Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #16 Kansas Jayhawks Football Loses 16-13 to Texas Tech After Jason Bean Gets Injured

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're recapping KU's close loss with a third string quarterback, 16-13 to Texas Tech as they drop to 7-3 on the season. 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 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 anywhere you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us with our YouTube page where you can like

Starting point is 00:00:43 and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition, we're breaking down, recapping the KU Texas Tech game in which the Jayhawks fell to the Red Raiders 16-13. First, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase with game time. So KU falls to Texas Tech 16-13, a game that they were down at halftime and ended up fighting hard. I think no complaint about the effort or the want to. Maybe you can say you were sluggish.

Starting point is 00:01:19 Maybe you can say there was a bit of a look-ahead factor with the Kansas State game the next week, but early morning game, but I don't really think it's that. I mean, Texas tech did come out firing off the ball a little bit better than maybe you did on, you know, playing physically to get things going. But after kind of a bad start where you're three and out, you don't have first down through a couple of drives and they go down, they get two scores quickly. The first one rather easily, the second one a little bit

Starting point is 00:01:45 tougher after two kind of bad punts from there you really fought your tails off to get back into the game the defense was excellent from there uh the offense you know started to figure things out a little bit in the fourth quarter after really struggling through the first three quarters which made sense when you get onto a third string quarterback but you just kind of played with your hand tied behind your back with having that third string QB that actually that Cole Ballard played well. And we'll get into that a little bit more here. I'm actually loved the moxie of Ballard, like that third and 10 run. If KU ends up winning that game, you go back to that third and 10 run where he takes the hit and, you know, falls forward and you're really impressed

Starting point is 00:02:22 with, with what he did, especially given the circumstances but uh in the end like it's you know i i said leading into the week texas tech was better than the record showed they had a one score loss to oregon they had double overtime loss to wyoming they had qb injuries throughout the year where they got to third strings one score loss to west virginia like you looked at some of the metric sites and they were much better than uh maybe some of the stats indicated. So there was reason not to be like overly worried or anything with, with this specific loss. And you just didn't execute. You played hard. There's, there's differences. There's sometimes you lose games where you don't play hard enough or you don't make enough hustle plays, or, you know, maybe you're missing tackles or whatever. There's other games where you do play hard,

Starting point is 00:03:03 but the execution's just not there. There are other games where maybe you're missing tackles or whatever. There's other games where you do play hard, but the execution's just not there. There are other games where maybe you're just not disciplined enough, right? This was just a game where there were a few areas. It wasn't everything. There were a few areas where you just didn't execute well enough. The red zone offense would be the clear one. You came into the game, and we talked about this on the preview show. Kansas was last in the Big 12 in red zone defense coming in.

Starting point is 00:03:23 Texas Tech was second to last in red zone defense coming in. Texas Tech was second to last in red zone defense coming in, in terms of amount of scores per red zone appearances you've given up. And Texas Tech's defense was able to hold the KU offense to just six total points on three red zone trips. You know, you get one touchdown on any of those red zone trips, you get one extra field goal, which I thought that was the right decision to go for it on fourth and goal at the one. But just, you know, you play it out, you get one extra scoring play. You just get that one touchdown on one of the drives that you scored three points on instead, or the touchdown on the drive that you got stuffed on the fourth down and one.

Starting point is 00:04:01 Like that changes the game against a defense that hasn't been very good in the red zone. So beyond that, I think for me, like, this is an absolutely – I want to preface it by saying this. Like, this is an amazing coaching staff that KU has. What Lance Leipold and this coaching staff have been able to do is remarkable at Kansas. And for the most part, this is a really good coaching staff. But I think there were some things that you would point to in this game

Starting point is 00:04:24 and say, yeah, probably wasn't the best handled that way I think game management left a little bit to be desired there you were down 10 nothing at the end of the first half and Texas Tech has the ball and it was like a minute 20 to go Kansas at all three of their timeouts they had like a fourth and one fourth and two from their own end of the field around their own like 35 40 yard line uh actually I don't even know if it was that far, I think closer to the 35, 34 yard line, something like that. And Tech went up to the line of scrimmage with the intent of just trying to get Kansas to jump off sides, which they didn't. But at the worst case scenario, run the clock down to like 40 seconds, take a timeout, then punt. If Kansas calls a

Starting point is 00:05:04 timeout with 120 on the fourth down, do they just punt away? Now you got the ball, you know, with two timeouts to go, maybe a drone 30 or something like that. And I get it. It was third string walk on quarterback, but you're down 10, nothing. And you kind of got to start taking chances. So I thought, and then the first play,

Starting point is 00:05:22 you get like a six or seven yard running play, and then you just eat it into the end of half half I thought Kansas should have been a little bit more aggressive there given the fact that again you were down 10 nothing and you needed to get something going right so there was that but I guess that one can be explained away in a bit of a different thing but the not using the timeout there and then all of a sudden using a timeout at the end of the first like that's the one there was I think 44 seconds left and it was a goal to go situation for Kansas. And there was a timeout used and it was like, okay, Texas tech must use a timeout so that they can make sure they have enough

Starting point is 00:05:55 time when they get the ball back, whether it's 1313 or whether they're down, if Kansas can get a touchdown here, but it was Kansas who used it. And that was really peculiar because in a goal to go situation, they still had their timeouts. It's not like they were rushing. If they would have got the snap off with 30 seconds, you still would have had with your future timeouts enough time to get all the plays off. And then worst-case scenario, you're kicking a field goal with five seconds left with the last play of regulation to guarantee it going either to overtime or you winning regulation. So the fact that you used your own timeout with 44 seconds allowed tech to get the ball back with 26 seconds.

Starting point is 00:06:28 And that gave them enough time to go down in like three plays and then eventually kick a field goal. So there were some game management things. Some of the goal to go play calling the third and goal where you have Devin Neal pass. Now, I sort of get it. You've been setting up the Wildcat. You've been running Wildcat for three straight years, three straight weeks and having a bunch of success with it including in this game and then you throw out the one run one you know passing play on the uh the the wildcat run when they're least expecting it like i i can see the brainchild of it but certainly it's it's one of the things

Starting point is 00:07:01 where it's like ah you know you you would have maybe loved it this way or another that's one that i think is more hindsight 2020 like i i get what the the vision was on that one of the things where it's like, ah, you know, you would have maybe loved it this way or another. That's one that I think is more hindsight 2020. Like I get what the vision was on that one. But the fourth and goal, it's tough when you have a short yardage situation. I've never been on board with the, you know, run out of pistol, run out of the shotgun when it's a third and one, fourth and one, let alone fourth and goal at the one where things are even more condensed with the back line you'd just like to see that be a QB sneak or an under center run or a pitch player something a little bit different and I I do wonder if KU was hesitant to run a QB sneak with Cole Ballard on the fourth and goal at the one because they were like hey if this guy gets hurt we're on a fourth string quarterback so So again, you can understand a little bit of it, but still, I thought there were some

Starting point is 00:07:49 things you point to and say, man, that was right in front of you there. Big picture, KU's fine. KU's still in a good spot, seven wins. You could even lose out the rest of the way. Your winning season's secure. The most wins in 15, 14 years. You don't want that to happen, and you don't want to go again kind of on a downward spiral toward the end. But certainly for the rest of this season, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:08:11 It's hard to say things are fine because with Jason Bean getting hurt, Jalen Daniels already hurt, it's just kind of like, okay, well, this could really hinder your ability to win another game the rest of this season. Now, if the defense plays like that and you run the ball well and Cole Ballard is proficient enough, could you beat Cincinnati? Yeah, I'm not holding my breath for the K-State game, but who knows? Maybe everybody else really steps up in a big way and maybe Cole Ballard is a hero that you don't expect. But big picture, this season is already

Starting point is 00:08:41 a success. And when you add the notion, like at the end of the year even if Kansas finishes seven and six eight and five whatever it is you're gonna look back on the year and say wow they they had a winning season in a year where big 12 preseason offensive player of the year missed x amount of games and your backup got hurt after that like um there are a lot of big picture things that the program continues to ascend upward and that, you know, yes, you lost out on the ability to be like, OK, we're a big 12 title contender. Yes, you lost out on the ability to be like we have a outside shot of making a New Year's six bowl and those stink. And that sucks as part of it. But maybe we were put in the cart before the wagon a little bit on that to begin with. And just from a standpoint of, you know, taking smaller steps along with the way as you go as a program,

Starting point is 00:09:28 that's something Lance Light will talk about, not going from A to D, having to go from A to B to C to D, kind of in the postgame. So, you know, big picture, everything in the right way. And if you beat K-State, like, you would obviously trade if you had to pick one of the two. Like, that's the way it goes. So, you know, props to the defense for battling their ass off. held tech to 414 on third down just 312 yards 3.1 yards per carry even after having a tough start you know sometimes though if you play close games

Starting point is 00:09:54 you're going to fall short and uh nothing but respect for the kind of grit and fight of this team just not quite enough all-around execution to win on saturday all right we're going to continue on with our Goats of the Game. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Buying tickets to your favorite sporting event should not be stressful because you're going to go to either a game or a sporting event, music, comedy, theater near you, and it's going to be fun. So why shouldn't the ticket process be fun too?

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Starting point is 00:10:54 Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off. Download GameTime today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. apply again create an account and use code locked on college for 20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guarantee goats of the game let's start with our good goats here uh if you're new to this greatest of all time good bad is uh the old scapegoat version of how the word was used uh first good goat here devin

Starting point is 00:11:22 neal 19 carries 137 yards. He also had two catches for two yards, so 139 total yards, and that electrifying touchdown. That touchdown's really what, I don't know, got the spark going, the momentum going. Kansas was down at that point, and they needed something to go their way, and it finally happened on that little speed option play. Ballard pitched at the perfect time, and Ne just exploded through 60-yard rushing touchdown. Even if you take that away though,

Starting point is 00:11:50 you know, that's 79 total yards the rest of the way for Devin Neal. So he was able to grind when he needed to and then the 60-yard run in the end form. He was awesome and continues to be for KU and nearly brought KU back from the brinks on that one. OJ Burrows gets a good goat. He had three tackles. He also had two pass deflections. He had an interception. He almost had two or three interceptions to be honest,

Starting point is 00:12:14 but one interception was a great play diving, coming over from the safety position and stopping that ball toward the end zone. It was unfortunate that it was at the one yard line, but KU ended up, it didn't matter. They got all the way to the other one. Unfortunately, they couldn't finish the draft from there. But on pro football focus, OJ Burrows had a 90 coverage grade.

Starting point is 00:12:31 He also had a 90 overall grade on PFF. So OJ Burrows was really good in this one. Honestly, all the safeties pitched in really well. Kenny Logan had a team high in tackles, played really well against the run for you. Coverage grades didn't love him in this one, but he was good. Marvin Grant gets a good go here. Six tackles, really well against the run for you coverage grades didn't love him in this one but he was good Marvin Grant gets a good goat here six tackles one TFL he had a 76 coverage grade on pro football focus so again all your safeties chipping in and contributing that's been a really nice position for KU so far this season the Austin Booker pass rush gets a good goat here he had five

Starting point is 00:12:59 pressures from the pass rush that led KU he also had one of KU's three sacks for the game he continues to just be a menace on the defensive line rushing the passer. The reason I singled out pass rush in this one wasn't his best tackling grade or run defense grade, though, on Pro Football Focus. So pass rush specifically for him was where the good goat action was. Rich Miller gets a good goat. Eight tackles, which was tied second on the team. He also had one of those other sacks for the game for KU. Now, when you look at the receiving numbers and the targets against,

Starting point is 00:13:29 he was targeted six times in the passing game. He gave up six catches. So right away, you're like, oh, okay, well, that's not great. He only gave up 30 yards though on the six catches. So I mean, if you're only giving up five yards per attempt, that's actually a good number. So kind of all around good day for Rich Miller in this one. This one might take some explaining because I did see some social media comments about this wasn't good enough, but I actually think this was a really good game for this kid. Cole Ballard is part of my good goats here. Stats not great. Nine of 20 for 124 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, 10 carries for 20 yards.

Starting point is 00:14:06 Those do not sound like great numbers. And in fact, they're not. I'll say this, though. QBR, which measures how a quarterback kind of impacts the game. So QBR is going to give you, it's on a scale of 1 to 100, 0 to 100. And it's going to measure you more if you throw a four-yard pass on third and three. That's going to give you more bonus points than if you throw a four-yard pass on third and three, that's going to give you more bonus points than if you throw a four-yard pass on third and 10, which makes sense, right?

Starting point is 00:14:30 He had a 61 QBR, which is not great, but it's not terrible either. Like for instance, Barron Morton, the Texas Tech quarterback came in on the season with a 58 QBR on the year for Texas Tech. He got a 61 from Cole Ballard. If you would have said you were going to need him for that much, you would have taken that and hoped that the rest of the stuff figured itself out. And then when you add in the fact that he didn't

Starting point is 00:14:52 really get as much help as he kind of needed him to from some of the receiving game, he threw the one kind of jump ball to Jared Casey, a ball that I think Jared Casey has such good hands. If you throw that ball again 10 times, Jared Casey might catch five or six of them, and maybe two or three of them end up incomplete. Maybe only one of the other ones ends up intercepted again. It was just a great play by the defensive back on a ball that was kind of a 50-50 ball. I don't necessarily fault Jared Casey. It was just a good play by the DB, but one that Jared Casey easily could have come up with

Starting point is 00:15:22 in a lot of other circumstances, so that would have helped the stats. I can't remember if Mason Fairchild had had a draw or maybe not a drop, but one that was kind of contested. He got hit and it got kind of jarred out. I couldn't remember on that one, but the ones that really come to mind, pro football focus credited Tanaka Scott with three drops for the game. I remember two succinctly that came at pretty big moments. There was one where it was well downfield and would have been a big game for

Starting point is 00:15:46 KU. So, I mean, if you're talking about, if those three drops become catches from Tanaka Scott, you're now 12 of 20 for what? Like 170 ish yards, somewhere in that range.

Starting point is 00:15:57 And KU, this is backed up by the lack of help here. KU came in fourth in the country on pro football focus and receiving grade as teams. They've been excellent there. They picked a bad game to have their worst receiving grade of the season because that's what happened. By pro football focus, 52.8 receiving grade, lowest of the year. So you combine having your worst game there with having your third string quarterback in. So, I mean,

Starting point is 00:16:19 all things considered with the circumstances, true freshman, walk-on, third-string quarterback, solid defense. Tech was top five in yards allowed per pass and yards allowed per run and yards allowed per play. Poor weather. That wasn't ideal weather. And by the way, Jason Bean was one for four for 13 yards before he went out,

Starting point is 00:16:41 so it's not like he was killing Tech early either. He played good enough to win in many ways. I thought he was super gritty. He was key for you in the big moments. The third and 10 run was awesome. And he came up with some big drives late. Now, was it the best game in the world? No.

Starting point is 00:16:54 Would you have been better off with Jason Dean? Yeah, probably. That's why he's ahead of him on the depth chart. But like, I thought Cole Ballard actually played pretty well. Armage Reed Adams gets a good go here. He was the only Jayhawk who was top three on the team in pass block grade and run block grade. He had the awesome highlight where he lined up at like slot tight end, wide tight end, whatever, and motioned over and just wrecked the guy on the end. That was a lot of fun. And then Dominic Cooney, he had the team best pass block

Starting point is 00:17:17 grade and pro football focus gave him the overall best grade for any KU offensive player. As far as the bad goats here, the red zone offense gets a bad goat. Three trips, six points. Tech was bottom two in the conference in red zone defense coming in. Again, if you just get one touchdown, whether it's the last trip that makes you go up 17-13 at that point, if it's the first one, that completely changes the game. So the red zone offense, and I get it, it's tougher with a third string quarterback because those are the tighter windows. And Tech just seemed to be knowing that the

Starting point is 00:17:49 running the football was going to happen. So it definitely made it tough. Fourth downs gets a bad goat here. I mean, you want to talk about a coin flip game, three point game? Fourth downs could have determined it. Texas Tech, two for two on fourth downs. Kansas, O for two on fourth downs. If both teams go one for two, does Kansas win the game? If Kansas goes two for two and fourth downs, Kansas, oh for two on fourth downs. If both teams go one for two, does Kansas win the game? If Kansas goes two for two and Tech's oh for two, does Kansas win the game, right? The fourth downs ended up being a big thing. And that was a story coming in that, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:14 Tech was second in the conference in attempting fourth downs and they were second in the conference at fourth down percentage. And that showed out in this one. Game management gets a bad goad here. I mentioned that some of the not calling field or timeouts at the end of the first half, you certainly could have used an extra field goal there. Calling a timeout yourself on the goal to go. I didn't like, I mentioned some of the

Starting point is 00:18:32 play calls, like the fourth and one, I just didn't love running out of the pistol there. The third and golden Neal pass can be debated. I also, I didn't bring this one up earlier, but I thought this was, I don't understand why they did this. Jason Bean goes down with the injury, what appeared to be like a knee injury. I know Lance Lightfield said after the game, a head injury. I don't know if that's just to try to be like, oh, well, if it's a head injury, maybe he could come back and maybe that makes him more viable to play against K-State just to get them to prepare for that. If it's not, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:19:00 It seemed like it was like a knee injury and he was having trouble running. And like he comes back in on a fourth and two, when you have a guy having trouble running and you run like a QB sprint play to the left, that did not make sense to me. I don't know why you would do that. But anyway, overall, I thought it was fine. I just, I don't know. I just thought that was kind of weird. Punting gets a bad goat here. Four punts for KU. They only averaged 33 yards per punt. And their first two drives where they three and goat here four punts for KU they only averaged 33 yards per punt and their first two drives were they three and outed bad punts both times and led to short fields tech took advantage scored 10 early points and you spotted them and that ended up being the difference

Starting point is 00:19:34 and then the last one I hate singling guys out individually but I don't know like I'm sure if you asked Tanaka Scott he'd say it was a bad game for him he had a 33.7 pff grade he dropped you know three passes not his best work and that was uh unfortunate because I think Tanaka Scott, he'd say it was a bad game for him. He had a 33.7 PFF grade. He dropped three passes. Not his best work, and that was unfortunate because I think Tanaka Scott's a really talented and high-potential wide receiver, but just unfortunate on this day when you had to really rely on the guys

Starting point is 00:19:55 with your third-string quarterback that things fell a little bit short there. We're going to continue on with an early look at what's next with KUK State for KU football. We spend a lot of time talking together. We get fired up on wins and losses, who starts, who sits. I'm thankful for the connection we have, and today we're going to be talking about Jace Medical.

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Starting point is 00:21:12 It is Kansas State. That one on Saturday. They got the 6 o'clock game, so it'll be a night game. Crowd will certainly be into it for KU, and they're going to need them because K-State's rolling right now. They just blew out Baylor and nearly beat Texas the week before. Really good team. Some of the metric sites think this is like top 15, even higher team in the country right now. I mean, you look at the losses, Missouri's really good.

Starting point is 00:21:34 Texas is really good. And both of those were coin flip losses that, you know, if they, if Missouri doesn't hit a school record field goal, if K-State doesn't muff a snap on a pat they might be you know in the college football playoff contention right now so really good kansas state team rolling right now you might be on your third string quarterback you're seeing early the line i think opened at six and a half i've seen some places it's already up to like eight points in this one i don't know that i'm expecting jaylen annuals to come back certainly it would have been great if that injury stuff was there i don't know know that I'm expecting Jason Bean to be there. So Cole Ballard has a chance to, I mean, Cole Ballard has a chance to be a folk hero in one way, but also when you look at next year, there's some QB

Starting point is 00:22:13 uncertainty for KU next year. Jason Bean is going to be graduated. I mean, the Jalen Daniels situation remains kind of just, you know, question marks right now with, with who knows, because we're just not, you know, hearing a lot from the coaching staff on that. You bring in Isaiah Marshall next year, your four-star recruit. If Cole Ballard wins a game like this and plays well, does it make it harder for Isaiah Marshall? Do you usurp him on the depth chart, whether that would be for a backup to Jalen Daniels, which we've seen the backup get in a lot,

Starting point is 00:22:39 or to be the starter if that's the open job? So this is going to be a big one. And certainly if Kansas wins this game, it's just going to feel like anything else you do the rest of the season would be the cherry on top. But hasn't gone well for KU in the series against K-State lately, to say the least. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:22:57 We'll be back tomorrow for a Champions Classic KU Kentucky preview. See you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #16 Kansas Jayhawks Football Loses 16-13 to Texas Tech After Jason Bean Gets Injured

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