Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ONE WEEK AWAY | How Can Kansas Jayhawks Football Defeat the Fresno State Bulldogs in the New Booth

Episode Date: August 16, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks football gears up for season opener against the Fresno State Bulldogs. Will the new stadium and revamped roster propel KU to victory?Derek Johnson breaks down the keys to success for Kansas, including slowing Fresno State's run game and forcing turnovers from QB E.J. Warner. The discussion covers KU's returning production, offensive line challenges, and a comprehensive analysis of the wide receiver corps. Johnson highlights transfers Emmanuel Henderson and Cam Pickett, exploring their potential impact on the Jayhawks' offense.Tune in for expert insights on Kansas football's strategy, player performances, and predictions for the upcoming season. Can Lance Leipold, Jalon Daniels and the Jayhawks overcome last year's struggles and start strong against Fresno State?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!WayfairGet organized, refreshed, and back to routine for way less. Head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

We are officially one week away from the return of college football. From the turn of KU football in 2025, we break down on early thoughts on KU Fresno State. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here at D.J. Johnson Radio on Twitter at LO underscore Jayhawks on the count there as well. And this is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you so much to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's

edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we are one week away, one more week to go. I need football back in my life. We're so close. KU. Fresno State is so close. to being with us and us having the inaugural game at the new booth. We're going to get into the Kansas Keys to Winning. Also get into a little bit of the wide receiver room preview overview and some early thoughts for KU and Fresno State in this bonus episode of the show. Let's start right there. Top storylines coming into this one for Kansas, Fresno State now just a week away.

I think the new booth has to be the number one storyline here for Kansas. I mean, obviously the start of the season for every team is always a big storyline. you're starting anew, you have new hope, new opportunity, starting fresh, just feeling like hope and potential is in the air. But that gets taken to another level for Kansas with the new stadium. You know, it kind of shows the investment that has come into the program. And it almost does create that, like, you know, we obviously have the Jalen Daniels quote from the West Virginia game back in 2022 of new era. Well, the new era really sure, whether it began that year, that began when Lance Leipold started, this is like a new era subdivision of the new era

starting, so to speak, with the new stadium coming in and Kansas playing with some of the big boys, you know, in terms of getting the new stadium that they've needed for so many years now. But I think a real fun opportunity, I mean, everything I've seen and heard so far from people who have toured it, from people who have looked at it, from pictures I've seen, like from driving by the stadium looks like a home run. A plus. what Travis Goff and KU Athletics was able to accomplish so far with the football stadium. And so from that standpoint, I think people are really excited. I think people are really excited to see what it looks like in the stadium, see what it looks

like from the sites from your seats for the game. What does the video board look like during the game? Like there's just so much that, you know, what are the new amenities and bathrooms and food, places to eat and places to drink going to be like during the game? I know they've released some of those things in terms of what they're going to have and like having Boulevard beer and just a bunch of those. the stuff that they're going to have is going to be really, really cool. And so I think that is kind of the top storyline coming into this, but how can Kansas

transfer all of that flashiness and the cool side of it to a home field advantage? You know, can Kansas turn this new booth into one of the tougher places to play in the conference? You know, I guess that would start against Fresno State. But yeah, as I said earlier, that's another storyline, started the new season for both teams. And for Kansas, that start of the new season represents an opportunity to bounce back from, you know, an overwhelming season a year ago and get back to where they were the two previous seasons in making it to a bowl game, if not tried to accomplish even more than that. From the Fresno State perspective, they're a team that has a new head coach. they're looking to prove themselves that they can get back to the point of, you know, we saw some really good years with Jeff Tedford and Jake Hainer where we're President

States winning 9, 10 games in a season to where maybe they feel like they can contend for a Mountain West title. So that's kind of what they're trying to do coming into this one. I think just in general, in any first game of the season, who plays, who starts for KU? Now, both of those things matter. The play one probably matters more than the starts because if somebody starts and then plays the same amount of snaps as someone. somebody who plays behind him, you know, does it really matter at the end of that?

I think technically Austin Booker, did he even like technically register or start at Kansas? I don't know. If he did, it might have been limited. But in terms of the snaps he played, he was playing more than, you know, it was like Hayden Hatcher or whoever starting above him necessarily. It's just a lot of new blood for KU coming into this year, which represents opportunity. It represents an opportunity for new transfers you brought in, which I think Kansas did a pretty good job in the portal, but I guess we're really going to find out just how good of a job

did they do once you start actually getting into game action. And then you have some new players in terms of the younger guys who maybe haven't gotten on the field or maybe haven't gotten on the field a ton and are going to see increases to their playing time and what can they prove. And then it's just, you know, how improved are certain guys that are coming back? You know, what area did they add to their game? How did they get better? Those are all fun questions we start to answer in a game like this. One thing that I found interesting, so this was from Bill Connolly of ESPN, who does the ESPNSP Plus. And the returning national production, the returning production national average, I should say, back in 2021. He tweeted this out the other day was 77%.

So that was the national average, 77%. And that obviously makes sense from a standpoint of, I think that would have been your first year off the COVID year. So you're getting a lot of players back for another year with the extra year. And that has been something that has carried over. Well, I think this is our first year where we're, I don't know, this either might be the last year where we have people in because of the COVID year or it's the first year without it. But regardless, those are starting to filter themselves out.

So now this year, as opposed to 77% in 2021, the national average for returning production is 53% in 2025. And so you think about that as it relates to Kansas. Kansas is at 56% this year, which if you were to look to 56% in 20,000, 21, Kansas would have been a very inexperienced team. But now, because if you're looking at the national average, by that number, Kansas is actually above average. So it's almost like Kansas picked a good year to have to lose a lot of players and, you know, bring to a level where they don't have a ton of returning production. So what could a win mean for Kansas in this one against Fresno State?

It would be the start of the season momentum that you kind of really need, something that I don't really think you got to last year. I mean, obviously you won your first game, but you lose early to Illinois, you lose early you to UNLV, and that early season momentum, it took a while for you to kind of hit the breaks on the train, so to speak. Can you get off to a good start this go-round? Like you think of back in 2023 when they won nine games, they win that early game against Illinois when they're having the blackout on a Friday night. And it's hard not to say that didn't lead to some early season momentum that you were able to

kind of capitalize on. So this is one of those chances where Kansas isn't playing your FCS team in the first game. It's a chance to capture some of that momentum at the very beginning of the season, something you didn't do last year in terms of beating your Mountain West opponent. And at the end of the day, we can point to a lot of different games and say, oh, if this goes differently or they win that game or this turnover goes differently, they make a bowl game. But yeah, you can draw the correlation for one of those with the Mountain West game. Kansas beats UNLV, their Mountain West opponent, they played a home they're six and six last year they make a bowl game so um don't trifle with it this time beat

your mountain west opponent at home this go round what a loss would mean for k u i i mean it wouldn't be the end of the world but it would definitely change what you view the season sealing out which would be unfortunate to kind of feel like you get chopped off at the knees right off in the first game of the season we saw last year again kansas went one and two in the noncon lost to unov they ended up still having a shot at making a bowl game right five and seven it took a crazy run at the end there, but you also could say that earlier on in the Big 12 season, they probably should have won some other games. So if you lose this game, I think the goal would still be make a bowl game and that would still be reachable and feasible. Friesina State's still

a quality Mountain West opponent, but it would certainly make things more difficult and give you an uphill battle to do that. And it would certainly make it so that if you lose this game to Fresno State, yeah, we're probably not really talking. I know it's not a conference game, but we're not talking about, okay, can this team contend for a big 12th title? Can this win go over on their win total and win eight games? It kind of becomes more about just, okay, can you scrap and claw your way to a bowl game at that point in time? I just, I do want, like, would have lost to Fresno in the first game opening up the new stadium, would that be enough to restart the apathy train among KU football fans in terms of the future upcoming home games and stuff?

I don't know if I'd go that far, but it's certainly an opportunity you want to take advantage of that you feel like you have this momentum from the new stadium and an opportunity to beat a solid opponent in week zero and give yourself an extra buy by playing in week zero. And so it's almost like, okay, take advantage of that momentum because not taking advantage of it is a bigger deal than the inverse. I guess if that's sort of makes sense. Okay, what does Kansas need to do to win? We'll get to keys to the game next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show was brought to you by Wayfair. As summer winds down, there's something nice about getting back into a routine you love.

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Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked-on Jayhawks. Don't forget you make Lockedon College football or Locked on College Basketball, your second listen every day. I've had a lot of episodes coming out this week and we'll have plenty more coming out this upcoming week. We did an update on some of the things Bill Self had to say at his weekly press conference. So we did that at a bonus episode the other day. We also had a fun conversation about an upcoming book coming out, stories from the fog, talking a little KU basketball, I don't know, history and past stories and plenty of other KU football and KU basketball content. So make sure you subscribe to the show and check them out if you haven't already. If you're

never dare, shout out to you. Okay, what does Kansas need to do to beat Fresno State? I think my keys of the game start with got to slow down the run game. Fresno State was not a particularly good running team a season ago. Low yards per carry, low success rate, low EPA per play running the football. But their backup running back average like six yards of carry. Now he's the starter. He actually had more success than the starter, but the starter is getting more carries. I don't know why.

Regardless, he's the starter now. And you have a new head coach. Matt Enns comes over. He was the linebacker's coach at USC. Before that, he was the head coach. And before that, he was an assistant coach at North Dakota State. under Chris Climman. Okay, you think about what Chris Climman, what K State does.

You think about what North Dakota State does. Power running football team. They're going to want to establish the run. They're going to want to establish that power running game. And so from that perspective, if you view that as their identity, can you do well against it, right? First game of the season can always be a little bit tougher tackling. Can you make sure to slow down that running game where, yeah, maybe it's not your

best running defense game of the season, if it is great. but just don't make it something where it's like, oh, they ran for 250 yards. You couldn't get off the field and they controlled time of possession and made it the style of game that they wanted it to be. You got to be able to stop the run in this game. Next key to this one is Force E.J. Warner, who is the head or the starting quarterback for Fresno say. He was just announced officially as the starter, I don't know, a week ago or something like that. And yes, he is the son of a Kurt Warner. He is the younger brother of Cade Warner, who is the former wide receiver at Kansas State.

And he got named the starter after coming over from Rice. Before that, he was at Temple. He's been a fine quarterback. He hasn't had like a huge explosive season. He hasn't been bad. But he is somebody who will throw the occasional interception. He doesn't quite have a career two to one interception, touchdown interception ratio. It's slightly below that.

will definitely throw one or two of those turnover worthy throws, especially over the middle of the field seemingly. Can you take advantage of that, right? If you get the opportunity, that's great, but you still got to come down with the ball. You still got to come down with the play. And so for Kansas, you think about can you come up with that play, right? At the end of the day, this isn't a game that Kansas is projected to win by four or five touchdowns. This is a game that projected, you know, Fandwell has it at 13 and a half. So that's still close enough game that you got to take advantage of the plays when you get them. The next key is KU's new offensive tackles, they're going to be tested right away. So what can they do? Can they at least be

solid for you in this game? I'm not putting the expectation that this offensive tackle group for Kansas and Calvin Clements, we know he'll be the starter at left tackle. I think who's going to be the start at right tackle still remains to be seen. We'll see when the depth chart comes out upcoming this week leading up to the game. Maybe it'll be listed as an or. Enrique Cruz was brought in late from Syracuse as a former starter there. Could he be the starter? Is it going to be somebody who has maybe been developing in the program that's going to beat him out,

like a Nolan Gorsica? That'll be very interesting to see who wins that job. And then not only that, but how they perform in the game, or do we see both players to give both players a shot? And it kind of just comes down to who performs better in the game. and that determines who the starter is, you know, in the Missouri game when it really starts to, you know, ramp up and matter even more at that point in time. Well, Fresno State does have a pretty solid defensive line.

And it's specifically with Corey Freeman, Foreman, who is the former number one recruit, went to USC, transferred over to Fresno State. He's a very talented player, KU's offensive tackles who, you know, the offensive line is kind of a question mark coming into this. It might end up being good because Kansas is. has found a way to produce some really good offensive lines here over the Lance Leipold years and seemingly overperform each and every year. They're going to have to do it again this year and they're going to have their hands full

in the first game of the season against Fresno State. And then the last key here is don't be sloppy with the ball and close the game. Okay, if you're a two touchdown favorite, what's one way that you let your opponent in the game? Being sloppy with the ball, fumbles, interceptions. And we especially saw the interception bug plague Jalen Daniels in the first. half of last season, right? He ended up with more interceptions than touchdowns over the first five games of the season for KU football last year. You need Jalen to be sharp right off the bat. And it's always that fine line with like, you don't want guys to be checked down charlies. You

want guys taking risks. You want guys throwing downfield. You want guys to, you know, like sometimes there are, I don't know that any interception is good, but some interceptions are not as bad as others, so to speak. It's like, okay, you know, I had a one-on-one shot here. I took the shot, their guy just made a better play, right? Like, sometimes that happens. But the key will be not compounding on those. And we saw in the Illinois game, especially, like, that was costly for KU. So avoid that as part of this year.

The other part of it that I said was close the game out. Because as we know, Kansas struggled closing the games out last season. And if this does end up being, right, again, if you're talking 13 and a half point spread, like what if it's a 10 point game with eight minutes to go? and Kansas has the football with an opportunity to say, hey, we can go down, get a touchdown, put this game away, 17 points with by the time we score, I don't know, five, six minutes to go, this game's over.

Versus you punt the ball away. Now Fresno goes down. Now it's a three-point game with four minutes to go. Now there's pressure on you to get a couple first downs and wrap up the game. Otherwise, they're getting the ball back late. That's something that you want to avoid in this first game of the season, and especially from a standpoint of you've talked all off season. You've talked in fall camp about finishing, about closing out games.

go do it in a game like this that if you do blow them out, that's great. But again, we saw them lose to UNOV last year. The Bull game, I don't think it was as close as the final score was against Mountain West opponent. It was a 13 point final score. Kind of felt like it was more than that. But still, you know, that's within two touchdowns. And then you think about the Nevada game that you played on the road in Reno.

That was a touchdown game as well. So you've had close games at these Mountain West opponents. You were able to close out two of the three. Can you close out this one at home in front of your new digs in front of your the new version of the booth. Let's get to our receiver room preview. Receiver room overview next. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

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Start planning your future bets now because Futures Day is one day and one day only. FanDual, play your game. Thanks for joining us on Locked-on Jayhawks. And don't forget to check out some of our recent episodes. And again, thank you that every dayers catching each and every episode. So the receiver room for KU becomes a very interesting position group, one that lost a ton of production and talent from last year's team. I mean, Luke Grimm, L.J. Arnold, and Quentin Skinner were basically three-year starters for KU.

And that's a lot going out the door. And now they've kind of overhauled it with different styles of player. Like you think of Quinn Skinner was this elite deep ball player who made unbelievable catch after unbelievable catch. He was more of a straight line speed guy and had really good size. With L.J. Arnold, he was more of your intermediate guy that could do a little bit of everything. With Luke Grimm, he was kind of a do-it-all guy as well, not as big body as L.J. Arnold, maybe you think of him more as your go-to slot player. And he was the guy that Jalen Daniels had the best connection with. That goes back to his time back in 2020. Whenever Jalen was on the field, it was always Luke Grim, even in some of the seasons where maybe Arnold or Skinner had more, Skinner had more years than Luke Grim. It was always, you know, with Bean, his connection was always with Arnold and Skinner a little bit more, although, you know, all three had connections in other ways. But now it's a group that has a lot more yard after catch guys. Specifically, you look at the top, the projected starters, I think, Emmanuel Henderson, 6-1-190 senior, he only has five career catches.

Compare that, he has nine career tackles from playing special themes at Alabama. But again, you're at Alabama, you're behind guys who are projected first-round picks down the road, day one, day two picks. You were a former, you know, top 100 recruit in the country as a running back. The question is going to be, you know, that transition to receiver, or how good are you, the refined parts of the game, making catches and stuff. When you get the ball in his hands or, shoot, before you get the ball in his hands, he should be able to use that speed to really blow by DBs in a real way.

I think he's going to have a huge season this year. Cam Pickett is 6'200-pound Redshirt Jr. Transfer from Ball State. He had almost 700 yards from scrimmage last year, over 800 all-purpose yards. 49 catches, another good player with the ball in his hands and yard after catch. Those are two guys that I think you can really trust and can make things happen with the ball in their hands, maybe better than any of the receivers that were on last year's KU roster, right? There are certain things that Luke Graham and L.J. Arnold and Quentin Skitter did better than

I think the combination of Pickett and Henderson will do. But that's one key difference that I think both players are going to be better at than what KU had. And that'll help Jalen Daniels. It'll be some free given yards that those guys just kind of earn over the course of a play that you don't really plan for that makes it easier to pad those stats in a real way. I think that receiver three starter probably, we'll see what happens when the depth chart comes out. Bryson Canty was probably the favorite to win one of those.

He's the transfer from Columbia, 6-2-205 Redshirt Senior, but he's been banged up in fall camp. And so does that prevent him from starting? It probably does. And I don't know how long, you know, I don't know if he's still injured. I don't know if it's going to cause him to miss time in the season, but he's a very productive player, 17 touchdowns, almost 1,700 yards on 108 career catches in Columbia at 4. seasons, I hope he can get on the field and up and running, even if it's in the midpoint of the season, because he is somebody who could be a game changer for KU, but they need him to kind

to get in the flow of things and get back and get healthy. Levi Wentz, maybe he takes advantage and starts because of the canty injuries, but 6-2-205, another kind of big body receiver, wins contested catches, can do it downfield. He has 40 catches, 621 yards, and a touchdown last year at Albany making the step up. He'll certainly get playing time. And then the other guy, you're kind of big returner. Doug Amelia at 6-1, 190-pound redshirt senior, only 11 career catches, but he's had some fun ones. I certainly think of the one he had at Iowa State names in 2023. And no one is kind of being a good route runner as well. This is his final season at Kansas. We've seen Lance Leipold and staff. If things are basically a tie, like kind of give the nod to the

upperclassman to the senior guy, the guy who's been around the program, I think of Hayden hatcher starting over Austin Booker at the beginning of his career. And we talked about that. unlocked on Jayhawks and how, you know, maybe that means they give the nod to a million to start things off right away, but again, I think it's going to be a rotation of guys playing. Then you have your battling for the two deep. I think Keaton, Quebec, I look at those three guys, whoever wins the starting job, your third starter, the other two on the two deep. And then your other two deep is probably going to be Keaton, Quebec, 6-210 redshirt sophomore was injured last year, another bigger bodied receiver that has been helpful for KU on

special teams in the past, and we'll see if he starts to, you know, get ingrained in the offense, rotate in a little bit here, there that we can see some flashes to be like, okay, we feel good about you being a starter in 2026. The other guy that would either go in the future to watch category or battling for the two deep, I'm not entirely sure because it's been a short offseason for him with KU and Lawrence is Jaden Doss, 511 190 Redshirt sophomore, former highly recruited player from the nearby area, went to Nebraska, transfers over another good yard after catch player and it'll be interesting to see if he can crack the too deep maybe somebody who i look at is like on the coby baines path Kobe baines transferred into kansas from louisville another power i guess

for university same with jaden doss coming from Nebraska obviously very different positions but with Kobe baines by the time you know we got through midway to the end of that first year he transferred over you know he wasn't i don't think on the too deep to start the year but he started rotating in later in the season then he becomes basically a uh starter level player by snap count you'll at it for the next couple of seasons. And obviously he's a starter again on this year's team. I wonder if that would be the case with Doss. If he's not on the too deep to start and then all of a sudden we get, you know, past a midway point for Kansas, they're off a by week. And then Doss all of a sudden starts rotating in here and there. And by the end of the season,

he's playing a little bit more snaps. And then you feel good about him starting come 2026. That would not shock me with Jaden Doss. Other future players watch, Bryson Hayes, Jaden Nickens, Tate and Agie and Jackson Cook, all freshmen coming in a four-player freshman class. And Nickens had the most recruiting ranking buzz on him. Bryson Hayes, a speedster in state, Jackson Cook, kind of your bigger body, you know, downfield speeder from out of state, I think, Georgia. And then Tate Nagy is your former quarterback from the Kansas City area, obviously the son of Matt Nagy, the offense coordinator for the chiefs and somebody who is very quick and

could profile into being a really good slot receiver. Then you also have Bryce Cohun, Mack Muller, Israel Moses, the fifth, and Donald Collier. I think those are all walk-ons on the team. So the biggest questions and storylines, I think for this unit, what is that loss of production and experience going to mean for KU? I do think receiver is a position. In fact, we had Phil Steele on with us earlier in the offseason. Thank you the everydayers, if you already caught it.

And he talked about the positions that you need experience versus the position that it's not as important. He classified receiver as one of those that is not as important. Just be athletic, catch the football, be good players. That matters a little bit more. I think that helps KU a little bit here. On the flip side, what is having Jim Zabrowski and Matt Lubick mean for the receivers? I think on one hand, those guys are definitely going to stress, you know, you have to be able to be a good blocker to be on the field.

But it also means we saw Jim Zabrowski plays in the UNLV game and the KU3 receivers went off. I think this could be a little bit more receiver friendly than each of the last two offensive coordinators. In Kotalnicki's case, you know, it was so spread out. It was tight ends getting heavily involved, running backs getting heavily involved. I think with Jeff Grimes, the receivers were definitely involved, but it wasn't necessarily to their skill sets. It was we want to throw a lot of stuff downfield.

We want to throw a lot of stuff behind the line of scrimmage. And this receiving core actually might be a little better at both of those things. But I think it's going to be helpful for the receivers that that's the offense coordinator combo now for KU. And then, yeah, what is having that more yard after catch worth? Because you look at Cam Pickett's percentage of yards that he had on yard after catch, it blows by anybody that KU had on last year's team. You know, Emmanuel Henderson should be able to do that.

If you do play Jaden Doss, he should be somebody who is good yard after catch for KU. So, you know, what does that matter? What's the flip side? What if there's less reliability of hands on this year's receiving court versus last years? What is that worth in comparison between the two? But I think my final thought here on this receiver room is I actually think this is going to be a good unit for KU and one that surprises folks nationally who I think from a national

perspective or if you're, you know, watching college football previews or listening to podcasts or reading preseason magazines, it's like, oh, they lost all this production from the receiver court. And all those players were fun and good and productive for KU. But I think they brought in good ones to replace them. And I think this unit's going to surprise people nationally. They're going to look up at the end of then and be like, oh, yeah, KU got really good production from the receivers they brought in via the transfer portal. So I do think this is going to be an underrated position for Kansas coming into the year. We'll see what they can do in week zero against Fresno State. All right. I don't know for this episode locked on 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. See you next time with LLL. OJ.