Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - REDEMPTION: Kansas Defense STUNS UCF with GOAL LINE STAND | Can Jayhawks Build on CRUCIAL Road Win?

Starting point is 00:00:00 What a second half performance by KU and the KU defense. Talk about a response, a big goal line stand. KU wins a must win game at UCF, quite the performance. We're going to recap it on today's Locked on Jayhawks. 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 going on?

Starting point is 00:00:33 This is Locked on Jayhawks fun episode as KU takes down UCF 27 to 20. We're going to break it down on today's episode of the show. We're going to get into what the victory means for KU. We'll get into our game awards, our moments of the game. We're going to get to our stats of the game. And we'll get to our game balls, hand those out at the end here as well with Locked on Jayhawks. Before we're getting into any of that, today's episode of the show is brought to you by

Starting point is 00:00:59 Mazda. Like our players, we sweat every detail because when you make every move count, pulling off the unexpected is only the beginning. Stay tuned later for highlights in this week's moving the game forward. Mazda move and be moved. Jayhawks 27, Knights 20, big time victory for KU on the road against UCF, a game that was very much in doubt. You know, honestly, this game reminded me a lot of the West Virginia game in 2022.

Starting point is 00:01:24 I know the score ended up being very different. Didn't end up going to overtime, but it reminded me in a lot of ways because if you remember in the West Virginia game, you go to Morgantown, you get down 14-0-0. And then I think you were also down like 21-7. You got down 14-0-0 in this one. You got down 17 to 7, and you were able to come back, and eventually you had control in the fourth quarter, and then you had a chance to ice the game. Kansas had the ball in that West Virginia game with, I think, three or four minutes

Starting point is 00:01:48 to go. They couldn't ice it. They gave it back to West Virginia. West Virginia ends up tying. It goes to overtime. In this case, it doesn't go to overtime, but Kansas gets the late dramatics with the goal-line stop, and then another stop at the end of the game, too. very much reminds me of that game in a lot of ways. And that game led to some really positive

Starting point is 00:02:04 momentum for KU that season. And the hope will be that it leads to some momentum here. Now, obviously, difficult part of the schedule coming up for KU. But being four and two at this point is such a ginormous difference from being three and three. And we'll talk about more of that in the second here. But, you know, this was just quite the turnaround for the KU defense. That's the bottom line here. That's the big theme in the summary here. And is this going to be like the big question long term is going to be, is what KU did in the second half defensively, is that something that is now going to carry over? Like, did they figure something out? Did the light switch flip? And that's something that we're not going to know till future games. That'll be the hope, obviously. But at the

Starting point is 00:02:42 very least, for the here and now, that was so incredibly important because this win was so incredibly important for this season, this team, and this program. And so that on its own makes it super valuable. And I mean, the first half of the game, UCF, four drives, four scores, points. And it just didn't look pretty either. Like some of the holes that were opening up in the running game, some of the missed tackles. It was sloppy for KU early. And it was certainly disappointing because of the way that the Cincinnati game went. You thought they'd come out fired up and to see the way that some of those mistackles happened. Like Lance Leipold was seating on the sideline, which you understand for why. And for whatever reason in the

Starting point is 00:03:21 second half, right? Bengali Kamara comes back in the second half. That obviously helped because he's one of the best players on this Kansas team. So obviously they're going to be better when he's on the field. But the reason they give up zero points in the second half compared to 20 in the first half, it's not only because Bengali Kamar came back. It's because Bengali Kamar came back, which helps. And they did a lot of other things much better. And the defense started to figure things out. And it was so cool to see the redemption arc of the defense, right? The redemption arc from last week against Cincinnati through the first half against UCF to what they did in the second half, not just for the entirety of the second half by giving up zero points, but they literally won Kansas the

Starting point is 00:03:57 game at the end there, right? You think of the goal line stand. And then you think of making another stop down the stretch there. It felt like a game that Kansas did a lot of things that, you know, we would be talking about if they would have lost this game, like the fact that, yeah, the defense struggled in the first half. They struggled with tackling in the first half. There were some really unfortunately timed or bad penalties for KU. I mean, you think of the third and one, the illegal motion when you were going to try to push it. That sets you back. You ended up not converting the fourth down. had an off sides on a UCF play that was, it would have been a decent stop earlier in the game.

Starting point is 00:04:32 It would have been like second and long. It ended up being, you know, first and five instead or whatever. You had a third and three on your first drive at the second half that you false started and you end up having to kick a field goal instead of getting touchdown. You think of the, they actually would have had another fourth down before the goal line stand. They would have like a fourth and six or something. But you get a face mask call that gives them an automatic first down that was nearly what would have been the game time drive for UCF. So like you think about all of these things and the mistake. you made you think about from a game management perspective the idea that you know you played it

Starting point is 00:05:04 conservatively both times you were backed up against the goal line and that you basically just you know ran the ball three times and i don't think they ran the ball the third time on the first time but um you basically just kind of i don't know like you didn't really take your shots like you didn't go for the kill shot you could have play action passed on third and four um and figured hey what's the difference between them having a minute 37 with a timeout and a minute 37 without a time out. And obviously we saw at the end like the difference in UCF now coming back wasn't the clock. So I wish KU would have passed there, but it worked out in the end because the defense saved

Starting point is 00:05:37 the day. And that is not at all what I was expecting to say coming into this game. And so, you know, as much as we love sports and we love the unpredictability of everything, one of the reasons that I love sports, that a lot of people love sports, is the redemption arc stuff, is the idea that you can go from, you know, struggling. and show improvement and that's what the KU defense did and this is a that that is one reason why like I do have hope that this can continue into future games now you know maybe it doesn't fully look great against Texas Tech because you know maybe with Texas Tech like their offenses is able just to like

Starting point is 00:06:13 it doesn't really matter you know I guess in the end like you could play better defense against Texas tech and they could still put up points you know 35 points at Houston today and obviously they're a really good offense and really good team overall but my hope is that because this is a pretty young defense overall. I mean, uh, less so in the front seven, but definitely in the back end. And so if they are starting to show signs of improvement, like that does feel like something that you can kind of work with. So at least tonight, just a huge performance from them, right? And the bottom line here that I keep going back to, the difference of a win versus the difference of a loss in this specific game. So incredibly crucial for KU, right? If you're sitting at three and

Starting point is 00:06:54 three when your next game is at Texas Tech who looks like the best team in the Big 12 and quite honestly one of the best teams in the country that's not a pretty place to be and you look at the rest of the schedule for KU the back half is tougher than the front half overall because there's not like a lot of you know there's coin flip game like at Arizona is a coin flip game you know Kansas State at home is probably a coin flip game there are games down the stretch here that are coin flip games um there's also some games that are going to be tough to win right at Texas Tech um I don't know if I'd call Utah coin flip game or or tough to win in the same vein.

Starting point is 00:07:26 But, you know, you know what I mean. Like, there's not necessarily, Oklahoma State is the one that you kind of point to and go, yeah, you should win that game. You're playing at home. They're a lesser team. Even then though they're going to be, you would think, motivated because Doug Mietcham and Clint Bowen, the KU revenge opportunity for those two guys. But like, still, you just, things get a lot easier.

Starting point is 00:07:45 Let's just put it that way. For you to get to bowl eligibility, and obviously the team should have higher goals. And then they, I'm sure they do. But at the very least, that's what you want to see, right? If they make a bowl game, they beat K State, I think. A lot of people are going to be very happy with that. I would be one of those, certainly. And the path to doing that is just a lot simpler, a lot more straightforward if you won this game.

Starting point is 00:08:07 And that's, in fact, what happened. And I will say, you know, if we circle back to the idea that if you saw earlier this morning, Cincinnati beat Iowa State, and that final score was closer than the game actually was, Cincinnati was up big for a lot of that game. And it was like 3822. Iowa State gets a late touchdown two-point conversion to make it a, one score game. What if Cincinnati is just like last year's Arizona State? What if Cincinnati's a wagon? What if Cincinnati's last year's BYU? You know, and they end up being a nine or 10 win team. How do we look at it differently for KU? And obviously, there's still more data

Starting point is 00:08:37 points to kind of accomplish. But a point being pretty good day for the Jayhawks after it started a little bit shaky to say the way to start. Let's go to our moments and plays of the game, our stat of the game, player awards and game balls as well. This is locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Mazda. And with Mazda, the moving the game forward is the key term there. For those who believe it's not just about playing the game, it's about redefining it. There's moments that do more than put points on the board. They move crowds, move culture, and keep moving the game forward.

Starting point is 00:09:12 This week's moment that moved the game forward. I mean, gosh, there's so many moments in this game specifically, but like, how could we not pick the goal line stand? you know and it felt like UCF with how much success they were having running the football in the first half scoff frost was basically like no we are going to win at the line of scrimmage and we are going to make a statement and kU said nah we ain't having it and they made the goal line stand the fourth down you stop the quarterback fancher short um just unbelievable will determination and not like getting down on yourself by the kU defense after the first half and that certainly moved the game forward for kU when you follow what moves you the

Starting point is 00:09:50 unexpected is only the beginning. And just like there's more to every highlight, there's more to a Mazda vehicle. Mazda move and be moved. Today's episode is also brought to you by DoorDash. It is the weekend, and let's look back and crown this week's MVP on who delivered, powered by DoorDash. Just like you can win every Saturday with DoorDash streaks, saving more every time you order these players delivered when it mattered most. Let's break this down. So for Kansas, I think a lot of players that you could look to on defense that had big games and had big moments, there were a lot like pass rushers that got after, you know, Fanter, the quarterbacks at different points of time.

Starting point is 00:10:25 I'm going to go Trey Lathen, though. You're playing in your home state. You're originally from Florida. You have nine tackles to lead the way for KU. You have a TF, one and a half TFLs. And, you know, I've just been really impressed with Trey Lathen. He's been, I don't know, one of my favorite players to watch so far this season. And he's been good all year long.

Starting point is 00:10:40 He was good in this game. And just like Trey Lathen delivered for Kansas, DoorDash delivers your Saturday. So with DoorDash streaks, you save every Saturday order. Stack it up all season. And you could save up to $250. including $100 in DoorDash credits. Order this Saturday, keep the streak alive, fuel your game day, only with DoorDash. Terms apply, promo period through November 18th.

Starting point is 00:11:04 Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks as we'll get to our game balls coming up here. Don't forget to check out some of our KU basketball recruiting episodes that we've been launching out here with Locked on Jayhawks as well, talking about all the commits, all the flurry of commits that they've been able to bring in here. Our moments in play of the game. I mean, we all know what the real one is. It's the fourth and cold stop. I guess each one is, you know, building on each other. It's first, second, third, fourth down.

Starting point is 00:11:31 That succession of plays in the goal line stand for Kansas. Like, that is it. And if you want to say also making the fourth down stop at the end, like I guess you could say that too because you did need that one for the finality of it. It's just the other one was a little bit more of a closer to being a certainty that they scored. Obviously, not a full certainty because they didn't. to end up scoring but that is the answer but if we do want to talk about some other ones I mean that past breakup by Austin Alexander that was big time and again going back to the

Starting point is 00:11:56 idea that you have a young secondary that there's going to be moments where you do get burnt but there's going to be some moments where they make really good place because they're talented players they're going to be good players at Kansas and Austin Alexander is one of those guys he's had some moments where maybe he's giving up a reception and stuff as a young player but he's had some moments too where he's going to look good and you're going to see the future you're going to see the potential of him of being that ex-Cobriant, Mello Dotson, or, you know, name your long list of KU corners that have done well in Lawrence. Really impressed by that play by Austin Alexander.

Starting point is 00:12:26 That was a textbook for that past breakup. The Jalen Dye Stripzack. That was a huge moment in the game. I mean, at that point, KU had built up the momentum defensively, but that felt like the, I don't know, it was almost like, you know, it's like an inning in baseball, right? You get a hit. You get a single. You get a double.

Starting point is 00:12:46 right i don't know you're stringing hits together maybe you get like a walk in there or something like that and you're stringing the hits together and it's building up to something big and maybe you've scored a run or two already which you know to that to that point kansas had uh certainly had a little bit of success and gotten back into the game and tied it and everything um that moment felt like the home run ball that moment felt like the the atomic bomb that was dropped that moment felt like the the big game changer that was getting KU over the hump and that's how that was like that was the big movement that was the big play for Jalen die on that that big strip sack obviously you hated to see the quarterback get hurt as part of it but it was certainly a big play for KU the Jalen Daniels

Starting point is 00:13:31 like deep seam route to camp picket where he kind of bobbled it and caught it great concentration by him to hold onto that and catch that that was a great play as well and then honestly I think this one's going to go underrated and all this there was a 46 yard pass to Bowden growing it was when Kansas was already down 14-0. It was a third down and four. If you don't get that reception, what happens? What happens to the confidence at that point, at that moment of the game that allowed you to eventually go down, you get a touchdown, you get on the board, you start to settle in a little bit more. I think that was a really underrated play. Our stats of the game, in general, we could talk about UCFs like zero points in the second half. I mean, that's the big one. But I think a big proponent of

Starting point is 00:14:12 that or a big, I guess, I don't know, component of that would be the 37 rushing yards they had in the second half on 1.6 yards per carry. So if you look at the total game, Kansas finished with 356 yards, UCF finished with 375, Kansas 235 in the air, UCF 176. UCF finished with 199 rushing yards. Kansas finished with 121. So if you just look at the box score, you'd say UCF had a big advantage running the ball. But if you're just looking at things in the second half, But it's not as much the case. Kansas had 52 rushing yards in the second half, not a ton of success,

Starting point is 00:14:47 three and a half yards per carry, but that trumped the UCF 37 rushing yards in the second half on 1.6 yards per carry. And that right there, UCF went from dominating the game in the first half, but just running whatever they wanted, getting huge holes, having their running backs break tackles, to not being able to run at all in the second half.

Starting point is 00:15:04 And that was kind of the difference for the defense. I think one to zero in turnovers. I mean, maybe the zero for Kansas more important, but again, over Kansas forced. That was huge for KU to win this one on the road and win a close game. And then mean, nine to two in tackles for loss. I mean, that's a difference of 22 to seven in defensive yards lost on those plays. And then if you add in the sack yardage, which was 13 yards lost, I don't know if that counts into the TFL or not, but if it doesn't, that makes it even

Starting point is 00:15:35 more impressive. So point being, Kansas had a big advantage in tackle for loss. They had a big advantage on the lines of scrimmage. UCF was having advantage with the running backs just missing tackles. And there were some plays where, yes, they opened up huge holes in the first half. But overall for the game, Kansas defensive line was there. And honestly, Kansas defense line, they had two sacks. They could have easily had like five or six. They probably should have in this game. So those would be the stats of the game for me. Our awards, thank goodness you were healthy, goes to Lath Marjohn. So he was a game time decision, ended up playing and just nailed easily his two field goals for the game obviously those became very important field

Starting point is 00:16:12 goals right let's say you miss both of them then UCF's kicking a field goal in one of those situations it's just a different situation coming down the stretch but he continues to be money for kU as the kicker hopefully he can get fully healthy for the rest of the season the throw him open award that's going to go to jalen daniels for the first drive of the third quarter first drive of the second half for the kU offense um i should say um kansas only ended up with a field goal in at the end, I talked about that untimely false start when you had a third and three, kind of at their end of the field. There were a couple big time throws from Jalen.

Starting point is 00:16:44 I know Jalen missed the fourth down a little bit low and, you know, it was a little inconsistent in the first half, but like, again, I say this all the time. Very rarely are you going to have a game as a quarterback where every single throw is pinpoint accurate, 100% awesome. Like, there's going to be some mistakes here there. You hope to avoid them on key downs like fourth down, which happened, which was unfortunate. But some of the throws Jalen was making. Like there was one, I forget if it was to groan or brun, it was one of the tight ends.

Starting point is 00:17:11 It was kind of like a whole shot on kind of a seam cornerish route to the left side on that drive where there was like two defenders on the inside. There's somebody on the outside and it had to be like perfectly placed. And that was one of two throws on that drive specifically. I remembered being like, holy cow, like that's an unbelievable throw right there. And he had a couple more of those throughout the game, but that was the drive that I noticed it the most on. So I did want to give him credit. He finished 1826, 235, 69%.

Starting point is 00:17:35 no turnovers that's huge 25 yards rushing um again i wish they would have put the ball in his i know they did put the ball in his hands on the third and four at the end on a cuby run but i would like to see him have a passing option maybe i mean he's 60 or quarterback right uh i don't know maybe i'm i'm big in nits whatever you won the game um the game changer award that's going to go to bangali kamara like i said it was more than just kamara in the second half but obviously you can easily line up and say yeah he has a huge impact on the team and um you know what let's just retroactively save Bengali Kamara finishes out the Cincinnati game they win the game. Let's count it as a win for Kansas. I think we should appeal the NCAA for that. Okay, I'm going to keep making you think I'm going to get sacked, but never actually do it award. That goes to Cam Fancher. I was just this guy, I don't understand. You just can't sack him. You have like two guys around him and it's like, nope, sorry, I'm going to get away from this and then I'm going to throw it out of bounds or I'm going to throw it somebody else to pick up three yards or throw it down field or whatever. Kansas just could not break him down for whatever reason. And is that just like when you're a Backup quarterback, you come in, you get to play like Superman ball and you just can't be sacked.

Starting point is 00:18:38 I don't know. That was certainly wild in this one. Otherwise, the game would have been, you know, well over before I think even the point it got to. Our goal line stand of the game brought to you by the 2009 Insight Bowl, I guess it would be the 2008 Insight Bowl. Apologies there is the KU defense, obviously. Did anybody else get flashbacks to the 2008 Inside Bowl when Kansas had the goal line stand against Minnesota? You know, certainly different situations here. but yeah, it was a fun one as well.

Starting point is 00:19:05 And then we have one final award here. That would be the dumbest commercial of all time award. Kansas gets the stop on the fourth and goal on UCF, right? And they're calling him short on the field. They show like one replay. And the replay they show is from behind the line of scrimmage. So you can't even see the goal line. And they're like, all right, we're going to commercial TV timeout.

Starting point is 00:19:27 It's like, are you serious? This is the biggest play of the game. And you're not going to stay here and show the different replay angles that you got did he get in did he not and then we come back to break and it's like yeah he was short you know you couldn't have stayed in that moment like are we serious what are we doing here what are we doing here this supposed to be like entertainment and drama and it's like no but that was the dumbest commercial all the whole time also mr touchdown award goes to lichon williams i think we all know why on that one just the touchdown machine all right let's get to our game balls this is locked on jahawks

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Starting point is 00:20:35 in it's a lot of fun so let yourself run lift flex and push forward explore the new peloton cross training tread plus today at one peloton dot com thanks for joining us on this episode of locked on jayhawks recap of kU defeating ucf 27 to 20 are our game balls for this one let's start with the the kU offensive side of the ball for our game balls um I guess, do we go with Leishon Williams, 12 carries, 58 yards, and three touchdowns? By the way, I continue to be like a big Harry Stewart guy. I thought he played well today, five carries for 26. I don't know that's quite worth game ball.

Starting point is 00:21:15 I mean, there's a lot of guys you can give it to Williams, you give it to Jalen Daniels, you can give it to Cam Pickett. I mean, Henderson sold five for 53. All right, here's what we're going to do. We're going to do Cam Pickett, five catches on five targets, 64 yards. We've been waiting for him to get, you know, healthier and get back to the guy we saw in the Fresno State game, which was, honestly, KU's number one receiver in that game. He was really good in this one and important because, you know, with the performance

Starting point is 00:21:38 Henderson, Emmanuel Henderson just put up against Cincinnati, you knew UCF was going to be keen on him big time. So you needed another receiver to step up. And Kim Pickett did five catches for 64 yards. I will go with Leishon Williams for the other one, 12 carries, 58 yards, 4.8 yards per down three touchdowns. I do feel like there are certain times where I'm actually like wondering, should KU be running the football to Leashon a little bit more?

Starting point is 00:22:00 and let them grind out yards a little bit more here and there, at least in the early part of the game while you're trying to establish tempo. I'm liking what I see from him, and I like that one-two punch with him and Williams as the top two running back. So those are the game balls there. Again, you could probably give one to Jaylen Daniels. I probably should have, but it's easy to give the quarterback. Let's spread the love.

Starting point is 00:22:20 Okay, defensive side of the ball for KU. Again, you could pick a lot of guys based on what happened in the second half for KU. I mentioned Trey Lathen earlier is having a big game. He certainly did. Do we give one to Bengali Kamara, four second half tackles? Obviously, he had a big impact with him getting into the game. We certainly could. Man, Lyric Rawls had six tackles.

Starting point is 00:22:42 Let's see. Austin Alexander had the big pass breakup. He had a TFL, five tackles. Justice Finclay, I noticed on a few big plays, five tackles and a TFL. Blake Harold was in on a bunch of stuff. Let's go with Jalen Die. Jalen Die gets a game ball, three tackles. He had that sack with the forced fumble that was a huge play.

Starting point is 00:22:59 play in the game. And obviously, Taylor Davis got hurt at one point. So, you know, you're, reliant on some other Devon die gets hurt on the end of the first half place. You're relying on Jalen Dye to play even more to a safety unit that's kind of gotten beat up so far this year for KU and Jalen Dye stepped up. So we're going to give him one of the game balls. And then, man, I'm almost tempted, too, to say, we should have given out this game award to Leroy Harris for the Mr. Batdown Award, or I guess like the J.J. Watt used to bat down a ton of passes. is Leroy Harris had two big bat downs. I'm going to give the other one to Tommy Dunn, two tackles, one sack.

Starting point is 00:23:38 I'm not 100% sure he didn't have more tackles. It felt like there were a lot of runs up the middle that he stuffed that maybe a linebacker was in on, that maybe he did get credit, maybe he didn't. But I felt like he was having a real push there and getting pressure as well. So we're going to go with Tommy Dunn and Jayland Die for our defensive game balls. But you could go with a lot of guys. You can go, Trey Lathen, Lerer probably like a bunch of guys. So I'll be interested to see.

Starting point is 00:23:59 see some of the PFF grades after this game to stay at least. And then our special teams game balls, we are going to give out two here. We usually just do one. But the first is Leif Marjohn. Again, two for two on field goals playing hurt, 41 and 33, making it look easy and money. Those are important. Finn Lapin gets one. I mean, four puns, average of 45 yards per punt, long of 49, and two of those having to

Starting point is 00:24:25 come back from your own end zone to get those balls out to where they don't have the ball, you know, starting at your 38-yard line or something like that ends up being very huge. And you make the stops on both those situations, you know, Finn Lapin, I don't know what you pay a punter in the transfer portal, but worth every penny. That dude's awesome. And I think his family was in town to see him punt because coming over from Australia to Florida to see it and had a good performance and getting to do so. You know, obviously, you would have loved the situation like last year with Damon Greaves where his parents came out. And this is unfortunate as that probably was, they didn't get to see him punt because

Starting point is 00:25:05 it's a good thing for Kansas overall. But in the end, Kansas wins. His family gets to see him punt a few times and they had a good performance in the end. I don't know for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, you can find their show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll be back for big takeaways and a little deeper dive into this game on Monday. Get to any new recruiting news as well here on Lockdown, Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:25:28 Check out our other commitment episode. as well, and that'll do it for this episode of LOJ. We'll see you next time. Make sure subscribe to anywhere you get a show or on YouTube.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - REDEMPTION: Kansas Defense STUNS UCF with GOAL LINE STAND | Can Jayhawks Build on CRUCIAL Road Win?

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