Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KU Runs All Over Houston And Is Officially Good at Football + Comparing Jalon Daniels to Todd Reesing

Episode Date: September 19, 2022

KU dominates Houston and runs all over them. What it means for the 3-0 Jayhawks and Lance Leipold's bunch. How do we re-evaluate the team. Goats of the week, featuring Andy Kotelnicki, Jalon Daniels, Lonnie Phelps, and more. Plus, comparing what Jalon Daniels is doing to what Todd Reesing did in 2007.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!NugenixNow get a complimentary bottle of Nugenix Total T when you text COLLEGEto 231-231. Text now and get a bottle of Nugenix Thermo, their most powerful fat incinerator ever, with key ingredients to help you get back into shape fast.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 edition of Locked on Jayhawks, KU is good at football. I'm Derek Johnson. This is Locked on Jayhawks. You can also 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, KU has crossed over from just being a cool story

to just maybe being legitimately good at football. And the talk of can they contend for a bowl has kind of turned into they should contend for a bowl. And maybe there's even more than that to talk about here. Takei takes down Houston 48-30, and I said that the Texas win at the end of last season, that was the arrival, that was the mark of, okay, this staff is starting to get something going,

we know you have something here, but let's see more of it, and let's see what it looks like in another season. Last week against West Virginia, that was the confirmation that this team, that in year two under the Lance Leipold era, would compete and would be at least a bowl contender. Which a bowl contender, you could win four or five games. You're contending for a bowl. I had this team winning, I said, three to four games at the start of the season

or before the season started. I didn't have them winning at West Virginia. I didn't have them winning at Houston. That tells me I have them winning five to six. But that's just based on the idea that, hey, I didn't have them winning those. Now I have them. Now they did win those. I think from what we've seen, it's not as simple just to say, hey,

they won two more games than maybe I expected them to. I think it's, hey, they won two more games than we expected them to because they are actually like a really good football team. I don't know. It gets weird with what we're talking about here. Like, is this a, you know, college football playoff contender, a Big 12 title contender? No, I'm still not going that far. But what if this is a team that, you know, we always talked about the search for could they even contend for a bowl or could they go bowling? Have we sold ourselves too short? Could this team win seven or eight games? I know there were some out there that were bold enough to go up to nine games, and I thought it was a little crazy.

And I still think it's a little too far-fetched for me to get up to that point. But, hey, more power to you. And KU has certainly looked really, really good through this point in the season but this win over Houston makes me think this is a bowl caliber football team at the very least this season if you take care of business with Duke which it's it's weird for Kansas to now be in this light that they will be this Saturday and that comes with handling a whole new set of expectations and maybe the target being on your back, which we're not used to at all for KU. But your nine-point favorites on the opening line for BetOnline,

you're going to have a juiced-up crowd playing back home after a 3-0 start after what you did the last two weeks. It is an 11 a.m. game. I wonder if this is going to be a sellout. At the very least, it's going to be 40,000 plus. Like, I feel very confident 40,000 plus. I'm thinking around 45,000. I think if this was like a 2.30 game or a night game on Saturday, it would be a sellout, and it might be a sellout anyway, but I think the crowd is going to be juiced. I think it's going to be ready to go. I'm excited to see what the booth looks like

this upcoming Saturday. Point being, it's a game that you're expected to win, which again feels weird for KU football against a power five opponent. And at the very least, in the back of your mind, it scares you a little like, oh, is this the classic KU football? Like now we have all the expectations in the world. Now everybody's talking about us. Now we're finally getting the ship right and you lose to Duke. But I think what we've learned from the start of this season and what we've learned from the Lance Leipold so far, it's weird to call it an era because it hasn't even been a second full season yet, is that this isn't past KU football.

Like, this is different. This is different. We can start approaching it differently because everything we've seen has been different from the way that practices have been handles from the way to player development and to even the way that hey you won two road games for the first time in like what 13 years something like that this is there or maybe it's more than I think 15 years where you look at the last like five coaches and they had like less road wins combined than Lance Leipold already has. So it's just different.

But there's no reason that if you don't take care of business and beat Duke and now you're 4-0, and the way that you have looked to this point, not just in getting to 3-0 and that you've, hey, you're 3-0 and it's a cool story and you're winning these fluky wins. No, you have looked dominant at certain times of the games. You went on a, what, 42-17 run or something like that, or a, I'm trying to think, 35-10 run at one point against West Virginia. You went on a 42-7 run at one point against Houston.

You got two road wins over essentially Big 12 schools. There's no reason if you beat Duke Saturday you shouldn't find two more wins from there. Lance Leipold's just legit. It makes you realize, too, in what Lance Leipold has done here in year two, and I get it, it is a little different because maybe some of the coaches in the past didn't have good scholarship numbers, and now with the NCAA transfer portal like that changes things a little bit more and also with the role the NCAA passed over this offseason that you

can just you know get up to your number over these next couple of years it does make it different and it does make it more allowable to bring on all these transfers KU did and be more competitive right away but still when you look at the guys who have made the biggest impact for this team on them winning all these games, most of them haven't been the transfers right now. It's been guys who were already in the program and are making jumps from last year to this year. Like, yes, there are exceptions, like Mike Nowitzki transferring in last year,

Rich Miller, stuff like that. But Jalen Daniels, you know, that wasn't a transfer into the program or anything. And so it just makes you realize, like, all the talk that, you know, you would go back and talk, like David Beatty, for instance. It was like, oh, man, you got to give this guy more. And I think locally, like, that kind of run its course. But I know there was some sense from national media of, oh, Kansas is on the up and up. You got to give this guy more time.

You've got to be patient. And we hear that all the time with coaches nowadays. Like, you've got to be more patient and everything. And I do think sometimes it, you know, the cord gets pulled way too early. Like, when you have guys who get fired after a year or after two years, and you see these incredibly high buyouts that are being paid, like, yes, that is too early. But at the same point in time, the idea that, hey, you need to give it time, there becomes a certain line where it's like, no, that's kind of BS.

And it's different for every sport, right? Like basketball or baseball or football, like they're all different in their timelines and how long it might take to build a program. But I think what we've seen here in college football specifically is that most guys, like if they're going to work, it's going to hit in the first two, three years, maybe year four. But for the most part, by year two or year three, it's hitting in year two here now for KU. So the idea that, oh, you didn't give Charlie Weiss or David Beatty or whatever coach enough time, okay, well, Lance Leipold figured it out at the beginning of year two.

When year one, it wasn't even a full season. Good coaches find ways to be competitive rather quickly in the college football front. Again, it's different sport to sport. But this team's offense is incredible. It's not just that it's fun to watch, because that's a big part of it too. Like, you're looking to be entertained, and boy are they entertaining. But it is leading to wins. It is leading to big wins you win by 18

points at Houston a team who was ranked last week you have been elite at running the football you had over 200 rushing yards against West Virginia a front that stifled Pittsburgh to under 80 rushing yards and under three yards per carry you faced a Houston defense that was only given up a little over three yards per carry on the season and KU ran all over them for nearly 300 yards Jalen Daniels making big play after big play you're converting all these third downs you're converting in the red zone Andy Kolnicki has been master class whether it's just the simple play calls whether it's the trick plays we saw the fourth down and then we saw later in the game on the

goal to go situation the kind of counter off that same trick play it has just been an elite offense so far to start the season for KU you look at all these national statistics Jalen Daniels popping up at the top of total QBR leaderboards KU popping up near the top of rushing yards per play KU popping up in the top five in points per game. And with West Virginia and Houston, those are both solid defenses. Like Houston coming in by certain metrics was a top 25 defense coming into that game. And they were very much so last year. West Virginia was a top 25 defense last year. They lost some players. I don't know if they'll be top 25 this year, but that's still a good defense. And you torched both of them. You're

still working on a little bit of the element of surprise with the start of that kind of triple option game which that's certainly helpful and maybe that doesn't last and for the entirety of the season but even if that stuff goes away you're so multiple and you have the quarterback and you have the running game and the offensive line has played great that even if something goes down you're going to pick it up in other ways and they're just not making mistakes. That's another big part of this, too, and that leads to how good this coaching has been. Outside of the Luke Graham dropped punt in the first game of the season, haven't been any special teams flubs. We used to see that all the time for KU.

The defense has had two slow starts in back-to-back games, but I feel like that's really good coaching when you look at how they've adjusted and when you look at how they've clamped down a little bit more whether it's the second quarter whether it's the second half that kind of tells you that okay the coaching maybe is adjusting well there this is no longer just a cute college football story of a team who might scare some of their opponents and might win three or four games and continue to be on the rise headed into the future and headed into 2023 when they could really strike. No, this team is ready now. And for anyone who said this team could win six games, hell, even those people who did say they could win eight or nine. I'm still not quite to that

point, the eight or nine, but have your time in the sun and good on you because Saturday was a statement. What was that statement? A road win where you your time in the sun and good on you because Saturday was a statement. What was that statement? A road win where you coasted in the fourth quarter over a team ranked last week and had that 42 to seven run at one point for your second straight away from home. The statement was the West Virginia game wasn't a one-off. The statement was this team, the 2022 Kansas Jayhawks are a good football team. And at this point, it would almost be disappointing. In fact, it would almost be disappointing. In fact, it would be disappointing if you didn't make a bowl game,

which I would not have thought I would be saying that through three weeks of the season. In just a moment, we're going to get on to our good and bad goats of the week. We've also got a fun Jalen Daniels vs. Todd Rees in comparison to get to. This is Locked on Jayhawks. 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 week's games.

BetOnline is also your continued source for all your 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 MLB, MMA, boxing, and golf. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. BetOnline, where the game starts. Obviously, you can get KU-9 for the game against Duke. They're going to be juiced up. Duke's pretty good.

They're 3-0, but it's hard to totally tell how good they are because part of the 3-0, really their, I guess, statement win, quote-unquote, was Northwestern. It was like, oh, Northwestern beat Nebraska. They look pretty good this year. Northwestern's sense has looked pretty bad. So maybe Northwestern's not that good. Maybe Duke isn't quite as good as the 3-0 record indicates. Whereas with KU, we know as good as the 3-0 record indicates whereas with KU we know as part

of their 3-0 they've won two power five road games including one very decisively last week that I think right now the early lean for me is it's just hard to see KU favored by that many points against a power five school so that make you think Duke but I kind of want to lean KU and just kind of trust in the fact that they keep doing it like feels like books are kind of want to lean KU and just kind of trust in the fact that they keep doing it. It feels like books are kind of underselling them right now. So I'll go with KU minus nine early reaction on Monday, but we'll talk more about that coming up on Friday. Coming up on tomorrow's show, we're going to be joined by Nick Schwert. We've got to get to our Goats of the Week.

Lots of good. Again, you could just put everyone, the whole team, Lance Leipold, whatever, for Saturday against Houston. Good Goats of the week, Andy Kotelnicki, again, mentioned how great he was with the play calling and everything, keeping the defense guessing, and some of the trick plays he ran. It was just, everything seemed to work for Kotelnicki in that game. How could Jalen Daniels not be on here? It wasn't like a gigantic passing game for Jalen Daniels, but he was efficient when he was passing,

and it was an unbelievable rushing game for Jalen Daniels. And again, I think it was a reminder, and this just kind of builds off the West Virginia game, like because you had Jason Bean, and we know he's so fast and such a good runner, it almost undersold how good of a runner Jalen Daniels could be. Like it was this idea that Jason Bean's the running quarterback, Jalen Daniels the passing quarterback, who is mobile, but he's not like a run-first guy. And to be clear, we didn't see this level of running from him last year. Like, we would see the occasional takeoff or

scramble or whatnot. We always knew he was mobile, but not necessarily that he was this great of a runner. And I go back to when he was being recruited. Like, you see some of the other schools that were in, or I guess not just in on him, but that he was considering, right? There were, like, some of the service academies in there. I know Army was in there. What does Army do? They run triple option. You got to be able to run.

You got to be able to be a good runner if you are a quarterback in the triple option scheme. There's your answer for Jalen Daniels. How about the KU running game the offensive line the tight ends kind of in general again it was kind of a mix of who got all the rushing yards Jalen led the way but then with Daniel Hyshaw and Devin Neal they continued to plant their flag in the ground as being those top two running backs I think after we saw it against West Virginia it was was like, okay, it looks like

it's those two guys, but let's see what it looks like another week forward. And it was those two again, one carry for Savion Morrison was a big carry on that kind of like jet sweep. And then just two carries for Kai Thomas. So those two continue to do it, but it was just a mixed effort and you have to give the offensive line and the tight ends credit tight ends continue to, and it was a good receiving game for the tight ends too, right had the Trevor Cardell Mason Fairchild like everybody uh the Jared Casey touchdown grab but the tight ends continue to really impress run blocking and being a part of being a staple of what the offense wants to do for KU opening up these huge holes same with the offensive line and the fact that they still have

not given up a sack. I mean, that Houston defense had recorded eight sacks through the first two weeks of the season, four per game. Derek Parrish had four alone and over six tackles for loss against Texas Tech last week. He held them pretty much in check in that game, so give big credit to the offensive line for KU in that game and opening holes for the running game. And then how about the KU pass rush after not really being existent in the West Virginia game, which I think partially was because West Virginia was getting the ball out really quickly, but there certainly wasn't a ton of push from KU in that game. They got it going against Houston. I think it helps when you get up big, certainly, that you're going to be able to pin your ears back a little bit more. But Houston never really decommitted from the run.

Lonnie Phelps didn't have any sacks, but he had a big impact in the game. He had a bunch of tackles. He had three quarterback hurries. He might have helped some others get sacks, whether it was extra attention to him or just forcing the quarterback to kind of slide somewhere in the pocket that someone else got the sack. KU ended up with four sacks in the game.

They ended up with six tackles for loss. And just in terms of QB hurries to get pressure, Jeremy Robinson, Hayden Hatcher, Caleb Sampson all had two. Phelps had the three. Then you got a handful of other guys who each had one. As a team, you had 15 quarterback hurries. You had those sacks, and you had another QB hit. It was a great game

for the KU pass rush to really get all after Clayton Toon and the Houston offense and after Houston started up 14 nothing from there you know you give up 16 points over the last three quarters of the game to that Houston offense now you're looking at between like if you counted the the overtime against West Virginia as a quarter basically over the last six quarters of the last two games you played, so second quarter through fourth of Houston, third quarter, fourth quarter, overtime against West Virginia, you would have only given up 30 points over six quarters, which that is a really good mark for KU to live on.

Now on to the bad goats. Again, not really many you'd want to consider. The bad goats would be KU's starts to the game, especially defensively, giving up some of that early stuff. You're going to have to figure that out going moving forward because you can't continue to just be like, hey, we're going to spot them a 14-point lead. And I will say it is good from a standpoint of live betting KU if you're early in the game. Daniel Hyshaw is a good goat because he's been amazing, but we do need to mention this is two straight weeks now that he's gotten away with fumbling the football was able to pick it back up so good GOAT for being able to pick up the football

good GOAT because he's been awesome to start the season and maybe this is just a footnote if he never fumbles again over the course of the season but certainly something to keep an eye on because you don't want that in a closer game in a game where you lose the fumble to cost KU the game. So kind of keep note of that and you hope it doesn't come back up, but certainly something to make note of now. The other last bad goat is pro football focus because, you know, I've touted pro football focus numbers here and we've talked about them

and we've talked about that they're flawed and you have to kind of take them with a grain of salt, but they can be helpful in certain ways there's just a reference point nothing more nothing less but I don't know what's going on they they gave KU a 15 pass blocking grade 15 out of 100 in the game KU gave up zero sacks like I get it it's not just about sacks it's about QB hurries and pressures and whatnot and so that's not the be-all end-all but when when you were playing a really good Houston defensive line which I know they don't take into account the the opposition and that's part of the flaw but you don't give up any sacks it's like okay I get it if they had a bunch of pressures maybe they're not a 90 out of 100 but a 15 like come on that's a little silly so bad on pro football

focus which is already uh not getting great love love with kind of the Patrick Mahomes discourse. So that'll kind of only add to it. Okay, in just a moment, I want to kind of compare and contrast what Jalen Daniels has done to start this season and how that would kind of pace out to the 07 season from Todd Reising. Because it sounds almost sacrilegious to ever be like, through three games of a quarterback season, hey, he might be having as good, if not a better season than Todd Riesing, but kind of make that argument, that in just a moment. It's only been three games for Jalen Daniels,

so I'm not saying that he is going to have a better season than Todd Riesing did in 2007, or that right now, because even though it is a smaller sample size, he's having a stronger season already. I'm just saying that if he continues this pace, which I'll get to the numbers here in a second, we would look back on it at the end of the year and be saying

he had the best KU individual quarterback season probably of all time now it gets weird when you look back at certain years because if you're comparing it statistically it's obviously going to blow up more for the guy playing now there's more offense more stats and everything if you're looking at it from a standpoint of how you did versus your competition then no that might be a little tough to to get above like David James who finished fourth in the Heisman you would have to say you finished third in the Heisman or better to say you had a better season. So it just kind of depends how you look at it. But in terms of statistically and what it meant to KU going to an Orange Bowl and whatnot, I think a lot of people would classify

that 07 Todd Reese senior year as the best individual season for a KU quarterback. Again, if you wanted to argue David Jaynes or a year from John Hadle or someone else like a Nolan Cromwell or whatever, I'm all here for it. But just for the sake of this, let's compare it to Todd Riesing. So again, it's only three games, but I want to compare and contrast on a prorated 12-game schedule.

So for Jalen Daniels, that means basically multiplying everything times four. For Todd Riesing, I'm taking away the bowl game against Virginia Tech. So we're just going to have the comparison of 12 v 12. It's also good to bring up here that when you look at the stats, Todd Riesing also probably had more help around him. Like this team has a great running back group. That team had a couple really good running backs as well, though, with Brandon McAnderson and Jake Sharp. Maybe this one's a little bit deeper, but those are kind of comparable. The offensive line has been great for KU to start

this year, but that offensive line was, I don't know, probably one of the best in the country. You had a first-team All-American at one of your tackle spots. Then you look at the receiver position. Like, again, these receivers have been better than maybe we thought before the season. Not necessarily like a go-to guy. They just kind of spread it around, and they've all been able to get the job done. But that team's receiver court, you had Marcus Henry and Dexton Fields who were both studs. You had Kerry Meyer and Desmond Briscoe who were kind of buddying up and as you're three and four, you had an NFL tight end in Derek Fine. So you had a little bit more help around that 07 racing team around him. So keep that in mind as well. But if you just look

at the raw stats, Jalen Daniels, based on what he's's done so far if you prorate it out to 12 games he's completing 67 percent of his passes over 2,200 passing yards 28 passing touchdowns to four interceptions and nearly a thousand rushing yards with 12 rushing touchdowns. Todd Riesing, meanwhile, if you take out the bowl game, so his first 12 games of that 07 season, 63%, over 3,200 passing yards, 32 passing touchdowns, six interceptions, 203 rushing yards, and two touchdowns. So mash it all together. Jalen Daniels right now is on pace for over 3,200 total yards and 40 total touchdowns. Todd Reising is on pace for, or I guess not on pace. He did in the first 12 games had over 3,400 total yards. So 250 more than what Jalen's on pace for 34 total touchdowns. So six less total touchdowns. The yards are pretty equivalent. If Jalen continues on this pace,

we might be talking about him in the conversation already of being one of the greatest quarterbacks in KU history. That's how good he has been to start the season. You look at total QBR, too, popping up at the top of the country. He has been un-freaking-believable, and that's a big reason why KU is 3-0. Coming up on tomorrow's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be joined by Nick Schwert, who is a Heisman voter, so we'll ask him about, I don't know, where would Jalen rank?

Would he be getting one of his Heisman votes if he had to submit his ballot right now? 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 at DJohnsonRadio on Twitter. 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. See some of you on RCST later today.

Adios.