Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: Kansas Jayhawks Football Win Guaranteed Rate Bowl 49-36 Over UNLV Rebels to Finish 9-4

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

Kansas Jayhawks football won the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix, AZ 49-36 against the UNLV Rebels to finish 9-4. Recap of the win for KU as Lance Leipold continues to keep the program moving forward. A weird game filled with the refs and penalties taking over to Jason Bean hitting Luke Grimm, LJ Arnold, Quentin Skinner and more for huge plays. Plus, running back Devin Neal will be back for 2024 and more on KU's 2023 finale win from the defense to Kenny Logan's last game and more.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedon and use code lockedon for a first deposit match up to $100! Daily Fantasy Sports Made Easy!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas is the guaranteed rate bowl champions, 49-36 the final score over UNLV. We're breaking down the game recap and some cool news at the end after Devin Neal announced he'll be back for 2024. 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. You can also hear me right here with Locked On Jayhawks.

Anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page, where you can like and subscribe. Thank you to every dayers out there tuning in to each and every episode with those basketball content with KU Yale or talking about this bowl game for KU football. And on today's edition of the show, we're recapping the guaranteed rate bowl. Kansas winning 49-36, breaking it down, getting to our goats of the game,

what went down in the game, and also at the end, news that came right before the game, Devin Neal will be returning for the 2024 season for KU. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started today, and new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. It's $150 back if your team wins.

Again, fanduel.com slash locked on to get started. So Kansas wins 49-36. It was a very odd, I don't know, just circumstances in the game itself and how it happened. So let's start out this way. KU came in as like a 12.5, 13-point favorite. Line starts moving, gets down to like 10. Eventually the line at one point was 7.5.

I think it closed at like 8, 8.5, somewhere in that range. So the line's moving. A lot of money coming in from the Sharps, the big money guys on UNLV. And there was conversation, like, is certain players for KU sick? Are there going to be more players opting out or not playing than we already thought of with Dominic Booney and Austin Booker? Jason Bean, is he sick or something? What's going on here?

Turns out they ended up coming back. Then you get the news that Devin Neal is coming back for 2024, which is a huge boon for KU. We'll get to that later in the show. And then the game starts, and UNLV has a great first drive. Though I thought that first drive was one that that you know the first run play the game KU defended it well and then they just missed the tackle at kind of the point of attack uh they also had a couple other missed tackles later in the drive including the third and goal where they could have stopped them and held them to a field goal so I I thought the the I don't know process

was there they just missed the tackles uh maybe due to you know you're off for a month tackling is one of those things that can maybe take some time to get back in the swing. So you're down 7-0, kind of a bad start. Both teams punt the ball. You're at your own two-yard line. And then KU snatches back the momentum with that 98-yard drive. The fact that KU had a 98 and a 99-yard drive in the same game, unbelievable execution by the KU offense there on both of those drives.

But that first one kind of snatched back the momentum, and it was really led by when KU from there just kind of exploded through the rest of the first half. The KU receivers just kept making SportsCenter top 10 grabs. It was all of them, making unbelievable catches at the sideline, mossing guys, jumping over, making great possession catches. And that was kind of the first half, in addition to the refs calling a billion penalties, which that part continued throughout the entire game. Then KU threw a pick to start the second half after you were up 28-10.

And it felt like, okay, you're up 28-10. You're kind of smashing them here. You get the ball in the second half. But that pick kind of brought them back in. The penalty wave continued. And you kind of lost all momentum there UNLV wrote it really tightened it up is 28-24 they get a stop and you know while I wouldn't describe this game as one of KU's defensive you know masterpieces or one of their better games on the defensive side

of the ball this year it certainly wasn't certainly not having Austin Booker you know hurt there when they really needed to make the stop, they made the stop. And they came up with a couple of their opportunistic plays. And also you having three interceptions did not help the defense either. So give them a little more credit than what the score showed. But it was 28-24. UNLV had the ball in Kansas territory. They were in plus territory.

Kobe Bryant gets a sack. Great dialed-up play by Brian Borland on the first down play. You were in plus territory. Kobe Bryant gets a sack. Great dialed up play by Brian Borland on the first down play. You get the eventual stop. They don't score. They do punt it and get you down to your one-yard line, which could have been a game-changing play. And then the KU offense goes 99 yards. Ultimate complementary football there.

Defense comes up with a big stop. Offense capitalizes. You go up 35-24. They obviously scored again that tightened it up, but then you have the Arnold Long receiver screen touchdown and just unbelievable performance by the KU offense overall. And that, to me, is what stood out the most in this game. The KU receivers took over this game. Those three starting receivers, Lawrence Arnold, Quentin Skinner, Luke Grimm. And there were plays by other guys, right? Trevor Wilson had like a 23-yard grab. Doug Emelian had some nice plays in there.

I don't think he had a catch, but he had like a big block and certainly got some play. Keaton Kubeka got some snaps. If you heard Casey, he had a couple big catches. Mason Fairchild had a couple of big catches. Both had like a big third down catch. Those three receivers with Grimm, Skinner, and Arnold. And I've talked about this before.

They're such an underrated unit because you look at the individual stats and they're not putting up 1,000-yard seasons because KU runs the ball a lot and because KU spreads it out to all those guys and the tight ends and the running backs. So they're not putting up huge individual stats. But when they are getting the call, they're making the plays. Last year, Kansas was third on pro football focus in receiving grade. This year, coming into the bowl game, they're ninth.

That's probably going to go up after this game. So back-to-back top 10 seasons from your receiving group after we went into the 2022 season being like I don't know you lost Kwame Lasseter like you know are they going to have enough at the receiver position turns out they've had more than enough over the past couple years they dominated this game they took over the game they won the 50-50 balls they broke tackles made extra uh players miss it was an unbelievable dominant game by them kind of a weird game for Jason Bean. Get three interceptions. A lot of the touchdowns were either just wide open or like the screen pass to Lawrence Arnold. He makes everybody miss. That's an easy one on the quarterback stats. I honestly didn't think Jason Bean should have won MVP. I'll still put

him in the good goats, which we'll get to later because the production is just still overwhelming. But a couple of the interceptions weren't great. I thought it was mostly the receivers making big plays on those balls. Now, the one deep ball he threw was an incredible throw to Luke Grimm for Grimm's third and final touchdown. And overall, I think Bean still had a good game and performed for you in those key moments and made some really big plays for you.

I just thought it was mostly about the receivers. But Bean ends up winning offensive MVP. Kenny Logan won defensive MVP, which it is cool that you have the story of both these guys came back for another year. In the case of Kenny Logan, he had a couple opportunities to leave. He could have left when the light bulb staff came in and transferred away to another program. He stood or stuck around and ended up coming back for his extra year this year. With Jason Bean, he was close to not coming back to the program this offseason. He was just going to move on and start a career, whether it was in football or whatever else.

And he decided to come back. And for both those guys to win it, I think, is a really cool career arc finish for both of them, especially when you look at Bean and how last year's bowl game ended. But in the end, this was an excellent performance by Jim Zebrowski, filling in as co-offensive coordinator. The KU offense overall, you even had a patchwork offensive line that I thought played pretty well. Now, yes, you would have liked to run the ball a little bit more and establish the run a little more.

So, yeah, you would have liked maybe a little bit more in there. And I think there were times that, you know, maybe you did get beat around the edge or something like that. But, you know, overall, you only give up five tackles for loss. You only give up one sack. All things considered, the offensive line played pretty well in this game, especially considering you're starting a true freshman left tackle. Again, I thought he played pretty well, all things considered. And you're starting Armage Reed Adams, who is more of a true guard,

having to play at the tackle position. So you dropped 49 points, and it wasn't really a problem. So obviously the offensive line played pretty well. It was a few stops by the defense. They were opportunistic, and you overcame the refs and maybe Vegas trying to rig the game in their favor, right? You won a bowl game for the seventh time in program history. You won nine games or more in a season for just the sixth time in program history what a

year it was what a season it was what a fun team to watch it's been and to think that when you went back to when Lance Leipold was first hired in 2021 you might have thought okay maybe they can get to a bowl game by year two but ideally like if they're in a bowl game by year three, you're happy. Make a bowl game in year two. You're nine and four in year three of the Lance Leipold era, an era that started two and 10 after you didn't have much, an era that began on the heels of the last year of the previous regime. You went oh and nine in 2020.

You went oh and nine in 2020 on the back end of a decade of 2010s ineptitude of football for KU. And in year three of this new coach, you won nine games. It is just remarkable for Lance Leipold. It is remarkable for the University of Kansas. And what a fun season it was. How can you not already be excited about 2024? All right, we're going to get to our goats of the game.

Devin Neal coming back for 2024. Stick with us here with Locked on Jayhawks. We are brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. As the weather gets colder, the NFL offers stay hot on FanDuel. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150 if your team wins. If you've been thinking about joining FanDuel, there's no better time to get in on the action.

The app is so easy to use. There's a wide range of betting options, including spreads, player props, over-unders, and more. You might get on in on the action with KU. If you got them at minus 12.5 or better, then you're sitting pretty here, despite the refs trying to maybe rig it for some of the Vegas big bettors there or whatever was happening in that game. But you can get on the action for KU's upcoming game with Wichita State. Player props for that and so much more going on. Visit fanduel.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season. FanDuel,

an official partner of the NFL. All right, goats of the NFL. All right. Goats of the game. We'll get to our good goats. Then our bad goats here and finish up with Devin Neal coming back for 2024. If you're new to the segment, good goats, kind of the new age of the term,

all the kids saying he's the goat greatest of all time. You know, when I was growing up, goat was a bad thing. It's kind of like the scapegoat, right? Okay. So good goats here.

We're gonna start with Luke Grimm for my money I thought Luke Grimm should have won the MVP of the guaranteed rate bowl and again you feel good for Jason being that he won it and it's cool thing that he gets to have so from that standpoint like it is still cool but I just I don't know if I was voting that's what I would have cast my vote for Luke Grimm had four catches for 160 yards and three touchdowns. Catches the deep ball at the end that kind of seals the deal there and really extends your lead and kind of balloons the lead a little bit. But he had the first one too, right, that gets you on the board. He was unbelievable and he is just a big bowl game guy, I guess. Last year he had 10 catches for 167 yards and a

touchdown in the Liberty Bowl. So that means over his two bowl games he's played in, 14 catches for 167 yards and a touchdown in the Liberty Bowl. So that means over his two bowl games he's played in, 14 catches for 327 yards and four touchdowns. He's been unbelievable as a big-time performer. And, again, he's one of these guys that this game certainly will help his overall stats at the end of the season. You know, you're going to look at your stats at the end of the year for Luke Graham and be like, okay, he had a pretty decent season. He came in with 29 for 395 and three touchdowns.

So this gives him 33 catches for the season for, oh gosh, 550 yards and six touchdowns. Again, those are good numbers. Those are solid numbers. And when you take into account that, yes, KU has all these stud receivers and all these stud tight ends and all these stud running backs, and they're throwing the ball to a bunch of different targets and they're running the ball a bunch

and they're a slower tempo team it's just going to be hard to put up those big numbers but what's going to happen is luke grim's going to go off to the nfl like i don't know i assume he's going to be back for next year he'll go off to the nfl after next year and he'll be like a late round draft pick or something and then he'll end up like being some stud slot receiver for some NFL team. And somebody is going to look back his college. How did he only have, you know, 550 yards this year? You're missing the context there, but he is an absolute stud receiver. As are all these guys and starters, but Luke Grimm gets a good goat.

LJ Arnold gets a good goat too. I thought that if I wasn't going to vote Luke Grimm, if I had a vote, I would give it to LJ Arnold. Arnold had six catches, 132 yards, also had three touchdowns. And he really took over in the second half. I mean, that touchdown he had on the receiver screen, just will and effort. But also what I think is so cool is how hard all these guys block. They all block really hard on running plays,

but you saw the teamwork of all of it on the screen play. Arnold catches the screen, makes a great run, breaks some tackles. But on top of it, Luke Grimm had the initial big block. Quentin Skinner had an initial block. And then Skinner's also able to get down, hustle his butt downfield, and get the final block to make sure Arnold gets the touchdown instead of maybe getting stopped at the five or 10-yard line. Unbelievable teamwork there, and Arnold himself had another big game. Quentin Skinner, only two catches, but he gets a good goat. He had 80 yards. The degree of difficulty on his catches, again, I said this before, if he had a Madden rating for

spectacular catch, it'd have to be a 99 because the dude makes every spectacular catch you could possibly want. So Quentin Skinner and all three KU receivers get a good goat. Devin Neal gets a catch, it'd have to be a 99 because the dude makes every spectacular catch you could possibly want. So Quentin Skinner and all three K receivers get a good goat. Devin Neal gets a good goat. I know, you know, production wise or yards per carry, this is not like a great game for him. 74 total yards, 71 on the ground on 20 carries. He had one catch for three yards. He had one touchdown, but it's finding the hidden yards and it's the respect the defense has to pay him when he's in the game that opens up a lot of the passes but beyond that you know there weren't a lot of holes open for KU we've seen KU struggle against the 3-3-5 running the ball at different

points this year Iowa State Oklahoma State some other ones Nevada game was under four yards per carry for KU so for whatever reason they've kind of struggled with that. You had kind of a patchwork offensive line, who, again, I thought played pretty well overall, but still wasn't your normal offensive line. There were a lot of plays where Devin Neal turned a three-yard loss into a one-yard loss or a one-yard loss into a five-yard gain. And it's just those little yards that add up and keep you on schedule a little bit that he still had a good game, even though it's not one of his more productive games overall. Jason Bean gets a good go. Like I said, I didn't think this was actually

Jason Bean's. I don't know. This wasn't even, to me, one of Jason Bean's three best games this season. Like the Cincinnati game, the, I don't know, the Iowa State game, certainly come to mind for me as kind of the top two there. The stats certainly say it, though. Six touchdowns, 449 yards. He also had 21 yards rushing, which I think the over-under for his rushing yards was like 23.5, and I think it went under on the last run. So, like the kneel down, that's unfortunate. Anyway, three picks. One in the end zone.

The one that kind of got them back in the game at the beginning of the half. There were some dangerous throws, and I think some of the touchdowns and some of the early production was more about, Hey, this guy's wide open, or this guy made an unbelievable catch. Now he still had to take the risk and give the guy the shot. And he does throw such a catchable deep ball that it's going to make it so that you're going to get probably more of those 50, 50 balls. He deserves credit for that. He also deserves credit for having the balls on the fourth and one.

He could have ran for that first down and gotten maybe five yards. And I think when you were watching that, you were like, run, run, it's open. And then he throws it. You better make sure you get it there and the guy's wide open. Turns out the guy was wide open and he got it there and he completed the pass. So I thought it was still a good game from Jason Bean. I don't want to take that away. I just thought Luke Grimmer and Lawrence Arnold should have won the MVP

there. Kenny Logan gets a good goat here. He had nine tackles. He won the defensive MVP, also tackle for loss and a pass breakup. I thought he was really good in tackling when at different points that wasn't always the case for KU. Kobe Bryant gets a good goat. He had an interception. His interception was incredible. He like, that wasn't even his main coverage guy. He kind of came off and was able to get the pick. It was an incredible read by him. He also had the big sack coming off the edge, did a good job disguising the sack, came in and made the secure tackle to bring him down. Those are two huge plays in the game. The interception was, they were kind of driving. The sack was when you're up 28-24 and they had it in plus territory. And he came up with two huge ones in this one. I thought DJ Withers

played a really good game. He stood out to me. Two tackles, both of them were like run stuffs. He also had a quarterback hit. And I noticed he had like another pressure in there. I thought he played a really good game. I'll be interested to see the pro football focus numbers, see what other kind of defenders stood out. But those are the ones that really stood out on first watch for me. And then KU run and third down defense. You allowed just 95 yards rushing. So good job there. UNLV was also just three of nine on third down.

They came in over 50% on third downs, which was first in the Mountain West. Held them to three of nine. You absolutely take that 100% without a doubt coming into this game. As far as the bad goats, we're gonna start with the refs. They called everything on both teams. And, you know, honestly, there were a lot of calls like in play that I don't necessarily disagree with. Like, yes, there were probably, it was definitely more of a tight whistle. So like, put it this way. If those refs were calling a Bob Huggins press Virginia game, every single player on West Virginia would have fouled out.

That's basically how I would put it. So they were calling every nickel and dime play, but like you could argue, okay, those make sense. There were a couple where I definitely, the inline players were like, ah, I don't really agree with that one. But the big ones that didn't make sense were the unsportsmanlike penalties and the extracurricular penalties where there were over a handful in the game. And just to have those and then they would show replays on the rare occasions they did show replays and you wouldn't see anything. Those are the ones that make it crazy. And again, like there is a certain level of you can't call literally everything.

You have to let certain things go. Otherwise you end up with a product that is four and a half hours long and just ends up like pure insanity. And when you mix it with the line is moving that much and you have a team from Vegas and you have a team who they were already investigating for a game back against like New Mexico for some funky, like betting line movement stuff, it makes things seem a little bit fishy. And then they called a bunch of UNLV penalties in the fourth quarter. I don't know if that was just making things, you know, okay,

who's going to win the game anyway. We might as well look and make it look close. I don't know. That was horrendous. It was, is horrendous viewing experience from that standpoint. And it was way too much playing clean here though, too,

as much as, like I said, the refs did call way too much uh playing clean here though too as much as like i said the refs did call way too much and it got out of hand there still was sloppy play for ku and for both teams so yes it's compounded with the bad officiating um but even if ku was only called for the ones that they should have you still would have had a higher turnover or a higher penalty game for what you've had you also had a lot lot of turnovers, interceptions, shaky tackling early. You had another near turnover with the high shot fumble, but you were fortunate to recover. So it wasn't KU's cleanest game, but still found a way to win.

The pass rush wasn't great in this one. Not that necessarily you might've been expecting it to be great. UNLV did not have a great offensive line coming in by PFF grades, but most of that was from run blocking. They were not a good run blocking team. They were a much better pass blocking team so you have a a pretty good pass blocking team with a pretty mobile quarterback and no austin booker that's tough to deal with and it was apparent you did have the one sack it was on the corner blitz though uh there's pressure here there but you

only had seven total pressures that's on kind of the low end. A lot of games, KU would finish with 12, 15, 17 pressures, somewhere in that range. So lower end there becomes a problem for next year. No more Austin Booker. Will it look like this every game? Or now that you'll add Dylan Woodkey into the fold, now that you'll add some of these freshmen into the fold, do current players get better from what you currently have? But certainly something to watch there. And then special teams, it's a bad goat here. The opening kickoff goes out of bounds. You had the 30-yard punt that was almost blocked. The guy just came in free.

You only averaged 33.5 yards per punt on two punts. Trevor Wilson had two punts that he did not fair catch. One hit around the 10-ish. The other one hit, I think, at the 10. Both rolled to the 2 and the 1. Those are both plays that just fair catch it at the 10, you would hope. So, you know, special teams wasn't ideal. You also got lucky that the one field goal went in off the upright.

And then the last bad goat here is the broadcast. Like no replays. That was wild. I don't know if it's because you're in a baseball stadium where the camera situation is different and you didn't have a bunch of replay opportunity. I don't know. It was just kind of a mess on the broadcast from the presentability of it

to the color. I don't like to bag on broadcasters. I think sometimes they get a bad rap, and I think sometimes fans get overly zealous with the idea that, oh, this guy hates my team because the other team is doing well, and the story of the game, which they're trying to tell, becomes that other player doing well. And you start to think that, oh, they're not talking about my team because the other team's doing well and the story of the game which they're trying to tell becomes that other player doing well and you start to think that oh they're not talking about like whatever I think that stuff's oversold I don't I don't care about it but this

stuff bothers me when you can tell somebody is ill-prepared for a job that a lot of people would kill to have the color guy earlier in the game I think it was the third quarter KU runs one of their wildcat plays where they have Jason Bean lined up basically as the running back, and the running back lined up as the quarterback, and the running back takes a snap, hands it to Jason Bean. First of all, they run that play earlier in the game, but second of all, if you had been going back, which if you're the color guy, I would imagine your job is to go back and watch tape of the team you're going to be doing for the past couple of games, right? Maybe you don't watch every single game, that's understandable,

but at least maybe the last game or two, right? KU had been running those types of wildcat plays for the last, what, four or five games of the season. And he was like shocked by it. He was like, oh, I thought KU lined up wrong. And then they snapped it to the running back. It was like, dude, did you watch any of the past? And then like Jared Casey makes the big third down catch to kind of seal the game away and

get that big first down when you're trying to just ice the clock down on the last drive of the game. And he was like, wow, they went to the backup tight end. Who would have thought like, didn't seem to know at all who Jared Casey was. And you're talking about,

yeah, Casey stats. He only has eight catches or whatever, but like Jared, that is what Jared Casey does. He makes the game icing plays. He makes the game icing plays. He makes the game ceiling plays. That was a little bothersome to me, but I don't know.

Whatever. All right, that's going to do it for our goats of the game. Let's get to Devin Neal returning for 2024 with Locked on Jayhawks. So, Devin Neal, it was announced Pete Thamel reported before the game started. He'll be back for 2024. Had over 1,200 rushing yards this year, 17 total touchdowns, unbelievable player, over six yards per carry on the year. For his career, he's over 3,000 yards rushing.

He's going to have a chance to shatter the all-time KU career rushing yards, career rushing touchdowns, all these sort of records that he's going to have a chance to have. And this is a huge get for KU for a couple of reasons. One, obviously you like to have good players back. Obviously continuity is good. And when you look at the Big 12 without Texas and Oklahoma, certainly there's going to still be some really good teams in there.

Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma State, right? Ollie Gordon comes back. Kansas State is typically up there. Iowa State had a really good year. What are they going to bring to the table, right? Does a talent-rich team who had more of a middling year pop up like a UCF or TCU? Who knows, right? So there's going to be a lot of good teams in the Big 12.

But you would certainly think this more cements you as one of those top-tier Big 12 title contenders next year. And Devin Neal becomes kind of the face of the program. He becomes one of the best running backs in the country. Maybe he gets consideration for, you know, Big 12 preseason player of the year. And when you look at the running back room, it's pretty loaded again, right?

Devin Neal going into his final year. Daniel Hyshaw would technically still be a junior next year. You'd have Torrey Laughlin and Savion Morrison, both as seniors. You'd have redshirt freshman Johnny Thompson. Sounds like he did really well in the bowl practices. And then true freshman in Harry Stewart and Red Martel. So you feel like you have the future with those young freshman guys, and then you have a lot of experience with the older guys. It's an exciting running back room, one that has depth, one that has talent at the top. And then beyond just the pure talent of having that guy back in the fold is the idea that you have the local kid, the Lawrence kid back representing your program in another year, as you try to take yet another step, because you took a big one this year. Can you take another

one next year? Can you win double digit games? Can you win a big 12 title? Can you play in the college football playoff? It'll be expanded to 12 teams next year? Can you win double-digit games? Can you win a Big 12 title? Can you play in the college football playoff? It'll be expanded to 12 teams next year. All of those become real conversations we get to have now in the offseason because of the way that KU went this year and what they could possibly return for next year. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast.

We will be back to get more bowl game talk. We'll also get to a KU Wichita State preview later in the week here with LOJ.