Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KU Football's Red Zone Defense Turnaround + RB Room Talk + What If: Jason Bean is amazing

Episode Date: October 12, 2022

The Kansas football team has completely turned around it's red zone defense - diving into the numbers for the Jayhawks. Plus, taking a look at the updated running back room following Daniel Hishaw's injury and where Devin Neal, Ky Thomas and Sevion Morrison land. Plus, a What If Wednesday: if Jason Bean is amazing, what happens when Jalon Daniels can come back?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!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 dive into KU in the red zone on defense this year versus last year and a what if Wednesday. I'm Derek Johnson. This is Locked on Jayhawks. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Mondays through Fridays from three to six on KLWN and Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcasts.

On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to dive into KU's red zone fixes on the defensive side of the ball. Today's episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. We'd like to thank LinkedIn Jobs for being the official college football recruiting sponsor across the Locked On College network. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply.

So KU has completely turned around their red zone defense so far this season. Last season, KU was just straight up bad in the red zone on the defensive side of the ball. They were 128th in the country in most red zone trips against per game at 5.3. So they let a lot of red zone trips in to begin with. So they weren't good in the red zone or outside of the red zone. But not only were they bad at allowing teams to get to the red zone, and it happened a lot, that means they had a lot of chances to either be good or bad at it, and they were really bad in the red zone defensively.

So not only did they bend, they broke a lot. They were 120th in the country last year in red zone points allowed percentage, meaning what percentage of drives that reached the red zone against you resulted in touchdowns or field goals. It was over 90% of drives that reached the red zone against you resulted in touchdowns or field goals it was over 90 percent of drives that reached the red zone against you last year resulted in points and that number was 120th in the country one of the you know 10 or 12 worst in the country that was also ninth in the big 12 oddly enough Kansas State was the one team that was worse than you on red zone defense a season ago. But the real number that I like to look at here, I think, is touchdown percentage.

Because touchdown percentage is the amount of touchdowns on the red zone trips that the offense has against you as a defense. Because sometimes just point percentage, that can be a little bit luck. Like, for instance, if you played Iowa State the week KU did and they get to the red zone, they miss a 33-yard field goal. You know, that might be a little bit of luck. Like, for instance, if you played Iowa State the week KU did and they get to the red zone, they miss a 33-yard field goal, you know, that might be a little bit of luck. A butt fumble or just a guy reaching across the goal line and losing the ball, like that's a little bit of luck that you didn't give up maybe any points in that situation. So the real test for me is, can you prevent teams from scoring touchdowns once they get in the red zone? And then you open yourself up for maybe more luck because they have more plays down there so that maybe there's more shots at you

getting a turnover or maybe they do miss a field goal at the very least stopping them to a field goal isn't the worst outcome in the world KU was even worse essentially in that regard of the 58 drives that reached the red zone against the KU defense a season ago, 47 of them went for touchdowns. That's an insane number. 47 of the 58 for touchdowns. That means over 80% of the red zone trips by the opponent were touchdowns against the Kansas defense last year.

The next worst in the Big 12 was TCU at 70% and Texas Tech at 66%. And the distance between KU to Texas Tech from 10th to 8th was about the same from Texas Tech in 8th to the top three. So it wasn't just bad for KU. It was like by far the worst in the conference. And why would they be better at it this year? Because they have turned it around. Well, you have more depth. So as drives goes on, you can sub in good replacements for the tired players and your backups are going to be more adept at making stops.

You're also, because you're making subs over the course of the game, your starters are going to be more rested. And as the drive goes on, even though it's a longer drive and it's going to tire you out more, if they come back into the game, they'll be better prepared and better energized. You know the scheme more. You are just more talented overall, and offensively you've been able to maybe stay on the field a little bit longer, be more successful, so maybe you just are less tired overall on that end of the football. But it has been a night and day improvement on that end of things for KU this year.

That's been as important as anything KU has turned around from last year to this year. The quarterback play being better, the offense being so explosive. Like, yeah, you could divvy things out and say, well, this is the most important and whatever. But this goes up there in that top tier of things that have been most important for what KU turned around from last year to this year. Because Kansas right now, so you go from last year when 80% of red zone trips allowed result in touchdowns, 90% of trips result in points. Kansas has allowed 23 trips to the red zone this year. Good for a little under four game.

They have given up points on just 78% of them, which is the top mark in the Big 12. So you're already a lot better in just the times you're giving up points so far. And the TD percentage has severely dropped. Kansas has given up a touchdown on just 11 of the 23 red zone trips. So less than half the time so far that opponents are reaching the red zone on Kansas, in fact, 48% of the time, they're not finding the end zone. Or I guess I said that wrong. They are finding the end zone on less than half.

So meaning more than half the time, they're not finding the end zone. The only teams in the Big 12 who have been better in terms of touchdown percentage allowed on red zone trips are Texas, who's at 47%, to Kansas' 48%, and Texas Tech, who's been at 42%. They've been really stingy in the red zone so far. But that's a well over 30% increase from last year to this year for KU. 30%. And so if you take KU's 3.8 red zone trips allowed per game this year, and sorry for the kind of in-the-weeds math, I know this is a lot of numbers being tossed at you,

but you revert them to last year, meaning that if you put last year's touchdown percentage onto this year's amount of red zone trips that you're giving up and then compare it to this year, basically last year, if you're giving up four red zone trips, you're giving up three touchdowns and a field goal, as opposed to this year where you're basically giving up two touchdowns and a field goal.

Basically, summing this all up, if you don't really understand the math, that's fine. Here's an easy number for you. KU has essentially shaved off seven points per game on defense just from improving the red zone defense. And you think about the individual games along the way, too. If you just add seven more points to West Virginia, or you think of like they did make a stop. I don't remember if West Virginia was in the red zone or really close to it when it was 42-31 and the field goal made it 42-34. They get a touchdown there and then they get a touchdown later in the game.

Okay, they win the game. Or, you know, getting a pick six, again, that's just outside the red zone. Like that directly led to a win in your kind of red zone defense there. Iowa State, obviously the red zone defense. You know, you're able to hold them to field goals and keep them out of the end zone there that led you winning the game. The Duke game, you held them in the red zone a couple times. That helped you, obviously, win the game.

That was a close game. So, I mean, you're talking about if the red zone defense isn't as good, it's not just shaving off seven points. It's the fact that you can directly point to two or three of the games that maybe the outcome is different in one or two of those or all three of those if the red zone defense is not better. There's just no other way to put this than that facet of the game, that area of improvement for KU has been as

important to their success as anything they've done. It's been a remarkable turnaround and one that has helped a KU team that has to operate in the margins, especially on the defensive side of the ball. And they've done just that. They've taken advantage of great opportunities like just that to maximize what their output is, which has been enough for KU to start 5-1. And certainly if the red zone defense can keep up that way, I think KU continues to have success enough,

at least on the defensive end of the ball, that the offense can score enough to win games. That's going to be so key moving forward because if that does kind of fall apart, then all of a sudden the defense goes from maybe being like nationally average right now to being a not very good defense. So this is kind of the key facet for them, but so far so good on that end of the field. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have access to the best qualified candidates available.

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and the opportunity that Jason Bean has in front of him as part of the What If Wednesday. Coming up on tomorrow's show for Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be joined by Scott Chasen, and we'll talk a little bit more about that. We're going to talk Jason Bean expectations for KU with Jason Bean in the fold and Scott's worst coaching decisions of the week coming up on tomorrow's episode as well. I did want to kind of briefly go over some of the running back stuff, though,

because obviously Daniel Hyshaw was injured in the Iowa State game. You didn't get to see him, obviously, in the game against TCU, nor I would imagine would you for the rest of the season. So Devin Neal ends up with 15 carries in the game. He had a really efficient game for KU. He had, I believe, 88 yards on the 15 carries. Was really good. And he continues to do that really all season long. You're talking about a guy who's averaging mid-six yards per carry.

He's 64 for 421 so far this season. But the 15 carries were his season high so far this year. It was only one more than the Houston game, three more than the Iowa State game, so it wasn't like a severe season high but that was kind of my thought coming into the game that Devin Neal would would get a few more carries like it wouldn't just be hey in the past if we had 20 carries maybe 10 or 11 go to Devin Neal maybe 9 or 10 go to Daniel Hyshaw now we're just going to flip Kai Thomas or Savion Morrison into that kind of second running back role and they're going to get the 9 or 10 carries and Devin Neal's still going to get the 9 or 10 carries, and Devin Neal's still going to get the 10 or 11.

I thought Devin Neal would get a few more, and I think he did in that game, but I didn't think he'd get the lion's share of it, like all of it. Kai Thomas played a lot in that game, 6 carries for 19 yards. He continues to kind of, I don't know, maybe struggle with the scheme, or maybe it's just like unfortunate luck that maybe he's in for some of the plays that aren't being blocked as well. I't know what's going on there because he's he's clearly a very talented running back maybe the injury is still kind of bothering him but he's averaging under

four yards per carry so far in the season and that didn't change in the TCU game in 16 yards of his day came on one carries outside of that five carries for three yards. I kind of wonder if the door could be left open for Savion Morrison. Now, Torrey Laughlin continues to be a guy that I think will play a role and be kind of your third down blocking guy and maybe catch some passes. We did see him in for a handful of snaps in that game. But Savion Morrison, it's a different type of runner than Kai Thomas. So maybe the door won't be opened in that regard because Kai Thomas is more of a power back than Savion Morrison, and that's kind of what you lost with Daniel Hyshaw, so the opportunity won't actually be there. But if you're just looking at the production, Savion Morrison has 150 yards.

He's done that on 13 carries. He's averaging 11.5 yards per carry. We've seen all of the explosiveness and the agility and the speed that he was built up to being as a former four-star recruit that got him to Nebraska. The Tennessee Tech game, 8 for 70. The West Virginia game, 1 for 7. Houston game was like the TCU game. He had one carry. It went for 30 yards. Against TCU, it went 1 for 40. Maybe he'll continue to be kind of more the gadget guy and kind of a change of pace guy that can get a carry or two in a game but if Kai

Thomas continues to struggle like this and Savion Morrison continues to look really good in limited samples again I know it's a very different style of running and maybe for that reason you don't want it to be that way but it's going to be hard to keep Savion Morrison off the field in that regard for those two guys so I'm kind of curious if he can get a little bit more on the table there and I do think like I don't know you might not be able to ever get back what Daniel Hyshaw provided with his power running game Kai Thomas is closer to that but is it better to replicate what you lost with a lesser version of it? Like Kai Thomas in certain ways is better than Daniel Hyshaw, but as far as the power back, I don't think you have as much there.

Are you better off just being like, you know, whatever's working the best, that's what we're going to go with. And that's quite the fast backfield if you have Jason Bean and Savion Morrison kind of in there together working off of each other. So I'll be interested to see how his snap count moves forward. And so far we've just seen more from Savion Morrison if Kai Thomas is fully healthy you would think that he would be the guy and I think they want him to be that other guy that was indicative of the snap count and the

carries that he got as opposed to Savion Morrison I also though wonder with Kai Thomas struggling maybe there is an opportunity for Devin Neal to all of a sudden just be averaging 20 or more carries in a game to kind of lead the load here. That was the case for him against Oklahoma last year, and I think he got a little bit worn down as the season went on a season ago and got hurt at the end of last year that they didn't want to repeat that, but maybe you're in a situation where that ends up being the case because I think right now there's more of a gap between what Devin Neal has provided and Kai Thomas has than you would have thought in the offseason. In the offseason, maybe even some of the coaches would have thought

that Kai Thomas was going to be just as good, if not better, than Devin Neal. But that has not been the case so far, and now there seem to be more questions about some of the other options for KU unless things start turning around for Kai Thomas, which the talent is still there and everything. It just hasn't worked so far this season. But the opportunity without Daniel Hyshaw continues to be there for one of those guys, whichever one it's going to be.

And it's hard not to look at what Savion Morrison has done in those limited sample and be like, yeah, maybe we should see what happens if you get a bigger sample size of as far as, you know, rushing load goes, giving him five carries or something, seeing if that works out in some other regard for KU. that ultra explosive kind of running back type it's just you have him in a quarterback in it all plays to where we don't need two of those in at the same time like you do want the the alternative in it the running back because Jason Bean is the explosive guy to kind of fit that billing of of the archetype of what you're looking for there so I'll certainly be on the lookout for that if this is an opportunity to maybe get some more run for one of those guys or if Kai Thomas continues to get more opportunity and if he can take advantage of that

for really the first time this season against Oklahoma. All right, we're going to take another timeout here. When we come back, we'll get to our What If Wednesday. If Jason Bean just goes off these next couple of weeks or however long Jalen Daniels is injured, could Jason Bean do enough to be the starting quarterback? It sounds a little crazy after the way Jalen started, but we'll get into it coming up in just a moment. If you haven't tried Bilt Bar Puffs yet, you are depriving yourself of one of life's greatest joys. And guess what? There's a new flavor too. Indulgent cookie dough.

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Lance Leipold said at his press conference he'd classify Jalen Daniels as doubtful. It's not really surprising. I've kind of been in the camp that after we heard the reports from Nick, who we had on the other day, that I feel like he's probably going to at least be out the next two weeks and then that gives you two weeks plus the bye week to come back for maybe Oklahoma State after that but at the very least you expect him to be out this week so Jason Bean I'd imagine like very good chance he's the starter this week and plays and whatnot obviously looked really good against TCU four second half touchdown passes for him I believe it was his second most passing yards

ever in a game and he did it all in just one half against a TCU defense that's got a lot of fast and athletic players on that side of the field. I'm curious for the what if. If Jason Bean plays extremely well, could he just win the job? I know it sounds crazy because Jalen Daniels was a Heisman candidate and popping up on all this list and playing as as good as you could possibly imagine before the injury though the Iowa State game was a down game and the TCU game was tough as well he only had a 1.5 total QPR in the TCU game but we saw it a bit last year right I mean Jason Bean was the starter all the way through and then all of a sudden he gets injured Jalen Daniels plays well and he takes the job over the last couple of games and leads into the offseason with the job.

It was a little different because Jason Bean last season was not playing nearly as well as Jalen Daniels was this season. So that does change things here. But if Jason Bean plays that well, like if he continues to play as well as he did against TCU, where you don't necessarily feel like it's a drop-off from what you were doing with Jalen this year, it does make me wonder. I'm not expecting that to happen in terms of Jalen Daniels to not have the job when he comes back. I'm just saying there is a precedent there that if you do play well enough, this isn't a staff that just says you can't lose your job because of injury if you play well and prove that you're the guy even if

it comes from an unfortunate circumstance okay you just proved what you can do so I think that if he does play like I don't know what would have to be but it's entirely possible like what if they beat OU and they beat Baylor and Jason Bean over the next two weeks he has six passing touchdowns no interceptions and he runs for over 100 yards and he's throwing it all around the field and they have all the confidence in the world with him and Jalen could come back the next week but they're like yeah you're still being 90 percent like let's just roll with Jason Bean from here I don't think it's entirely impossible I'm not necessarily picking it to happen,

but I think that is kind of an interesting what-if moving forward. Now, it all just kind of depends on both Jalen Daniels' health and just how well Jason Bean would play. The bar was set very high by Jalen, so it would have to be basically, like I said, the TCU game and maybe Anson moving forward. He can't have more of those interceptions that he had in the game, and there was obviously some inconsistencies. The missed pass to

Devin Neal, the inaccurate pass to Lawrence Arnold. He made a great one-handed catch, though, but again, I don't think it's impossible. That's going to do it for today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks. If you have anything you'd like for the show to talk about or want to follow along on the action, you can reach out to us.

I am available on Twitter, at DJohnsonRadio. And don't forget to subscribe to the show so you're getting all the latest with Locked on Jayhawks. 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 today. Adios.