Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Overcoming Late-Game Collapses and More Areas Kansas Jayhawks Football MUST & CAN Improve in 2025

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks football aims for a bowl game comeback. Can they overcome their one-score game struggles and compete in the Big 12?Derek Johnson breaks down three crucial areas for improvement: late-game execution, intermediate / over the field passing, and field position battles. Jalon Daniels' performance under new offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski takes center stage, with Johnson analyzing the quarterback's stats in the 10-19 yard range. Special teams get the spotlight, as newcomer Finn Lappin's punting prowess could rewrite Kansas records.Discover how the Jayhawks plan to turn their 1-5 record in close games into a winning formula. Will Zebrowski's offense unlock Daniels' potential in the intermediate passing game? Find out why field position might be the key to Kansas' success in 2025.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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)

If Kansas Jayhawks football wants you back to a bowl game, wants to be in competition for the Big 12, what are the biggest areas they have to improve from where they were a season ago? 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? I'm Derek Johnson at D Johnson radio on Twitter. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you. The everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available wherever you find our podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And

on today's edition of locked on Jayhawks, we're talking areas that Kansas football has to improve in 2025. If they want to improve their win total, at the end of the day, get back to bowl eligibility. And maybe even more than that the over under win total seven and a half, can they go over on that number? Can they compete for a big 12 title? Well, they got to do these things if they want to improve enough to get there. So we're going to get into our late game execution portion of this.

Then we'll get into the intermediate passing game and then the field position battle, all of which Kansas showed some struggles a season ago and needs to be better this year. Let's start with the offense led by Jaylen Daniels under Lance Leipold and get into the late game execution because I think a big part of it for the offense was that lack of late game execution. Now there were some late game execution issues for the defense as well.

It felt like there were games early in the season where the defense played really well in the first three quarters and then that did not carry over at all to the fourth quarter or a key drive at the end of the game. So let's just take a look at this. Let's reopen some bandages, reopen some wounds. Kansas was just one and five last season and one score games, right? Easy easy low hanging fruit.

If you just go two and four, you're making a bowl game. If you go three and three, you have a promised winning record regardless of what happens in the bowl game. If you flip that record around to five and one, like what BYU did, I don't know if BYU was exactly five and one, but you know, at one point they were undefeated in one score game, so they lost to Kansas and then they lost to Arizona State too. But like, if you flip that around and go five and one in one score games, you have a nine win season again, and then maybe 10 if you win your bowl game.

So you want a 17 to 13 lead entering the fourth quarter with Illinois. You were outscored 10-0 in the final 10 minutes. You led 17 to 16 entering the fourth quarter against UNLV. You lost by three. You led 28 to 17 with 539 left against West Virginia. You lost by four. KU also led by three on multiple occasions

and in what was a back and forth fourth quarter against Arizona State, mind you the same Arizona State team that ended up winning the big 12 and nearly being Texas in the college football playoff. He ended up losing that one by four, you led most of the fourth quarter and you still lost by two against Kansas State. And those are just the one score games that doesn't even account for the fact that the TCU game was not technically well, yeah, technically it was.

It was not a one score loss for Kansas, but you were also up 24 to 21 with two minutes left in the third quarter of that one. All of those games were within reach, were within your hands of winning each and every one of those games. within your hands of winning each and every one of those games. Now they did to their credit win a one score game in the game against BYU and certainly you needed some things to go right for that to happen that the pooch pop from Jalen Daniels perfectly careening off of the helmet of a BYU player

right needing a kind of goal line stand so to speak or a red zone stand for Kansas at the end of that game, right. And that took a little bit of luck and good play as well to win on the road against a really good team in a one score game. So they did show they can do it, but they didn't show it over consistency over the long period of time. And again, if you just go two and four in those one score games, or even if you want to include the TCU game and say you were one in six in those games, if you're just two and five in those games, you're going bowling and there wouldn't be I don't know, it's just those extra bowl practices and getting to go to a bowl game and it would have been the first

time in Kansas program history, they'd made three straight bowl games like it would have been a big deal for even that to be the point. And so if we're looking at the reasons the biggest reasons why these collapses, these fourth quarter collapses, these one score losses happened. Let's look at the stats of the one score games in the fourth quarter. Throwing the football, they were just 21 of 40 was Kansas close to 50%. That's not very good. 233 yards, one touchdown to one interception. They were sacked four times in the air with two fumbles. Basically, that means you only average

less than five yards per play with three turnovers when you were throwing the football in the fourth quarter of one score games last season. The QB running game averaged about four yards per play with one turnover. That was the unfortunate K-State turnover. When you had your skill players run the ball, so this could be running backs,

this could be like you had that reverse play to Luke Grimm against West Virginia. 32 runs, 180 yards, three touchdowns. You average 5.6 yards per play to Luke Grimm against West Virginia. 32 runs 180 yards three touchdowns the average 5.6 yards per play on the skill players running ball. But overall, Kansas offense in the fourth quarter of those six one score games they played. Rin 90 plays they had just 442 yards that's just 4.9 yards per play that is not going to get things done, especially the 4.8 yards per pass. Okay, so obviously offense has some

things that you know, they need to work on their and the azendos game end of game situations. They also turned it over too much. What about some of the defensive numbers in that fourth and final quarter? Well, opponents averaged 6.3 yards passing against them defensively, which actually is pretty good, but they did give up four touchdowns and got zero interceptions. They really could have used like a game ceiling interception

or in one of those games that they weren't able to get. So overall solid, but would have liked more turnovers there. This really, really struggled against the QB run game in the fourth quarter. They give up 6.6 yards per rush to quarterbacks in the fourth quarter of those six one score games. The Brian Borland defenses were never great against scrambling and rushing quarterbacks. So like that was kind of a problem for them in

general, but it got even worse in those fourth quarters. And I can't help but think part of that is not depth. Kansas hasn't been, especially in the front seven. Kansas hadn't been like the deepest front 17. I think they're the deepest they've been in the Lance Lightpole there in the front seven this year. So I do think that helps a little bit there. Plus new coordinator in DK McDonald, maybe that helps too, right? The skill player runs, they give up 4.3 yards per run. So that wasn't horrible there. But overall, KU's defense has given up 5.7 yards per play

in the fourth quarter of those one score games. Okay. And you might be wondering like, okay, where's that rate out? Obviously, you have the comparison of the offense and the offense for KU was averaging 4.9 yards per play in those one score games. So clearly, it was worse on the defense event. But overall, the the five point, the 5.7 yards per play you were allowing on the defensive end over the course of the season last year, Baylor, for instance, was 79th in the country giving

up 5.7 yards per play. And so that's not a good number. So the defense was not but it's that's still like below average. It's not like disaster mode, but it still is below average to poor. The 4.9 yards per play. If you're looking at the defensive side, like that basically means that, let's see, Auburn last year was 22nd in the country defensively at holding teams of 4.9 yards per play. So basically you became, you allowed defenses in the one score games you played in the country defensively and holding teams of 4.9 yards per play. So basically you became you allowed

defenses in the one score games you played in the fourth quarter defenses were typically a top 25 defense against you and your defense was a bottom half though not horrible defense right and so in one score games you end up being outscored 53 to 31 in the fourth quarter of games that Kansas collectively lost by 19 points that they were on the wrong sides of for the ones there, the five they were on the wrong sides. You can see very easily how things could switch and how this team could be better. And the nature of playing in the Big 12 in general is you're going to

play a lot of close games. You do not have a successful season playing in the Big 12 where a lot of these schools are close together in their recruiting level, their, their talent on their roster. Uh, you know, how many good coaches there are. A lot of these schools are very close together. It's going to be decided by one score games. You have to be able to improve on this if you want a better record this season. And can they do it? You know, there's no reason they can't. They were two and two, like if we look at the past years of Lance Leipoldera,

they were two and two in one score games in 2021, and that was with their worst roster. They were two and two in one score games in 2022, though really that's three and two because the West Virginia game didn't finish a one score game, but you won in overtime. So it's basically a one score game. So basically three and two in one score games that year, and then three and three

in 2023. So it's not that they've been great in one score games in Lance Lightbulb's time at Kansas, they've just been average. Most teams typically trend around 501 score games anyway. So that's just a right around average for what they've been. But 500 going 500 being average in one score games. That would have been a big improvement from where they were last season, right? 500 in one score games would have put Kansas at three and three in one score games, which would have put them at seven and five last season, which we're talking

about a much different season and talking about a much different offseason coming into it now for Kansas at this point in time. So I think they absolutely can do it, but they have to do it. If they want to have a better season this year. All right, they also need to improve on the over the middle intermediate range passing and field position. We'll get to those next. This is locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel

Sportsbook. We're talking KU football, college football today and guess what? You can get early lines on KU football against Fresno State in week zero of the college football season. That's right. You can also get Kansas early lines over under seven and a half or to win the big 12. You can get KU basketball early to win the national title. And plus summer sports are in full swing to whether we're talking golf on the green, whether talking baseball into the lights, high stakes soccer action, you're already following along in the action. Why not make it a little more thrilling? And

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These two can be correlated. Intermediate passing game and throws over the middle, these two can be correlated intermediate passing game can be to flanks. But a lot of times you think of them as connected and they're they're both true. So on throws between 10 to 19 yards down the field. So that would be where I would call the intermediate range. In fact, like pro football focus calculates 20 yards and more as deep balls and that 10 to 19 is being the intermediate with zero to nine being kind of short and then you have behind the line of scrimmage,

you know, for screens and things behind it. But on those passes of 10 to 19 yards down the field, Jaylen Daniels completed just 45% of his passes with 7.8 yards per attempt, he had four touchdowns compared to four interceptions. And if you look at the big time throw percentage, which I don't know how that's calculated for pro football focus, I guess it's just if they have a highlight worthy throw or like a big time throw in a tight window, they mark it as that. And then it's just the percentage of how

many of those happened among how many throws came in that area. It was just one point four percent. So that's not a very high number. The NFL passer rating in that zone for JD, under 70, it was 67.3 for the NFL passer rating in that zone for Jaylen Daniels. If you rewind at a comparison for the previous season when Andy Kotelnicki, as opposed to Jeff Grimes,

was the offensive coordinator, Daniels, instead of completing just 45% in that area, he completed 71% in that area. And instead of 7.8 yards per attempt, he completed 9.3 yards per attempt. And instead of having a 67 NFL passer rating, he had a 153 NFL passer rating. And if we also go back to 2022, it's a little down from that, but it's still 63% with a 117 at a FEL passer rating and the yards per attempt are even higher, 10.7 yards per attempt. So in 2022, 2023, Jaylen Daniels cooking with Andy Kotelnicki in the intermediate range, 2024, Jeff

Grimes, not the case. Also for reference, Jason Bean in 2023, he was at 55% in that zone. So a little lower on the completion rate still higher than JD last year, but 11.2 yards per attempt. So that's a big number there and a 103.5 NFL passer rating for him. So as you can see, like huge difference. And I think the reasons are kind of, I don't know, there's two big ones to me one. And this is maybe the biggest one is the new offensive coordinator. I think number two that I'm going to get to here is probably in conjunction with number one, but it's the new

offensive coordinator. Jeff Grimes didn't attack that zone as well or as often as Andy Kolonicki did. A lot of the routes and schemes were to set up plays to that area. And the one I always think of is the LJ Arnold throw from Jason Bean, I think was in the fourth down in the game that upsets Oklahoma in Lawrence. And that's like the perfect encapsulation of like, you get a guy wide open on an intermediate route, you know, that was something they were so good at Grimes more so wanted to do the screen game and the jet sweeps and the deep balls, very different than what they were asking to do. Now, at the

same point in time, even though I think a big part of that was coaching, there is probably a good amount of it that you could probably also blame Jaylen Daniels for, for, you know, not being as confident or consistent throwing in that area. I do think to Jaylen Daniels credit, if you have that new offensive coordinator in there, and you don't have the confidence like that is the toughest place to throw on the field. If you don't have confidence 10 to 19 yards down

the field in that intermediate range like it's one you throw a deep ball. It's lobbed up your guy can make a jump ball catch. It can be a 5050 ball the short route Sid. They're a little safer. That is the scariest place to throw in terms of if you don't have confidence, you're going to be throwing it like, oh no, am I going to get intercepted? Oh no, is this guy going to pick it off? Oh no, like what am I doing? And then you also add to it that, you know, you miss spring ball and miss summer getting to throw the receivers. Maybe you're a little bit rusty, right? And so having to throw in that area, which is typically needs the biggest velocity, has the tightest windows,

needs the best timing, and also you need to trust your coach and have coaches that are scheming those plays up, you can understand why that would happen. The question now just becomes, can they be good at this? And I think you made the right step. I mean, by having Jim Zabrowski as offensive coordinator as opposed to Jeff Grimes, I think that only helps in this area, right. So I

actually wanted to go back and look at the game that Jim Zabrowski called for Jason Bean, and the guaranteed rape ball. And obviously, Kansas eviscerated you and all these defense passing defense, I should say, and throwing the football, but how well did they do over that middle third of the field? Well, they went eight of 10 over the middle third of the field for 200 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. So 20 yards per attempt. That's pretty good. Now part of that is also taking

into account, you know, the short middle routes. If we just look at like the intermediate and stuff, or the stuff, you know, beyond the line of scrimmage, there was like a long touchdown on a shorter route thrown over the middle, but there's still a lot of damage done there for Jason Bean. You're looking at, you know, eight throws, six of eight at that point, and you're looking at closer to like 140 yards. So it's still like really good in what they were able to do with that area.

I think that's something that Jim Zabrowski is going to both bring in his play calling and the schemes that they're going to devise up. I think it's going to improve plus having Matt Lubick back as well. I think that's going to improve KU's ability to throw over the middle. And I also think that the relationship between Zabrowski and Daniels, another season for Daniels, even though he missed spring ball getting to be back for summer to throw to these receivers. I think all of that makes me think he should have

more confidence and that Kansas should be better at this this season. But you know, once again, it is something that they have to do if they want to be better as an offense, which therefore lead to more points, more success and more wins on Saturdays in Lawrence. At the, the last one we need to get to is the field position battle. It's not a sexy one, but it is one that Kansas hasn't ranked super great over the years. We know special teams haven't been so kind to Kansas.

So let's discuss that next and how they can get better. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. Again, you can find the show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We can like and subscribe and don't forget to make Lockdown College football and or Lockdown College basketball your second listen every day. Also, this is coming out on a Thursday morning. If you're listening, if they've still got tickets for it, check out the Rock Chalk Round Ball Classic coming up on a Thursday morning. If you're listening, if they've still got tickets for it, check out the Rock Chalk Roundball Classic coming up on Thursday night to Free State High School,

or just donate, maybe just show up for the auction that's kind of going on, the silent auction out in the halls of Free State High School. It's an awesome event. Highly recommend checking out what it's all about if you don't know rockchalkroundballclassic.com. Okay, the field position battle. 4KU is an area they have to get better if they want to be better overall as a team. Now those first two

ones we talked about the winning like if you just fix one of these if you just fix the winning close, that's that's enough on its own to get you back to bowl eligibility. If you fix the winning close and the intermediate throwing and maybe those two are tied like maybe you have to fix the intermediate throwing to win more close games. But if you fix those two now, maybe you're flirting with that seven to eight win range where, you know, Vegas has you for the overrun to win total.

This one would kind of be the cherry on top where it's like if you can improve field position, maybe it's the difference between you being an eight win team and being a nine win team or being a 10 win team. I don't know. Like maybe this is the kind of the shining of the shoes, you know. So Kansas ranked 94th last season in net field position, right? So their average starting point, minus the average starting point of their opponent, and then you come up with a number and that's your net field position. They were only 94th in the country.

So obviously, that's a number that was not very good and needs to get better. Special teams does matter. We've seen it for so many years at Kansas where it's almost like a bad special teams play is more valuable to a game than a good one is, if that makes sense. Now maybe that they're intertwined

because I guess if you have a bad special teams play, that's a good special teams play, that's a good special teams play for the other team. But you know what I mean? Like if you gave me the option between Kansas can have three punt return touchdowns in a season, but they're also going to get like, I don't know, a field goal blocked, give up a kick return touchdown and then something else versus just having no huge positive swings, no huge negative swings.

I would take that second one. Like we kind of lived that a couple years ago, right? You had the Trevor Wilson punt return touchdown against UCF. That was an awesome highlight, an awesome moment. They also dropped the punt against Kansas State. And so they kind of equal themselves out in terms of big plays. But one ended up being, you know, more excruciating and more painful to you than the other one, obviously. So that's kind of where I'm at with that.

But this stat is interesting because the net field position thing is like, yes, special teams does matter to it. At the same point, the defense does get involved in this stat, right? Because three and outs is going to equal better field position. If somebody opens up the game with the football and they three and out from their own 27 yard line, you're going to wind up with better field position than if they got three first downs and then punted and pinned you at your own 12 yard line. Obviously. So the more three and outs is going to be better field position. That is where the defense comes into play.

And I think the more bend but don't break you are, which Kansas has kind of been, the worse you're going to set your offense up in a lot of different ways. Kansas was 115th in the country last season in average starting field position on offense. So that kind of tells you that yeah, they weren't getting three outs and the offense was not being put in valuable positions. And the main reason they ranked so poorly in that field position is where the offense started the ball. And so this is where DK McDonald, not just your special teams and the defensive portal additions, I think, come into play, right?

I feel good about the defensive tackle group. I feel good about the D line and the depth that they have overall. I feel good about the portal additions they've made to the linebacker unit that this could wind up being the best linebacker group of the Lancelot-Poldera. Obviously, there are some questions about the secondary. You lose some key players. There is talent there. How good are they going to be?

Can they at least be good enough? And can those other position groups take a step up that it nullifies even if you do take a step back on the back end? And so I think for that reason though, overall with the combination of the new coordinator, maybe some new wrinkles on the defense, some new interesting players, I do think they can improve, you know, especially when you look at the D line group being able to set KU up with a few more maybe three and outs this season,

right? Because if the D line is stuffing a run on first hour, getting a tackle for loss, and then maybe they're getting the sack, like that's going to help you get more of those three and outs. I think the other reason that they have the opportunity to be better at getting that average field position this season. It's the new punter Finn Lapin. This dude is a stud 46.1 yards per

punt last season and McNeese State 31%. So about one in every three of his punts ended up inside the 20. He also had a long of 68 yards. If we just compare that to what Damon Graves did for Kansas last season, Graves had 42.3 yards per punt. So that's about four less yards per punt. 18% of his punts were inside the 20s, so about 13 less, 13% less than

what he was doing there. And then his long was 58 yards. That's about 10 yards less. It is 10 yards less than what Finn Laban did a season ago. This is what's really crazy to me though. The Kansas career record for yards per punt, minimum 75 pints, it's owned by Bucky Scribner. He had 44.6 career yards per punt. If we look at the Kansas single season record for yards per punt, minimum 35 pints. It's also Bucky Scribner. That was in 1982. He averaged 45.8 yards per punt. Finn Lapin averaged 46.1 yards per punt at

McNeese State last year. So if he just has a season in line with what he did last year at the FCS level, which this isn't the same adjustment of oh, a lineman going from blocking, you know, FCS players to blocking FBS players, you're still punting the same exact football. There's no difference in terms of punting going from FCS to FBS, right? Unless like the pressure or the bigger stadiums is going to get to you. But like the football is the same, man. There's a chance he could end up having the best individual again, he just has to

do what he did last year. And he would have the best statistic season in terms of yards per punt in Kansas football history. So you should be better a little bit on special teams just because of that. Now, not all situations are created equal. If you end up on a worse team at McNeese State theoretically, where you do punt from your own 30 yard line or your own 40 yard line, as opposed to being on Kansas where with Jalen Daniels and maybe a good offense, maybe they are getting a couple first downs and then maybe you're punting more from the plus 45 from the your own 45 as opposed to where you were your previous seasons. That's going to lower your yards per punt because you're going to be more focused on pinning guys in. But that is where that number of him pinning 31% of his punts inside the 20 last year compared to Graves at just 18% is an improvement. And that is also a number that is a little contextual dependent because

again if Lappin's having to punt most of the time from his own 30, he's not really gonna have as many chances or from his own 20, he's not really gonna have as many chances to pin a guy deep inside his own 20. So that's not a great way of looking at it but it is something where I feel like they do have an improvement there in terms of the yards per punt that they can back teams up even more. And also the idea that when they do get those opportunities to kind of coffin corner punt and pin a team deep, that they'll be able to take advantage of those even more. Plus I think the defense maybe can get, I don't know that they're going to be elite getting three outs, but then can they be better

at it than they were a season ago? Yeah, yes, I absolutely think they can. So those are areas Kansas needs to improve. And I think optimistic view that they can improve on all of those different areas that will for us today. Unlocked on Jayhawks, you can find our show anywhere you podcast including our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe. Don't forget to check out all of our other episodes this week. It's Kansas basketball underrated. We talked a little about the Rock Chalk Roundball Classic and segment

three yesterday. So thank you to every day. There's already catching all the shows and we'll see you next time for another edition of LOJ.