Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Offensive Coordinator or Quarterback? What Should Change for Kansas Jayhawks Football?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, what change should come first? Offensive coordinator or quarterback? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Derek Johnson, you can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. Derek Johnson, you can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. We got some questions from everydayers on this show, but we're going to lead off off the top here of Locked on Jayhawks talking about if I had to make one change first, offense coordinator or quarterback, what would I choose for KU and why? We'll also finish up with a little update on some of the Olympic sports. KU volleyball ranked in the top 10 right now. Plenty more to come at you on today's show,

Starting point is 00:00:57 which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Place your first $5 bet and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Visit Fanduel.com to get started today. Okay, so I talked earlier this week about that I thought it was kind of time to make a change for KU. And I didn't necessarily say it had to be quarterback or it had to be offense coordinator. I kind of left it up to the coach, I guess Lance Leipold and the coaches in general, because they would have a better idea of, right, it's hard without knowing, without being in the

Starting point is 00:01:30 huddle, without being in the locker room, without, you know, watching the all 22, whatever it is, like knowing, okay, was this play that was a mess? Was this play that didn't work? Was this play that, you know, threw too short of the sticks or didn't have anybody open? Was that because there was a missed read? Was that because the quarterback didn't have a pre-snap read properly of the coverage? Was that because the play call was bad? I mean, do keep in mind now that the play clock, you can talk to the quarterback until 15 seconds. So if there is a messed up pre-snap read, that could be the quarterback or it could be the coach because the coach could be telling them.

Starting point is 00:02:13 It could be 17 on the play clock, and he's like, hey, they're in cover two or whatever, and then he's off, right? And then it ends up being cover three, and the quarterback was like, okay, well, I know in cover two I'm throwing to this guy, and he throws that way, and it's intercepted, right? So I don't know where that blame exactly lies, but I thought about it a little bit more. And I think it makes more sense to me to make the change at offensive coordinator before you make the change at quarterback. And so this doesn't necessarily

Starting point is 00:02:41 mean firing Jeff Grimes. Like he can still be your tight ends coach he can still be because technically it's co-offensive coordinator with Jeff Grimes and Jim Zebrowski now when you hear that co-offensive coordinator title that doesn't mean that both of them are sharing plays or that like you know one play Jim Zebrowski's calling one play Jeff Grimes is calling that's kind of just a in title thing for Zebrowski and he was promoted to that for the bowl game to call plays and then when they hired Gr they just kept, you're not going to demote the title, right? So you just kind of kept with it, but you just change who's calling the plays. Like now Zabrowski is calling the plays. Jeff Grimes can help sit in the meetings and prep or whatever, but I think that would certainly make more sense.

Starting point is 00:03:19 And I also mentioned this earlier in the week that whatever you do decide to do which to be clear I don't know that anything is going to change based on Lance Lightbulb's presser earlier this week it sounds like that's not really the case he was kind of asked about that by a member of the media like how do you approach change and I think he his response was just like well what are you talking about and yeah that didn't go well point being, I'm not expecting any change. But yeah, you basically don't want to change both out at once, is my opinion, because of the fact that what if you change both out and things still don't go well? Or what if you change both out and things do go well? And I guess that would be a good problem to have.

Starting point is 00:04:00 Or things are going well, but there's still some things that are going wrong. it's a little bit harder to pinpoint okay is it the quarterback is it the coaches if you change one out and things start going well you know what the problem was if you change one out and things continue to be bad you now have a hypothesis that the thing we didn't change was the thing all along and then you can make the change out to both, I guess. But again, going back to the idea of why I would make the change at offense coordinator, have Jim Zabrowski maybe call plays and switch that around. We did see Jim Zabrowski as an offense coordinator calling plays. It was in the bowl game.

Starting point is 00:04:37 Kansas scored 49 points. Jason Bean won MVP because of it. I mean, think about this. Jason Bean threw three interceptions. He still won bowl game MVP because the offense hummed so much, right? I mean, they were just throwing it around the yard, over 400 yards passing. You put up 49 points in a bowl game against a team who this year you put up less than half of that against in a home game when that was on neutral site.

Starting point is 00:04:59 And, yes, you could say, oh, well, you know, that team had Dominic Poonie. Nope, he didn't play in the bowl game for KU. And it's like, oh, that team had, you know, I, you know, that team had Dominic Poonie. Nope, he didn't play in the bowl game for KU. And it's like, oh, that team had, you know, I don't know, more time to prepare in the bowl. It's like, whatever. But we saw that, and that went well. I also don't know if this speaks more about Jalen's fall off or about the play calling or more specifically the play design

Starting point is 00:05:20 because I think it's not just that. I don't think it's just the play call. Like, why did you call that play there like why did you call that play there why did you call that play against this you know it's supposed to play design right but in 2022 and 2023 combined I went back and looked at this Jalen Daniels completed 76 percent of his passes between the numbers so basically over the middle of the field and this is something I talked about earlier in the week as well. The best quarterbacks are able to carve you over the middle of the field. And the best coaches are able to open up the middle of the field to help your quarterback throw over the middle of the field. Because if you're only working on the perimeter,

Starting point is 00:05:56 you're not going to be as consistent with your completion percentage. We've seen Kansas team completion percentage drop 10 percentage points this year, right? If you're throwing low percentage passes to the outside, to the flanks, deep balls to the outside, they're not going to get caught as much. They're just not. And that's been a mainstay of this offense. Whereas you think of Andy Kotelnicki offense, you're getting guys open in the intermediate, in the short, over the middle of the field.

Starting point is 00:06:18 So again, Jalen Daniels in 2022 plus 2023 completed 76% of his passes in between the numbers with 14 touchdowns to three interceptions. Those are phenomenal numbers. So far in 2024 in throws between the numbers, Jalen Daniels is now down to 64%. That's a 12% drop. He's down about two yards per attempt in those throws. And he has two touchdowns to four interceptions so he has one more interception with 12 less touchdowns so again part of this could be Jalen part of this could be he's not confident enough to throw over the middle because typically the harder part about throwing over the middle is the windows are tighter right maybe the Illinois game spooked him throwing some early interceptions in the season maybe that spooked him a little bit I don't know but even when I think

Starting point is 00:07:01 about that like the Illinois interceptions were under thrown deep balls or throws to the outside, right? The interception against Lindenwood, that was a throw on the perimeter. That was thrown to the outside. So even though he does have the interceptions this year over the middle, I don't know. And so I look at Jeff Grimes offense so far and it feels like there are a lot of those high difficult throws it feels like this is an offense that is built for five-star quarterback who's six foot five with an absolute cannon for an arm and Jalen has a pretty good arm he's also kind of changed up his throwing motion which maybe that hurts things a little bit I don't know if it like elongates it or it makes it a little bit tougher to throw over the minute whatever it is but like I don't know that this is the right offense for doing this and I think about too like with Andy Kotelicki,

Starting point is 00:07:46 how often did he roll out Jalen Daniels? Jalen's not the biggest quarterback in the world, right? If you're only six feet tall or whatever he is, it can be tough to see over those six, five, six, six offense alignment and the defensive players coming at you. So if you're asking him to just be a pure pocket passer, where it feels like all the throws on the run he's made have been him scrambling before he throws it.

Starting point is 00:08:08 Whereas with the Kotoliki offense, it felt like there was more often of him rolling out for like on purpose design. I feel like that's something else too. And so the other part of this too, if you make a change at quarterback would be, do you believe that Cole Ballard can be as good or better than Jalen Daniels? Or do you believe he can at least be as good, but by making the change of quarterback, it, I don't know, creates a boost of energy. It creates that spark for Kansas. Well, you look at the QBR.

Starting point is 00:08:35 The QBR for Cole Ballard last year was around with the total QBR, I should say, what Jalen Daniels has been this year. And the touchdown to interception ratio last year for Cole Ballard was 1-3. The completion percentage for Cole Ballard last year was 56%. Those would all be drop-offs from what even Jalen is doing right now. Now, very tough situation for Cole Ballard to come in last year when he had to do those things and he had to play, you know, a very good Kansas State defense in one of those games.

Starting point is 00:09:01 And, you know, now with another year under his belt, he could be a lot better. Players get better in college football the more. And, you know, now with another year under his belt, he could be a lot better. The players get better in college football, the more they stay. Breaking news, right? So it's possible that he's way better and he is ready for this. He scored just 13 points in that loss to Texas Tech. Did he show a lot of grit in nearly beating Kansas State and, you know, look good in his limited play against Lindenwood? You bet.

Starting point is 00:09:23 And like I said, players improve. But if we're going through the analogy, or I don't even know if it's an analogy, of the tube of bad, I guess, of, you know, I think about it like of the old Mario games. You'd go in like the green tubes, and you'd just like pop out in another map or something like that. That's how I think about it. Like you were in one map with Andy Korolnicki

Starting point is 00:09:44 and with Jalen Danieliels in 2022 plus 2023 and then jaylen daniels went in the green tube popped out in a different map and now he has instead of five lives with the ability to shoot fireballs out of his hand he has two lives and he can't shoot fireballs out of his hand right like that's what has kind of changed and that going through that process being over to Jeff Grimes again whether it's him whether it's Jeff Grimes whether it's a combination of the two the offense what it looks like whatever it has not been good for Jalen Daniels and so there's a part of me that thinks okay well if if you're having to grade against the curve in a negative way for Jalen Daniels moving to this offense,

Starting point is 00:10:26 what if Cole Ballard by moving to this offense is worse than what we saw last year too, right? What if it's worse than last year when he completed 56% of his passes because of the offense? Now, maybe the offensive style is just better for Cole Ballard. Again, I don't know, but I'd like to see the offense change before the quarterback. And so, obviously, the issues could be both.

Starting point is 00:10:43 The issues could be a little bit of everybody. The could be on the quarterback I don't know but to me I think I would like to see Jim Zebrowski calling plays at this point in time and you're starting to lose a little bit of hope during the season so why not now again maybe it waits till next week because you wait till the bye week and I can totally understand that if that's what you decide to do but uh I definitely think change needs to happen for KU to something on the offense. Otherwise, what are we doing here? All right, let's continue on. Got some fun KU questions from some listeners.

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Starting point is 00:12:15 All right, so I posted on Twitter the other day asking some people for questions. If you had anything you wanted to talk about on the show today. So let's get to some of those. one's from murky mers is it justifiable and or potentially time for devin neal to consider not risking an injury and sitting the season or does that hurt his draft stock also not sure uh how far away he is from certain school records let's just knock that part out right now uh so right now he has 3590590 rushing yards for his career. That puts him two yards behind James Sims in third. He's a little less than 200 behind Tony Sands, who's in second. And then he is 251 yards away from June Henley in first.

Starting point is 00:12:53 He also has 37 rushing touchdowns, which is second. And he's four behind June Henley to tie him in first there. So he is very close to doing those things. I think Devin Neal probably wants to get the record obviously everybody has personal goals attainable goals and everything but Devin Neal is also a very like team first guy that he probably honestly like is more concerned but he wants the team to like go out on top than he he does the individual records now again like those are probably goals he wants to achieve along the way but like I don't think that would be something

Starting point is 00:13:23 that would be holding him necessarily. I do feel very bad for Devin Neal coming back for another year, could have gone to the draft, all that sort of stuff, probably been drafted, certainly would have been drafted. And he has a good offensive line. They can run the football, but now you're getting loaded boxes and you're just not having the team success. It's just, it's very unfortunate for what's going on here. So yeah, I mean, I think it is justifiable

Starting point is 00:13:47 if you wanted to do that, right? I, if he did it, I wouldn't have a problem with it because I would understand. I would understand where he's coming from, especially at the running back position where like, you know, you get a lot of wear and tear and all that sort of stuff. But I also don't know that he will.

Starting point is 00:14:01 He is just built different in a different way that I'm not like expecting it to happen. But yeah, again, if he did, like I would not be at all like one of those people who, oh, he's quite on the team, whatever. No, not at all. Like he has given everything to this program and, you know, he deserves to have individual success at the end of that as well. This one, any concerns we showcase Marshall, Isaiah Marshall, of the last four games, save his red shirt,

Starting point is 00:14:26 and then some power four comes in and NILs him? No, not really. I mean, here's the thing. You can't live in the shadows. You can't. Like, this is the equivalent to, oh, man, I'm so afraid I'm going to, you know, get a speeding ticket on the way to work every day. I'm so afraid that I'm going to slip and fall when I walk outside every day.

Starting point is 00:14:52 Yes, those things can happen, but you can't focus on them. You can't be overly worried about them. So like the reason I say this is you're going to, you're going to scare yourself to death. If you do this game where every time K was a good player, a good quarterback, you start to worry after every game. Oh no. Are they going to sit out and go? Could it happen? Yes, absolutely. But don't focus on it. Don't worry about it. But that said, no, after a freshman year, if he committed to KU, like he's not going to leave after one year. You know what I mean? Like, no,

Starting point is 00:15:25 I wouldn't be worried about that happening at all. To be completely honest thoughts on Jalen Daniels coming back next season and how that will impact as a Marshall Cole Ballard and David McComb. So it feels like it has been one of those things where it hasn't been like outwardly said by Lance Leipold or Jalen Daniels or whoever that this will probably be the last year of Jalen Daniels in Kansas but it also feels like it has been the worst kept secret that that would be the case now I think part of that was the idea of Jalen Daniels to go pro after the season right

Starting point is 00:15:53 and we've seen before like Jason Bean didn't even want to come back last season okay coaching staff had to convince him to come back and he did so like as much as it feels like it's leaning that way is there a chance that things get talked around and things work out and Jalen Daniels is back next season? Of course there is. It also feels though with the way things are going that maybe the route isn't the NFL that, you know, let's say you do end up benching him for Cole Ballard or Isaiah Marshall or whatever it is. If you're Jalen Daniels, you're going, hey, I'm going to leave. And even if you don't get benched, maybe it's best for both parties to have a fresh start, right? In the same way that you see sometimes a young quarterback like Avery

Starting point is 00:16:30 Johnson with Kansas state, Hey, we'll Howard go off to, you know, your next destination. It'll be a fresh start for everybody and it'll be good. We get to play our young guy, right? If they feel confident about Isaiah Marshall or David McComb or Cole Ballard or whoever. So there's a lot of ways this could happen. Maybe transfers goes back home, maybe whatever. I do think a part of this is the NIL money, and I do believe Jalen Daniels is probably making a pretty good amount of NIL money at Kansas. And this is kind of the thing that I don't know.

Starting point is 00:16:57 It's not like super public, so we don't see it. And this doesn't happen like in the NFL or pro sports because you sign a contract. If you get a $3 or $75 million contract, you stink a contract. If you get a three or $75 million contract, you stink after year one, you're still getting that 25 million in year two. But with NIL, somebody is not happy with their performance.

Starting point is 00:17:13 All of a sudden a booster pulls a check, you know, or we're not re-upping that next season. So how does that affect things? Right. Does that make you more or less likely to leave? I don't, I don't entirely know,

Starting point is 00:17:21 but I do view it this way. I'm almost assuming that in 2025, it's not going to be Jalen Daniels. And if it ends up being Jalen Daniels or he figures things out or KU coaching staff, he was able to convince him to come back or he wants to go, whatever it ends up being, then we'll approach that when we get there. And then the last one we got here that we'll have time for today. Grant, we have to talk about Lance. We can blame JD, Grimes, Borland, et cetera, but Leipold is the head coach and his reigns

Starting point is 00:17:44 over the program. It's crumbling faster than it was built. His game management, his in-game coaching has cost us multiple games while he's not making any major changes as of right now. Is he not going to adjust at all? We've practically lost all four games in the same fashion. So I'll say this. A lot of good coaches are stubborn and don't like to change things.

Starting point is 00:18:05 And that's part of why they are good coaches. A lot of good coaches are patient and they let things play out. And that is part of why they are good coaches, because they give guys runways to figure things out and be the best version of themselves. And if you have guys constantly looking over their shoulder, they're not going to be that. And all the horror stories of KU players who had five, six position coaches,

Starting point is 00:18:25 that doesn't happen with Lance Leipold and the staff. So, like, there are a lot of great things about the continuity and the patience that Lance Leipold shows as a coach. I think overall it is a huge positive for the program. I mean, shoot, man, I look at, like, Kirk Ferentz at Iowa. He was so stubborn for years with the offense and everything, this and that, right? Still a really good college football coach.

Starting point is 00:18:47 If you were taking Iowa's run over the last 20 years at Kansas, I would take that in a heartbeat right now. You know what I mean? And so from that standpoint, it's a trait that is to be endeared at a certain standpoint, but when things go south, you have to know when to pull the plug or when to shift something around. And so I think he's probably battling with that a little bit and I can understand why um I have as we talked about

Starting point is 00:19:14 earlier in the show I would make a change but I wouldn't be drastic enough to make like a bunch of change right away and I do think you have to be careful with change and stuff like that um but like also I don't know it's it's a tough place to be careful with change and stuff like that. But like also, I don't know, it's a tough place to be in as head coach, right? You fire somebody too early, you pull the plug too quick, the next coach who's interviewing for the job might think twice about, hey, I have an offer to you and I have an offer to this other Big 12 school. I'm going to go there because it feels like I'm going to have more job security. So it is a lot of things that you kind of have to juggle if you're Lance Leipold

Starting point is 00:19:43 that I do have some empathy for that can be certainly difficult in all of this of what you're going to now that said is Lance Leipold you know fully off the hook and how these losses have happened is it only Jeff Grimes or Jalen didn't no absolutely not like you know it is on the head coach too and some of these things happen at the same point in time I do still have trust that Lance Leipold will get this thing figured out I don't know if it'll be figured out this year feels like time is kind of eroding on that but like I have trust that Lance Leipold will get this thing figured out. I don't know if it'll be figured out this year. It feels like time is kind of eroding on that, but I have trust that Lance Leipold is going to be the right guy continually for the program and everything moving forward. I know that wasn't part of the question here, but yeah, I think at some point

Starting point is 00:20:15 you will have to make some sort of change here coming up pretty soon. Otherwise, you're at risk of having some of the other players on the team checking out and being like, hey, why hasn't this happened? All right, let's finish things up. A little KU Olympic sport update on Locked on Jayhawks. We're brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. And you can get in odds for the KU Arizona State game. You can get in odds for the Chiefs Monday Night Football game against the Saints.

Starting point is 00:20:43 You can bet KU 10-1 to win the national title. and you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel America's number one sportsbook. When you get a hunch in the middle of the game or before the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That is FanDuel.com, Fanduel.com, the official sportsbook partner of the Locked On Podcast Network. Finishing things up on this episode of Locked On Jayhawks, a little KU Olympic sport update.

Starting point is 00:21:17 KU Volleyball still ranked in the top 10 in the latest coaches poll. They're also ranked top 10 in the RPI right now. 11-1 overall record. They just got a sweep of UCF and had a 3-1 home win against Houston. Next up is a big road trip, three straight on the road. Colorado, West Virginia, Cincinnati, and then a home return October 17th against K-State.

Starting point is 00:21:42 It's looking good so far for KU volleyball. Obviously, you got to keep it up, got to stay healthy, all those sorts of things, all those cliches, but they have been a powerhouse so far this season. And then soccer got a 4-0 win against UCF. They did have a 1-0 loss recently, but on the road against 16th ranked Colorado, certainly not a bad result at all. They're now sitting at 5-4-3 this season, 2-3 in conference play. They have a three-match homestand, so volleyball is going to be on the road a lot here. They have a three-match homestand for soccer. Oklahoma State on Saturday, and then BYU in Utah coming up after that.

Starting point is 00:22:11 Also, quick mention, Women's Golf earned a top finish. They were number one at the Golf Week Red Sky Classic among the 16 schools that were competing in that. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back later this week. KU Arizona State Preview coming at you on Friday. This has been LOJ. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Offensive Coordinator or Quarterback? What Should Change for Kansas Jayhawks Football?

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