Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: Kansas Jayhawks Dominant First Half Leads to 34-23 Win vs Illinois as Jalon Daniels Returns

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're recapping KU's win over Illinois 34-23 on Friday night. 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're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:00:38 You can also find us and like and subscribe to our show on our YouTube page. On today's edition of the show, squeezing a little bit of time out during my busy work day. We're going to be breaking down, recapping the KU win over Illinois, 34-23 the final score. The game was a lot more dominant and felt a lot more in hand than that

Starting point is 00:00:56 until kind of that very end, kind of flurry from Illinois. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Get your tickets with GameTime. You get $20 off. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off when you sign up with GameTime. So KU takes down Illinois 34-23. It was a game that was not close early.

Starting point is 00:01:18 That was one of the most dominant halves of football we have seen in the Lance Leipold era. In fact, it probably was the most dominant when you consider the opponent in addition to what was kind of going on. Just unbelievable. We'll see what Illinois ends up being. There's a lot of talent on that roster. Obviously, they won eight games last year. I don't know that they're going to win eight games this year, but I still think they're going to be a six or seven win team. And yes, in the end, that's not beating the number 10 team in the country. But when you beat a team that handily where you're at one point up 31 to 7 you're at one point in danger of blowing them out and you are clearly the better team over a team that might win six or seven games doesn't that imply that you should be an eight or nine win team at the very least

Starting point is 00:01:57 this kind of goes in line with when Jalen Daniels returns which he was back for this game when he is healthy and when he's playing like that and looks healthy and playing healthy, this is a team that can be a legit Big 12 title contender. And I think that's what we saw in this game, that Kansas is for real. You should have won that game by more than 11 points. And on one hand, you could say, well, maybe there were a couple games last year that you could have put away, like the Duke game and the Iowa State game, and you just didn't, and you let them hang around, and maybe this is more of that. I just think a few kind of fluky things happened. Illinois had the targeting call and the penalty on the two-point conversion.

Starting point is 00:02:34 That plays into it. Lawrence Arnold fumbling right near the red zone. There were a lot of easy ways that Kansas could have ballooned this lead out or won by more without needing a Quentin Lasseter interception at the end. Daniel Hyshaw got that first down at the end for my money and they reviewed it and called him short like otherwise you don't get stopped on fourth down and maybe you just run it out or maybe you get another score there at the end like you very easily could have won this game by even more than 11 points I don't walk away from this game like if you're just box score watching if you did not watch the game and you you just went on your ESPN app afterwards and said okay you beat Illinois by 11 points okay like okay Like, okay, you probably played pretty well.

Starting point is 00:03:07 I don't think it would do justice for how good Kansas played last night in that game, especially in that first half, they were dominant. They were dominating Illinois in that game. So you, you, it wasn't just a coin flip game against another solid power five team. You out yarded a team that won eight games in the Big Ten regular season last year who brought back 10 all Big Ten selections. You out-yarded them 539 to 341. That's almost 200-yard difference in a game like that. You had 262 rushing yards.

Starting point is 00:03:37 That's not far off of their total yards in that game. Absolute dominant performance by KU. Do not let the final score of 11 points fool you. They were the much better team last night, and I think you're going to see that representative in maybe some future games to come. But I mean, Jalen Daniels is back. They showed on the graphic, if you're watching on TV, Jason Bean is the starting quarterback on the graphic. He was out there on the first play, but so was Jalen Daniels. Jalen was the starter in the first play. He's like throwing a pass. Jalen is back, and it's not just that he's back in terms of like him

Starting point is 00:04:08 actually being back from his back injury. It's that he is legitimately back to being a legit Heisman candidate. You know, last year, as much as that was talk, like after the first five games, the start five and oh, Jalen Daniels has these ridiculous numbers and stats. And there was some of the talk about him being a Heisman contender and being on the shortlist, even though that was a thing, it was kind of a cute thing because it was like, oh, here, we're going to give this nod to this, this Kansas guy who they're doing well early in the season. But realistically, like we're expecting Kansas to fall off at some point here, and then he won't be in the Heisman discussion. And who knows whether that would have happened or not had Jalen Daniels not had the injury,

Starting point is 00:04:43 but you know, it's one thing to be the Heisman front runner after week three. It's another thing to be after week eight, right? Those are just very different conversations. And last night for me should dispel any of those if it was more of a cute thing. He looked like that Heisman type of guy. I mean, the play that he had where you're backed up at your own end, it's like third down. And he goes back and he's getting chased by Jerseon newton who's going to be like a first round draft pick who was excellent last night had a couple sacks and he has to dart by him to avoid

Starting point is 00:05:12 the safety then throws on the run downfield pins a dart downfield i think it was luke grim who ended up coming up with the catch or maybe it was quentin skinner like that that's just ridiculous the play at the end of half where he throws it downfield, Luke Grimm. And in both of those instances, it takes the receivers making incredible, great contested catches. He had to give them a chance. And they took advantage of that chance and give credit to the receivers for that too. But it takes a special quarterback to take that risk

Starting point is 00:05:36 and to, you know, even put it within a good level of accuracy that your guy can come down with it. It's those little plays. It's, you know, it's kind of a combination when I think about it for why Jalen Daniels is better than Jason Bean. Jason Bean, if Jalen Daniels didn't exist, he would be the best Kansas quarterback in 15 years. Maybe you'd argue with Carter Stanley, his, his last year of college, but either way, you know, everybody would love Jason Bean. I think everybody does love Jason Bean. It's just the Jalen Daniels. It goes from being a good quarterback to yes,, that Heisman-level quarterback.

Starting point is 00:06:06 It is so apparent how much he changes the game from his running perspective, from his reading the defense, knowing when to give the ball off, knowing when to pitch it to his running backs. Those are plays he doesn't get credit for in the stat sheet, but guaranteed have an impact in the game. And it's those key third downs. It's scrambling in the pocket, knowing when to run, the key third downs, it's scrambling in the pocket, knowing when to run, knowing when to throw, keeping your eyes downfield. It's taking those chances. And he is just so outstanding of that. It is unbelievable to watch this kid play. And that was an absolute A-plus performance against Illinois. Even the interception. I mean, we'll

Starting point is 00:06:41 get to our goats of the game here, but even the interception was not like a dumb inter interception or something he was taking a shot with his receiver one-on-one who had maybe half a step on the db and it just ended up being I actually thought when he first threw it like I was like oh this might be overthrown if anything and then Trevor Wilson was just really fast and kind of uh you get a little bit past it um but that's a shot you're worth taking and you've taken them many other times and your guys have come down with it. Also the defense, that was the other big takeaway in this one. The defense was good in this game. You have 23 points,

Starting point is 00:07:09 but that easily could have been a lot less than that. I'm kind of fading toward the end and really impressed with the pass rush. Six sacks, absolute dominant performance there. I thought the coverage was really good from your corners. One thing we talked about a lot in the off season was, you know, Kobe Bryant, can you take the step from being a big play corner to lockdown corner I

Starting point is 00:07:28 thought he was a lockdown corner in that game and there were certain games he was that too last year in addition to being the big play guy but what could Mello Dotson do this year right like as as many good flashes as Mello Dotson's shown in the past you look at the overall stats last year not great when you're looking at some of the target numbers necessarily I think 65 completion percentage he was really good last night too so the target numbers necessarily. I think 65% completion percentage. He was really good last night too. So the coverage was good. I was impressed with even the linebackers.

Starting point is 00:07:52 Like I thought Rich Miller and JB Brown were impressive. So defense was really good. And if your defense plays like that each and every game, and you pair that with Jalen Daniels and this offense and Andy Kotelnicki just being the mad scientist, that's how this team wins eight or nine games. That's how this team is a Big 12 title contender. And even though this win might not be KU's best win at the end of the year, I think we might look back on this if Kansas has that special season

Starting point is 00:08:14 and say, yeah, there were a lot of telltale signs about why on that Friday night against Illinois. All right, we're going to continue on with our GOATs of the game. We have a lot of them to get to here with Locked on Jayhawks. First of all, this episode of the show is brought to you by Nutrafol. Did you know that 80% of men will experience hair trimming, thinning in their lifetime? It's normal, but it doesn't have to be your fate.

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Starting point is 00:09:34 and enter promo code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. That's Nutrafol.com slash men, promo code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Continuing on with our goats of the game, let's start with the good. We have a lot of good goats for this game for KU. Let's start with Jalen Daniels, 21 of 29, 277 yards, two touchdowns. Again, the interception, I didn't really even mind. I think that was a good risk in that spot. You were up by a lot.

Starting point is 00:09:56 You play a one-on-one ball. Your receivers have been so good. They've been coming down with those. And, you know, it was just slightly ever underthrown. It was a really good play by the DB. You also had 24 rushing yards and really set up your other guys with some of your reads there. It was just huge play after huge play that most normal good QBs don't make.

Starting point is 00:10:14 You went from good to great, right? There's that difference there that you see. The third and nine scramble early in the game. The third and five that I mentioned earlier, it was actually Lawrence Arnold. I have written down my notes after darting away from the possible sack safety from Newton. The throw to Graham at the end of the first half where you're on the run and kind of, you know, Patrick Mahomes, the Tyree kill, YOLO ball, chuck it up, but good ball downfield

Starting point is 00:10:35 and the great catch by your guy. Even the semi-simple plays, or he makes them look simple, certain plays that are harder than you think. The first touchdown he threw to Torrey Laughlin, that's actually a really hard throw that he made look very simple, and it ended up being a touchdown for Torrey Laughlin. It's the simple plays. It's the plays that should be hard, but he makes look simple. It's the hard plays.

Starting point is 00:10:56 He just does everything, and it was such a reminder that as good as Jason Bean was in the first game, it has been for KU in backup role, there still is that jump you get when you go to Jalen Daniels. Devin Neal gets a good go to the game. 10 carries, 120 yards, and a touchdown. We just need a, I don't know, put Devin Neal on the cooking channel because a cutting highlight reel would make up everything with Devin Neal. I mean, some of the cuts, again, just continue to blow your mind

Starting point is 00:11:24 and how he's been able to get open. And he's got over 200 yards now over the course of the season. If he keeps on this pace, he'll have over 1,200 yards, which would be another improvement from him last year after he had 1,000 yards. He's been excellent so far this season. Daniel Hyshaw was really good in this game too. 12 carries, 98 yards and a touchdown. He gets a good go.

Starting point is 00:11:41 You know, I was a little skeptical after week one on Daniel Hyshaw. I'll own up to this. I was worried that the injury was maybe going to hold him back a little bit. We didn't see the same explosiveness on the first few carries of last week. And I did say there was a chance that that was just him shaking the rust off. And I think, you know, looking back to it, that is the case here. I was worried, too, about the fumble thing. You saw Illinois players throughout the game trying to strip the ball from him,

Starting point is 00:12:03 but he held on to it. So that's going to be the big key for Daniel Hyshaw but the explosiveness was back in full force we saw the explosiveness on the touchdown he had but I wondered if that was just kind of a one play thing this game you saw it all the way back so I think it's safe to say early in the game last week was just him shaking the rust off after that that devastating injury and it's nice to see him back because when he is back to this explosive guy he might be one of the most I don't know he might be the most fun skill player to watch on KU just because of how hard he runs and how powerful he is you know I uh I kind of said uh on Twitter I I don't think this picked

Starting point is 00:12:34 up much steam so I don't think people like it much but I don't care I'm gonna repeat it anyway I think they should name the the backfield rock paper scissors rock is Daniel Hyshaw he's you know tough as a rock he's powerful Devin Neal is scissors because he cuts. And then paper is, I don't know, you could say Tory Loughlin or you could say Dylan McDuffie because those guys are, like, dependable. It's always like, well, you know, your computer, your keyboard's not working. Well, a piece of paper and a pen, right? That's always, like, paper goes with a lot of things.

Starting point is 00:12:58 You can, it's versatile. Anyway, there's my dumb dad comparison, I guess, for the day. Anyway, blocking, I think it's a good goat here and that's part of the reason hi Sean Neal had such good games part of the reason Jalen Daniels was able to stay in the pocket and kept him upright and protected against a game where you were playing the law firm in Illinois and Jerzon Newton Newton obviously had a couple big plays but overall you had an 85 pass block rate you had to keep Jalen Daniels upright and avoid hits from him after coming back from that injury you did did an excellent job of that. So the offensive line, unbelievable job in pass

Starting point is 00:13:28 blocking. But I think overall, it was all blocking. It wasn't just the offensive line. I mean, we talk all the time about like Jared Casey, the big blocks that he spins. But here's some of the pro football focus grades, and this is the original one. I think they go back and check this, as these could be adjusted over the next 24 hours or so. But Mason Fairchild had a 78 run blocking grade. Douglas Emelian, who I thought blocked really well in week one, but they didn't give him a good grade. He had a 76 this week.

Starting point is 00:13:54 So he did get the good grade this week. Quentin Skinner had a 72. Lawrence Arnold had a 69. Jared Casey had a 67. Kansas did a very good job blocking downfield. And that's something that you really notice when you see those long plays downfield. The receivers are blocking their tail off,

Starting point is 00:14:08 and they deserve a ton of credit for that. That's something that goes back to last year. They've done it this year, and maybe they've even taken a step up from where they were. As far as singling out some of the offensive linemen, I thought the three guys who played the best, and you look at some of the pro football focus numbers, these come to mind.

Starting point is 00:14:22 Now, obviously the interior guys had to deal with those defensive tackles so graded against the curve I still would thought that you know Reed Adams and Ford outside of maybe one play from Newton and Mike Nowitzki were really good but Dominic Poonie had an 87 pass block grade a 70 run grade Bryce Cable who had an 85 pass block grade he was excellent there he did spring a couple big run blocks didn't grade out super well there but he did have a couple big ones and then Kobe Baines was really good 74 pass block rate. He was excellent there. He did spring a couple of big run blocks. Didn't grade out super well there, but he did have a couple of big ones. And then Kobe Baines was really good. 74 pass block rate, 73 run block rate.

Starting point is 00:14:49 So I really liked what the KU offensive line did. And overall, all the blocking did and opening up some of those huge holes for Dan Neal and Daniel Hyshaw. Defensive end room gets a whole good goatee. For singling out players specifically, Jeremy Robinson and Austin Booker. Both excellent. You know, we had the question all offseason with Jeremy Robinson, take that jump to being your next Lonnie Phelps, Kyron Johnson type of guy.

Starting point is 00:15:10 Through two weeks, he looks like he is taking on that mantle. We'll see how it continues on from here, but so far he has done that. Austin Booker might be the best pure pass rusher, though, on the team. Now, they're not using him every down as much as Jeremy Robinson, but that pass rusher ability is so key, and that makes it nice. You can throw in somebody for this situation, somebody for that situation. Booker has been excellent in pass rush. Obviously, you have the targeting call, which stinks, and that'll keep him out of the first

Starting point is 00:15:32 half of Nevada. But defensive end room was really good. It wasn't just those two guys. Those are the two that stood out the most, but really impressed there. JB Brown played some defensive end, so he would go in there. I want to seal him out, though. He had an 84 pass rush grade, so they might have found something with using him in sub packages and using him here or there as a defensive end.

Starting point is 00:15:51 I think that's something they're going to do more and more of because he was really good in that position. But even when he was in linebacker, man, he was all over the field. He made the tackle, I think, on the first drive of the game for Illinois that kind of set the tone where you trip up Altmeier on the QB scramble. He was making tackles all over the field. He was making pass rushes all over the field. I've had an unhealthy man crush on JB Brown all offseason, and I'm feeling good about that headed into the season. Mello Dotson gets a good go here. Unreal concentration on that interception

Starting point is 00:16:19 that he had, but he also had a team best 79 coverage grade, so he was great in coverage all night long. That was kind of deserved for him to come away with an interception. I will say Kobe Bryant probably deserves mentioned here too, because he was really good. He had a good pro football focus grade too. I singled out Mello because they both were really good in coverage, but Mello also had the interception. Overall though, how about this from the duo of them?

Starting point is 00:16:38 If we just say the two starting quarters, Kobe Bryant, Mello Dotson, they were targeted seven times according to pro football focus. Kobe Bryant, Mello Dotson. You were targeted seven times according to Pro Football Focus. Kobe Bryant, Mello Dotson. You know how many yards they gave up? 22. They were targeted seven times and they gave up 22 yards and had an interception and two pass breakups. That'll play. Also, tackling improvement, I think it's a good note here. You missed, I think it was 11 or something in the Missouri State game. You just missed six in this game. You had 10 players who had a 72 or higher tackling grade against a more physical team.

Starting point is 00:17:09 You did a good job in meeting that challenge with tackling. Seth Keller also gets one. Perfect on kicks, perfect on field goals so far to this part of the season. He'll hope that continues. But you haven't really needed any long ones. Hopefully you won't for a while because that means the offense is moving the ball really well. But so far he's been steady.

Starting point is 00:17:28 And, you know, I know this gets lost because, well, you won by 11 points. Like how much does it matter? Think about it this way. If KU has their kicking situation last year, which was the worst in the big 12 by field goal percentage, there's a chance that instead of Seth Keller making both field goals, your kicking situation last year goes one of two. And while that doesn't sound like a huge deal, that's the difference between 34-23 and 31-23 to where on that last drive, even though you get the Quinton Lassiter interception, you're sweating it out because you have to have that stop. But because you had the both field goals, you did feel like you still had a little cushion.

Starting point is 00:17:57 Our bad goats here. We're going to get to that after this quick break in the action and what's next on the agenda for KU. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. I just got tickets with GameTime to the Chiefs game on Thursday night. Obviously the game didn't go well. That was the more stressful situation though than actually buying the tickets. I bought the tickets the morning of. The thing is I wasn't stressed at all because I knew GameTime was going to help me out and GameTime had everything I needed. They

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Starting point is 00:19:15 Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off. Download GameTime today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Finishing things up, we've got bad goats and then a quick look at what's next. Not a ton on the bad goats here. I will throw out fumbling. That was a problem for KU last year. That was maybe a small problem in week one. You had the one that led the Missouri State touchdown in the lead. Devin Neal fumbles

Starting point is 00:19:39 on the first drive. Fortunately, Doug Emelian, who maybe he could get a good go because it was blocking and picking up that fumble and allowing you to get the momentum and not give it up right there. But that was a problem. Fortunately, you got it back. And then Lawrence Arnold, when you're up 31-7 near the red zone, you did get that mellow Dotson interception after that. So I guess that one kind of balanced itself out. But you were really close to scoring there.

Starting point is 00:19:59 Who knows? Maybe that would have been a 38-7 score that would have just completely put Illinois out of it had you not fumbled there. But that's something more so that you're worried about for long term than affected this specific game. So stop fumbling. Defending tempo is something that I don't know.

Starting point is 00:20:14 Maybe bad goat is too harsh here. It's something I have a question about. Last year, they really struggled when they had to defend tempo. And against Illinois, when they were playing slow, they did very well defensively. It was the drives that Illinois sped it up. You think about the end of the game. You think about in the fourth quarter.

Starting point is 00:20:29 You think about at the end of the first half when they went down and scored a touchdown. Those were with tempo. Maybe those just happened to be coincidence that those were drives that Illinois had good play calls and made good plays, and they just happened to be when they were running tempo. Or maybe there's a correlation there.

Starting point is 00:20:42 We're going to learn more over the course of the season because you're going to be playing higher tempo teams. It's also week two, so especially against Illinois, you're not going to be really preparing for tempo that early in the year, but something that I'm kind of keeping an eye on. And then just finishing, like I said, you dominated this game. I don't know what the heck happened on that Luke Altmyer 70-yard touchdown scramble. That shouldn't have happened.

Starting point is 00:21:03 You should have won this game by more than 11 points, so that kind of gets a bad goat here, but still at the end of the day, you know, they are a power five team. They were going to eventually kind of heat up at least a little bit, you would think. So as far as what's next for KU, they're at Nevada. That'll be this Saturday. It is a late game. I'm sure all the bars and restaurants are actually loving this because you're going to be able to, you know, stay open late and, open late and have fun, hypothetically make some cool, I don't know, touchdown deals, whatever. 9.30 p.m. Central time for the game KU at Nevada next Saturday. If you're KU, just don't let this be a letdown game.

Starting point is 00:21:35 You had a big win. You're going on the road against a team who might not be very good. Nevada just got spanked by USC. They were an underdog going into Saturday to an FCS team, the only FBS team who was an underdog on Saturday to an FCS team, the only FBS team who was an underdog on Saturday to an FCS team. So this might not be a great Nevada team. They do have some power five transfers from the PAC 12 into the program. They do have some interesting talent, but this should be a game that you should roll them. Don't let it be a letdown day game.

Starting point is 00:21:57 Don't get, you know, on your high horse or, or don't get kind of, I don't know, after what happened this Friday night and how it goes. Also, obviously Austin Booker,, Kobe Bryant going to be out of the first half with the targeting calls. That could have an impact on the game. So opportunity for other guys to step up and play well in a game like this. And yeah, just do what you're supposed to do. Go dominate this game because from here, the schedule will get a lot tougher week in and week out. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back on Monday for our biggest overall takeaway,

Starting point is 00:22:28 short-term, long-term from the KU Illinois game. We're going to have another KU basketball positional preview throughout the week, more KU football talk, KU Nevada preview, plenty more coming at you this next week. So make sure you subscribe to the show or like our page on our YouTube page. Have a great rest of your day, and we'll see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: Kansas Jayhawks Dominant First Half Leads to 34-23 Win vs Illinois as Jalon Daniels Returns

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