Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KU Football's Special Teams Turnaround

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

KU Football is top 5 in college football in Special Teams efficiency. What has led to the turnaround and why it's so important for the Jayhawks. How does it compare to past Kansas teams. Plus a What-If-Wednesday: what if Iowa State makes the last FG or doesn't get the 2-point conversion over a PAT?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 take a dive into just how good the special teams has been for KU and how much of a turnaround it was from a season ago. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well on RockShox Sports Talk, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 on KLWN in 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 take a deep dive into the special teams for KU, how much of a turnaround they've had from last season and really in years past to this year,

how much that has helped them be more competitive and find a way to be a better team this year and just kind of taking a look at what's gone into that and everything so we're also going to get to a what if Wednesday but when you look at the Iowa State game going back and this will be kind of around our what if Wednesday Iowa State obviously struggled big time in special teams in that game they muffed the punt they missed three field goals they had a basically messed up snap on a PAT that actually did end up benefiting them because they got the two-point conversion.

But that was another mess up in that regard. So, like, it was basically point blank a very bad game on special teams for Iowa State, right? And we're used to so long KU being that team. KU making the special teams mistakes that costs them a game. Or, like, I think back to a Kansas State game, gosh, I want to say 2018 maybe, maybe 2017, when KU was kind of in it. They lost by, I think, 10 points. Carter Stanley had a big passing game, like over 400 passing yards. Kansas State, I want to say, had, like, a punt return touchdown.

They had another, like, punt or kick that was returned, like, well into KU territory. And it basically lost KU the game um and that's just one of many like examples you can think of plenty other times where it has swung the game or it has just further buried KU like you think the Coastal Carolina game where would KU have been if they didn't have that punt that took forever to get off and was like blocked in the end zone last year in the first half. There have just been so many issues for KU in the special teams game in years past. And it's obviously not everything. If KU was great on offense, great on defense, and terrible on special teams, they would still be a good team.

It is another facet of the game, but it's way less plays than the offensive or defensive side of the ball. But that also means that if you really mess something up, like missing a field goal, like muffing a punt, it's worth so much more because you condense it down to, hey, we might only have 10 special teams or 15 special teams plays, 20 special teams plays in a game. So one mess up is worth multiple mess ups if you extrapolate it out to how many a mess up means to how many mess ups it would take for 60 defensive plays or whatever. And it's been a slog for KU to be successful on the special teams side of things here really ever since Mark Mangino. But you think back to the Mark Mangino days, that was something they took pride in, whether it was a DJ Beshears or Marcus Hereford kick return or punt return touchdown or a Damon Patterson or whatever, or if it was just kick coverage.

And they were able to kind of, because when you're a school that maybe doesn't have all the four and five star athletes, and when you're a team that operates on a tighter margin for error, it's going to very much help you if in a certain facet of the game, you can either gain an advantage on an opponent like special teams or just not mess up. And all of a sudden, hey, now they have a huge advantage in special teams and we have the less talented team. So like you have to be at least reasonable on special teams if you are a team like Kansas to be competitive. And again, if KU's great on offense and great on defense, then yes, it doesn't matter as much, but it can also hold you back. Look at Iowa State. They just lost that game. That's not a first for Iowa State.

Iowa State, I think, lost to Louisiana in the opener a couple years ago because special teams was kind of a disaster. And that team ended up winning the Fiesta Bowl after going to the Big 12 title game. It's just so important if you can sure that up and can be an avenue for increased competition and success and all these things. And it has been for KU directly, probably resulting in two wins with the Iowa State game and the West Virginia game with the muff punt meanwhile KU really hasn't made many mistakes on special teams outside of the FCS game like you had the Luke Grimm muff punt but that was the best time to do it the

opener a team that you were just rolling all over and outside of that like your only mistakes quote unquote from special teams are just like oh we missed a field goal or something like that which that happens especially when the field goal is is maybe 50 yards or something like it was against Iowa State. And when we look at last year, I think we talked about this earlier in the preseason, whether it was here on Locked on Jayhawks or over on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, and that KU actually was pretty good on special teams in a lot of different areas last year. They were actually good in kick coverage. were not having uh high average yards per returning return against them like they were one of the best in the country at that um ku was getting pretty good numbers on their punt

return game and kick return game like they were they were doing well in a lot of those regards but they didn't grade out super well as an overall unit because they just weren't good at the actual kicking part, punting part, or the place kicking part. And those guys are both back this year with Jacob Borchilla and Reese Vernon. So I guess you could say, well, it's kind of the same thing this year. I think both have gotten better in different regards, you know, even if it's slight improvement. I don't think it's like overwhelming improvement, but I think the bigger thing here is just that, like, KU is just not punting or kicking as many field goals right now.

Right now, KU ranks fourth in the country, fourth in the entire country on ESPN's College Football Power Index for special teams efficiency. Fourth in the country. So they have completely overhauled this. And if you say, well, last year we were good at covering punts. We were good at returning punts. We were good at returning kicks.

We were good at covering kicks. It's just sometimes we didn't kick it far enough. Or some of our low special teams numbers were because we missed a lot of field goals. Or we made mistakes with long snapping or whatever well the best way to strengthen yourself is just to say well why don't we do what we're better at right it's the same way if you were to say hey we're elite at running the football but we're terrible at passing the football or vice versa and you're like well then why don't we run the football a lot more than we throw the football or why don't we throw the football a lot more than we throw the football or why don't we throw the football a lot more than we run the football if we have Patrick Mahomes

right like you have certain efficiencies where you can just say okay we're way better at this let's go that way it doesn't always work that way with kicking because you can't just be like oh you know what it's fourth and 12 we're going to choose not to punt the football from our own 10 yard line like no you can't do that but with how good KU has been offensively this year they haven't had to punt as much so if if the weakness of your special teams is maybe the guy who actually is punting the ball away and again I think Reese Vernon has had improvement this year and whatnot you mitigate what the weakness would be. And then, same thing for kicking. Hey, we don't make a ton of our field goals.

We had the lowest field goal percentage in the Big 12 last year. Well, just don't take as many field goals. Go punch it in. Go get touchdowns. And you've been able to do that really over the course of the season really, really well. So that obviously has helped for the special teams. But it's also impossible not to look at this and say, well, they have so much increased depth. They've gotten so much better in terms of

they're too deep, who the backups are. And a lot of your guys on special teams, like, yes, you're going to have certain guys who are playing big roles who are on the special teams that want to take that challenge. That's important to creating that team mentality that guys who are even starters say, no, I want to make an impact on special teams, not just, nah, I'm on special teams, right? So that's important too. But a lot of times the guys who fill around on the special teams might be second stringers, might be third stringers.

And can those guys help make plays? They've even brought in a couple guys over the offseason where it was like, yeah, he transferred in as a walk-on from Michigan or he was a former lacrosse player or whatever, where it was like, we think he's going to really help-on from Michigan, or he was a former lacrosse player, or whatever, where it was like, we think he's going to really help on special teams. We're their special teams dependent players, and that's different than in years past. So you go from being consistently a team that messes up,

that shoots yourself in the foot on special teams, to now all of a sudden through five games this season, you are fourth in the country on ESPN's College Football Power Index for special teams efficiency. That is quite the turn, and like I said, quite directly has probably led to two wins for KU this season. In just a moment, we're going to get into some more of the special teams talk plus a what if Wednesday, but first, the numbers don't lie.

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There's no safe like SimpliSafe. So we know KU, really good at special teams, fourth in the country right now. They've been really good at it. How successful do you have to be at special teams to be a good team? Like I was saying earlier, it's not the be-all, end-all. In fact, among if you were to say, hey, I'm going to have a unit that's really bad and I'm going to have a unit that's elite, like you're saying, OK, well, give me the elite offense or give me the elite defense.

And if I have to pick one of my units that's really bad, you're not going to make your offense or defense really bad. You probably would choose special teams, again, just because there's less plays on the field. So it does have maybe less of an impact than those two, but it still has a big impact on the game. KU's second in the Big 12 right now besides being fourth in the country. Oklahoma State's the only team with a better mark in their special teams efficiency on the College Football Power Index than KU.

And here is how KU has ranked in the Big 12 in that metric since 2010. So we're going to work chronologically from 2010 onwards through last year. Just to give you an idea of, hey, KU has been really bad. Oh, their special teams have been really bad too. Now, whether that's a chicken and egg situation of the, you know, which came first? Are they just bad so the special teams are bad? Are their special teams bad so they're bad overall? Is it a little bit of both? I don't know. 2010, they were ranked 11th of the 12 Big 12 teams. Then they were 10th, 10th, 1st, weirdly enough, in 2013.

I don't know what that's about. 10th, 10th, 9th, 1st, weirdly enough, in 2013. I don't know what that's about. 10th, 10th, 9th, 9th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 7th last season in the first year under Lance Leipold. That maybe doesn't give it its due, though, because we're not just talking about KU being one of the worst teams in the conference in special teams regards. We're talking about them in past years being one of the worst in special teams regards. We're talking about them in past years being one of the worst in the entire country. Here are their rankings from 2010 through 2021

on the College Football Power Index for special teams efficiency. 98th, 108th, 129th, 125th, 107th, 124th, 85th, 95th, 121st, and 92nd. So outside of the one random year where they were 27th, there was not a single other year in there where they were even top 80. And most of those years you're in the hundreds or you're near the bottom of the entire country. I mean, that's, I think four years in there, in that span where you were in the hundreds or you're near the bottom of the entire country I mean that's I think four years in there in that span where you were in the bottom 10 of the entire country when you look at the big 12 last year Baylor who won the big 12 was first in special teams efficiency the entire top six in the big 12 made bowl games in that regard outside of Texas which I feel like that has been a common theme. It's like

we do all these stats and we're like, oh, if you're, you know, this much of a scoring offense, every team makes a bowl except for Texas. When you're this good of a running team, every team makes a bowl except for Texas. That was just kind of the case for last year's Texas team, just kind of a weird year for them. But it's like anything. If you're good at something, that's never a bad thing. It's a positive. It can help you win games. Or on the flip side, if you're bad at something, it can help you lose games. The more bad things you stack up, the more likely you stink. You're just not good, right? The more bad things you do, the more likely it is you're bad. The more good things you stack up,

the better chance you have of being a good football team. The more good things you stack up, the better chance you have of being a good football team. The more good things you do, okay, that's good, right? Very simple, very obvious. Kansas has a good offense. They've got a good quarterback. They've got a good coach. They've got a good staff altogether. They've got a good running game. We know that.

They've got good tight ends. They've got good blocking. They have a defense who's been really good at preventing big plays. They have a defense that's been good at stepping up in key moments. And so far, they have a good special teams too. Not just a good special teams, one of the best in the entire country. So it all adds up. This is not me saying special teams are the most important thing for KU

or that even if they were this good on special teams, but they weren't good on offense and they weren't good on defense, that it would turn into them being a good team. But you stack it up and it starts turning you from, you know, maybe just a one-sided team or maybe just a solid team to a complete team. And again, I go back to the idea, if West Virginia doesn't muff that punt, and that's less about maybe you doing something on special teams, though it was a great pickup by Torrey Laughlin to grab it before it went out of bounds,

it's the idea that if you're the team who's not messing up on special teams, there's going to be games where other teams do. Because that's just how special teams work. A lot of the biggest plays on special teams. Are just the ones that you don't make. Or the ones that you mess up on. So if you can just be good in that regard. You're going to have an advantage in certain games.

And maybe that's been worth two extra wins this season. I mean it was certainly nice to see KU not being the team missing three field goals or muffing a punt or losing the game on that end, because that is exactly what Iowa State did. And the Jayhawks are no longer that team that's shooting themselves in the foot in regards to special teams. And in fact, they're excelling at it and it's helping them win games as opposed to maybe in years past where it was just a net neutral or in a lot of cases a net negative for KU. More on the KU special teams we'll get to our what if Wednesday coming up in just a moment here but first this episode is brought to you by Built Bar. If you haven't

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What happens in the game? At that point, there wouldn't have been a ton of time for KU's offense to go down and try to score. It would have been a tie game. We saw in the West Virginia game, it was tied, and KU opted to just kind of kneel the ball out with, I think it was like 29 seconds, I want to say, against West Virginia and opt to play for overtime. I would imagine in a game where Iowa State's defense was playing really well, you probably would have done the same in that game. And then how would you have liked your chances in overtime? Well, given the way that Iowa State was missing all their field goals, I think you would have liked

that opportunity in the way that your defense has been good at bending, not breaking in that game specifically too. You probably would have liked your chances there, but you never like to leave things up for an overtime, which is more of a kind of 50-50 probability. If just one thing doesn't go your way, you have one bad sack, one fumble, like it's over, you could lose the game. I don't think KU would have been aggressive, though, at the end of regulation to try to go score based on what we saw over the course of the game. So it was big time that they lost.

Now, I also wonder if you're to add another kind of what-if caveat here to our what-if Wednesday. What if Iowa State just makes the PAT instead of getting the two-point conversion there? So if you remember, it was 14-0 KU. Iowa State scores a touchdown. They're kicking a PAT to make it 14-7. The snap is high, and the holder has to try to make the most of it what he could, and he did.

He ends up running it in for a two-point conversion. So now it's 14-8. Let's say they do make the PAT. The snap's good. They make the PAT. it's 14-8. Let's say they do make the PAT. The snap's good, they make the PAT, it's 14-7. Now instead of it being 14-11 later in the game, it's 14-10. So now Iowa State, instead of kicking that field goal at the end of the game, down 14-11, has to go for it on fourth down and one in that game.

And in that game, Iowa State did a pretty good job of converting on fourth downs. And obviously fourth down and one is, I would say, always pretty much going to favor the offense. So the chances of Iowa State converting on a fourth down and one were better than them not converting in that situation. But they were four of five on third down overall, which is crazy because they were only five of 18 on third down. So KU did a good job stopping them there. But then if you add that in, then Iowa State was essentially like, well, that'd be like nine of 18. If you just say, well, when you got to third down,

how many ended up being first downs later in that possession? Basically half the time when you add the fourth down. So they'd been really good and maybe they should have gone for it on that fourth down, even regardless, because the kicker was struggling and he had a chance to maybe win the game and still had some time to try to go in for it. But honestly, looking back, the fact that they kicked that field goal, if they're down four, obviously they don't even have that option. They would have had to gone for it. So the fact that they did not get the PAT on the high snap and got the two point conversion

instead of it being one. At the time, you might have been like, you've got to be kidding me. Of course that break would go their way. That break in the end might have actually favored Kansas. In fact, I feel confident saying it did favor Kansas in a lot of ways. Kind of a weird game in a lot of ways for KU to beat Iowa State, but I think it kind of worked out in the end in some of those weird plays that happened. On tomorrow's show, we're going to be joined by Scott Chasen.

If you have anything you'd like for us to talk about with Scott or for the show to talk about at all, if you 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. Give us a five-star review if you could. 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.