Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RUN GAME BACK??? Big Takeaways from Kansas Jayhawks' 41-10 Win vs West Virginia Mountaineers

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

KU Football's Running Game Dominates West Virginia. Can They Keep the Momentum Against Cincinnati?Derek Johnson breaks down the Kansas Jayhawks' impressive victory, highlighting their potent ground at...tack and game-changing special teams play. The discussion covers standout performances from Leshon Williams and Emmanuel Henderson, while addressing the team's third-down conversion struggles. Johnson analyzes key defensive contributions from Justice Finkley and Trey Lathan, and examines how Lance Leipold's tactics are reshaping the Jayhawks' strategy. The episode concludes with a preview of KU's upcoming challenge against Cincinnati's formidable run game and defense.Don't miss this in-depth analysis of the Jayhawks' path to success and their preparation for a crucial matchup against the Bearcats.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYEnough with boring, flavorless caffeine, it’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5-hour ENERGY®️ shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in-store and online at https://www.5hourENERGY.com or Amazon today.  SquareTo learn more, go support your favorite neighborhood spot and see what Square has been up to in your neck of the woods. And then if you have extra time, check out https://square.com/go/lockedoncollegeThe Game CapGrab your team’s classic bar or retro circle designed hat and use code LOCKEDON for an exclusive discount. Head to Because legends wear The Game. Head to https://thegamecaps.com DoorDashWith DoorDash Streaks, you save every Saturday you order — stack it up all season and you could save up to $250. Order this Saturday. Keep the streak alive. Fuel your gameday — only with DoorDash. Terms apply. Promo period through 11/18.MazdaIt’s the small details that make the big plays. And just like there’s more to every player, there’s more to a Mazda vehicle. Mazda. Move and Be Moved. GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at https://www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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)

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Turns out the KU running game is just fine. In fact, it's probably pretty good. Plus, this might be the best special teams unit. In fact, definitively, it is the best special teams unit of the Lance Leipoldera. We get into the biggest takeaways from KU's 31 point victory over the West Virginia Mountain. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team, every day. day. What is going on? Derek Johnson here.
Starting point is 00:00:33 This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And thank you so much to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We're free and available anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe. And on today's edition of LOJ, we are breaking down the KU West Virginia game. Even more. We're going to get to our goats of the game. We're going to get to an early look at Cincinnati, a promise this time.
Starting point is 00:00:56 And yeah, our three biggest takeaways from KU taking down West Virginia, including including about the special teams, including about third downs, and the running game for KU. Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. Right now, new customers can bet just $5, and if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the Fandul app today. So KU takes down West Virginia 41 to 10. It was an impressive outing for KU. And I think from a big picture perspective, you feel really good that Kansas obviously bounces back to Missouri win, wins off a biweek, starts big 12.
Starting point is 00:01:30 play one and oh, but that all your wins so far this season have been blowout wins. That feels even better that it's not just these close wins, that it's like, is this going to last over the course of the season? It feels like something that is very sustainable. But one of the big questions you had coming out of the Missouri game was what was the running game going to be for KU football moving forward the rest of this season. And it was hard to see this team, especially given how much they want to run the football, how much they want to be a balanced offense, how important it is for how they play their style
Starting point is 00:01:58 of ball and I mean just in general and football of course it's important to run the football it was going to be important to figure that out and so you come off that Missouri game in where you have just 31 rushing yards against the tigers and it was a real question of okay it's not just about hey this was not a good game it's about is this indicative that they might have a problem running the football right to where yes if you're playing a worse opponent you have more than 31 rushing yards But if you only have 100 rushing yards, when you need to be averaging 150, 180, 200 in a specific game, that still would be a problem. Well, you ended up with over 200 against West Virginia. It was not a problem.
Starting point is 00:02:38 And I think now it's much easier as we add more data points. It's not just the Kansas data points. It's the Missouri defense data points. As we add more data points here, it's a lot easier to kind of look at this thing and go, you know what? I think Kansas might actually have. a pretty good rushing game. I don't know that it's last year's rushing game, but you lost your all
Starting point is 00:03:01 time leading rusher and Devin Neal. So like, there is going to be a certain level of, okay, I can understand that a little bit here. When you look at Kansas running the football in every other game besides the Missouri game, they've been able to, again, it's not always the most flashy, it's not always
Starting point is 00:03:18 10 yards per carry, but they've found a way to get a bunch of yards. In their first game, it's Fresno State. They finished 207 rushing yards. And had Kansas continued with their playbook and their starters, you probably end up with more after you kind of just, you know, from the third quarter on, just kind of sat on it. You end up with 285 rushing yards against Wagner. And a lot of that comes with the second and third strings in the game. You end up with 242 rushing yards against West Virginia. And even then, you're bringing in backups into the end of the game. So that means that if you take out the
Starting point is 00:03:48 Missouri game, Kansas is averaging 245 rushing yards per game. That is a very, very, very very good number. Turns out they're going to be just okay rushing the football. And when you look at two, like Fresno State so far this season, Fresno State gave up 207 rushing yards to Kansas in that week zero contest. The three games after against Georgia Southern, Oregon State, and Southern combined, they gave up 235. So they only give up 28 more total rushing yards than they gave up in the one game against Kansas than they did the following three games. Obviously not counting the last game against Hawaii. But the Missouri game, the more we get data points on them, too, I think it becomes
Starting point is 00:04:29 an outlier in terms of you have in the 31 rushing yards. And yes, is it concerning if you play another defensive line to the level of Missouri, sure, it is. But maybe KU will be better and be better equipped because they've gone that experience this time that they'll be able to handle a little bit better. But go check out the box score for Missouri against South Carolina. South Carolina had negative nine rushing yards against Missouri. that was not a mistake.
Starting point is 00:04:54 The Game Cox had negative nine rushing yards against Missouri. Now, obviously, in college football, sacks count for negative. Even if you take away the sack yard that they had, it's a horrible rushing game for South Carolina. And South Carolina is known for being a rushing team. They want to run the, I mean, their quarterback, Lenora Sellers, is one of the best rushing quarterbacks in the country. They could not run at all against Missouri. So it turns out Missouri's defensive line and defenses are really, really good at stopping the run. You probably had a bad game at the same point in time, and you'll probably be better equipped from it
Starting point is 00:05:20 and they're going to learn from it and be better from it moving forward. The other games, you've been fine. So I also really like LaShawn Williams. I really like his vision. I really like the added juice he brings to the offense as a runner. I know obviously Daniel Highshaw is, you know, hurt right now and you hope that he can get back and healthy. I do think it would behoove Kansas to moving forward, even when you do get Highshaw back,
Starting point is 00:05:43 you know, fully healthy. I think you're looking at him either an equal split or like I wouldn't even hate if like, let's say you had 25 carries to give out. if you give out, I don't know, 14 of them to LaShawn Williams, you know, 10 of them, that's horrible math, 11 of them to Daniel Hyshaw or something. Like, I think I would be okay with that. So I think the run game is going to be just fine for KU. Let's get to a, I don't know, negative, I guess you could say takeaway.
Starting point is 00:06:08 KU still needs to figure out their third downs. If they want to win some of the games that are going to be closer, it hasn't mattered right now because the games that they've won have been in such blowout fashion that it's not, you know, that small stuff. But if you're looking at winning the games that are going to be closer, which you might have one this week again Cincinnati, certainly Vegas thinks that way when you look at how the spread is kind of closing. You're going to have to start converting third downs at a higher clip. So for this season, Kansas is just 14 of 45 on third down. So that's 31%.
Starting point is 00:06:37 They were 5 of 14 last week against West Virginia. So the number went up, but not monumentally. Kansas is only in the 11th percentile nationally in late down success rate. That's despite being in the 94. percentile nationally, an average third down distance. So they're getting really, really short third down, but they're not converting them nonetheless. And that is a problem right now. Now, the good news for Kansas is you would think that based on the average down and distance, those numbers are bound to go up. You would think that based on it being a short third down, you should eventually
Starting point is 00:07:10 reversion to the mean have a higher third down conversion percentage. You also should think based on the last three years performance, that KU should get back to being a good third down team. In 2024, Kansas converted 51% on third down. It was 48% in 2023, and it was 51% again in 2022. Kansas has been a very good third down conversion team the last three years, even when the Jeff Grimes offense was here last year. That hasn't been the case this year, even though they're getting even shorter third downs.
Starting point is 00:07:37 So that to me almost doesn't make sense and tells me that there's going to be a run here for KU that the third downs are going to come, and they're going to have like a two or three game stretch where they do convert at like 60% and that number, you know, jumps up. But you still got to do it. You still got to make it happen. And, you know, up until it does happen, you do have to at least question, okay, what is going on here? What is leading to this lapse? Because again, when you get to the closer games, when you get to the even bigger games against the better opponents, you're going to have to figure out those third downs if you want to win those contests. The last one year, this is the best KU special teams of the Lance
Starting point is 00:08:10 Leipold era. And I'm not sure it's particularly close because it's like better in every area so far for Kansas. I guess I didn't take a look at like some of the coverage numbers so far, but I guess to this point, Kansas hasn't given up like a kick or part return touchdown. You know, you would hope that that would continue. But if we're just talking about who is the best kick returner of the Lance Light Poldera, Kenny Logan has the two best yards per kick return average in the Lance Leipoldera. There was one guy who in one year had one kick return for like 30 yards, technically to be him, but more than one return, which is a better realistic way of looking at it. Kenny Logan owns the previous high of a Lance Leipold season at 27.9 yards per kick return. That was back in
Starting point is 00:08:50 2021. Well, right now, Emmanuel Henderson is at 36 yards per kick return. So blowing that out of the water. He had the first kick return for a touchdown of the Lance Leipold era in the win against West Virginia. So you would say right now, the best kick return of the Lance Leipold era is what Emmanuel Henderson is doing. And obviously, you have to continue this stuff to finish out with this, but so far, the best part returner so far, I mean, Kwamey Lassar had eight. for 108 yards in 2021. Taynaggy has 12 for 95 this year, so by an efficiency basis,
Starting point is 00:09:21 Lasseter would have him there. But it's the consistency of those 12 punt returns where think about every time you're returning it, it's not just that you have the chance of gaining yards forward. It's that you're preventing the ball from bouncing backwards. And the consistency of how often Nagy is getting to return punts and picking up just a few extra yards here or there. Again, 12-part returns.
Starting point is 00:09:41 We're talking about that, you know, Lasseter had eight of them in 2020. Kansas last year had a total of, or, okay, so 2024, yeah, last year, Kansas had 55 punt return yards. In 2023, they had 119. In 2022, they had 15. In 2021, they had 108. You were on pace to shatter all of those years. If you look at it from a perspective, what is Tate Nagy on pace for, right? You take the four games he's played, multiply it by three to get to a 12-game pace. Take Nagy right now is on pace for 285 punt return yards. That means that Tag Nagy is on pace to have more punt return yards in 2025 than Kansas had it as a team combined from 2022 through 2024. That is important in gaining new field position.
Starting point is 00:10:29 And the best kicker on paper, Leif Marjohn is 21 of 22 in his career between last year and this year now at Kansas. He already has a long of 47 at KU. He's three for three on kicks between 40 to 49 yards. The most kicks that a KU kicker has ever made in a season from between 40 and 49 yards in the Lanty Poldera is four. Jacob Borchilla did that four of them in 2022, but he's also four for six. He was one for three in, or I'm sorry, the four for six was 20, 21. He was one for three in 2022. Seth Keller was two for four.
Starting point is 00:10:59 Tabor Allen was three for four. So, I mean, you're already on pace to, you know, break those very easily. And then the best punter, the best punt average in the Lance Leispoldera before this year was, Damon Graves in 2024. It was 42.3. Finn Lapin's at 47.8, blowing it out of the water. And in fact, 47.8, if Finn Lapin continues that for the full season, that would be the Kansas single season record for best yards per punt in a single season. So, best special themes of Lance Leipoldera, it's got to continue this way. It's got to keep going this way if you want to finish with that title. But to this point, very, very promising for KU. And yet still, I'm worried about it in the
Starting point is 00:11:35 game against K-State. All right. Let's get to our goats of the game and a little early look. Cincinnati. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by the game cap. Quick question for all the college football fans out there. If you could go back in time and sit front row at your biggest rivalry game, what hat would you be wearing? Yes, I said hat. For me, it'd be the game.
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Starting point is 00:12:37 You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast. including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And again, don't forget, you can check out Locked on College Football or Locked on College Basketball for your second listen every day. Okay, so KU wins 41 to 10, and it's time to get to our Goats of the game. If you're new to the segment, Good Goats, greatest of all time, kind of the new adage of the word. Bad Goats is the old adage of the word.
Starting point is 00:13:03 It was kind of the shortened version of like scapegoats in a way. Like, you didn't want to be a goat when I was growing up. and now obviously you do. So a little bit different in how those are. Our good goats, let's just start with the defense overall. I mean, you only give up 10 points and seven of it was to a backup quarterback who comes in running the football really well when you're not fully prepared for that. And you have backups in as well. Really impressive performance by the KU defense overall.
Starting point is 00:13:26 And it really was a little bit of everything. Like the coverage was obviously solid for KU. The run defense was really good. It seemed like you were plugging up a lot over the middle. I mean, you forced like six punts on the first six drives for Westford. Virginia. It was just a really all-around performance. The linebackers once again looked really good for Kansas. So it really is a little bit of everything. Now, if we did have to try to pick some standouts here, let's start with Jayland die. He had an 84 PFF grade. That actually
Starting point is 00:13:51 led Kansas. It was only 22 snaps. And again, he's playing with some of the backups. But that was nice to see because KU had a couple safety injuries, Taylor Davis coming into the game. I guess Devin Die wasn't an injury. That was him getting suspended for the targeting call. But a point being, you know, that was nice to see in what he brought to the table. And KU's safety depth continues to look pretty good so far this season. So that was good. Trey Lathen, you got an interception against his former team, had an 83 PFF grade, really good coverage grade, picked up some tackles, had a sack in there as well.
Starting point is 00:14:27 Like, just did a little bit of everything. He's been an awesome linebacker edition for KU out of the portal. Dean Miller, I kind of mentioned earlier, like he was playing. In fact, PFF lists him as a left-out side linebacker. He was kind of playing that hybrid outside linebacker D.N. It was so fun to watch with what D.K. McDonald is doing right now. He had an 81 PFF grade. He had two pressures for the game.
Starting point is 00:14:47 He had six total tackles according to PFF. I think the official stats gave him seven. Really impressive. And again, he set the tone that first drive of the game, West Virginia has like the third and three. He makes the open field tackle where it's one-on-one with him and Nico Mark Yel. Really impressive there. Justice Finkeley had his best game at KU. 81 pff grade.
Starting point is 00:15:06 He had three pressures for the game. He also was key in run defense with a 77 run defense grade. So you look at Finkley coming along. I mean, we like the KU defensive tackles. We like what you have at D-N with Leroy Harris and Dean Miller. You get Finkley and Bray playing to the level that we were expecting preseason, which Finkley did in this game, and you end up with a game just like this. Lyrick Rawls obviously had the hit of the game for KU blowing up that receiver.
Starting point is 00:15:31 He had a 77 PFF grade 82 in coverage. So he would be another standout here, Syed Gibbs. he ended up playing more and played 48 snaps because of the injury with Taylor Davis. He had a 75 and a half PFF grade, 76 in coverage. So he stood out and he made a couple nice hits in run coverage as well, kind of coming up for KU. Again, there's just so many players here on the defense with how well it played. But this kind of proves the point of what happened here. The defensive tackles, again, like this game, it was Withers and Dunn, who were the players
Starting point is 00:15:59 who kind of flashed, Harold flashed with a bunch of, you know, tackles. and those three players, or I'm sorry, no, it would be Harold Dunn. And then Marcus Calvin even had a flashplay, too. Those three players had five combined pressures for KU from D Tackles. So it's just everyone in terms of D tackles. And then I would also shout out Jalen Todd. Again, I don't think any of the corners played like poorly necessarily, but I thought it was just a ho-hum, solid day.
Starting point is 00:16:25 You know, there's not one that jumps out on PFF. The highest rated for the corners is Jalen Todd, which they're all solid grades. Like he's a 70.2. But Todd definitely deserves some credit here. target four times. Again, I think the grade should actually be higher here based on this. Four targets against him 13 yards. That's like three yards of target with two pass breakups. That's actually a really good game for a corner to have for Jalen Todd there. Felt like, again, continued the theme of the defense, like good tackling game.
Starting point is 00:16:51 I think Pro Football Focus listed 12 missed tackles for KU. That felt high. I think a lot of those happened late. It felt like when the game really mattered early, KU was tackling really well. Kind of the opposite of the Fresno State game. we struggle early and then you finished doing so late kind of the opposite in this one which you get some of the backups in there and i guess i can see how that would uh kind of happen i think really good of preventing explosive plays that was obviously a part of it at doing it but k u did not really get beat on explosives and until the the big runs by you know henderson um l sean williams gets a good goat here for k u obviously well over a hundred yards that's 62 yard run man it's such a good highlight for him but he he was consistent and solid all game long and then the k u offensive line they only had uh what, one TFL, they had zero sacks in the game. And again, if we're looking at, like, in the same way of the offense or the defense, who were the standouts? Well, Enrique Cruz had a 79 PFF grade, 80 in pass block, 75 in run block.
Starting point is 00:17:46 Amir Herring had a 71 pff grade, 69 in pass block, 761 in run blocks. They were both consistent at both. And then also, the highest pass blocker for KU was Tavaki, Tuiko, Lovatu, 81 pass block grade for the left guard in 33 snaps. So I find this funny that, again, we have another game where the two positions on the office line that were kind of the ones in question, the ones in rotation, who's going to play for KU have been consistently getting some really good flash performances from some of these guys. By the way, Cruz was the highest run blocker for the office alignment. Actually, Doug Ameleon was the highest graded run blocker for KU overall. Okay, what about bad goats from this one? I would say, like, I think Jalen had a solid game overall.
Starting point is 00:18:29 I mean, obviously, you throw three touchdowns, no intercept. You make some stuff happen in the pocket to avoid on the occasions that West Virginia was able to, you know, kind of get pressure or force the issue here. It felt like there were a few more inaccurate throws than normal for Jaylen in this. One of the completion percentage would kind of back that up. That's just something that you're looking to tighten up moving forward. But we've seen tightened up from Jaylin in the past. Maybe just a little bit of rust had to be shaken off after the by week. But they need it more moving forward and against Cincinnati this week.
Starting point is 00:18:59 They also need to get another receiver going. Emmanuel Henderson had six catches. There was some big plays for some of the other guys, but nobody had more than one catch. And I looked to Cam Pickett, who, again, he's playing banged up. He played just 23 snaps in this game, wasn't able to make a big impact for KU. I looked to Bryson Canty, who I was hoping we would see a big, you know, jump up after the buy weekend. And we did see a jump up. It was the most snaps played, 27 of them.
Starting point is 00:19:24 He had the one catch in the end, too. If you can get Canty and pick it or, you know, pick your other two receivers going, at the same time you get Henderson going and again part of it is injury based like you can you can only control so much there i think it'll really open things up and make things more consistent for the k u passing offense but you still are trying to find that right now i also remain steadfast in the long term of Calvin clements i think there's a lot of good that he does and i think he's going to be an all conference player when it's all said and done at kansas but there there still are some some worries there you know i kind of brought up some of the numbers coming in of you know some of the pass blocking grade that there was a little scary he only had a 17 pass block grade in this game so you need to continue to find improvement there from the young left tackle who has a very high ceiling and i think we'll hit it eventually at kansas i continue to make that bryce cable do comparison and what he was able to do by the time he was all said and done at kansas but it does take time and uh you know unfortunately for clements he has to kind of grow up maybe a year earlier than then you might have hoped for um and then i would just say
Starting point is 00:20:26 rust like maybe the the passing stuff i would say some of the guys coming back from injury struggled a bit, like SIP, Keyes, Brinkley, those were three of KU's four lowest graded players by pro football focus on the defense side of the ball. I think there's something to the idea of coming up back. I mean, it's got to be tough. It's the fourth game for a lot of other people and like for Keys and SIP. It's your first game back. Like, you're just not going to be in the flow of things as well. So not something that I'm worried about long term, but in this specific game, it was something that I did think probably impacted their performance, but something that, yeah, moving forward, like I'm expecting those guys.
Starting point is 00:21:00 okay, once they get that rust shaking off, they're going to be impactful players for KU. All right, let's finish up, a little early look at the Bearcats of Cincinnati. Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. The NFL season is here, and Fandul is making sure you're ready for kickoff with a can-miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5, and if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. That's a lot of bonus bets you can use for the upcoming MLB postseason. NHL and NBA season are getting ready to go at it.
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Starting point is 00:22:58 joined by Henry Greenside on tomorrow's episode does great work with kusports.com, Lawrence Journal World. So we're going to talk some more KU football takeaways from Henry so far in this season on tomorrow's episode. We get to our Cincinnati talk later throughout the week as well. But here is an early preview of the Bearcats. So they come into this game at two and one. Their lone loss of the season was a close one at, well, I say at.
Starting point is 00:23:21 It was a neutral site game against Nebraska, played at Arrowhead. But, I mean, that was, it was like all Nebraska fans. I guess like Travis Kelsey and Jason Kelsey were there to support Cincinnati. I'm sure there were some Bearcat fans, but it was mostly Nebraska fan. They filled that place out hard. So it was basically a road game, a tough environment. And they, you know, made it close against a solid Nebraska team. This is a really good running team in Cincinnati that, you know, you look at the overall numbers.
Starting point is 00:23:47 And it's like they're 10th in the country in EPA per play passing. But a lot of that has been done over their last two games when they played weaker opponents, when they played against Bowling Green and when they played against Northwestern State, if you just look to the Nebraska game, the passing game was a problem for the Bearcats. In fact, they finished 12th percentile in that game in EPA per dropback, but they finished 98th percentile that game in EPA per rush. And again, overall in the season, they're passing the ball well. I do think they're a better passing team than just the Nebraska game,
Starting point is 00:24:21 but they're probably not as good of a passing team as the overall number show from those last two games. 39th in EPA per play rushing again that's worse than the passing but the way that I view it I'm kind of viewing it is there a better rushing team than passing team against the better teams but still you know a good team overall the defense side of the ball they have struggled against the past hundred and second in the country in EPA per play allowed defensively so getting that consistency for KU throwing the football again going back to the accuracy stuff that'll be really important in this game because if you can be on time on schedule I think there's a lot there you can get on the back end they are a very good rushing defense though 16th in
Starting point is 00:24:59 the country and EPA per play against the run that is something that kansas is going to again we get back to one of our takeaways here kansas is going to be just fine running the football this might be a tougher running game but if you can do it again against cincinnati the more will look back at that missouri game and just say yeah turns out missouri just you know i know you don't want to tip your cap to missouri but you kind of just do and what their defense had so it'll certainly be an inch two one because I think it opened as like a five and a half point line in favor of KU and now it's already down that that means betters are coming in on Cincinnati early the same thing that helped Kansas coming in the West Virginia game was that they had a
Starting point is 00:25:37 buy week West Virginia was coming off a rivalry game now Kansas doesn't have the emotional high of coming off a rivalry game like West Virginia did and Kansas doesn't have to go from you know playing at home to traveling they're going to be back at home again in this one so those are different but Cincinnati's coming off the by week this time And that helps them prepare for a Kansas team that certainly runs a lot of different actions, different motions, the defense is much more complicated now under D.K. McDonald. And all of those things are things that now Cincinnati has had an extra buy week to scout for and are certainly going to help them in the matchup against KU.
Starting point is 00:26:12 So I do think this is going to be one of those games where if KU needs to win, gulp might need to be a one score win if you're Kansas. But we'll get more into the matchup throughout the week here for the Jail. Jayhawks against the Bearcats with Locked on Jayhawks. And again, tomorrow we're going to be joined by Henry Greenstein. Thanks for joining us, and thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. Again, don't forget to check out Locked on college football or many of other other locked on shows, Locked on Big 12.
Starting point is 00:26:37 You can check out Locked on Cincinnati for the Bearcats to get a preview of them as well. And see you next time on LOJ.

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