Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - TEMPO: Kansas Defense Faces TEST Against West Virginia's LIGHTNING-FAST Offense | Can KU Keep Up?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, is Kansas going to be able to handle the tempo of West Virginia what past history under Lance Leaple tells us about how KU does in such performances and plenty more on today's episode, Locked on Jayhawk. 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? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And thank you that everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere. You get your podcast, including on our

Starting point is 00:00:42 YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of LOJ, we're breaking down KU football and how they can handle the tempo. It's going to be really important for this upcoming stretch of games for KU. We're going to get into Y as well as this game specifically against West Virginia, how KU is done in the past. under Lance Leopold and plenty more. Also get to some of the latest nuggets from Lance Leapold from his press conference leading into the West Virginia game. And we'll get some of the latest news, including with KU basketball recruiting, little KU football,

Starting point is 00:01:13 KU volleyball, KU soccer, plenty coming at you on today's episode of the show, which is brought to you by Game Time. And with Game Time, you can get tickets to like all those things that I just mentioned. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase. So let's start here. This was something interesting that Lance Leipold touched on in a couple different questions and a couple different quotes in his weekly press conference leading up to the West Virginia game. He said, the pace of which they play is extremely impressive.

Starting point is 00:01:41 And what is that pace exactly that they play at? Well, if you look at plays, I think Henry Greenstein found this stat posted on Twitter. You can find the numbers on team rankings.com. So I wanted to go look at that. And you could find plays per second basically, or seconds per play. I think it would be the right way of putting it, right? Like, you could look at a team who runs the most plays per game. That's one way of looking at it.

Starting point is 00:02:04 This might be more accurate to how fast your tempo goes, because a team might run a lot of plays because their defense is really bad and you're getting more plays on offense, you know, or you're scoring a lot, so you're getting more plays versus your, you know, you could be a team who runs high tempo, but just isn't very good. So you end up being middle of the pack in the country and plays, but you do run fast tempo.

Starting point is 00:02:23 When you look at it that way, West Virginia is second in the country in seconds per play. So they are getting up to the line of scrimmage. They are snapping the ball at a very fast tempo. Lightpool later went on. He said, utilizing depth in games like this is going to be important and guys have to step up and play well. And so I think that becomes important too because it's obviously something that they're

Starting point is 00:02:45 planning for in this game, that the depth, the backups are going to get a lot of run in this game and they're going to have a big hand in how KU performs. The good news for Kansas is I feel like their depth is as good as it's ever been in the Lance Light Poldera. And so, you know, the drop off from, you know, your starters to your backups is probably a little closer than some of the previous years because of some of the talent you've been able to accrue as some of those guys. And then this was the other thing that he said. He said, you run our offense tempo plays on how they're preparing for it. Sorry, I should add that in practice this, you know, last week and this week, I guess.

Starting point is 00:03:18 You run our offense tempo plays. Utilization of unlimited coaches gets a lot more hands on. We run plays where we rotate the skill positions and keep the alignment. at the line of scrimmage. We ran a boatload of plays yesterday at practice. He later goes on, says reps and getting used to that, later goes on. I think we've got a decent plan to address at least some of that pace of play. So they're getting prepared for it.

Starting point is 00:03:41 The fact that you have a bi-week leading into playing a team who plays at such a fast tempo becomes very helpful for KU. But I do find it interesting because when you think of past teams that have given Kansas trouble on the defensive side of the ball in the Lance Leipoldera, you think of mobile quarterbacks, Russian quarterbacks, you know, Kansas was able to actually slow down the legs of Bo Pribula. They weren't really able to slow down the legs of their running backs, but they were able to slow down the legs of Bo Pribula,

Starting point is 00:04:04 and that becomes interesting because is that going to be something that the D.K. McDonald defense is just going to do better than the Brian Boreland defense. But the other part of that is the tempo aspect of things. Kansas wasn't always the best, at least anecdotally, it feels that way in the past years that they haven't always done the best against defending tempo teams. So I actually wanted to take a look back. How have they done in such games?

Starting point is 00:04:26 I didn't want to go back and look at 2021 because 2021 is the first year, the staff and the program under Lance Leipold. They joined late. They joined after spring football. Like, they joined during spring football, but they weren't coaching any of the spring football. And that team, that team was not as indicative. Like, that team does not compare as much to where they are now as maybe the following year's team. So I just want to look at 2022 on for how Kansas did against tempo teams compared to non-tempo teams. compared to non-tempo teams, so to speak.

Starting point is 00:04:57 And there's certain cutoff you have to give, like, you know, it's arbitrary, but just for the sake of this, I wanted to look at top 30 teams in the country in that tempo rating, basically in that, you know, seconds per play rating. So you look at 2022, Kansas played a lot of teams who finished top 30 in that tempo rating. Oklahoma finished number one in snaps per second that year. Kansas gave 52 points in that game. Oklahoma State in 2022, finished eighth. Gans actually held them to 16 points.

Starting point is 00:05:26 That was actually a really good game. Now, what I do find interesting here is, as we go through some of these, like you look at the Oklahoma game in 2022, that Oklahoma team was better and more talented than this West Virginia team is. So it's not apples to apples there. That's also early still in the tenure of the Lance Leipold era, so you're hoping that you're getting better at it. And then you look at the Oklahoma State game in 2022,

Starting point is 00:05:47 and that one you only hold them to 16. That's one where it's like, okay, but that was a much different offense when Gunner-Rangell and Gunner Gundy or Garrett Rangel and Gunnard Gundy were the quarterbacks in there, which they were in that game like that offense couldn't do anything with those dudes at quarterback. So, you know, that's kind of an asterisk on that one there. Texas Tech finished number five in snaps per second in 2022.

Starting point is 00:06:08 Kansas gave up 43 points to the Red Raiders. Texas finished 28th that year. They scored 55 against Kansas. Arkansas was 18th in the country that year in that tempo rating, and they put up 55 on Kansas. So that's a lot of points as you go through those. in 2022 against top 30 tempo teams. Kansas allowed 44 points per game.

Starting point is 00:06:30 And you might be saying, okay, that's obviously very bad. But how does that compare to that? Because if they're giving up 44 points per game in the non-tempo games, too, then what does it matter? Kansas only gave up 30 points per game to the teams who were ranked outside the top 30 in tempo. It'd be one thing if it was like a six point difference because you could point to and say, okay, but Oklahoma and Texas, those were as talented of offense Arkansas to as they would have face that year. So, like, it could just be a talent thing. And then you also get into the

Starting point is 00:06:57 factor of like, if it is going to be a higher tempo game, more possessions, you could actually give up more total points, but give up less like points per possession, right? But when it's 14 point difference, when it's a two touchdown difference, that kind of tells you a story that Kansas struggled against the tempo in 2022, but also makes sense. Second year of the program or second year of the coaching staff with the program. And they didn't develop as much, like, it takes time to develop that depth that they've kind of. have developed a little bit more now, and they didn't have that that time. So that's where you kind of look at it. And so, okay, maybe that's where it had an impact. Okay, let's go to 2023.

Starting point is 00:07:31 Now you have another year under your belt as a program. The defense gets a little bit better from 23 after 22. So Illinois, oddly enough, finished 24th that year in seconds per play. They only give 23 in that game. So that's an impressive outing. Oklahoma State was 29th that year in seconds per play. They scored 39 on Kansas. Oklahoma was 12th. Kansas won that game. They didn't give up 33. And then Texas Tech that year, they only gave up 16 points. And Tech was 15th in plays per second that year.

Starting point is 00:08:05 So actually going through that, like, that's not that bad because in four games that year, they gave up 28 points per game to top 30 tempo teams. And they give up 26 points per game against non top 30 tempo teams. But again, you can probably make up that two point difference just saying, okay, but you're going to play more possessions against the higher tempo teams. That's actually pretty good in what they were able to do in 2023. They had more depth than 23 than they did in 22. Also, less games, also probably less talented teams they played against overall on aggregate

Starting point is 00:08:34 than having to play Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, Arkansas, and 22. Again, what about 2024? So, 2024, you wind up facing TCU, who finished 30th in place per second or second per place, 38 points you gave up to TCU. Baylor scored 45 points, and they were 16th in the country in that. So last year, it was a bit smaller. sample size, but it wasn't good. Two games, 41 and a half points per game, the games that you did not play a top 30 tempo team, Kansas gave up just 23 points per game. So that is, again, a vast

Starting point is 00:09:04 difference. And so to get the biggest sample size possible, if we go back to 22, again, so 22, 23, 24, and I guess the start of this year, you haven't faced one yet, but you look at those years under Lance Leipold, since they've really gotten things going here in games against top 30 opponents, In seconds per snap, basically their tempo rating, Kansas has given up 41 points per game in such contests. And the games against non-top 30 tempo teams, they've given up just 26 points per game. So point being, they're giving up over two touchdowns more per game when it's against a team that plays at a higher tempo.

Starting point is 00:09:44 And that is a little bit scary for a team who is number two in the country, essentially in tempo in West Virginia. I want to talk more about this. Also getting this more of the nuggets that Lance Light, had his press conference, plus some more news and stuff coming at you. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of LOJ is brought to you by PrizePix, and it's the daily fantasy app where making the right call can actually pay off.

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Starting point is 00:10:48 prize picks thanks joining us on this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks, don't forget you make Locked on College football or Locked on College basketball your second listen every day. Okay, so clearly Kansas has had in some of these past years an issue defending tempo. Now, there are some differences from this year to some of those past years, right? There is the fact that you have a new defensive coordinator. That's probably chief amongst them, right? I mean, D.K. McDonald, like, there are a lot of differences in what he wants to do to what Brian Borland wants to do. I'm sure there are certain things that Brian Borland maybe did, you know, had advantages over, like that might be helpful,

Starting point is 00:11:26 but I think overall I like D.K. McDonald, even better in terms of what he's provided as a defense coordinator schematically and play calling and all that sort of stuff. And again, going back to you could do the same exercise to be like, KU struggled against, you know, giving up quarterback runs. Well, they did a good job with this defensive coordinator against Missouri. So again, it is different. It is a little bit apples to oranges a little bit more. but still it is a little bit over worry it also is probably a little bit about personnel too right from a standpoint of like you know Kansas the past couple years has been a fine defense that I would say if you're looking at like points allowed per game yards allowed per game they're kind of coming

Starting point is 00:12:05 somewhere between above average to average to below average in most of those different categories when you look at a national perspective so from a personnel perspective or from your true talent perspective you know there is a little bit of that you could point to okay you know clearly you're going to have some struggles in this situation. I also think that it's probably good to point that this, to me, is the deepest that a Lance Leipold team has been, right? Like, when you look at being like five or six deep at the defensive tackle, when you look at having, I mean, you're rotating Dean Miller and Leroy Harris.

Starting point is 00:12:38 Like, that's an all big 12 second team player and a guy who looks like he's going to be an all big 12 player if he keeps up what he's doing right now. You're rotating two guys who, one was at Texas getting playing time. The other was getting a big playing time at Illinois last. year at defensive. Like, you have a lot of guys you can rotate in. When you get Joseph Sip back, you're going to feel like you have three starting linebackers for two spots.

Starting point is 00:12:56 And Jason Gilliams coming back. And he played well in the limited snaps against Missouri. And you've got some other talent there, like John John Kamara. You look at the corner room and like, yes, it's an experience and you're going to have some lows. You're going to have some highs. But there is a lot of talent. And, you know, the second guy might not be that different in that level of play from

Starting point is 00:13:11 the fourth guy necessarily. So like the level of depth is I just think at another level for Kansas that makes it, more likely to be better this year, right? And then you have the fact that it is off a buy for Kansas. That does help, I think, for, you know, this specific game and getting ready for that. But I also think it applies for this upcoming stretch. What I find interesting, as you look at it, is you don't just look to this game, but you look ahead. There are four teams right now in the Big 12 who are in the top 30 of that seconds per play metric.

Starting point is 00:13:43 West Virginia, obviously, Texas Tech, Baylor, and Cincinnati. Now, Kansas avoids Baylor this year, which is good because Kansas just not play well against Baylor for whatever reason. But you do play those other two. And then obviously West Virginia. And what's also interesting is all three of those games with West Virginia, Cincinnati, and Texas Tech come in a span of four games starting right now. The lone game that's the exception is UCF, and I think they're like 41st in tempo. So they're just on the outside of it. So point being, this stretch, this middle stretch of games is going to test this tempo number for KU.

Starting point is 00:14:16 in a real way, they're going to have to perform well against it, or it's sink or swim in how you perform against tempo here. So good thing you have a buy to get ready for it. The good news is with all these teams back to back to back, like, would it be worse if you went from playing a tempo team to then playing an Iowa state or a K state who wants to slow it down? And then you have to ramp it back up to tempo. It might actually be a good thing for Kansas that they play these back to back to back. The negative is if you get fatigued, you're going to be feeling it by the end of this. The positive is you're going to get used to it and in game shape to handle it a little bit better. So it'll be very interesting how they do that. Now, some other nuggets from

Starting point is 00:14:51 the Lance Leipold Press conference, he mentioned that Gage Keys is further along than Joseph Sip. He said it's getting there, though. Now, what does that exactly mean? Does that mean we could see Keys this week? Does that mean we see SIP but the next by week? I don't entirely know. But yeah, I guess that gives you an idea of who would come back first. He also mentioned the Cam Pickett. He said he's not 100% right now. I commend him because he continues to work through some of it. Hopefully we can get him closer to 100% by Saturday. Now that does sound like a fact that like if we can get him closer to 100% by Saturday does sound like he's at least trending in the right direction, I would hope, but they need him healthy because as explosive as

Starting point is 00:15:29 Emmanuel Henderson can be, I really just want to see the two of them at their peak at the same time because I think they can play off each other. I think they can open it up for each other in a big way. And I think having two guys who can have the ball in their hands and make plays is going to help you a lot because Henderson can blow the door off the defense on the deep ball and then you've got the one underneath or you use the other as a decoy you use one to throw to it just makes it a lot less predictable and it makes it a lot harder for defenses if you do have multiple guys who can make those plays at the same point in time and you know you can line him up on the same side of the field and get that extra safety attention and then you run the ball the other

Starting point is 00:16:04 way or you can you know line them up on opposite side of the fields and spread out the cut like there's just a lot you can do if he's fully healthy but we haven't seen pick a fully healthy since the first game. We saw what a fully healthy pick you could do against Fresno State where it was like, maybe he is going to be your best receiver and your leading receiver. And you just haven't seen that the last couple of games. I think it's because of kind of the injury stuff. So can you get him fully back from there? Now, he also kind of talked a little bit about the running game and the, you know, fact that Missouri dominated the line of scrimmage and the tackling stuff and the breaking tackle, stuff like that. He also talked

Starting point is 00:16:36 about the running game in terms of like, you know, Daniel Hyshaun needing it going and that he has the right mentality and that he talked to him a little bit and, you know, that they need to get him going. This is going to be a very interesting game because West Virginia so far has been a really good defense to this point in the season. How much of that is carried by, you know, you play Robert Morris. Pitt is a decent, you know, team. How much of that is carried, though, by that one game of the three?

Starting point is 00:17:06 Are they really like one of the top 30 defenses in the country, like some of the stats say or is that just kind of boosted by that and they're closer to being the 40th or 50th best defense and how is Kansas able to run the football you would think they're going to have a renewed spirit and energy to try after the Missouri game but if you have another bad rushing game I think do you start to get to a point where teams are going to start defending you like you're one dimensional and what does that do to the KU offense so this is very important to show on film show on the stats sheet shown the box score the Kansas can still run the football and a lot of that's going to come on the shoulders of Daniel Highshaw, who, you know, is coming into this big role

Starting point is 00:17:44 looked solid through the first two games. And nobody got it going in the running games. It wasn't just Highshaw against Missouri. But I said it before, like, you know, they missed the vision. They missed Devon Neal, right? Can Highshaw figure out a way to find his stride here with the KU offense and then get that running game going so that they can be the most balanced and competitive offense possible? All right. Let's finish up here, some of the latest news with KU football, with KU basketball recruiting and plenty more, this is locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of LOJ is brought to you by GameTime. College football is back, and I don't know how you couldn't be more excited.

Starting point is 00:18:20 The tailgates, the rivalries, the energy in the stance, there's just nothing like it. But let's be real. Actually getting tickets can feel like more of a battle than the game itself sometimes. And list cues, hidden fees, price jumps at checkout. That's why I use GameTime, the app that gives the advantage back to the fans. It's the easiest way to score last minute tickets at the best price. with no surprise fees, what you see is what you pay. Now, you know, it didn't work out.

Starting point is 00:18:44 The chiefs lost the game to the Eagles. That stunk and everything. But I had a wonderful time of the game. We went there, shout out, happy birthday to my mom, and got extra tickets to the game with game time. And they were wonderful seats for my parents celebrating her birthday and everything like that. Again, sucks.

Starting point is 00:19:00 They lost the game. But we had a wonderful time outside of the result of the game. And that was thanks to game time. So take the guess we're going to buying college football tickets with game Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code Lockedon College for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, that's promo code Locked on College, L-O-C-E-D-O-N-C-O-E-G-E-E-E-G-E for $20 off. Swipe, tap, Ticket Go, download Game Time today.

Starting point is 00:19:26 Thanks to join us on Lockdown J-Hawks. Don't forget you can make Lockdowne College football, your second listen every day. Locked on Jayhawks, your first listen, hopefully. And then Locked on College basketball, you can get to as well. We are like a month away from late night in the fog. That is pretty crazy to think about, too. Speaking of some KU basketball news,

Starting point is 00:19:42 five-star guard in the class of three, 2026. Taylin Kinney announced that he will have an announcement. He announced that his college route will be decided who he's going to school with committing on Sunday, September 28th. Now, KU just had a bunch of visitors like this past weekend. Sounds like they're going to have a bunch more of this upcoming weekend. So recruiting, it feels like KU's been in on a lot of big time guys in this class.

Starting point is 00:20:05 Feels like this could be a pretty special class coming to Lawrence next year. Feels like Kinney, maybe he'll get the ball rolling for KU with that class. Now, that has an opportunity to be a. really fun weekend for KU you have him announcing on September 28th a day before Kansas is going to be playing Cincinnati well Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey show up to the game I think the chiefs are playing at home that Sunday against the Ravens who knows it's 11 a.m. game there'd be plenty of time for Travis Kelsey I don't know what time they have walked throughs and everything but yeah man they announced it's already going to be a sellout which I did find interesting that was announced

Starting point is 00:20:36 to sell out before the West Virginia game what what gives what's the reason why there is it because people are like, oh my gosh, I have a chance to seeing those people. Not that we even know if they're coming or not, but just because there's like the iota of a chance. I don't know. It's just kind of interesting there. But it will be an 11 a.m. game for that one. But yeah, so opportunity for Kansas to, you know, play a solid Cincinnati team in front of a sellout recruiting news over the weekend. Meanwhile, with KU. Women's soccer and volleyball, they continue to roll on. Women's soccer got a three to win on the road against Liberty. They go six, oh, and two in the non-cons. So really impressive there.

Starting point is 00:21:12 innately in company. And one of the things I was looking at their statute, I made really impressive like the balance of the team. They've got five different players this year with multiple goals this season. So you're getting goals from a lot of different spots. And five different players who have two or more assists. So a lot of players are getting the passing lot. And you would think, okay, well, how many of those are crossed over where it's just like five really good players? Now, actually only one of the players is on both the two plus goal and two plus assist list. So it's four players who have two plus goals. One player has two plus goals and two plus assists and four other players with two plus assists. So I mean, you're just getting like contributions

Starting point is 00:21:48 all over from a bunch of different players. That's got to be a, you know, really, I don't know, pleasant for Nate Lee to kind of coach a team like that. So they're at Oklahoma State on Thursday for their big 12 opener. And then their next home game will be their big 12 home opener is against Baylor. That's the following Thursday. So September. September 25th against the Bears. And then KU Volleyball, we mentioned that, okay, they were three and four, but it was like all four losses are in five sets. They're a younger team.

Starting point is 00:22:17 They're all two ranked opponents. They still had a ranked win in there against like Georgia Tech. And we said the wins are going to come. The schedule is going to lighten up a little bit here. Okay, so they win three strike games, all in the form of a sweep. They beat Florida Gulf Coast, Green Bay and South Dakota. So the record now looks a lot better, six and four. And again, all four losses, ranked opponents in five sets.

Starting point is 00:22:36 Now, eventually you do have. to start winning some of those, you know, five setters and have to beat some of those ranked opponents. But you can understand it early in the season, new head coach, right? And they're going to have an opportunity because there still are some, there's no Texas and Nebraska, but there are still a lot of good volleyball teams in the big 12 ranked volleyball teams. And that'll be true for their home opener, which is also their big 12 opener coming on September 26. That's against a Arizona State squad that has already beaten Penn State this year. And that'll be in 10 days again September 26. That Arizona State

Starting point is 00:23:07 was the team who won the Big 12 a season ago. So that'll be a fun one in Horish. Now, the next match for them, though, is actually at Wichita State. That is tonight, if you're listening to this on Tuesday when it came out. And then they'll be in Omaha for the Omaha tournament this week as well. So we'll keep an eye on that. We'll keep an eye on KU soccer. We'll keep

Starting point is 00:23:23 an eye on the recruiting news and plenty more. Keep it all right here for you on Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back for you. Throughout the week, we'll have a KU. West Virginia preview. We will have our KU keys to the game to take down the Mountaineers. We'll have a crossover with Mountaineer Paul over at Locked-on, West Virginia. So plenty coming at you. Make sure you're subscribed to the show anywhere you get your

Starting point is 00:23:42 podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like to subscribe to the show. You can give me a follow on Twitter at D. Johnson Radio or our Locked-on account at L-O underscore Jayhawks. And we'll see you next time for another edition of L-O-J.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - TEMPO: Kansas Defense Faces TEST Against West Virginia's LIGHTNING-FAST Offense | Can KU Keep Up?

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