Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP of Another Tough Loss: Kansas Jayhawks Football Fall to UNLV Rebels as Daniels Struggles Again

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, maybe the most disappointing loss of the Lance Leipold era. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Derek Johnson? You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio, and that was a doozy. Kansas Falls to UNLV 23-20, the final score.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Arguably the most disappointing loss to the Lance Leipold era because it was compounded with last week. We're going to get into that, what happened in the game. More struggles for Jalen Daniels and Jeff Grimes. Still some good stuff from the defense, and we'll get into some of that. Go to the game.

Starting point is 00:00:46 What's next for KU? I know a lot of KU fans are saying basketball is what's next. So we'll see. We'll see. You know, very unfortunate. Anyway, today's episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime.

Starting point is 00:01:06 So Kansas loses 23-20. They drop to 1-2 on the season. Very similar game to Illinois, to be completely honest. It was a game where the defense overall played well, but couldn't make the key stop at the end. But still, the defense played more than good enough for you to win this football game. You also look from a standpoint of, well, what did KU do running the football? They averaged 5.7 yards per carry. Now that number dipped pretty heavily in the second half because they started loading the box

Starting point is 00:01:35 and were just saying, hey, we don't believe you can beat us downfield. We don't believe you can beat us in the intermediate throwing the football. And they were right because Kansas couldn't do that. But similar in the way that like I look at this game and I and this is what honestly makes it more frustrating I'm like oh Kansas defense this might be the best defense of Lance Laipoldera I look at the running game I'm like well the running it you're still running the football you average 5.7 yards per carry you had 199 net rushing yards in this game I still look at it and go special teams played a good game

Starting point is 00:02:04 you had a nice couple open field tackles on their return game. Tabor Allen took care of business and hit his field goals, hit his PATs. You're looking at this and you're like, oh, why did you lose this game? And for back-to-back weeks, just like the Illinois game, it comes down to two things. It comes down to some really bad interceptions thrown by Jalen Daniels and the inability of the passing game to get going and the predictability of Jeff Grimes' offense. I mean, there were at least five receiver screens, and I don't know that any of them really worked. Even the ones that gained like six or seven yards, it took like Luke Grimm or LJ Arnold like breaking a tackle like a yard past or at the line of scrimmage just to make that happen.

Starting point is 00:02:41 It almost led to another pick six coming at you. You couldn't run the ball in the second half because of the inability of Jalen Daniels to throw that happen. It almost led to another pick six coming at you. You couldn't run the ball in the second half because of the inability of Jalen Daniels to throw the football. And you look at this, this is arguably the most disappointing loss of Lance Leipold era. Like again, we could go back and talk about the list. The loss at K state last year, certainly disappointing from standpoint of you had them, you had the shot at the King and you missed, but still it was understandable to lose that game to a good opponent with a third string quarterback. This is not understandable. And that's why this one almost becomes more frustrating.

Starting point is 00:03:13 And then it just added on that it was the same way last week. And so you do it back to back weeks. I said this on Twitter. It felt like you were, you were watching David Beatty football again. Obviously the team is in a much better situation program wise than they were with David Beatty Lance Leipold way better coach than David Beatty the team is more talented than they were all that stuff like they're gonna win more games than at least I hope than the David Beatty seasons where you maxed out at three right I still think this team can contend to make a bowl game but that's the key fulcrum there you no longer are at a point where you're saying oh can this team win eight or nine games? Can they win 10 games? Can they compete for a Big 12 title?

Starting point is 00:03:46 It now becomes, can you even get back to six wins? Because to even get to that point, you got to go five and four in Big 12 play, which that's not a guarantee because you lost games to UNLV and Illinois who are going to be worse than a lot of the opponents you play in Big 12 action. Now the season does restart after this week

Starting point is 00:04:02 in a certain standpoint. Maybe this team needs that. They need to see the zero and zero record in Big 12 play and just focus on that. And that's great if they can do that, but it's very hard because now the confidence is shaken. Now the fan base confidence is shaken. What's your home field environment going to be like for the games at Arrowhead? 70,000 strong? I don't know. What if they only get 30,000 in there for the first game, right? I mean, it's going to look way more empty than it would because you're playing in that cavernous stadium, right? Like that's going to be a bad thing. And I hope that doesn't happen. Like,

Starting point is 00:04:31 I know I mentioned that at the beginning, like a lot of fans are like, okay, on to KU basketball on the late night in the fog. We're probably going to end up doing more KU basketball content here over the next couple of weeks, because that's probably what you're going to tune into. It's unfortunate for me though. I love football. I'm still going to be paying attention. I'm still going to be going to the games and doing this stuff with the games. But I'm serving a broader audience here, and that is unfortunately what is probably going to happen here. It's disappointing, and I think it is a huge crossroads.

Starting point is 00:05:02 I actually go back. I think there are some similarities. If you look back at that Iowa State team, the Iowa State team that lost to Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game in, I want to say, 2020, they brought back like all their starters to that next team in 2021. And I think they only went like one, six or seven games.

Starting point is 00:05:20 I don't know if it was just guys maxing out their ceiling, weird stuff happening in the next year, injuries, whatever it is. I'm wondering if that's kind of what this season is for KU. Now, the good news is you still have some good young players that are growing that I think the bigger outcome ceiling season would be when this recruiting class that they just brought in becomes older players. But obviously in today's day and age of college football,

Starting point is 00:05:40 not to get too dark on this, but you never know what players are going to transfer. Heck, with KU's 1-2 start, you lose at West Virginia in Week 4, start 1-3. Do any KU players say, you know what, screw this. I'm opting out. I'm taking my red shirt like we saw with Khalil Herbert, and I'm leaving to go to another school and preserving another year. I don't know. That's doomsday scenario. I probably shouldn't even get into that, but this is where your mind starts wondering when you see this stuff happening. Again again, like I felt like the last two weeks, Kansas has been the better football team.

Starting point is 00:06:08 I did not come out of this game thinking UNLV is like, I think Boise state is a way better team than UNLV is from watching some of those things. Like that last drive that UNLV scored, it took so many weird things happening and the fluke stuff happening. Like again, a weird rule going against kids in the same way that the Illinois muffed the punt that went into the end zone. That wasn't a safety because again a weird rule going against kids in the same way that the illinois muffed the punt that went into the end zone that wasn't a safety because of a weird rule same weird rule on this that they get the first down on the fourth and and short where you kind of get screwed over of like okay if they blow the whistle earlier he's short of the first down but

Starting point is 00:06:37 because they let him keep going he ends up fumbling but they blow it before the fumble and it's just like what's going on but you would think that would have been a first down and then the 15 yard penalty. Now they're first and goal at the 16th. And because they get that one extra play or two extra plays, whatever it was, they end up scoring the touchdown. Maybe if they don't, they don't score a touchdown, but that's in the rule book. So weird rules going against you, fluky stuff, the fumble thing, like, yes, fall on it. But like three,

Starting point is 00:06:59 I think there were what four attempts by Kansas to grab that fumble. I think three of them were people jumping on it, trying to fall on it. So yes, there was the one scoop that was problematic. But like, there still were other chances. So there's weird stuff happening. There's you not playing well, there's you not making the clutch plays, there's the opponent making clutch plays. But it's also these last two games, I have not been that impressed with Illinois and UNLV. I have just been more depressed with what Kansas has been. And so that can go two ways, right? We can, again, play the optimistic game and say, well, if Kansas just stops shooting themselves in the foot, they'd be 3-0 right now, and they'd be in an okay situation.

Starting point is 00:07:33 But the problem is we're seeing it over and over again. Nine penalties for 90 yards, interceptions that are bad, unable to make big plays. I mean, Kansas held UNLV to 2 of 13 on third down in this game. Kansas had the big lead early. But again, you screw things up at the end of the first half, have a huge, I mean, that's a 10-point swing, that interception you end up throwing at the end of the first half. Just so many things that make you want to pull your hair out.

Starting point is 00:07:57 And I don't like playing the blame game. I don't like pointing fingers to one or two guys because typically it is more than that. It is typically not just one or two guys who decide things. But when I see Devin Neal running the football 23 times for 120 yards, when I see, you know, the Lawrence or the KU receivers making a couple of nice catches in this game, when I see Tabor Allen, your young kicker showing up well in this game, when I see the defense holding UNLV to 23 points which really would have been less than that if you know maybe a call goes your way here or there or if

Starting point is 00:08:30 you don't throw that interception at the first half like and also against an offense who's really good when I see some of this stuff happening I'm like how did you lose these games but the one thing where it's like that did not play well again J, Jalen Daniels, he's 12 of 24. The last two weeks, you have five interceptions from Jalen Daniels. You have basically 300 passing yards. And you have this week a 50% completion rate. Like, I don't know what has happened there. It blows my mind.

Starting point is 00:09:00 He was so good in 2022 and 2023. Was it all Andy Kotelnicki? Is that what we're coming down to? Was it all Andy Kotelnicki? And now that you didn't just go from Andy Kotelnicki to a normal coordinator it seems like you went to a bad coordinate offensive coordinator was that enough to completely thwart things is it that he's just still rusty is it the time off that he's not the same guy I I don't have the answer here and it's an impossible answer for what KU should do with him to be clear I think they're going to stick with him and they're going to stick with Jeff Grimes if you're asking me to predict because here's why you look back at some years I mean I remember looking back at a year of

Starting point is 00:09:31 Buffalo where Lance Leipold had a quarterback who had like 16 touchdowns to 15 interceptions stuck with him like through the whole year this is not a staff that makes rash changes they're not going to make rash changes so if I'm predicting what's going to happen, that's the answer. But here's what I'd imagine is going through the coaching staff's mind. They see what's happening right now. They see Jalen's not been the same guy, but with Jalen, they talked about him pressing. If you bench him now, his confidence is shot for the rest of the season. And some of you might be sitting there going, okay, well, whatever. Let's go with the backup anyway. He's going to give us a better chance to win totally fair but you've seen what Jalen Daniels can be in 2022 and 2023 and if this is just shaking off the rust the ceiling of what Jalen Daniels can be

Starting point is 00:10:14 represents the highest ceiling of KU to get to so it's almost like the long game of saying okay but if we're going for the highest ceiling we have to get this guy right and the only way we get him right is by playing him and not benching him because that shoots his confidence. At the same point in time, you saw it in the third quarter and in that second half. KU basically had no faith, no confidence in Jalen Daniels throwing the ball. You run the ball basically on these third and longs on back-to-back plays,

Starting point is 00:10:37 on draw plays that get you like no yardage. You're not throwing the football downfield. They had zero confidence in him because they were worried that he was going to throw another interception. And they were basically saying, Hey, our defense playing well, let's just try to sit on the lead at that point.

Starting point is 00:10:49 They had zero confidence in him. So at some point you have to say, well, if we have zero confidence, we can't run our offense. We have to go to somebody else. We have to go to Cole Ballard. We have to go to Isaiah Marshall and give them a try.

Starting point is 00:10:59 But then again, once you rip that bandaid off, there's no going back. If you decide we're benching Jalen Daniels for one of these guys, you have to be ready to basically say, we ain't going back to Jalen Daniels. You can't play the quarterback in and out game. You have to be willing to say, okay, we pulled you.

Starting point is 00:11:14 You're confident in this shot. We're fully in on Cole Ballard or Isaiah Marshall. And so that's why I don't think it's going to happen. And again, there still is a big part of me inside that's like, Jalen's got to figure this out. Of course he is. We've seen such a big sample size. The longer it goes on and the more it doesn't happen,

Starting point is 00:11:28 and now it's back-to-back weeks, and you have questions about the offensive coordinator and scheming stuff up, it just becomes both scary in terms of what this means in terms of now it's back-to-back frustrating losses, and also that you start having a tougher time figuring out where the wins are going to come on the schedule. They're going to get more wins I feel good about that but how many are we talking they win three

Starting point is 00:11:50 games this year four games this year five can you get to a bowl game right can you still salvage a six and six season and make a third straight bowl game which still would you know program wise obviously from where we were in the offseason that would be a disappointment but big picture if you would have said when they hired Lance Leipold that by year two, they were going to start a three straight year bowl stretch. You would have taken that. So that's kind of what you're shooting for now. And it is a disappointment from the off season,

Starting point is 00:12:15 but that's kind of what this game represented, even though it doesn't count to the big 12 standings. If you lost both these games, you ain't competing in the big 12. Your best chance is trying to make it back to a bowl game and just celebrating it that way and building on the season to try to reset for next year. All right, let's continue on. Go to the game.

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Starting point is 00:14:27 I will say, if you can beat West Virginia next week, you win in Morgantown, people are going to feel a lot better, especially if Jalen looks good in it. If you win the game 7-3, you're going to feel better in general because you won, but you probably won't feel better big picture about where the team is going. But that's the opportunity you have. On the flip side, you're going to be, I would assume, underdogs at this point.

Starting point is 00:14:48 You lose that game and you're one and three. I am very worried about that attendance, as I said earlier, for that home game against TCU and Arrowhead. And then things can very much snowball in a hurry from there. So things can get out of hand in a hurry for KU. And I'm going to stick through it and just hope that things turn around. But I don't know that they've shown you a lot right now to give you a lot of faith that that is going to be the way things go.

Starting point is 00:15:13 But we will see. So you look at the goats of the game here. You look at the good. Let's start there. Tommy Dunn was excellent tonight. Six tackles for Tommy Dunn. He had one and a half TFLs. He had a half sack.

Starting point is 00:15:25 He was plugging up runs. He was getting pressure. We talked about one of our keys to the game. Thank you for an everyday or listen, getting interior pressure. And I thought they did a good job of that in this game. And Tommy Dunn had himself a nice game. Jeremy Robinson gets a good goat.

Starting point is 00:15:39 I know Robinson probably is going to want that one playback where Sluka runs on the third and goal, and they almost had him sacked or at the line of scrimmage. And he ends up getting to the one to allow him to convert the fourth and goal at the one yard line. But overall, Robinson had a great game. Five tackles, three and a half tackles for loss, a sack and a half, two QB hits. Robinson was awesome. Dunn was awesome on that defensive line.

Starting point is 00:16:02 I thought J.B. Brown and Cornell Wheeler both played good games. I'll single them both out. But specifically, I thought J.B. Brown was one of the best players on the field. Eight tackles, one and a half TFLs. Mentioned him as the defensive hawk to sort because we thought with the quarterback running, he'd be able to plug it up a little bit. And he did an excellent job at that, especially on a couple key third down plays that I thought he had a good game.

Starting point is 00:16:24 I thought really overall, KU did well on the line of scrimmage once again, which back-to-back weeks where you did well on the line of scrimmage and you lost the game. And that's certainly frustrating for KU. I mean, you look at it, KU had nine TFLs. UNLV had eight of them in the game. KU had five QB hurries. UNLV had three.

Starting point is 00:16:43 Both teams had two sacks. But it felt like, you know, I don't know, KU won at the line of scrimmage in the game. KU had five QB hurries. UNLV had three. Both teams had two sacks, but it felt like, you know, I don't know, KU won at the line of scrimmage in this game, and those guys are kind of big reasons why. I think there's probably a couple others that you could point out. I'll be interested to see where the PFF grade comes out, but Dylan Woodkey had that nice play. I thought Mello Dotson probably had a good game because it didn't seem like he gave up much in coverage and also apparently had six tackles in a TFL so I thought he was really good for KU in this game but yeah those ones really stick out

Starting point is 00:17:16 on the defensive end Tabor Allen right you go two of two you hit a 41 yarder he stepped up for KU in a real way from that standpoint Devin Neal gets a good go 23 carries 120 yards long of 24 over five yards per carry he also had a catch for 33 so total up 24 touches for 153 yards Devin Neal once again remains awesome for KU I thought LJ Arnold had a good game four catches for 58 yards he uh made a screen pass that probably should have been a zero yard gain into like a first down early in the game for KU on their first touchdown drive so I thought he played well um I guess Jared Casey had a couple big blocks I thought Cardell I thought they got more tight end production in this game three catches 38 yards

Starting point is 00:17:58 and some big blocks in this game than they've gotten in some of the past games but as far as the uh bad goats here um end of the first halves. I mean, this is back-to-back weeks that you basically – this time it wasn't a pick six like it was against Illinois, but for all intents and purposes, it served the same way. You gave up a pick with a long return that eventually led to a touchdown at the end of the half. Almost felt like UNLV was going to screw that up at the end of the half

Starting point is 00:18:20 and that you were going to come out of it unscathed. But that ended up changing the game in a real way. Even if you just don't score at the end of the half, it's 17 to six, right? But because you throw the interception, now they're able to get a touchdown and it completely changes the momentum of the game. It changes the score of the game. I mean, you lose by three points. You would have liked to, you know, had one extra touchdown off the board or maybe even had another field goal on

Starting point is 00:18:42 the board yourself had just scored there. So at the end of the first half becoming problems now for KU that you're basically you know 17 point swing over last week and this week combined when you factor in giving up touchdowns both times and not getting the field goal at the end of this one and those are two losses where you lost by uh combined what nine points 17 point swing at the end of the half I mean KU'd be 3-0 right now uh self-inflicted mistakes bad goat we talked about it the nine penalties and it felt like the second half was just muddled by KU can't trust Jalen Daniels throw downfield then you get a

Starting point is 00:19:15 holding call so now it's second and 20 or second and 15 and if you can't throw downfield what are you going to do and you get one on that key play that ends up making it fourth down and 11 so self-inflicted mistakes the fumble not falling on the fumble I would count that as as a self-inflicted mistake for KU um just little things that kind of add up certainly that uh is the case and basically 300 penalty yards for KU in two games against UNLV and then uh Jalen Daniels and Jeff Grimes get a bad goat I mean again like I want to believe that Jalen's going to figure it out. And I honestly, like, I know a lot of KU fans are mad about it. And I think at one point fans were chanting for Cole Ballard in the stadium and I don't blame them, but I almost like it's getting to a point where it's not just like, Hey, like just play better. It's getting to a point

Starting point is 00:19:58 where I'm kind of just feeling bad. Like it just, because imagine this, imagine you were this like high level athlete and you have real production where you have played well like you look at 2022 you look at 2023 albeit through the injuries and stuff but in the games we saw Jalen he was really good he was a really good player and he was producing a high level that's got to be really hard if you're an athlete and all of a sudden you're playing and I'd imagine he knows like he knows he's not playing up to his caliber he's not playing up to his potential that's's not playing up to his potential. That's got to be really frustrating.

Starting point is 00:20:27 That's got to be really, you know, hard to deal with mentally, right? And so I hope he can figure it out because I still believe something is in there. Now, do you need to go to Cole Ballard or Isaiah Marshall? I don't know. Maybe you do. But like I said, that is going to be quite the – because if you open the can of worms, you know, you ain't closing that can, so to speak. It's kind of like Pandora's box.

Starting point is 00:20:46 So it's an impossible decision to have, and I think he's a good kid, and I am rooting for him to figure it out and turn it around, and that would be great for KU if they do, but it just doesn't look the same. And how much of that is Jeff Grimes? Again, I don't like the fact that you're running five, six screen passes. One of them was also pick six, like receiver screen passes, I should say, again in this game because it's becoming predictable, you run that screen pass on the second and one

Starting point is 00:21:10 on the drive that you end up getting a field goal, touchdown would have been nice there, wouldn't have. When you could have just ran the ball with Devin Neal, like again, run the damn ball. I do think for what it's worth, not having high Shaw certainly hurts you there because A, it would have been nice to have a power back in a game like this, where it was kind of smash mouth, but also be you. Devin Neal's never been

Starting point is 00:21:30 a guy who gets 30 carries in a game. Really? Like, I think there was that one Oklahoma state game that got a bowl eligible where he had like 30 something touches. But like, for the most part, he's a guy who has 20. I mean, they've, they've had games where he has like 15 and I think 20 is around the number you want to get up to, touches per game. And so without Hyshaw, you're basically stuck in a situation where, well, we're keeping Neal out there, but we want to keep him fresh so we can't run the ball every play because then he'd have 40 carries and he'd get beat up.

Starting point is 00:21:55 We're in the third game of the season. If you had Hyshaw, you could have given Neal 20 carries, and instead of having Jalen throw it 24 times, maybe it's 16 throws and there's an extra eight carries to high shot that are productive plays too because he's a good running back. And so I definitely think you missed him in this game. But yeah, anyway, haven't loved the play calling so far this season. Haven't felt like it's schemed KU open players downfield.

Starting point is 00:22:18 And I think it's a combination of Jalen Daniels struggling with that. And I don't know where exactly like you know in this like how much is more to blame than the other but as we said earlier KU's run game check mark it was good KU's defense check mark it was good you didn't force the turnovers defense because you couldn't you know jump on the ball, but special teams was fine. It was just the one thing. Couldn't pass the ball. Again, Andy had turnovers. Again, if you, I don't even want to ask this question, but I already started, so here we go. If you have Peyton Bender these last two games, does KU win both games? Probably not getting really any attempts downfield, but probably maybe

Starting point is 00:23:04 one less. I don't know. Maybe that's a bad comparison. Whatever. All right, let's finish up. What's next for KU? This is locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:24:17 what is next for KU? Like I said, for some fans, they're going to turn their attention away and start focusing on basketball season. I will continue to fight through it all for KU football season, and I hope it turns around, but I'll be there through the thick and thin and I hope you're a part of it too, but you know,

Starting point is 00:24:32 I'm not going to look down on somebody who that is the case. I've always loved football and that's my thing, but yeah, I mean, unfortunately there are going to be, you know, for you football heads, more basketball shows, because that's going to get more listens over these next couple of weeks unfortunately but anyway um the game at west virginia is the next one west virginia lost to penn state handily in week one but 22 points to top 10 maybe even a top five team that's not too bad but they were out yarded by over 200 they were i think physically

Starting point is 00:25:00 dominated in that game they did bounce back last week win over albany now they take on a 2-0 Pitt team who had a comeback win over Cincinnati by one. So this week will be a good opportunity to see what West Virginia has. But regardless, this is a long road trip for KU. It's an 11 a.m. game against an East Coast time zone, a team that will run it down your throat, a team that KU has done well. They've dominated the line of scrimmage. Maybe not dominated, but they've won the line of scrimmage the last two weeks. If there is any quit in you,

Starting point is 00:25:31 if there is any give up from what the record is and from, because of the results, what have happened, West Virginia will exploit it because they will smash it and run it down your throat with their running game. So this becomes a coin flip game coming into the day. College football insiders had it projected 30.6 to 30.2, with Kansas a 51% chance of winning. So basically a coin flip game. And imagine after today, that number becomes a West Virginia's favorite. But even then, West Virginia is not going to be favored by more than a touchdown.

Starting point is 00:25:58 It might be even like a three-point spread in favor of West Virginia. But this becomes your season at this point. Like seriously. I think the talk of KU being a Big 12 title contender, that's out the window. Now, if you go on like a five game winning streak, we can have that conversation down the road. It just becomes, can you salvage a season? Can you make another bowl game? And if you lose this game, I start having trouble even getting to that point because you're one in three, the confidence is gone. What's the attendance like for the upcoming home games in a big stadium?

Starting point is 00:26:25 This is a must win to salvage your season. And that's not a good place to be when you're going on the road against what could end up being, I mean, a team of one, nine games a season ago, but opportunity is still in front of you. It's a new season with the big 12. We'll see if they can take advantage. That'll do it for this episode of locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast,

Starting point is 00:26:42 including on our YouTube page. We'll be back later this week to get more takeaways from the game, a little KU basketball content as well, and then look ahead to the KU West Virginia game. See you then with Locked on Jayhawks.

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