Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Penalties, Red Zone Defense and What Kansas Jayhawks Football Can Improve to Win the Big 12 in 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, what areas specifically need to improve for Kansas to win the Big 12 in 2024? And where does Lance Leipold already rank among all-time KU football coaches? 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. And thank you to the everydayers tuning in to each and every show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts,

Starting point is 00:00:40 including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We're talking what areas specifically does Kansas need to get better if they want to win the Big 12 in 2024. Then we're going to get on to where is Lance Leipold already rank among all-time KU football coaches, and we're officially 23 days away from the first KU football game. We're creeping up on that, so we're going to talk a little bit more about that and what that number signifies to be closer to opening kickoff for KU football. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more

Starting point is 00:01:11 as playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to, but this summer FanDuel's hooking up all customers with a boost or bonus daily. That's right, there's something for everyone every day all summer long. Just visit FanDuel.com to get started today. All right, so let's start right here. What areas does Kansas need to solve? Do they need to get better at if they want to win the Big 12 championship here in 2024? So we went over some of the, in the past, the other prerequisites of what past Big 12 champions have done. And a lot of those Kansas actually ranked okay from where they were a season ago.

Starting point is 00:01:47 And obviously, if you're going to win the Big 12 this year, you hope to be even better than you were a season ago. But some of those numbers we didn't go over, I think, really stick out to me. One of them we did go over, and I'm going to reiterate it here. But here's four areas that don't just feel like they need to do them better. They didn't rank super well in them a season ago, but that they can do better, and that you can see one-year turnarounds in them,

Starting point is 00:02:12 is these four areas. Penalties, special teams, red zone defense, and turnovers. So let's get into why on those specific four and where they rank last season. Let's start here with penalties last season Kansas was called for 740 penalty yards obviously a lot of that was done in the bowl game that did not help because that game they were trying to flag each and everything regardless that was 13th the 740 penalty yards called against them. That was 13th among 14 Big 12 teams. So they were second to last in the Big 12 in penalty yardage. And if you go by per game yardage, because

Starting point is 00:02:52 obviously you're going to have some teams like Kansas who played in a bowl game, other teams that maybe didn't make a bowl game. You're going to have some teams that played in the Big 12 championship and a bowl game. So they have even more games, right? Or in the case of Texas, you played in the Big 12 championship and the college football playoff, right? So you have more games to go by. If we just go by penalty yards per game, Kansas averaged about 57, 56.9 penalty yards per game. That was also 13th among 14 teams in the Big 12, so it wouldn't really get much better. For what it's worth, Oklahoma State, who did make the Big 12 title game a season ago with, I would say still a very talented team. But if you're comparing the talent across the board of Oklahoma state last

Starting point is 00:03:30 year to Texas last year, who won the league, Oklahoma state is a lesser talented team from that perspective. And I think that's more of the mantra you're looking for Kansas to make it in. Although there isn't a Texas in the league anymore, regardless, Oklahoma state was second in the league last year in penalty yards per game. It was 41 penalty yards per game, so about 16 penalty yards per game. Now, there should have been another what's, I guess,

Starting point is 00:03:53 how many games did they play? 14 games, five divided by 14 added on to that 41-point whatever from the offside that should have been called against Kansas. But regardless, you have to get your penalty yards better. And this is something that Kansas was great at their first year in the Leipold era, and I view the Lance Leipold staff and everything as really good coaches. Typically, you see the most, I don't know what it is. Some of it, sometimes it can be conditioning. Sometimes it can be discipline. Sometimes it can just be the smartest team. Sometimes it can just be crap

Starting point is 00:04:21 luck. I don't know what all goes into what makes a team who is better or worse in terms of some of the penalties now i know some of it is when there's bad coaching like i think to like the david baity era when like the start their very first play of one of the season i don't even remember what season it was their very first play on offense of the season it was like delay of game because they couldn't get playing it's like you've had you've had nine months to think about what first play you want to run here. Can we not at least move past that? So that is the case.

Starting point is 00:04:49 But I view this as a really good coaching staff. So it's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that typically I correlate like, hey, your team gets too many penalties. It means this or that. I view this coaching staff as really good. So that tells me that it should be correctable. And that tells me that Kansas should not correctable. And that tells me that Kansas should not rank this poorly in terms of penalties, but they need to rank better at it

Starting point is 00:05:10 in 2024 if they want to win the Big 12. What about special teams? So they were better in 2023 than they were in 2022. That's for sure. But there still is a lot of room to grow from even where they were last year to where they're trying to get in 2024. And with questions about who's going to be the kicker, it kind of becomes even more interesting here. Kansas was 10th in the Big 12 among 14 teams in net yards per kickoff a season ago. They were 8th in field goal percentage. They were 14th, so last, in yards per punt, though that moved up to 8th in net yards per punt they were 10th in kickoff return average that's a lot of areas to be in the bottom five of the league or if your strength areas are eighth in the league like that's not going to be good enough they were second in

Starting point is 00:05:57 punt return average so they did good in those punt returns but they only had six punt returns. And so if you factor in the one punt return for a touchdown against UCF, the other five punt returns didn't do much. And that doesn't even account for like the muff punts that you had and stuff like that. Everybody else in the Big 12 had 11 or more punt returns. The leader in punt returns in the Big 12 had 25 of them. So you weren't getting that many punt returns. And I't know what would cause the the difference in those but um yeah special teams need to be better kansas finished 60th in the country on espn sp plus in special teams ranking last year uh espn power index actually had kansas at 95th a season ago and only the 11th best in the big 12 special teams doesn't necessarily have to be the best in the

Starting point is 00:06:43 conference can you get it to being you know by sp plus top 50 in the Big 12. Special teams doesn't necessarily have to be the best in the conference. Can you get it to being by SB Plus top 50 in the country? Can you get it by the power index to top 50 in the country and be seventh in the Big 12 or something like that? You need to get a little bit better and find those increments that you can improve, and that is one of them. Red zone defense. I don't know that people realized how much the KU red zone defense struggled a season ago, and I do think there is a little bit of luck involved in red zone defense that can kind of grind its way year in and year out, depending on the year. But there is something else there as well. I don't know if the best defenses always have the best red zone defenses. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. The thing is with red zone defense is the best red zone defenses are going to stop you

Starting point is 00:07:24 to field goals more often than they give up touchdowns. That makes sense. But in terms of the amount of times you give up points at all, that part is where I think a little bit of luck comes in. Because if you're holding a team to fourth down and seven from your 13 yard line, it kind of becomes luck whether they're going to make that field goal or not, or whether they're going to go for a dumb fourth down decision or go for it in fourth down in general,

Starting point is 00:07:47 and you're going to make that stop if maybe they mess up a play or something like that. But Kansas allowed scores on 98% of opposing red zone trips. And obviously Kansas wasn't an elite defense a season ago. They were basically nationally average. So you expect them not to be a great red zone defense because they weren't great really anywhere else on the field, but you don't expect them to be literally the worst red zone defense because they were not the worst defense in the country. They were again, nationally average. So they should be closer to the national

Starting point is 00:08:19 average in terms of red zone defense. Even if there are certain schematics or personnel things or little intricacies that change what you do in the red zone to what you do outside of it, maybe they're below average red zone defense. Kansas State scores 98% of their opposing red zone trips. That was last in the Big 12. The next worst was Cincinnati, who had 87%. So the next worst Big 12 red zone defense,

Starting point is 00:08:47 still opposing offenses scored 11% of the time less. That is a gigantic gap just to go from last to second to last. Teams went 49 of 50 scoring on KU in the red zone. Kansas had zero red zone turnovers. They only had one stop on downs. That's how they got to that one of the 50. It was not only the worst percentage last season in the Big 12, it was the worst percentage of red zone drives allowing points in the Big 12 in at least five seasons. And I say at

Starting point is 00:09:19 least because if you go back on the Big 12 website there is no data for this uh in the 2018 season and there's only partial data in 2014 but i kept going back anyway and so everything i went back i went back at least 10 years among the data that was actually there it was the worst red zone defense of the last 10 years based on that number and again is some of that bad luck that like maybe you just didn't have the opponent opponent teams missing short field goals that they did against other teams or make stupid plays or have a dumb fumble here or there. Maybe, you know, you just didn't, you know, have a few things go your way. Yes. But even if there were a few more things that

Starting point is 00:10:00 went their way, even if they got a couple missed field goals and they got a couple, you know, random fumbles going their way, they take take four away they'd still be 45 out of 50 that's still 90 that still would have been the worst in the big 12 so the red zone defense i don't know how they do it but it has to get much better this upcoming season they have to be giving up threes more often uh than what right now and zeros even sometimes getting some turnovers and stuff like that and yeah there were missed opportunities I think of you know sometimes like one of the luck ones was remember Oklahoma I think they scored a touchdown early in the game that could have been like a fumble if they wouldn't

Starting point is 00:10:33 have stopped the play dead but they did and it was like the inverse of the Caleb Williams play right that would have been one that would have gone your way that was one that was just probably bad luck but also sometimes you make your own luck like I think the Oklahoma State one they almost threw a pick six in the red zone and you just dropped it and couldn't go the other way. So it's a little bit of everything, but that has to get better for Kansas to win the Big 12 in 2024. And then turnovers is the last one.

Starting point is 00:10:54 Kansas actually did a good job of getting interceptions last year. Makes sense. You have Mello and Kobe. They're fifth in the Big 12 in interceptions. Where they can be better in the turnover game is recovering forced fumbles and not turning over as much on their side of the ball. So from KU's end of things, Kansas threw 11 picks a season ago. That was actually tied for the fifth most in the league.

Starting point is 00:11:16 So not horrible, but you were on the bottom half of that. Can you get more to the top half of that, right? We know Kansas has had some fumbling issues, so they haven't always lost them over the last couple of seasons and then on the other side KU actually did get a bit unlucky with fumble luck typically you you almost view it as like if you force a fumble you should be recovering at least 50 percent of them on the defensive side of the ball and in some special seasons it's going to be higher and for some teams if you're really good about you know having gang

Starting point is 00:11:42 tackling having a lot of guys around the ball you should be getting closer to 60% of your fumbles, right? Well, Kansas forced 11 fumbles last season. That was tied second best in the Big 12, so they did a really good job at forcing fumbles. But despite forcing the second most in the league, they only recovered four, which was tied 10th in the league for fumble recoveries. You get two extra fumbles going your way, which is the difference of being more of what the average would be there in terms of forcing 11 fumbles. That could have been worth an extra win, right? That could have been worth Kansas becoming a double-digit win team. So I think that one, the turnover one, and the special teams one, and the penalties ones are ways that you can shave off little margins that maybe you can add a half a win here, add a full win here by combining all those things.

Starting point is 00:12:29 The red zone defense is probably the biggest one though, because that's one that could be the difference of one or two wins if you can get a lot better at it from where you were last year. So basically these are areas that weren't great last season to have that room for improvement for Kansas to improve and be better. Like offense in general you can be a top 20 unit the defense winds up being around nationally average maybe a little bit better than it was last season you have to find those areas for them to get better for them to make a jump to get from nine and four to eleven and two or something to make the big golf championship and to win the big 12 and while you can say the same thing for the defense like these seem doable to have a big jump

Starting point is 00:13:03 year over year by just doing the little things and maybe getting a little bit more fortune. Let's talk about Lance Leipold's legacy already. Where does he rank among KU football all-time coaches? And then we're 23 days away from Kansas versus Lindenwood. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. You might think with basketball season over and football still not quite there,

Starting point is 00:13:30 that we're in that dead period, that doldrums of the sporting calendar. It's really not if you think about it, right? You still got the Olympics going on through the rest of this week. You've got baseball going on. The Royals killing it. Just bet on Bobby with Junior Day to home run. Every game feels like that's coming through, even though we know it's not, but there's still so much going on.

Starting point is 00:13:49 And even if it's just looking ahead to the football season and wanting to get your early futures over under wind totals in who's going to win MVP in the NFL this summer, FanDuel is making it even more fun because they're hooking up all customers with a booster bonus daily. There's something for everyone every day, all summer long. So head over to FanDuel.com and start making the most out of your summer.

Starting point is 00:14:08 FanDuel, official sportsbook partner of the Locked On Podcast Network. Thank you to every dayers tuning in to each and every show, and thank you to you for listening. Of course, you can check out our wide variety of the Locked On Podcast Network, including the Locked On College Football Show, where you can see the national stuff. You can check out our wide variety of the Locked On Podcast Network, including the Locked On College Football Show, where you can see the national stuff.

Starting point is 00:14:27 You can check out Locked On Big 12. If you want to see around the conference, you want to see a specific opponent, you want to see just a different sport, probably have it here with the Locked On Podcast Network. So here's the question. Where does Lance Leipold rank already among KU football coaches? And specifically, I want to just look at the AP poll era.

Starting point is 00:14:47 So the AP poll goes back to 1936 uh for the sake of this conversation i i think it's just easier um for one to i don't know the game is already so different from now that it was the 1930s it feels like the game was even like there's another big jump from 1930 to like 1900 so you have guys like doc kennedy who went 52 9 and 4 or herman olcott who went 16 and 7 and 1 like they deserve to have their name brought up which i'm doing right now but it's really hard to cross compare doc kennedy going 52 9 and 4 the early 1900s when they're getting to play games against Washburn and the YMCA and stuff like that, right? So even still a lot of differences from the 1940s to now, but I think it's a little bit closer than that jump there. Plus you get the AP poll involved and it gives us more of a,

Starting point is 00:15:37 I don't know, like reference on things and you get bowl games involved and stuff like that. So if we're just looking since then, 1936, almost 100 years of data. By wins during coaches who have coached at Kansas since the AP Polaro, Lance Leipold's already in 11th, which is pretty crazy for only being here for three seasons so far and this upcoming his fourth. He's already just two wins outside of the top 10 at Kansas, and every single coach in the top 10 at Kansas has at least 42 games coached. Lance Leipold is at 38 and most of them are way more than that. By winning percentage, Lance Leipold is 20th of the 36 that are on there on college football

Starting point is 00:16:17 reference since the AP poll era, but, uh, or, or just all college football reference, but if you look at his last two seasons, his winning percentage from 2022 and 2023, that would be in the top 10 at KU. And if we take out those pre AP poll coaches, it would move him up to third in winning percentage at Kansas based on the last two years, only behind George Sauer, who was only at Kansas for two years and Jules Sykes,

Starting point is 00:16:44 who was at Kansas for six seasons. Lance Leipold's already tied second for bowl appearances at Kansas. Older coaches get hurt a little bit more there because there just weren't as many bowl games, not as many teams were making it. He is also just one of four coaches at Kansas to win a bowl game. The only ones with multiple, Glenn Mason has two of them mark mangino has three of them so he's got a chance to you know catch up to glenn mason this season um obviously you would hope that bull win is a college football playoff bull win uh i don't know how does that count does it only count as a bull win in like the quarterfinals first round game since they're at the team's home i guess it doesn't count i don't know anyway whatever um point being he's up there

Starting point is 00:17:24 in like all these categories you're looking at. And you have guys like Mark Mangino and Pepper Rogers who each made Orange Bowls at Kansas. Glenn Mason, Jack Mitchell, George Sauer, they all had a top 12 AP poll finish for a season. Glenn Mason's the only KU coach to finish AP top 25 twice. And for what it's worth, Lance Leipold already has done it once because of last year, and he's got a heck of a chance this year to become the second

Starting point is 00:17:49 KU coach to be able to do that. And it's a hard thing to compare these because of, like I said, back in the day, there were less bowl games, less teams were making bowl games. Conferences were different. Player development was different. Player acquirement was different. Some coaches coached three years. Some coached 10 seasons. It's impossible to fully compare these things. The eras can be so different. I don't know who the right answer is now, if you're asking who is the best Kansas football coach of all time. But I know that Lance Leipold is in that top 10 already. You look at all those stats, that would be the case. And it might already be top five. It might already be higher than that, to be completely honest,

Starting point is 00:18:31 when you factor in that he had to do what a lot of these other coaches didn't have to do in turning around this program from what was really, really in a poor spot. And I feel definitive on saying this, because that wasn't a definitive answer. I feel definitive on saying this because that wasn't a definitive answer. I feel definitive on saying this. Lance Leipold has the potential to be the number one and the greatest coach of KU football history. And it's already closer and more possible than you might expect. Like all those numbers I just talked about, he's like two big seasons away from being the guy.

Starting point is 00:19:06 Because those Orange Bowl seasons with Mark Mangino and Pepper Rogers, neither one of them got close to doing that again, right? Like I said, there's only one coach in KU's history who has made multiple AP Top 25s. If Lance Leipold rattles off two more AP Top 25s in the next three seasons or the next two seasons at Kansas, he'd be the only guy with three or more, you know? So like it is actually very close to him already being the top guy, but to hit that trajectory,

Starting point is 00:19:32 he has to stick around in Lawrence for several more years. All right, let's finish up 23 days away from the first KU football game of the season, Kansas versus Lindenwood. We'll talk about it on Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience. The formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive.

Starting point is 00:19:53 eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. I'm talking superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more. Whether you're into speed, power, or style, eBay Motors has you covered. With over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay Guaranteed Fit, your parts are guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back.

Starting point is 00:20:15 Because with eBay Motors, you're burning rubber, not cash. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins. Keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay guaranteed fit. Only available to U.S. customers.

Starting point is 00:20:35 Finishing things up on Locked on Jayhawks here. We're 23 days away from Kansas taking on Lindenwood in their season opener. So let's talk about that number 23. Well, Kansas finished ranked 23rd in the AP poll in 2023. I think if you're setting the over under on that for this upcoming season, you would take, I guess it gets confusing when I'm saying over, are you saying like over the actual number or over that ranking and being better? I'll put it this way, better or worse ranking than finishing 2023 or 23rd.

Starting point is 00:21:02 I would assume better. And certainly with all the expectations, you would hope that would certainly be the case for this year for KU to try to get double-digit wins, to compete for a Big 12 title, to maybe win the conference, maybe make the playoff. All those things would come with that. So I think that would certainly be the case. But as we talked about in that previous segment,

Starting point is 00:21:19 that would be pretty historic for KU to be back-to-back AP poll top 25 at the end of the season. Trevor Wilson averaged 23 yards per punt return a season ago. So this is something we talked about earlier. KU was really good at that punt return average, but if you divvy it out, he had that 82-yarder against UCF that was a touchdown that was one of the plays of the year for Kansas. Outside of that, he had three punt returns for 11 yards

Starting point is 00:21:43 and the muff against K-State. I think he fumbled another one, but that was a kickoff, I thought, against Oklahoma, not a punt. Regardless, you know that Trevor Wilson can be a great player with the ball in his hands in the open field. You're just looking for more consistency here. And I think it'll be interesting what KU does at that punt return position. Do you go for the more consistent, less return guy who has a better chance of not muffing one, like maybe a Luke Grimm? Or do you go with the explosion of Trevor Wilson and hope that with another offseason to work, there's less chance for him to muff a football? Because when

Starting point is 00:22:13 he gets the ball in his hands in the open field, he can be pretty darn electric. The last 23 here I want to mention is Mason Ellis. He's somebody that the coaching staff has really talked up here. He's one of the fastest players on the team, local kid from in the state of Kansas, and he's been developing in that safety system. Maybe we see him a little bit on the field this year defensively. He'll be an all-phase special team guy. He played a lot of special teams last year. He'll do that again this year.

Starting point is 00:22:36 And maybe he will get even more safety rotation next season when you graduate OJ Burroughs and Marvin Grant. That'll do it for this episode of 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. And don't forget to check out all across our Locked on podcast network. We're going to be back tomorrow talking top five early questions about KU basketball in the 2024 to 2025 season.

Starting point is 00:23:01 We will also get our specialists preview for KU football on tomorrow's episode. And then on Thursday, we're going to talk a little bit about Jalen Daniels and running the football in our running back room preview. So make sure you're checking out all of our shows right here with Locked on Jayhawks. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Penalties, Red Zone Defense and What Kansas Jayhawks Football Can Improve to Win the Big 12 in 2024

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