Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - QB Position Leads List of Takeaways from Kansas Jayhawks Football's 40-14 Loss to Texas Longhorns

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, short and long-term takeaways from KU football falling to Texas 40-14 on Saturday in Austin. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:00:41 You can also find us on our YouTube page, which is Locked on Jayhawks, where you can like and subscribe to the show. We're talking short-term takeaways. We're talking long-term takeaways. We're looking more at what's next with the UCF game this Saturday on this edition of Locked on Jayhawks. First, though, this episode of the show

Starting point is 00:00:58 is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase today with GameTime. Let's start with the short-term takeaways from KU falling 40-14 to Texas. We had our game recap on our previous episode. Make sure to check that out for some more in-the-weed stuff of what happened in the game and goats of the game, the good and the bad goats for that one. So one short-term takeaway here is the result of the game, the good and the bad goats for that one. So one short-term takeaway here is the result of the game on Saturday, it isn't nearly as important as how you perform the

Starting point is 00:01:31 next two weeks before the bye week. Now, I guess this sort of is a long-term takeaway because it involves more weeks, but it's basically me saying that the result of this specific game, this short term game that happened are not going to be the be-all end-all. I mean, we talked about it in the preseason. This felt like, this past Saturday, the least winnable game you had on your schedule. And every other game you went into on your schedule, you felt like, yeah, maybe you have a chance at winning each and every one of those games. So, you know, that was kind of always the case there. And then on top of it, you still have everything in front of you.

Starting point is 00:02:03 You still have opportunities to win a lot of games this season. Part of it's going to depend on the health of a certain individual. But, you know, if you go 2-0 over these next two games, you beat UCF at home, then you win at Oklahoma State, and you're heading into the bye week at 6-1, you're going to feel great about it, and you're going to feel great about the start of the season. And it's more going to be a blip on the radar uh to where this game was always a game that you were supposed to lose you were playing on the road in texas and that even if you were picking kansas to win nine or

Starting point is 00:02:37 ten games before the season started you probably had them losing the game in texas in austin right especially with how good texas looked to start the year and has looked to this point, including the win at Alabama, that that game on its own is not the be all end all. Now, maybe there are certain things you want to take away from the game that are discouraging for you or certain things you want to take away from that are really good about Texas. But I think from a short-term takeaway, as long as you don't let the one game turn into struggling against UCF or struggling against state it's going to be just fine another short-term takeaway I have here is is this isn't exactly on Saturday more proof of why Jason Bean isn't Jalen Daniels now unfortunately I still

Starting point is 00:03:17 think Jason Bean is um I don't know maybe like a top half quarterback in the Big 12, middle of the pack quarterback in the Big 12 as far as where the starters go. He's not Jalen Daniels. Jalen Daniels is one of the best quarterbacks in the Big 12 when he's healthy and he's going right. And you see some of the differences in the short term. Like you saw in that Texas game, and it's not just because Jason took over, but also because you didn't have the full week of prep. But running the football with Jason Meade, he's faster than Jalen Daniels,

Starting point is 00:03:49 but Jason Bean doesn't really like taking hits as much, right? He likes running more side to side than up and down. He doesn't have the same vision. He doesn't have the same ability to read the option plays where he's giving the ball off versus when to keep it, when to pitch it, right? Those are different situations. The complementary offense isn't the same with Jason being in there where even on drives where you're not scoring,

Starting point is 00:04:15 maybe you're able to get a couple first downs with Jalen Daniels that keeps the defense rested, keeps him off the field, changes the field position, whereas with Jason being, it's kind of hit or miss. It's a touchdown on a quick play or it's a three and out and the defense isn't able to get rested. It's the consistency, you know, short passes, regular passes are the same consistency as the deep ball passes. All are accurate. Whereas, you know, it's going to be a little more inconsistent. The short passing is not as much that the reading, the defenses, the audible in place,

Starting point is 00:04:43 that's not as much there or adept as Jalen Daniels. And those are things that we knew, but you looked at some of the stats from last year when Jason Bean filled in for Jalen Daniels, and I don't think it was as apparent. And I know there were some people outside of the program, which, you know, whatever, roll your eyes at this, who were like, oh, but just look at the stats.

Starting point is 00:04:59 Jason Bean's playing just as well as Jalen Daniels. I think Saturday was proof to that, that like, yes, there is a big difference between these two guys. Again, that's not to take away from Jason Bean because I do think in the short term, I also think that was a bad Jason Bean game. There's no way of arguing around it. The stats weren't good.

Starting point is 00:05:15 The QBR was bad. You missed some stuff. I don't think the preparation and the surprise of being put on him and playing against a good Texas defense helped in that regard. I still expect Jason Bean to be a solid enough quarterback for you and play better than that. So, you know, I think it's more of a short-term takeaway that he played poorly. But basically, this is what it was. Jason Bean can be an adept quarterback for you to win some games.

Starting point is 00:05:37 But there's a difference between Jalen Daniels and Jason Bean, right? And then on top of that, you also got a bad Jason Bean game. So it wasn't like you were going from okay there's a plus jalen daniels games there's you know b jalen daniels game c jalen daniels games dj whatever somewhere in there you would say maybe an a jason bean game is similar to a b jalen daniels game or maybe you would even say an an A Jason Bean game is similar to an A Jalen Daniels game when both are at their height. But the difference is you not only went on that spectrum of Jalen Daniels to wherever Jason Bean lied in the spectrum, you lied in a bad Jason Bean game on top of it. So it's kind of doubled down, but I do expect Jason Bean to perform a lot better

Starting point is 00:06:21 this week and moving forward, even though it is a difference another short-term takeaway here the defense is simultaneously better while also still being not good enough to hang with an elite offense so last year you were one of the worst defenses in the country year before you were like the worst defense in the country you got better from last year from the year before you improved by like a touchdown how much are you going to improve coming into this year and and the jury's still out a little bit because you still are going to be playing some good offenses the rest of the way that who knows what the numbers are going to look like at the end of the season. I still think this defense is better than it were last year. And I mean, if you just compare it with the amount of points Texas scored, Texas scored 55 on you last year, and that was at home. This one was on the

Starting point is 00:07:00 road to give up 40. And yeah, you could probably say, oh, well, maybe Texas could have put in another touchdown at the end of the game if they really wanted to, or they missed a couple field goals, they had an interception, you're in the red zone, and they easily could have put the same total, if not more, than they did last year if they would have had a few more things go their way. Well, again, you didn't play great run defense. You gave them over 300.

Starting point is 00:07:21 That was a bad run defense game. At least it was like 100 yards better than last year. So I continue to believe the defense is better than they were a year ago. And that's going to be worth something. That to me is going to be worth another win or two from where they were a season ago. But are you to a point where if you're playing against the top 10, 15, 20, 25 offense, which the Texas offense might be top five or 10 in the country. It's got elite players all over the field. It's not going to be good enough there. And that can be okay, right? This is still a Kansas program working from two years ago.

Starting point is 00:07:52 They won two games. You know, you still are showing a arrow pointed up. The defense is still better than it was last season. But short term, when you're playing against like Texas and probably in a couple weeks against Oklahoma and maybe this weekend's UCF, like really good offenses, you're still going to have some struggles, right? It's just growing pains that you're going through. My other short-term takeaway here,

Starting point is 00:08:12 Dominic Cooney has continued to show why he's an NFL player. Continued to grade out super well, pro football focus last year, this year, plays well, moves the left tackle, no issues so far. Even against Texas, he was KU's highest graded pass blocker and highest graded run blocking offensive lineman and both grades were solid reasonable in both ways Dominic Pudi is an NFL player to me and I think this against a really athletic good Texas front further proved why that is the case and why I think he should be an all big 12 player all right we're going to continue on with our long-term takeaways and more on the UCF game in a moment.

Starting point is 00:08:45 First, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Have you ever been stressed out trying to buy tickets? Maybe some others are counting on you to get them, and you're like, oh, it's fine. We can wait until the last minute, but they're badgering you like, okay, but when are we going to get the tickets? When are we getting the tickets? Well, tell them to chill out because you got GameTime, man.

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Starting point is 00:09:53 app create an account and use code locked on college for 20 off your first purchase terms and conditions apply again create an account and redeem code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets. Lowest price guaranteed. On to our long-term takeaways from the KU-Texas game. You know, as much as I do think Jason Bean, I do have confidence that he'll be a solid Big 12 starting quarterback. The difference when you're Kansas where you do have to play on the margins a little bit more,

Starting point is 00:10:25 it could be a two, three, four win difference with Jason Bean versus Jalen Daniels. And that can still be good enough for this team to make a bowl game, but the health status of Jalen Daniels is very much going to determine if this team can be a Big 12 title contender. Now, when I say Big 12 title contender, after how that game went against Texas,

Starting point is 00:10:48 maybe you're more so contending to make it to the big 12 title then again you could say that well if jaylen daniels plays that game maybe it's 40 to 28 instead of 40 to 14 and that's more competitive game right um but as as well as jason being played in some games last year because of some of the inconsistencies because of the defense because of i do need to play the complimentary football i I mean, what is Jason Bean's record now against FBS opponents at this point? I'm trying to think, because his first year he started, he would have started nine games, and he got hurt in the ninth game. So that would have made him 1-8, but 0-8 against FBS opponents. Last year, maybe 1-3 with the Oklahoma State win,

Starting point is 00:11:24 1-2, 1- two, one in three, somewhere in that range. So you're looking at somewhere like one in 11. I don't know how he did in his time at North Texas. So that's not great. And again, not all of that is his fault. A lot of those games he did start were on a Kansas team that even if Jalen Daniels started, maybe they'd lose a lot of games too. Then again, they nearly won all three of their final three games. Jalen as the starter. So it is a big difference here. I think with Jason Bean, you're more of a 5-7 win team.

Starting point is 00:11:50 I think with Jalen Daniels, you're more of an 8-9 win team. There is a sizable difference there. You still have enough to get this done, but I think realistically if Jalen Daniels were your starter, you would look at these next two weeks and say, okay, they can go 2-0 here. If Jason Bean, you're maybe more looking at 1-1, and where 0-2 isn't out of the question either.

Starting point is 00:12:09 So we're going to see what the difference is here in terms of having a week of prep for Jason Bean versus last week not having it. If he comes out a much different guy this week, I think that would be a great sign for KU with that being the case. Because I do think kind of long-term now, given the Jalen Daniels back injury, that is a long term takeaway here. The Jalen's back injury is never going to go away this season, and it can flare up. It can pop up at any moment this season. Because of that, Jason Bean has to be on his A game the rest of the season for Kansas to hit the heights that they want to. Other long term takeaway, honestly, this is about KU's

Starting point is 00:12:42 opponent, and I think it pertains to KU in a certain way, not to overreact to the game. Texas might just be a wagon. There's a chance Texas could be the best team in the country. Georgia's been a little shaky. Michigan hasn't really played anybody super tough yet. At the very least, Texas, it's clear, looks like a top-three team, like a college football playoff contender right now.

Starting point is 00:13:02 And we'll see how they do against Oklahoma this weekend. And that'll be an even better long-term takeaway this weekend because KU playing UCF and Oklahoma playing Texas, we're really going to get to know. Because if Texas beats OU by 14 points and Kansas beats UCF, I think we're going to look even further back to the KU-Texas game and be like, yeah, maybe Texas is just that good. Because when you are a college football playoff team,

Starting point is 00:13:25 when you're one of the best teams in the country, you just smash other teams. This isn't the NFL where it's like, you know, the Chiefs had to barely beat the Jets or last year the Chiefs had to beat the Texans in overtime where like a majority of NFL games, even if you're playing an average team or a bad team, a lot of them, you're still going to need close wins

Starting point is 00:13:42 or even only wins that are by 10 or 14. In college football, your number one team might beat even your number 15 team by 30 or 40 points. There is a big gap between the haves and have nots between the best teams and the others in college football, right? And hopefully the college football playoff expanding to 12 teams, it balances some of that out. But in current state, like this is last year between Georgia and Michigan, two of your college football playoff teams who last year are now also seen as, you know, maybe being in that ilk this year, Georgia beat number 11, Oregon 49 to three, right?

Starting point is 00:14:12 Oregon was pretty good. Michigan beat number 10, Penn state 41 to 17. Michigan won at number two, Ohio state 45 to 23. Georgia beat LSU in the sec title 50 to 30. And then obviously who could forget the national title where Georgia pasted TCU 65 to seven. This is me basically saying that there is a chance again, based on the results that happened this week with the UCF game and the Texas

Starting point is 00:14:39 and Oklahoma, that maybe Texas is just that good that maybe Kansas still is a top 25 caliber team. It's just you ran into an absolute buzzsaw in Texas. If you lose the UCF, Texas loses to Oklahoma. Maybe those aren't the conversations. But I guess my point is, as much as Texas dominated the success rate and the EPA per play and the total yardage and the scoreboard and everything, there's just a chance that it's because Texas is that good and it's not at all an indictment

Starting point is 00:15:12 on Kansas. So we'll wait and see. Other long-term takeaway, you still have a ways to go defensively. This does go back to the idea that the defense is better than it was last year, but I think this was a good reminder that, yeah, it's better than it was a year ago. You're still going to have some problems against elite offenses. You know, in a year or two, the entire defense should be programmed. Guys, guys that the program has brought in as high school players and have been under the staff, been under Matt Gildersleeve, been under the system for multiple years to where everything would be in-house development. And I think that's going to continue to point the era up for you to where, you know, guys that maybe you've had come in as transfers to be stop gaps for a year or

Starting point is 00:15:50 two in your system will now be in-house guys that are going to give you multiple years at that same level of play, if not higher. And I think a good example of this could even be at the defensive line position. Like, yes, you're going to always mix in transfer portal guys as you did this year. Right? So you bring in Austin Booker has been great and Devin Phillips and Gage Keys and some of these guys, but you're also getting that internal growth and development from Jeremy Robinson and Tommy Dunn and DJ Withers and Hayden Hatcher, right? To where you're going to have that

Starting point is 00:16:16 more succinctly and more consistently kind of moving forward to where you still do have a ways to go defensively, but I'm encouraged by the arrow and the positive step that they are taking in that right direction. Let's finish up more talk about the UCF game this upcoming Saturday for KU at 3 o'clock in Lawrence, Kansas. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by Bird Dogs. Bird Dogs make you look good. They make you feel good.

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Starting point is 00:18:18 Certainly some frustration inside the program from Travis Goff and KU Athletic Department. They sent out that email. I think some KU fans were rubbed the wrong way by it, but it's kind of the truth of the matter on one hand that, you know, if you want to keep your coach, you want to keep everything happy, you got to show out and you got to find a way to support in some way or another, whether it's donations or buying tickets.

Starting point is 00:18:37 And, you know, I will say it is more of a common problem than I think is being led on. Like I was at the KU Texas game this past weekend. I saw a lot of Texas students leaving at halftime and a lot more leave at the end of the third quarter. Now at the end of the third quarter, the game was out of hand, but that's not much different than what was happening with the KU Illinois game, right? That's just kind of the fact of the matter in college football nowadays, right?

Starting point is 00:18:59 Unless you're like a Kansas basketball of football. So if you're Georgia or Michigan, that's not happening, but it's happening to a lot of schools out there, right? So it's not a unique situation to Kansas necessarily. But yeah, it's certainly something you want to see, you know, fill it out and stay for the entire game. Now, as far as UCF, they run the ball very well. They have two really good running backs.

Starting point is 00:19:21 They've got a good run blocking offensive line. We'll see what the quarterback situation is. It's not just a quarterback, I guess, question for KU with injury. It's a quarterback question for UCF. John Rhys Plumlee was injured, I think, three weeks ago, and they said he'd be out a few weeks was like the exact wording how they did it. Well, few usually means like three. So does that mean he's back this week?

Starting point is 00:19:42 Does that mean he's out another week? John Rhys Plumlee is a really elite mobile running quarterback. The backup, McClain, has an ability to run. He's shown that at points this year. He's more of a passer, though. So it's going to be dependent, but both guys have played pretty well. They've got the good running game. Ton of athletes, great skill players all over the field.

Starting point is 00:20:05 The defense is fast and will fly around, but they do have some holes there that I'm expecting this to be a high-scoring game. I think if Jason Bean plays, I'm kind of iffy how the game goes. It feels like a coin flip. If Jalen Daniels plays, you know, it's still a game UCF could win, but I feel a lot better about Kansas coming out on top in the end. And for UCF, I think they can win with either starting quarterback. It's just a different game plan about how you have to approach it

Starting point is 00:20:28 as the Kansas defense. Certainly, with the way KU has struggled against mobile quarterbacks, you'd almost prefer to play the passing one in McLean. But again, McLean can run the football. It's just not as much or as often or as well as John Rhys Plumlee. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back on our next episode to do a KU basketball shooting guard preview. We're also going to have Nick Schwer with us later this week.

Starting point is 00:20:50 We're having a late night in the fog preview. We'll have our KU UCF preview. Plenty more to come, so make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you get any of your podcasts. Also on our YouTube page with Locked on Jayhawks. See you next time with LOJ.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - QB Position Leads List of Takeaways from Kansas Jayhawks Football's 40-14 Loss to Texas Longhorns

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