Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - REACTION: Kansas Jayhawks Football Runs Down UCF Knight's Throat in 51-22 Win

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, it's Derek Johnson with Locked on Jayhawks here, Kansas 51, UCF 22. We're going to have a post-game reaction show on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks to KU just grinding up UCF with their running game, a dominant performance by them. So thank you to everybody who are joining us. We're doing this thing live on YouTube, and you'll be able to check out the podcast afterwards in case you do miss anything. Again, with today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked

Starting point is 00:00:33 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 and Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And on today's show, we are breaking down KU, UCF, Jayhawks 51, Knights 22. I think KU fans, you have deserved the right to call UCF Central Florida

Starting point is 00:01:08 or the Golden Knights, much probably to their disliking. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. That's why LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnCollege. That's LinkedIn.com helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on college. That's linkedin.com slash locked on college terms and conditions apply. So dominant win for KU in this one. And you're

Starting point is 00:01:34 just looking at the final stats in this one. I don't know that it does it justice. Kansas out yarded UCF 490 to 371. It felt like even even more than that and the reason why whenever you have a physical sport like football where you are physically mauled and dominated as Kansas did against UCF it makes it feel so much worse for the team that lost and so much better for the team that won Kansas had 399 yards rushing in a game where Tony Sands was being honored at halftime, him and Nick Reed get their names in the ring of honor at KU, Tony Sands was most notably known for his 396 rushing yards against Missouri. You run for 399 as a team. Pretty cool moment. And as much as, you know, I was worried about this game because I wasn't sure if UCF was

Starting point is 00:02:24 going to score in the high 30s into the 40s, would KU with Jason Bean be able to keep up? Well, it turns out they would have been, even if that ended up happening. But the defense was great, too, for Kansas. And as much as we had all these questions about the quarterback position and is it Jalen Daniels, is it Jason Bean, what are you going to get from Jason Bean? Well, I thought Jason Bean played well in the moments that he needed to. Like there weren't a ton of moments that you did need him,

Starting point is 00:02:47 but he converted a couple of key plays throughout the game. For the most part, it was more about him just being a game manager and more about KU just running the football down UCF's throat and the defense playing well and only giving up 22 points. Again, 399 rushing yards for Kansas. They averaged 7.8 yards per carry. Meanwhile, UCF averaged 7.3 yards per pass. So you averaged more yards per running play than they averaged throwing the football. And you were six of nine on third down. That has been something

Starting point is 00:03:17 that was a huge strength of KU coming into the Texas game, but you go 0 of eight on third down, 0 of two on fourth down in that game. So you get back to the way that you're going in that way, and just throughout the game, like, I kind of think it was nice that as much as you making the stop on their basically second-to-last drive, where you had to sack them on the fourth and long at your end of the field, and then you scoring the touchdown with Dylan McDuffie there at the end, maybe it expands the lead. I think the score of 51-22 is more indicative of how dominant Kansas was in this game than it would have been if it was 44-22 44-29 I think that's good because I know at the end of the day like doesn't matter that much if you're ranked or not the beatdown

Starting point is 00:03:54 you just put on UCF that's going to get the attention of voters you were still receiving votes last week even after the Texas game wouldn't shock me at all if Kansas is ranked heading into next week's game against Oklahoma State just absolute domination from the word go from from the first half the first drive of the second half um really every I mean we had the special teams big returns defense side of the ball if you said coming in you were going to hold UCF to 22 you would have take it and ran and obviously offensively you you ran the football down their throats really everything you did was really impressive it's it's basically um i guess from new girl no notes no notes given on this one like you dominated the line of scrimmage offensive line was excellent for you

Starting point is 00:04:34 your running backs were great running through holes and then making guys miss at the second level you tackled a lot better than you did a week before against texas you rushed the passer well we continue to see austin booker be an absolute dude. You ran all over him regardless of which back it was, so it wasn't just like, oh, Devin Neal is dominating. No, it was Devin Neal dominated, Daniel Hyshaw dominated. Even at the end, Dylan McDuffie kind of dominated, and you didn't really need to get the passing game going. You just needed to hit a few plays. Like the one that Jason Bean had where he was rolling to his opposite side of his body, I think it was in the first quarter, rolling to his left

Starting point is 00:05:08 and just kind of floats it to the sideline. It almost looked like he was maybe throwing the ball out of bounds because he was running that way, but it was just in bounds. Luke Grimm coming back, makes a contested catch to the sideline, and even that play. Those are the things you're asking of Jason Bean. If you can play good enough defense, special teams, and run the football, at least just be a game manager. Don't make a big mistake. Run the football well. Run the football tough. He was taking more hits in this game, and I think

Starting point is 00:05:31 that endeared himself a little bit more in this game because we've seen that maybe be a negative in the past, but he played really well and efficient when you had to ask him to do it, and that play right there with Luke Grimm I think was a perfect example that he did play really well in this game, even though the stats, only 91 passing yards and not having to do it, don't show up necessarily. I guess if you do want to pick knits a little bit, you could say, well, you gave up 202 yards rushing. You'd like to see that go down. Maybe some of the kicking game stuff, you'd like to see that be a little bit better. But I mean, overall, that was as impressive of a half as I've ever seen from KU

Starting point is 00:06:08 in the last 15 years. You know, you'd probably have to go back to like something you did during the Orange Bowl season, or maybe something you did, I don't know, the following season when you won the Insight Bowl for as good of a half as you played. And we were saying that back in the Illinois game in week two, but what has changed about that? Well, one, Illinois might not be very good. They just lost to Nebraska and a week before they were blown out by Purdue. So that kind of changes the way you view things. But also, I think this was even a more complete first half

Starting point is 00:06:34 than it was in the Illinois game. You absolutely dominated in that first half. And to see it carry over with you returning the football in the second half and then going down and getting the long rushing touchdown on the first play by Devin Neal you just absolutely stepped on their throat when you had to and you never let them get back into the football game absolutely dominant first half but absolutely dominant performance too and yeah I mean UCF has some questions they're three and three now oh and three in the big 12 with their you know moving on

Starting point is 00:07:03 from the American to the Big 12. What are they going to look like long-term? I don't know. I still feel like UCF has a good enough offense and some talented players on the defensive side of the ball. You'd think that's going to be a team that, I don't know, certainly flirts with, if not makes it to a bowl game. And this kind of goes back in line with the idea that, okay, well, BYU, I still think they're a pretty good team. Like Illinois might not be as good as I thought, but that's still a power five team. Now with UCF, in all three of these games, you have kind of won these games going away, the BYU game a lot less than these other two, to where

Starting point is 00:07:34 you are showing you are on another level from where those programs and where those teams are this season, which continues to make you believe that you are going to win. You are going to have a winning season where you get seven or more wins this season. And in a Big 12, where obviously Oklahoma beat Texas earlier today, which was really impressive there, and makes you feel, I don't know, maybe a little bit more nervous about the Sooners coming into Lawrence. But Oklahoma and Texas are for sure kind of seen as the top two teams in the Big 12 right now.

Starting point is 00:08:02 Deservedly so. That's fine. Who is the third best team in the Big 12? There's absolute mayhem in the big 12 right now deservedly so that's fine who is the third best team in the big 12 there's absolute mayhem across the big 12 right now right because uh Kansas State loses to Oklahoma State last night they would have been one of the teams you would have thrown up there Kansas would have been one of the teams you threw up there until last week and then you get you know lose 40 to 14 to Texas uh BYU's got a pretty good team but they lost to Kansas so you know you're not going to put them ahead of Kansas, even though I saw, oddly enough, some weird power rankings throughout the week that had like BYU ahead of Kansas. I didn't understand that. You know, are you going to go Oklahoma State just because of one game with Kansas State? No, they haven't looked good

Starting point is 00:08:36 before that, right? Like Cincinnati? No. Like who is the third best team in the Big 12? West Virginia has looked really good, but still, are we going down that path? You know, like TCU lost to West Virginia. Who is the third best team in the Big 12? West Virginia has looked really good, but still, are we going down that path? You know, like TCU lost to West Virginia. Who is the third best team in the Big 12? I don't know. But the point is, you can make the case it is Kansas. You can make at least the argument, whether you want to say that or not. And that's what the importance of this game was about to me. There were obviously a lot of other things that were important.

Starting point is 00:09:01 You showed that you can get it done with Jason Bean. And you saw them be able to get it done with Jason Bean last year in the Oklahoma State game, but you showed it again. You showed that it's repeatable, and boy, did you not only show it, but you showed that you could dominate even with Jason Bean, and this was also important because if you lose this game, now you're going at Oklahoma State and at Oklahoma coming into Lawrence, and at that point, you're like 4-2, and you're like, man, if we can just split between these next two. Now you start to get some hopes up that if you can win in Stillwater,

Starting point is 00:09:33 then you would have a better record through your first eight games than you did last season, and that would show some sort of tangible improvement. And I think furthermore, let's not lose sight of being one win away from bowl eligibility, because as much as the expectations seemingly have raised, and there are higher expectations for this team to win more games than they did now one win away from making it to a bowl game for back-to-back years. And that is not something that Kansas football has done very often in their program. Obviously, they did it in 2008, you know, 2007 season, 08 Orange Bowl, then 08 season, 08 Insight Bowl. You did it back-to-back that time.

Starting point is 00:10:20 I think that was the first time in program history you've done it in back-to-back years. I could be wrong on that, but, you know but it hasn't happened a lot for KU. So celebrate that you're one win closer to bowl eligibility, even though you have expectations and hopes that this season can be even more special than that, that this season can reach that 7-8-9 win plateau. Celebrate having a chance to be bowl eligible, and now you're one win again away from being able to do that. Last year, your bowl eligibility win was against Oklahoma State.

Starting point is 00:10:47 Jason Bean started that game. He might have the chance to start this game with the same opportunity on the line against Oklahoma State this time. All right. I want to get into goats of the game, which for our goats of the game here, we are going to be getting to our good goats and our bad goats. If you're new to this, the good goat, greatest of all time, bad goat. That used to be an old phrase used around.

Starting point is 00:11:10 I just realized our background was from the last show with the UCF preview. So I apologize for that. This is the recap of KU and UCF. First though, this episode of the show is brought to you by LinkedIn. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. You want to be a hundred percent certain that you have access to the best qualified candidates available. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn jobs helps find the right people for your job faster and for free. It's super easy to post your job there. Just add your job in the purple hashtag hiring frame,

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Starting point is 00:12:06 for free at linkedin.com slash locked on college. That's linkedin.com slash locked on college. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. All right, go to the game. Again, if you're new to the show, good goats is greatest of all time. Bad goats, that was a word I

Starting point is 00:12:21 feel bad bringing this guy up because I feel like he was scapegoated out there pretty much. But like Steve Bartman, you heard like the goat, like, you know, he was the scapegoat basically. So our good goats here, we're going to start with rock, paper, scissors. That is what I have deemed this stable of running backs for KU football. The rock is Daniel Highshaw. The paper is Dylan McDuffie because he just kind of fills in wherever you need them to. Paper's always reliable, right? And the scissors is Devin Neal because he cuts really well, right? Devin Neal was dominant in the early portions of this game. And part of the beauty of this game, and I guess going back to last week with Texas, I guess even though you lost by a good amount,

Starting point is 00:12:59 I guess part of the positives there was that Devin Neal didn't take a big, you know, load of carries in that game. So maybe he would be fresh coming into this game. Well, he ends up with 12 carries for 154 yards, 12.8 yards per carry and a touchdown with the long of 75. And because you were blowing him out again, Devin Neal has an unbelievable game, but you still didn't have to worry about him taking on overly much of carries to keep him fresh through the upcoming games and the rest of the season.

Starting point is 00:13:23 So that's another bonus. Daniel Hyshaw had 19 carries for 134 yards and two touchdowns. And I continue to say, I mean, Daniel Hyshaw obviously had the fumbling problems at the end of last year for the end of his last season with the final games he played in the beginning of this year. But outside of the fumbling issues, he is a pro level all conference level back. And when he's not fumbling, which he hasn't been the last, what, three weeks, he's a dominant player too. He is an all conference level back. Now, I don't know if it'll end up being an all conference player because it's tough

Starting point is 00:13:52 when you're having to split carries. I guess if he keeps doing what he did today, then he'll have the production anyway. But in terms of his talent, that's what he is. And we saw that more on display in this game. The one play where he just absolutely trucks over the dude on UCF on the left sideline as they're going in, just shows everything about why I consider him rock. And then Dylan McDuffie, man, 13 carries for 91 yards, seven yards of carry, two touchdowns combined out of those three running backs. You got 379 of the 399 rushing yards, and he got five rushing touchdowns. Pretty good work from those guys. I guess I would give a good goat for Jason Bean for being a good game manager here.

Starting point is 00:14:30 But for the most part about the offense, it's all going to be rushing related. It's tough to pick anybody in the receiving game. Not that they didn't do well. They just didn't have the opportunities to show that they're good. The good goat here. Offensive line gets a good goat, though. You only gave up, I think, one sack in the game. I believe UCF only had three tackles for loss,

Starting point is 00:14:49 which would be a really low number allowed. I'll be interested to see who sticks out. We'll have a more takeaways episode later in the week, and we'll go into some of the pro football focus numbers that were reflected in this game about which offensive linemen really stood out or had the best games for KU. But the lack of penetration from UCF and the domination by the KU offensive line, pushing forward, creating huge running lanes for the running backs, just mauling them,

Starting point is 00:15:15 dominant game for the offensive line. Furthermore, I think the tight ends did a really good job in run blocking too. That was really everybody, Mason Fairchild, Trevor Cardell, but I really want to single out Jared Casey. I thought he had an excellent run blocking game. He was motioning H-back, full back, next to the quarterback and kind of the pistol set, whether it was a tight end. He was really kind of the lead run blocker. Like he was springing the big blocks on the edge of the play if it was like an outside run.

Starting point is 00:15:40 He was getting to the second level and knocking guys or being able to block them. He was just always there where the ball was going and making key blocks. I thought he had a really good game. Austin Booker gets a good goat here. Austin Booker is really looking like one of the premier pass rushers in the Big 12. Last week, he had four pressures, even in a game where the KU defense gave up over 600 yards. He had four pressures against a lot of plays, a Texas left tackle. Who's going to be an NFL draft pick, like a high round NFL draft pick, former five-star guy. Who's like a junior now. And he continued to oppress in this one,

Starting point is 00:16:15 four tackles in the game. He had two tackles for loss in the sack. Obviously the sack, he had the play where he kind of knocks the ball out of the hand and DJ Withers recovers it. So he had a really good game. Taiwan Berryhill. Tywon Berryhill, I was worried that he was playing through injury and it was hurting him. Coming into this week, Berryhill was last among KU players defensively who have played a snap in pro football focus grade. And I don't think that's because Berryhill was a bad player. I just think he was playing through an injury and it was hurting him.

Starting point is 00:16:42 He looked a lot healthier in this game, and that's good to see because KU needs even more. The better depth you have at linebacker, which they've certainly established now with Barry Hill, Miller, Cornell Wheelers played well lately. J.B. Brown had some really good games early in the season. Craig Young, obviously, who had a really good coverage play earlier too. You've started to establish a bit more of the depth

Starting point is 00:17:00 kind of on that end of the football. Jason Gilliam, who's the backup hawk to Craig Young, had himself a good game. He had two tackles in the game and one sack, but the plays that he did make were key plays throughout the game, and I was really impressed with what he did out there. And then also the kick and punt return gets a good go. Maybe we give it to Sean Snyder. Bill Snyder, his dad, was in attendance for this game. He had to have been smiling with how the KU special teams played on those kick returns. You have the Trevor Wilson punt return touchdown. You have the Kenny Logan near kick return touchdown if he doesn't trip on his own guy. And that was really impressive to see. The KU special teams has been really good so far this season. A lot of games it's more so been

Starting point is 00:17:42 about they just haven't messed up. This game they did mess up a couple things, which we'll get into here. They were smaller things, but they had those two huge plays to more than make up for it. And KU special teams, or the return game, I guess, gets a good go here. As far as the bad goats, not a lot to go over here. I guess the kicking game, you missed a 32-yard field goal. You had a blocked PAT that was returned two points the other way for UCF. So theoretically your kicking game was a five point swing to UCF. Otherwise this game would have been

Starting point is 00:18:09 even further out. Then it would have ended up 54 to 20, right? If my math is correct there. So I guess that would be a bad goat in this game. They've been good up until this point. So not really something I'm probably concerned about long-term unless it continues to happen, but certainly that was there. And then other thing was um just trying to decipher what's going on with the Jalen Daniels stuff I I don't know how much I want to go into this because I I think we kind of need more information here and as I'm recording this I don't know Lance Leipold might be meeting with the media right now but um Jalen Daniels wasn't out there with the team which I found very interesting now maybe with the back injury he just has to lay down somewhere

Starting point is 00:18:44 and standing up on the sidelines, not going to be good, or maybe they've been able to be a distract. I don't know. We need more information here. I'll just say it was kind of surprising to not at least see him on the sideline. And certainly that's not going to quiet down any of the rumors or conversation that have kind of been going on about the whole ordeal, but you know, I i'm sure it had something to do with the back injury and that everything's going to be okay it just leads to kind of more speculation all right um we're going to get on to uh early look at what's next ku at oklahoma state this upcoming saturday i guess a week from uh today in stillwater first this episode of the show is brought to you by

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Starting point is 00:20:00 So certainly this game with Oklahoma State felt a little bit, I don't know, easier before what they did against Kansas State. So certainly this game with Oklahoma State felt a little bit, I don't know, easier before what they did against Kansas State. Now, if you watch the game, it felt a lot like a game that Kansas State kind of shot themselves in the foot, maybe to a good amount that otherwise maybe the result has changed. Will Howard really struggled. But then again, you give some credit to Oklahoma State for defensively, you knowly causing some of those interceptions and mayhem and chaos that they did in holding Kansas State to 21 points. So the Oklahoma State defense, I don't know, because on one hand, you give up over 30 points to South Alabama and you give up 34 to an Iowa State offense that I don't think is super good.

Starting point is 00:20:40 But then again, they're coming off the good game against Kansas State they have an extra day to prepare for you it's it's kind of tough to tell with Oklahoma State and they were rotating three quarterbacks for an early part of the season well Alan Bowman was like the one guy against Kansas State he didn't have a great game but he was he was pretty solid he was he was above average he had himself a nice game against Kansas State I it seems like to me they've settled on the guy and I think that helps them and makes them a more dangerous team, a better team, a more complete team than when they were earlier in the season when they did get blown out to South Alabama or in the game that they did lose to Iowa State. But still, there are questions there about their

Starting point is 00:21:18 QB play. And even though, yeah, the defense did be opportunistic and hold Kansas State to 21, probably could have easily been more so. Jason Bean certainly has confidence playing against that Oklahoma State defense after he won that game in Lawrence a season ago. It's going to be tough. Stillwater's a tough place to play. I'd imagine Kansas will be favorites in this game, especially after the UCF win.

Starting point is 00:21:39 I bet you it's somewhere close between five to seven points. Honestly, it wouldn't shock me if it was three and a half. It wouldn't shock me if it was 10, to be completely honest. I'm not entirely sure, but I do feel like Kansas will be favored against Oklahoma State, and that'll be on Saturday. We'll have plenty of episodes coming up on Locked on Jayhawks to preview that game, talk plenty more KU football, and get to a late-night-in-the-fog, I guess, post-game reaction to that, too.

Starting point is 00:22:03 But you can find our show anywhere you get any of your podcasts with Locked on Jayhawks. You can also like and subscribe to our show on our YouTube page. Thanks for joining us today. If you joined us live or if you're catching this later, and see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - REACTION: Kansas Jayhawks Football Runs Down UCF Knight's Throat in 51-22 Win

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