Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - OFFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT: Jim Zebrowski Replaces Grimes + Kansas Basketball, Bill Self Start Boot Camp

Starting point is 00:00:00 It wasn't perfect in the loss to Missouri, but the Kansas offense certainly looks improved from where it was last year, and I think Jim Zabrowski has done an excellent job as the OC for KU. We're going to get into the improvement he's shown over Jeff Grimes and how the offenses look different in addition to a little KU basketball boot camp talk on today's on today's episode Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the The Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on, Derek Johnson here at D. Johnson Radio on Twitter at L.O. underscore

Starting point is 00:00:39 Jayhawks for our Twitter account there as well. In today's episode of Locked-on Jayhawks, we are going to be breaking down the Jim Zabrowski offense, comparing it to the Jeff Grimes offense, where some of the improvements have come from and what some of the differences are among it. We're also going to get into the Kansas basketball boot camp talk and some of the latest news as well. Thank you if you're an everydayer, and thank you, no matter how you're tuning into the podcast, whether it's anywhere you get your audio side of things or on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show.

Starting point is 00:01:08 Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. Football season is around the corner. In fact, it's here. Visit the Fanduel app today and start planning your future bets now with Fandual. So the KU offense is off to what I think is a pretty good start to the season. And, you know, you put up 31 points on a very talented Missouri defense. Now, I guess some of that was aided by the fumble return touchdown, but that's even with, you know, a few mistakes here or there,

Starting point is 00:01:37 maybe not playing ultra-aggressive on a few moments here or there. And I think overall, like, I've been pleasantly, you know, I don't know, pleased, I guess, with the way that the offense has looked and the way that Jim Zabrowski has been calling plays for the KU offense to this point in time. So I wanted to take a look just how does this offense compare, to the Jeff Grimes offensive last year. I want to look at it statistically. I want to look at what are some of the differences that they're doing.

Starting point is 00:02:04 And I think one of the big differences that we'll find is how they're throwing the football specifically. But let's just look at the raw stats to start. So if you look at the 2024 season, Kansas wound up averaging just a hair under 30 points per game at 29.7 points per game. So far this year, Kansas is at 36. And you might say, okay, well, you know, they have the Wagner game in there. And that's a third of the output so far. and that's totally fair, but also KU playing Missouri is a third of the output so far. So every game, you know, is a bigger sample size and you could say, okay, well, you know,

Starting point is 00:02:36 a third of last year's output wasn't an FCS team, okay, but how much of a third was it, you know, was it against Missouri and Fresno's looked pretty good so far, but still the yard per game is pretty similar. The yard per play is actually a little better for this year, 6.8 to 6.6.6. Pass yards per game is the big increase, almost 40 yards better per game this year. The yards per pass is much bigger, over half a yard per game bigger. And the big difference there is the air yards per attempt. Last year, just 7.4 air yards per attempt.

Starting point is 00:03:05 This year, 9.9. So you're putting a much bigger stress on the defense in what they have to cover defensively. Now, last year was a better rushing team. 211 rushing yards per game. This year, you're at 173. Again, though, that's that sample size of the Missouri game that's really going to tank that down. Yards per rush last year, five and a half, this year, 5.1. I don't know how much of that I give.

Starting point is 00:03:26 to Jeff Grimes though I think I give more of that to just you having Devon Neal on last year's roster this year's team also the turnover per game number is down about a half so overall when you look at those statistics like it's clear so far this offense is pacing to be a better offense statistically than it was a season ago but what makes up of that right like what are reasons you can point to that okay this Jim Zabowski offense is different than the Jeff Grimes one well one is run past split to me and again part of this is the idea that Kansas couldn't run the ball against Missouri, so it's going to heavily wait some of these numbers. But so far this season, Kansas is running the ball 53.6% of the time. They're

Starting point is 00:04:06 passing at 46.4%. And even though you could say, okay, well, they couldn't run in the Missouri games, that's going to skew the numbers, you probably ran more than you would normally in the Wagner and Fresno State games, given that in the second half of those games, it was out of play. And obviously, you're going to run the football more and just kind of eat up the clock and chew up those game. So maybe that stuff kind of balances out. Now, you look at that. So closer to a 53-47, 54-46 type split. Last year, they were running the ball 59% of the time. They were throwing at 40.7% of the time. I think part of that was, again, you had Devin Neal. I think part of that was there was some shakiness a season ago with Jalen Daniels where he's been better this year and

Starting point is 00:04:44 look more like the guy we were accustomed to for so many seasons. But I think it's a better balance on this year's play calling so far with Jim Zabrowski. One thing I wanted to look at, too is like, where are they throwing the ball? Where are they running the football between the differences of the two? Well, in 2024, KU's most rush attempts came off the left edge and off the right edge is their top two zones. So for in 2025, that's actually similar. Their top two zones are left edge and right edge. And it's actually funny enough, like it's slightly more yards per carry this year going that way. But again, boosted by the small sample size, including the Wagner game. One difference of where they've been running this year to last year, last year, last year. Last

Starting point is 00:05:24 year they're one of their biggest zones outside of going off the edge was off left guard this year it's off right guard which i think that comes down to i don't think that's a personal preference thing of like jeff grimes like oh i love to run off the left guard or i'm and uh you know jim strabosky's like i love to run off the right guard i think that's a personnel thing you look at having coby baines who's at an excellent start to the season for k u at right guard he's your experienced guy on the inside um between those two guard positions so they're running off that more whereas you look at year who was their left guard it was michael ford who was one of the best guards in the big 12 so they were running off that guard even more so i think that's more of a personnel decision honestly when you

Starting point is 00:06:02 look at the running like where they're running the football it is very similar to what they were doing with jeff grimes so that's not the big difference here again there's a little difference in production that's because you had devon neal the big difference is what comes in throwing the football for this current offense so you look at the 2024 passing chart for what jayette's Jaylen Daniels did. You look at the, and this is from Pro Football Focus, you look at the 2025 version of that passing chart for Jayland Daniels. And there's a couple things that stick out to me that are a big difference

Starting point is 00:06:37 between where they were throwing the ball last year to where they're throwing it this year. For the throws, or I guess I should put it this way, making up 23% of the throws. So almost a quarter of the throw attempts for Jayland Daniels in 2024 were throws of 20 or more yards downfield. That number's down to 17% this year. So they're not taking quite as many deep shots this year where it felt like they were honestly taking too many with Jeff Grimes. And you see the success of selective throwing downfield. This year, they're averaging almost 18 yards per attempt, two touchdowns, no picks. Last year, they were averaging 13 yards

Starting point is 00:07:13 per attempt with six touchdowns to six interceptions. So throwing down field was not quite as successful a season ago and you probably did it a little too much for your personnel. 10 to 19 yards downfield. So this would be that intermediate range. Well, they're throwing it at about the same rate. 23% last year of the throws going in that intermediate section, 22% of the throws this year. But the difference is they're doing a much better job scheming it open, and Jalen has more confidence and is throwing it better.

Starting point is 00:07:41 Last year, 7.8 yards per attempt, this year, 9.2. Last year, four touchdowns, four interceptions in that intermediate 10 to 19 yards zone. This year, three touchdowns of two interceptions. So it's been better there. And then you look at the, you know, the behind the line, scrimmage stuff and the screen stuff it's actually similar actually kansas is throwing more screens this year than they were last year oddly enough i think part of that though again is the wagner and fresno games when you didn't want to give up too much on tape but they're having more success doing it like this year's

Starting point is 00:08:08 on screen passes seven yards per attempt three touchdowns no picks last year six point three yards per attempt one touchdown to one interception so it's almost like they're disguising it better in a little bit of a sense there and here is the the two biggest ones that i want to talk about um with the biggest between Jim Zabrowski and the Jeff Grimes offense. They're throwing over the middle of the field, and they're hitting play action more often and more successfully. So on play action passes last season, Jalen Daniels was 8.6 yards per attempt, five touchdowns of three interceptions.

Starting point is 00:08:39 They used play action on about a third, 32 percent of their pass attempts. This season, so far, 43 percent of KU's pass attempts with Jalen Daniels are play action passes. And you go from 8.6 yards per attempt in 2024. to 13.3 yards per attempt in 2025. You go from 5 to 3 touchdown to interception ratio in 2024 to a 7 touchdown to zero interception ratio so far in 2025. That play action game, it's been night and day

Starting point is 00:09:08 with what Jim Zabrowski has employed over what Jeff Grimes was doing. Additionally, the middle of the field. KU threw over the middle third of the field, 29% of their Jalen Daniels passing attempts last season. This year, they're 37%, which is a sizable difference. between the two. And again, the success in addition to the quantity that you're doing it. Last year, 10 and a half yards per attempt over the middle. This year, 11 and a half. Last year, five touchdowns to six interceptions. This year, six touchdowns. So already more than you had all of last season with

Starting point is 00:09:40 zero interceptions. So when you look at why the offense is better, whether it's a confidence thing relaying with Jalen Daniels, whether part of it is with Jalen Daniels, whether it's just doing a better job of scheming guys open over the middle, knowing your personnel and working to that. I think Jim Zabrowski and Matt Lubick, obviously, too, have done a great job so far early in the season for KU when comparing this offense to where last year's was. Are we going to switch gears, talk a little KU basketball as boot camp has gotten started for KU hoops. We're going to get to that next with some of the top storylines for boot camp.

Starting point is 00:10:13 This is Locked on Jayhawks. today's episode of LOJ is brought to you by five-hour energy time to fuel up and turn it up with the five-hour energy transfusion this grape ginger and lime-flavored shot brings the iconic taste of a golf course favorite to a non-alcoholic boost perfect for sinking birdies or making great memories with friends it's a hole-in-one for your energy game whether you're out on the course or just need a little extra push to power through the day five-hour energy transfusion delivers a clubhouse flavor you love without ever leaving the green i'm always up early right you got a young daughter waking you up early and you know you're going to need that little energy boost throughout the day and that's especially true if i'm going to play golf especially in the back half of the day you might be hitting that lull you might be hitting that i don't know two three o'clock little tired period boom you'll wake yourself back up and golf is all about good times with good people good flavors the great ginger lime flavor of five-hour energy transfusion gives you the best parts of your clubhouse go-to without leaving the

Starting point is 00:11:12 course or chasing down the beff cart. Now you can amp up the fun even more. Just buy Snap and enter for a chance to win a dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament in the USA. To you up at the trip, visit 5-H-E-WIN.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary, excludes the Masters tournament. Ends October 31st, 2025. That is 5-H-E-WIN.com for full rules and entry.

Starting point is 00:11:42 Today's episode of the show is also brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook, and you can get odds for college football week three of the season. You don't know KU game this weekend, so maybe it gives you a little more time to scout the competition. Check out what's going on around the Big 12. And certainly there's going to be some more big games this week. I mean, you got Clemson of Georgia Tech, which you can get Georgia Tech plus three and a half. You got Oregon at Northwestern, which you can get Oregon minus 27 and a half.

Starting point is 00:12:08 Can they follow up what they did to Oklahoma State? What about Georgia at Tennessee? That's top 15 showdown. Bulldogs favored by three and a half points. You can also get South Florida, which is all of a sudden turned into the group of five favorite to make the college football playoff. They're plus 17 and a half playing at number five Miami.

Starting point is 00:12:24 Plenty of other games like that. Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Florida, LSU. You can get in all the action over at Fandual. So if you're ready to play, download the Fandual app now by visiting Fandual.com to get started. That's Fandual.com to place your first $5 bet. Fandu, the official sports partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:12:47 We'll be back on Wednesday to talk a little more KU hoops. We're going to be talking the center position preview for KU basketball on Wednesday's episodes. More KU football later in the week as well here on Locked on Jayhawks. So boot camp kicked off on Monday for KU basketball. And I think the biggest and most impactful, positive thing that you could see from it, there were some clips there were some pictures that were sent out from it from the k u basketball like social media accounts is just bill self coaching you know because we go from a couple months ago

Starting point is 00:13:17 with the whole heart situation you know what is this going to mean is this going to you know sideline things a little bit more long term and maybe it's still well maybe you know who knows for all we know bill self is going to come out and be like yeah this is my last year and you know but given what we've seen like you know it's good news for bill self the the fact that this hasn't limited him and that you see him out there like screaming and participating in the drills and shuffling around and go like he looks like he you wouldn't even know what happened a couple months ago and that's obviously a good thing for kU and that is probably the biggest storyline and most important and best one for kU as part of this with boot camp um but i think some

Starting point is 00:13:55 of the other storyline like how are all the new players because it's one thing they over you know they go over summer and play summer ball together and stuff like that now is when that that real I guess bonding and everything comes together, right? Because boot camp is where you're going to be at your lowest. You're getting up early. You're going to classes. You're working out a ton. This is when you got to kind of pick each other up.

Starting point is 00:14:17 And this is where I don't want to say culture change because it's not like KU needs a complete reset from culture, but like clearly they fell behind a little bit over the last couple of years, something there. And you do wonder if this new crop of players like, is this the start of kind of building that in a positive way for KU? I do think whatever you think of like boot camp, obviously you think of like physical attributes, you think of, you know, getting in shape and you would think that guys like Smeese Calderon and Cole Rosario and I guess Darren Peterson, just because he's good at everything, Floyd Padunga, Melvin Council, Marco Jackson, that they would thrive in this type of setting. I don't know how much like boot camp week itself is going to determine, you know, who wins the starting, you know, shooting guard spot, who wins the starting small forward spot. I think that's going to more so be determined, like, in the practice side of things, more than this, which is more like conditioning type of stuff.

Starting point is 00:15:13 But it certainly is just another, you know, opportunity on the list for players to endure themselves to coach self or get yourself closer to being in the doghouse based on how you perform and how you, and then like if we do look back at the traits that Bill self loves for players, doesn't mean every starter ends up having these, but we know that Bill self loves toughness and that isn't just in fact like I think mental toughness is the biggest thing that Bill Self is looking for and so there is a certain outlet

Starting point is 00:15:43 of like yes boot camp it's not going to determine who's the best three point shooter who's the best fit playing next to this guy necessarily but it certainly will weed out you know who's the toughest it certainly is going to show who has mental toughness above all else and from that perspective

Starting point is 00:15:59 maybe there is something to be learned from this week for Bill Self but this is more of just you know kind of progressing the team and getting them to come together in another way. It will be interesting, like, you know, how much stronger can Florida Bedunga be this year? Like, that's not just about this week. That's about, you know, all offseason and everything. El Marco Jackson and Bryson Tiller, are they going to be fully good to go? And how do they respond to boot camp week coming off, you know, season long injuries for both

Starting point is 00:16:25 those guys? And then just in general, like, it kind of got me thinking as we do think of more the physical standpoint of like what boot camp means here. Something that I don't think I've really brought up this offseason is how much is it going to matter just in general the fact that KU because, you know, Duane Harris certainly had like some skills that were really valuable, his passing ability, his veteran presence to be kind of a calming force in a lot of ways. But DeWan Harris was not, you know, the most athletic guy in the world. He wasn't physically imposing in any way. And you think about all the guys who were going to be the primary ball handlers for this KU

Starting point is 00:17:02 basketball team, Melvin Council, Amarco Jackson, primarily Darren Peterson. All those guys in some form or fashion are physically imposing players. Amarco's like 6-3 with a good wingspan, super, you know, quick, athletic. Melvin Council, 6-4, physical, again, very quick athletic. Darren Peterson could be the number one pick in the draft. He's like 6-5 with like a 6-10 wingspan. All of those guys have that ability to just,

Starting point is 00:17:32 stress you as a defense and if you're the player being guarded by them and from an athletic and strength level, the KU hasn't really had at the point guard spot since, I mean, Devon Dodson, I guess. And Dotson did it with just his pure, you know, speed and quickness, right? So you have to go back five years before that happened because even in Remy Martin's case, that wasn't, I mean, Remy could with his quickness a little bit on offense, but, you know, you have to go back to, yeah, Devon Dotson for that to kind of be the case. So I did find that interesting. But if we are talking battles, you know, like I said, I don't think it's going to be determined here, but maybe you get a step up with showing off your mental toughness. So you look at

Starting point is 00:18:09 Melvin Council versus Marco Jackson. You look at Jaden Dawson versus Korzario. You look at Bryson Tiller versus Paul Mbiel. Like those are the three kind of pain points I'm looking at of who's going to win out on those specific battles for KU. And if you want to throw in Simis Calderon versus X player to be the eighth man on the roster, I'd be okay with that too. It just gets a little more complicated because you're trying to figure out who that guy maybe is for KU on the team. So I think bottom line here, good news that you see Bill Self in some of these videos and not necessarily the opportunity that's going to determine the starting lineup on opening night, but everything's a data point for Bill Self who's evaluating over the course of the offseason

Starting point is 00:18:47 and he does value that mental toughness. So it definitely is important. Let's finish up with some of the latest news on the show. We've got a little KU football news, get a little KU football news, get a little KU Volleyball. We got a little college football news in general. We'll get to all that next. This is Lockdown Jayhawks. Today's episode of LOJ is brought to you by GameTime. College football is back. It's here. I don't know how you couldn't be more excited.

Starting point is 00:19:13 Especially as we move closer to being like fully in the fall, the tailgates are going to get even better because you're going to have even more perfect weather. But the rivalries, the tailgates, the energy in the stands, and nothing like it. And sometimes you don't feel that same positive feeling about getting tickets. Sometimes it feels like that can be a battle on its own, right? That's why I use game time. It's the app that gives the advantage back to the fans. It's the easiest way to score last minute tickets at the best prices with no surprise

Starting point is 00:19:39 fees. What you see is what you pay. It's that simple, right? You just have the feature toggled on, which for me, it's auto set as toggled on to include fees. And then you check out how many tickets that you want to get. I'm looking at tickets for the KU.S. Virginia game, which we'll get to win that game's going to be in everything in our next segment.

Starting point is 00:19:55 but you can get some good tickets to the game. I'm looking right now. Like, for instance, you can sit, I mean, if you want to sit, is this row one? Yeah, 50 yard line, section 106, row one for 1, $1,500, if you got a cool $1,500 line around. You can also sit in section 115. This is $91, row 12,

Starting point is 00:20:13 plenty of other seats just like that over on game time. So take the guess we're going to buying tickets for college football or whatever you're looking to attend with game time. Download the game time app, create an account, and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase, Terms apply. Again, that's promo code Lockedon College, L-O-C-K-E-O-N-C-O-L-E-G-E-E-G-E for $20 off. Swipe, tap, Ticket, go. Download game time today. Thanks to join us on this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere at your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. Don't forget you can check out Lockdown College football or Locked on College basketball for your second listen every day. Okay, so they did announce the K-U football game time. That'll be a 5 o'clock game. over on FS1 for the game against West Virginia.

Starting point is 00:20:59 We'll find out the following game, the following week on Monday, unless they do one of their flex games, which I hate when they do that. But that will happen at some point this season. We know that for sure. So that'll be cool because another opportunity to, I guess the later half of the game could be under the lights for KU against West Virginia

Starting point is 00:21:16 and an opportunity to bounce back from the Missouri game. You're coming off a byweek, start a new season hot. You had the opportunity last year to play West Virginia or your Big 12 opener. That was on the road. But after the shaky non-coni had last year, you had an opportunity to start new. And it looked like you were going to until the final four minutes of that game. So we'll see if they can overcome that this time and finish strong against kind of a beat-up

Starting point is 00:21:36 Mountaineer's team right now that's had a couple of key players running back and receiver be announced they are out for the year. Other college football news, they announced that they have recommended a one-time transfer portal. That'll be in January. So that's probably a good thing for everyone involved. It certainly is going to make it more hectic during that one 10-day period, probably going to be even more names that go into it that kind of you know check out their stuff but

Starting point is 00:21:59 it's going to be condensed tough for coaches in terms of like scouting everybody and making offers and stuff for that short period of time but it'll also make it better in the long term for these guys that they don't have to constantly okay guys are going in guys are going out now it just ends up being more like you know with the NFL or the NBA it's like okay free agency it's going to happen over like a two week period a little update on kU volleyball they won't believe it they lost in five sets to a top 20 team in Purdue But again, they're going to be fine. They're three and four.

Starting point is 00:22:27 You look at the record. You're like, what's going on here? All four losses, the top 20 opponents in the fifth set. They're a young team. They're figuring it out. They will get it figured out. I feel confident in that. I feel good that this is going to end up being a really good team.

Starting point is 00:22:38 Now the schedule opens up a little bit here. They should win their next six games. I mean, maybe you get upended in one of them, but realistically, I guess the favorites in those six games. And then you get some tough matchups after that. Finally, you're homo. I mean, they still haven't played a home game, too. That's what's crazy. but an opportunity to win some games moving forward.

Starting point is 00:22:57 So I still like where they're headed even after another fifth set loss there. And then KU Woman Soccer, 5-0 and 2 on the season. And we mentioned that they had a draw with number two Florida State. That was really impressive. Most recently, they defeated Yale, crushed them 4-0. Next up, they'll get Liberty. That'll be a rodent game for them on September 14th. Then they'll be at Oklahoma State for the Big 12 opener.

Starting point is 00:23:19 Home Big 12 opener is Thursday, September 25th against Baylor. but a great start for Nate Lee and the KU Women's Soccer Program as well. All right, that'll move for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll be back at you tomorrow to get to our Biggs Preview, Center Preview for KU Football, back at you Thursday to talk a little stock market report, who stocks up, who stocks down for KU football through the first three games of the season.

Starting point is 00:23:46 And then on Friday, we're going to get to how the buy can help this KU football team and the nine most important Jayhawks for the nine remaining football games for KU. See you next time for another edition of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - OFFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT: Jim Zebrowski Replaces Grimes + Kansas Basketball, Bill Self Start Boot Camp

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.