Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - The Heart of Big 12 Play | Early Look at Kansas State, Texas Tech & Oklahoma St for Kansas Football

Starting point is 00:00:00 New stadium, another year of Jalen Daniels. This has to be the year that Kansas ends the 16-game losing streak to Kansas State. We have an early preview of the heart of Big 12 play featuring the Wildcats and more in a difficult schedule for KU football. You are Locked-on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked-on podcast network. team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here.

Starting point is 00:00:35 This is Locked on Jayhawks. And thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you that every dayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts that includes on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's edition of LOJ, we're talking a little early season previews for KU of football. We move on to the heart of Big 12 play. And thank you if you caught our previous episodes.

Starting point is 00:01:00 talking the first six games. Go out and check them out if you haven't already. But we're going to be talking Kansas State, who's got to end that 16-game losing streak, playing at home this year, at Texas Tech, who's one of the trendiest teams in the Big 12, certainly making national headlines with their spending power. And then Oklahoma State, a team that is kind of an enigma this year with Mike Gundy. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins.

Starting point is 00:01:30 with Fandule. So we're going to start with K-State, move on to Tech, and then finish up with Oklahoma State on today's show. Let's just start right there with the K-State game. This is the most important to me individual game of the season for KU, and I get it. You're playing Missouri. Kansas's biggest rival is the Missouri Tigers. I don't want to make any, you know, missteps about that. And there are real historical reasons as to why that is the case. But you haven't lost 16 straight to Missouri. You don't play Missouri. every year. You're not in the same conference as Missouri. You know, when you look at in-state recruiting, that's against Kansas State, not Missouri. So, yes, if, you know, hypothetically there was no

Starting point is 00:02:12 losing streak to both teams, the Missouri game would be more important because it's your biggest rival. But because you have lost so many consecutive games to Kansas State, you need to end that this season. Like, that is to me almost number one goal of the season. Like make it back to a bowl game and beat Kansas State. Right. Right. And then from there, it's like, okay, can you beat Missouri? Can you win nine games? Can you win 10 games? Can you compete for a big 12th title? There are other goals along the way, too. But that is a big part of it this year. Can you've already seen Kansas do well in in state recruiting for the class of 2026? Can you imagine how this will continue to turn and get momentum if you actually start winning some of the games when you probably should have won each of the last two years against Kansas States. You look where the Wildcats come into the season as nine and four on the season last year. It was their third. straight nine or more win season. This is Chris Kleinman's seventh year now in Manhattan. And what's interesting is they actually like there's a the case to be made that they should have been even better than their record was last year at nine and four because they had the

Starting point is 00:03:16 number one yardage differential in Big 12 play a season ago. And they actually have the number two yard per carry offense in the country running the football. They also were 24th in yards per carry aloud. So they ran really well. They stopped the run really well. That's always a recipe for success. Where they ran into issues last year was passing 78th in yards per attempt offensively, 55th in yards per attempt passing defense. So about average on the defensive end, but you know, maybe slightly below average on the offensive end. And now they're picked tied fourth in the big 12 by Phil Steele. But if you look at ESPNSP Plus has them first in the big 12, 18th nationally there, featuring the 14th best offense, 26th best defense.

Starting point is 00:04:01 ESPN, FPI, has K-State 21st, first in the Big 12, which, you know, we talked about the other day. FPI is actually really high in KU as well, having them fourth. So if you look at that perspective, too, this game is also, like, if you're looking at FPI as kind of the Bible, you would say, okay, this Kansas, Kansas State game, it's not just important for the rivalry, like both those teams are in contention for the Big 12, if you're viewing that as kind of your base. If you look at the roster for K State, obviously Avery Johnson is the, I don't know, lightning rod in the rivalry, so to speak.

Starting point is 00:04:32 Second team, all big 12 player on Phil Still's preseason picks. He's trying to take steps forward as a passer in year two, so we'll see what he looks like. But somebody that, you know, some people like nationally is kind of a dark horse for the Heisman. Running back, they lose DJ Giddens, but they have Dylan Edwards back, who is super, super fast. Very different running styles. Giddens more of like a slasher, I guess. guess you would describe him. Edwards more of like your home run hitter, but it'll be interesting, you know, just Kansas State, like you're going to get some more home runs, but are you going to get as many, I don't know, singles and doubles and how does that affect, you know, the offense?

Starting point is 00:05:10 Certainly, they won't be the same offensive line. They're running behind. They do have Sam Hackett, who's a really good centerback, but they lost like the rest of their starting offense alignment. Did well in the portal, but this was like a top 15 O line in college football. So that's a high bar where they were at and certainly lost a lot. but typically they've done well at that position. So we'll see how it goes this year. This is one of the better, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:05:31 throwing targets that K State has had in recent memory for the quarterback. So you have a pretty loaded tight end room, a lot of quality bodies. Garrett Oakley is somebody who has a second team preseason Big 12 pick by Phil Steele. They brought in Lincoln Cure, a five-star recruit from the state of Kansas. They have Jace Brown back, who I think entered the portal,

Starting point is 00:05:51 decided to come back. He's a good receiver. And then they added a New Mexico receiver, had like almost 900 yards last year and then a former Texas tech receiver in Duran Brantley who has over 1,300 career receiving yards. So they're really good in terms of the targets. Like we're

Starting point is 00:06:05 going to really find out what is Avery Johnson as a passer now into his third season of college football. His second is the full-time starter and he's got good weapons around him. We're going to find out a lot about what he can do in the air. Now on the defensive side of the ball, Austin Romaine is one of the best linebackers

Starting point is 00:06:21 in the country. Defensive line room is one that doesn't actually have anybody on Phil Steele's preseason all big 12 list. But the funny thing is he has them as the number one defensive line room in the conference, which I think just shows that, okay, maybe they don't have a superstar, but they just have a lot of good players and a lot of depth on the defensive line. The DBs is kind of one of the questions that. We mentioned K State 55th in the country and yards allowed or yards per attempt allowed in the air.

Starting point is 00:06:49 They do bring back Vijay Payne, who's a solid safety, but they lost their two corners. they lost their other safety one of those corners was a third round pick in the NFL draft and again they actually rated below average in past defense based on you know some other metrics so despite having that experience what does that mean does that mean they're going to take a drop off to being even worse as a passing defense that would certainly be a struggle for them but overall Phil Steele gives them the number one running back and defensive line rooms in the conference they are top four in those rankings at quarterback receiver and running back and then they're ranked more in the middle of the pack in the conference at Offensive Line, Linebacker, and defensive back. Now, again, K-State typically figures out the offensive line and the linebacker thing thing is interesting because I think Austin Remain, again, first team, Big 12 preseason selection to like maybe it's just the questions around him, but that's kind of the big one. Is Kansas going to be able to take advantage of the secondary and pass on them enough?

Starting point is 00:07:45 And can you win at the line of scrimmage where, you know, from the Kansas State perspective, if they do have some questions on the offensive line can Kansas, where I feel like, you know, I view the defense line as the strength of the defense, are they going to be able to win there? Now, it obviously helps that KU is going to be coming off a byweek coming into this game. What sucks, though, for Kansas is that Kansas State is also coming off of a buy week. So that doesn't end up actually being like a advantage over them. It's just a net neutral.

Starting point is 00:08:14 Where the advantage comes in is you're playing at home. Where the advantage comes in is this is a legacy game for Kansas, for the seniors, for Jalen Daniels for for Lance Leipold like it's time to beat you know your rival uh it's a legacy game in the new stadium for a chance to kind of start a new of like okay we've lost 16 straight but now we got a new stadium time for a new streak coming KU's way so like I said this is the most important game to me on the schedule for Kansas and massive importance that they find a way to win this one on October 25th all right let's continue on there at Texas Tech of the following week that's going to be difficult because, A, you're playing after you just play a rival, B, Texas

Starting point is 00:08:54 Tech's pretty loaded with talent. Let's discuss the Red Raiders on the other side. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Fendual Sportsbook. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you're all about baseball and the lights, golf on the green with FedEx Cup playoffs starting up or high stakes soccer action, Fandwell is the best way to make every game even more exciting. And you can even get some early lines on the college football season. um for week zero week one of the season they even have some like future lines available and they do have the kansas kansas state line available over a fan duel you can get kansas right now plus three and a half or plus 128 on the money line the over under is 53 and a half so you can get an early

Starting point is 00:09:37 line if you're like hey i think kansas is going into that game with a better record might be closer to a pick them give me three in the hook right now we'll do that over at fanduel and if you're new to Fanduel, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Open the Fandwell up today or visit fanduel.com to get started. That is Fandual, the official sports partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Thanks to joining us on this episode of the show. Don't forget you make Lockdown College football or locked on college basketball. Just I can listen every day.

Starting point is 00:10:08 Okay, so tough to go from playing against Kansas State to them going on the road in Lubbock, tough place to play, further travel for KU and against a very talented team. So Texas Tech last year went eight and five. They were six and three in Big 12 play. And honestly, they might have been like, whereas Kansas State, you could make an argument based on some of the statistic profile. They looked more like maybe a 10-win team. With Tech, you could make the argument based on the statistic profile that they looked more

Starting point is 00:10:33 like a, I don't know, a six-win team or something because they were among power-four teams. So they're 68 power-four teams. They were 42nd in opponent-adjusted per play. offense and they were 58th on the defensive side of that. So they were like basically an average offense and a bad defense between those and they still found a way to win eight games. Now maybe you could do that the other way and say, hey, if they found a way to win eight games, now they've upgraded the roster talent, what are they going to do now? Are they going to find a way to win 10 or 11 games? They obviously made a huge splash in the offseason. So Joey McGuire, I think you're

Starting point is 00:11:06 three or four, something like that for Texas Tech. They have the number one portal class in the country. It is upsetting SEC and Big Ten folks. Mostly SEC folks. Oh, you're just buying your way into this. Like yada, yada, yeah. They're just mad that somebody who, you know, isn't one of the traditional, you know, big boys is found their checkbook and is making things happen with some oil money. So it's certainly funny to see some of the SEC uproar. And obviously, you know, you want Kansas to win this game. But it would be kind of funny if like Texas Tech ended up like crashing the college football playoff and like beat an SEC team. That would be on the short list of things that I would enjoy happening in this college football season. But anyway, they have 13 four-star transfer additions. The

Starting point is 00:11:49 rest of the Big 12 combined had 12. So this is a very talented roster. Now, there's a difference in terms of the transfer portal four-stars and a regular four-star in that a lot of times the transfer portal ratings are more based on proven production and floor. If you bring in a four-star at the high school level, the floor could be they end up never turning in any. anything for you, but it's a higher potential. So it is a little bit different there that maybe it's just a bunch of quality players for them, but we'll see. They have a new offensive coordinator from Texas State, Kittley, and a defense coordinator from Houston, which the good news there for Kansas is Kansas torched Houston last year and beat them up. So maybe that's a good

Starting point is 00:12:26 schematic matchup for them. I don't know. But Texas Tech now picked fourth by Phil Steel, ESPNSP Plus has them third and 26 nationally in the Big 12 with the ninth best offense, 50th best defense. So if your Kansas, you probably come into this game going, hey, we got to score some points to win in a shootout. And then ESPN, FBI has them seventh in the league and 35th nationally, but I don't know how good FPI is at figuring like the transfer edition stuff. Pick six previews, though, for what it's worth, which has been a very accurate magazine. I think does really good work. He has them second in the league and 16th in the country, thanks to top 20 ranks in both offensive and defensive returning production. So it's a, it's a team with a lot of returning production. It's a team

Starting point is 00:13:07 with a really good, they've been recruiting well at the high school level. They obviously just brought in a huge transfer portal class. And you look at the roster, they're stalled star talent all throughout. Now, the offensive line has a lot of new players. So how is it going to gel? The downside for Kansas is you're playing them on the back half of the season. So by this point, you would think they have gelled, as opposed to if you're playing them earlier in the year, maybe you have questions, but like Howard Samson, Davey on Carter,

Starting point is 00:13:29 those are two all conference level players on the offense line. And they added three of the top 10 transfer offense alignment. So, again, how are they going to gel, but they're very talented? At running back, you lose Taj Brooks, who's kind of a workhorse for you. I don't know if they're going to have that level of guy, but it does seem like they have maybe a little bit more like breakaway speed. Kind of similar to Kansas State, like maybe not as dependable as Giddins, but like maybe more home runability from your running back spot. A receiver loaded, as you would think with receivers in Lubbock, Caleb Douglas and Reggie Virgil are the all-conference players coming in. And then the defensive line, there are some prognosticators that think this is going to be a top five.

Starting point is 00:14:07 or 10 defensive line, not just in the conference, in the country. David Bailey comes over from Stanford as a potential All-American candidate, Skylar Gail Howard on the defensive line. It's a loaded defensive line. That's what they really took care of in the portal. Jacob Rodriguez is a linebacker. They've got six of the top eight back at the back end, adding three transfers in the secondary.

Starting point is 00:14:27 So overall, it's just a very strong roster, one with a lot of star talent, talent, but one that Phil Steele gives the top quarterback receiver and defensive line rooms in the big 12. Baron Morton's interesting and quarterback. He's he's dealt with some injuries in his time at tech. Some of them he's played through. And he missed spring ball with one this year. But he's been good when healthy. I think he was fifth in the big 12 last year in QBR. So I think the questions you have are, you know, what is the defensive back room for Texas Tech again going to look like? And what does the offense look like without having that dependable back in Taj Brooks? But I do think this is going to be a good team. Now, one of the the potential downsides

Starting point is 00:15:06 for a team like Texas Tech and I think we saw like it can go either way a lot of times if you have a team that is very much like I say bought and I don't say it as a bad thing like if you have the money go out and buy it like mad respect to Texas Tech to being able to do it but when you have that roster that has been kind of bought like that we've seen it work in a very real way and there's one program that signifies this to very real way two years ago Florida State goes undefeated before they you know got blown out by Georgia and the bowl game but obviously you know we're left out of the college football playoff historically links up but regardless, it was an undefeated regular season for Florida State, and they built a lot of that on an awesome transfer class coming in. That shows the high side of it. I also remember like a Michigan State team, I want to say it was the first year of Mel Tucker at Michigan State, and it's when they had like Kenneth Walker come over from, I think, Wake Forest, and they brought in an awesome transfer portal class. They win double digit games. You can see that impact. And maybe that's, you know, that's what you're hoping for if you're a Texas tech fan. But the downside is when you have one of those teams where it either just doesn't mesh or maybe you have some early season adversity that

Starting point is 00:16:09 causes you that you lose some games and then all of a sudden this roster that you paid a bunch and the expectation was hey we're going to go to the playoff or we're going to play for a national title and then all of a sudden it comes crumbling now and it's kind of just like you know what I'm just going to try to cash my check and stay healthy for for next year and we saw that with Florida State last year who brought in a really good transfer class but they had some early season close losses and then it just fell apart and they went what like two and ten last year I'm not saying that's going to be Texas Tech this year. I'm just saying there is a pathway to both ways.

Starting point is 00:16:39 I think it's more likely they're really good, but you do have to keep that in mind. And so if you look at the Texas Tech schedule, I think that's the way that, you know, this one becomes a little bit easier than you're looking at it on paper. Because right now on paper, this is one of KU's harder games of the season, especially in Lubbock to a team that Kansas has historically struggled against. Tech is 23 and 2 in the series, although, you know, there have been some closer games. And it is always funny because, like, you think back to how bad KU was in the 2010s and it's like they're going to have bad records versus all these teams, but there were

Starting point is 00:17:07 actually some closer games versus tech, even though they were losing them than maybe some other programs. But still, that would be the pathway. It'd be like, okay, Texas Tech lost at Utah in week four. Maybe they lost it at Houston on October 4th, the game they play before, you know, KU. And at that point, they're setting at three and two and it's like, how motivated are they going to be? I don't know. I just kind of expect Texas Tech to be a really good team. And so if you're looking at a two-game swing, first Kansas State and at Texas Tech probably as hard of a two-game swing as Kansas is going to have all season long. Now, they have an interesting one with Iowa State, and I forget if it's Iowa State and Utah back-to-back or Arizona's between, but we'll have that on next Friday. And obviously, you know, Missouri and West Virginia, like that comes to mind, but this to me is kind of the tough one.

Starting point is 00:17:52 So one of the other things I think I should bring up is that tech, their new offensive coordinator, a lot of tempo at his previous stop. That's something that KU really struggled with with Brian Borland defenses was. defending tempo. It'll be interesting to see how D.K. McDonald does with that for the Kansas coordinator. I kind of think they're going to be better at it. You know, one of the big things is it's funny. All the talk has been we want to simplify. We want to simplify and have guys, you know, playing for each other, playing hard, playing physical. And, you know, some of those cliches that you hear. And that would probably be good for it because you don't have to over, you know, complicate and lining up at the same point in time, they want to be a very multiple, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:28 formation defense that can do different things. And that kind of counteract. So I, I don't know. It's hard to say what's lip service and what's real until we actually see it on the football field because coaches just don't want to give stuff away. And I totally get that. But yeah, it'll be very interesting to see how KU does against tempo, especially week before K State, not really a tempo team. So kind of very different styles in those two games. All right, KU gets their next game, their ninth game of the season at home against Oklahoma State.

Starting point is 00:18:54 What are the Cowboys going to bring you the table? Can this be my Gundy's last year? Thanks, joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, and don't forget to make Locked on College football or locked on college basketball, your second list every day. Oklahoma State is one of the biggest enigmas in the Big 12 because they go three and nine last year. Oh, and nine in Big 12 play with six, 20 or more point losses. But historically, I mean, just two years ago, Oklahoma State's in the Big 12 title game. And Mike Gundy has been one of the most accomplished head coaches in the sport over the last two decades. It is, it's tough, man.

Starting point is 00:19:30 It's tough to, like, predict Oklahoma State to be bad, back-to-back seasons. This was their first losing season since 05. So it's like, are you really going to bet on it happening again when we just haven't seen it happening much? Then again, just the fact that it happened for the first time in 20 years show that things are different now and maybe Mike Gundy's losing a touch, maybe we're at the end of the Mike Gundy thing at Oklahoma State. That's kind of the big question here. And what's so weird about last year's team is, kind of like Kansas. They brought so much talent and starters back, but they, they scored 23 points per game. They gave up 36. So maybe it's kind of addition by subtraction, what they lost. Now,

Starting point is 00:20:07 there is something where they're kind of similar to West Virginia. They brought on a lot of transfers like post-spring ball. They didn't really get a lot settled before spring ball ended. So, you know, this would have been one where you probably would have liked to play them earlier in the season. Again, playing them a little later, maybe they have time to kind of figure stuff out. But they're picked 14th in the Big 12 by Phil Steele. ESPNS, people. us has them 12th in the league. ESPN, FPI has them 14th, but it's just tough to say, right? Because I don't, I don't really see this being a team that is going to be like, I don't know, this is probably exactly what's going to happen. But I was just like, I don't, I don't see

Starting point is 00:20:42 this as being like a six and 16. It's either going to be back to like Mike Gundio, they're winning eight or nine games or it's going to be more of last year they won three or four games. That's how I view it. It's like, it's either gone downhill or last year was just an aberration and they're going to be back to normal. I don't know. That's just how I feel about it. But one interesting point for this game is the offensive coordinator is Doug Meacham, former KU offensive coordinator. The special teams coach at Oklahoma State is Sean Snyder, former special teams coach at Kansas State and Kansas. So I don't know if that, I mean, the Meacham one doesn't help him in any way because he wasn't a coach with Lance Leopold. I don't know if the Snyder one helps him in any way.

Starting point is 00:21:18 But you look at the roster for Oklahoma State. Brian McCoy is an all-conference linebacker. They had some injuries last year. They should be better there this year. Cam Smith leads what if it could one. bind up the strength of the team in the secondary, or at least on the defensive end. But Phil Steele gives them the 15th rated, again, 16 teams in the big 12. Offensive line, defensive line, and quarterback.

Starting point is 00:21:39 And so if that ends up coming to fruition, you probably are looking at, you know, a three or four win season. If you have the, if you're basically the worst or second worst team in the trenches and you don't have a good quarterback to bail you out, it's hard to win many games in football in general. So we'll see, though, because typically, and this goes. back to like the the previous sample size for my Gundy until last year it feels like so often Oklahoma State's been able to find a quarterback it maybe hasn't been like a Heisman worthy guy but

Starting point is 00:22:08 like they've had really good quarterback just like really productive solid quarterbacks seemingly year in and year out right whether was Zach Robinson or Brandon Whedon or gosh I don't I don't know like it just feels like they've been able to find solid guys at the very least right and you look at the receiver position, it feels like that's where they've always been able, like, we always are going to find one guy who's going to be, you know, all big 12 first team level good. It feels like they've done the same with like pass rusher. Like we're going to have that one pass rush defense incident. We're going to have that one running back stud. Ollie Gordon, Chubba Hubbard, right? They've been able to kind of find that one guy in their best seasons

Starting point is 00:22:48 at all these spots. And so it's interesting because right now there are big questions for them at all those spots. But the track record previously says they're going to be able to find it, but last year kind of says, okay, but they may be slipping. So the one other good thing coming into this one for KU is, I guess, okay, so KU beat them last time that they were in Lawrence. And that was a fun one. Jason Bean had an awesome game that got Kansas Bull eligible for the first time in 15 years, basically. It was an awesome game for KU. You hope to repeat some of those vibes. Something that is going to really hurt, I think Oklahoma State coming into this game. This is the Cowboys' seventh straight game after they have a buy week. And so they actually

Starting point is 00:23:32 have their buy after this game against KU. But that means they have a buy week. Seven straight games, the seventh of those games is the at Kansas game. There's a good chance they're going to be a little bit more worn down, right? Then there might be a little bit more beat up coming into the game, whereas Kansas, yes, they're going to be coming off two tough games with Kansas State and Texas tech, but it'll be their third straight game coming off a buy. And so that is. is something, and they're going to be playing at home. That's something that I think is a big favor for KU coming into this game on the schedule. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:24:02 Again, don't forget to check out our early previews of the first three games in the non-con, including the Missouri and the Fresno State games, the first three games of Big 12 play, including West Virginia to kick off Big 12 play. Next Friday, we'll have our early preview of the final three games of Big 12 play with Utah, Arizona, and Iowa State. And we'll see you. Then we'll see you on Monday as well, where we're going to, um, be talking a little KU hoops on Monday as we're going to be talking to, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:24:30 possible year to bump for Florida Bedunga. So stick around for that. Make sure you subscribe to the show anywhere you get your podcast and on our YouTube page. We'll see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks. Have a great weekend, everybody.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - The Heart of Big 12 Play | Early Look at Kansas State, Texas Tech & Oklahoma St for Kansas Football

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