball because I've seen it enough. I've seen Bill Self take care of business enough times to know that, like, even if both those games are close, I'm going to trust him over the opposition in a close game. Texas football is objectively better than Texas basketball or than Kansas is. Whereas on the basketball side side I just kind of trust what I've seen with Bill Self so I'll say the Bill Self gets the sweep what percentage would

you put it on for KU football to win 20 30 well what do you think the line's gonna be would you even know how to convert it? No. Okay. But I'm just saying, well, in my brain, that's the way I think about it. Okay. If Texas is my favorite. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, you're right. I can't convert that.

Here's what I'm saying. If you think it's 30% they beat Texas in football, and you think it's 60% they win Texas in football and you think it's 60%, they went to each individual game. It'd be 36% chance that they sweep them. I think it's more likely they sweep them in basketball, but I mean, Texas won that game in Austin last year. They almost won it out in field house on senior day.

I think they're going to be pretty good. I mean, they have all sorts of talent. I don't know how any of it fits though. They have two five stars coming in. They have a backcourt with Tyrese Hunter and Marcus Carr, two guys but like can either shoot can either like play off each other I have no idea so they're gonna be very intriguing this year last one Trevor Wilson touchdown catches the rest of the season or number of players who earn a start for Kansas at the five position oh Kansas at the five position are Oh, Kansas at the five position.

Are you kidding me, man? That's the easiest one you've given me because there might be four guys who start. Hell, Cam Martin might get a start one week just because Bill Self didn't like how the other guys were practicing. Zach Clements is going to start a game. KJ Adams is going to start a game.

I'm kind of wondering if KJ is going to start a game. I'm kind of wondering if K.J. is going to start right off the bat. Maybe, because you know what he does that Bill Self loves? He rebounds and he plays defense. So that's great. But obviously size is a limiting factor for him. He's not a five. It's tough to be a tweener even in college, but somehow K.J. Adams is fine.

Tweeners are usually the guys who excel in college and then they hit the pros and they don't have a spot. So they go play in Bulgaria for 12 years. Whereas KJ Adams is already a tweener. He's like six, seven, great athlete, bouncy, plays good defense, but KU doesn't really know what to do with him. So he'll have a role. I just don't think it can be the starter.

I mean, Clemens plays outside in. Self isn't going to love that unless he's playing great defense and rebounding, kind of like what we talked about with KJ. And I just don't know enough about the young guys. Listen, this isn't my favorite time of year when like all the insiders, you brought one up last week, like, oh, so-and-so said that they talked to all the coaches

and they're loving like these freshmen. Yeah, I bet they are. I bet they are like the day that Bill self starts a freshman five men on a team. That's trying to win a national championship. That'll be the day, man. It will. Well, who's the last you brought it up last year, last week. It's Joel Embiid and Yudoka Azubuki like trends, like incredible talents, like all American talents. Those are the last two guys who would have been starters. And as a bookie got injured his freshman year. So it ended up being Landon Lucas. So I would, I think there'll be at least three,

at least three of those guys. We'll get to start probably four. Yeah. Yeah. I think I would go with that as well. Okay. In just a moment, I'm going to try to pitch Nick on a, we'll do this every week, moving forward,

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pitch Nick on a Heisman candidate every week moving forward till we get to the end of the college football season. If I told you that there is a college football receiver right now nick who has 49 catches for 1045 yards and 18 touchdowns through seven games which in a 12 game season here would be the pace for that 84 grabs 1791 yards 31 touchdowns would that have your attention it would and i know you're not talking about marvin harrison jr because he is putting up incredible numbers and i know they're not that good no no let me introduce you to wayne ruby wayne ruby of division three's mountain union of course he is that mountain union is seven and oh they're beating teams by an average score of 52 to four. And last year they played 14 games. So let's, let's extrapolate this even further. If he plays 14 games, he's now on pace for 98 catches over 2000 yards and 36 touchdowns. There is no rule

in the Heisman voting that says you cannot vote for D two or D three players. So can I at least get like a third place vote for this? Let me ask you this, Derek. Do you think that Wayne Ruby is the best player in college football? Well, I'm asking for a third place vote. Could he be the third best? Yes. Mount Union.

What's their record this year? 7-0. Okay. are they like ranked in division three number one team okay and see now you're getting my now you're now you're piquing my interest a little bit um let's circle back to wayne ruby i thought you're gonna make a joke about being like a hidden gem or something like that you see i'm just gonna go ahead and tell everybody this if they don't already know this about you. You have this thing where you love to highlight not just the players that aren't getting enough attention, but players who you don't actually believe deserve more attention. But you just like to be sort of the cupbearer for the unheralded college football stars and teams. I mean, there's so many players, so somebody has to support these people.

And I mean, you know, we've had like Steve McNair was at like an FCS school, and he finished second or third in the Heisman. You know, there's precedent for it. I don't see why you can't vote for him. So that is my pitch for this week. Give me a rating, 1 through 10, of your likelihood to vote for him. The likelihood of me voting for him? I'd say it's pretty low right now. I will say this, you know, last year I didn't even have Bryce young in my top two going into the final week of the regular season at as high as my moment, all of a sudden winds up number one.

Right now I've got Hendon hooker at number one, CJ Stroud at number two, but who knows who could occupy that third spot and who knows who could vault themselves into the top three from now until the end of the year. So the stats are there. I need the Heisman moment. A lot of guys to have stats. CJ Stroud has the best stats in America. Hasn't had the Heisman moment. I'm waiting for Wayne Ruby's Heisman moment. So right now I'm going to give it a four with a chance to rise. Okay. That was higher than I hoped for. Nick, appreciate the time, man.

Thanks, dude. All right. This is Nick Schwer. You can check him out on 610 in Kansas city with Cody and gold and on the wave in the wheat podcast coming up on tomorrow's show. We're going to break down some more KU basketball ahead of their season next week. If you have anything you'd like for the show to talk about or want to fall

along in the action, you can reach out at D Johnson radio on Twitter. have anything you'd like for the show to talk about or want to follow along in the action, you can reach out at DJohnsonRadio on Twitter. Don't forget to subscribe to the show so you're getting all the latest with Locked on Jayhawks now on YouTube as well. That'll do it for today's episode. Have a good rest of your day. I'll see some of you on Rock Chalk Sports Talk later.

Adios.