Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - The Worry Scale for Kansas Jayhawks Football + Zeke Mayo and AJ Storr KU Basketball Talk

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, what is the worry scale for the KU football program? That and a little more Zeke Mayo. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me on Twitter at D Johnson radio. He's Nick Schwert at Nick underscore Schwert. And we're going to be going over the worry scale on today's episode.

Starting point is 00:00:32 A little more KU basketball, Zeke Mayo, whose stat line is it anyway? Thank you for making locked on Jayhawks. Your first listen every day. Thank you. The everydayers catching each and every show free and available anywhere. You get your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:00:43 Also find us on the YouTube page where you can like and subscribe. And today's episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of the Locked On Podcast Network. Place your first $5 bet and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Again, that is FanDuel.com to get started today. Okay, so Nick, we're going to be going over some worry scale stuff. So I'm just going to give you a general topic, a couple words, a name. And you tell me, if there's a worry scale from 1 to 10,

Starting point is 00:01:15 of what level should we be worried about these things? So first things first, Jalen Daniels. How worried should we be about him and his play? How worried should we be that he's going to be the starting quarterback? What exactly would you like me to dissect here? But it doesn't really matter. The answer is probably going to be the same regardless. Given the current circumstances of who his play caller is and what he's looked like through the first five weeks the worry scale is a 10 I guess but what are we worried about because the season's over Derek right like they're one and four whatever

Starting point is 00:02:02 your goals were for the beginning of the season, they're going to fall short of those. So it's a 10, but if you're willing to be a little nihilistic with me and just accept defeat on the season, then from that perspective, what is there to worry about? Maybe it's a zero or somewhere in between. How's that for an answer? Yeah, I see what you're saying and that like

Starting point is 00:02:25 well if you're just setting things up for next year but we don't know like is Daylon Daniels going to be part of the 2025 Kansas team I think everybody you would ask coming into this year was kind of in the know was kind of the assumption that this was going to be his final season at Kansas that he was going to try to ball out go off to the NFL so what does this all mean what does the NIL stuff mean like is he going to wind up transferring to another program is was going to try to ball out, go off to the NFL. So what does this all mean? What does the NIL stuff mean? Like, is he going to wind up transferring to another program? Is he going to be back in another school? And if he is going to be back for 2025 at Kansas,

Starting point is 00:02:52 because he does have another year left, what you just said starts to change a little bit, because like you said, you're not going to accomplish what your goals were this season. But if now we're viewing it from a lens of whatever Jalen Daniels does the rest of this season sets him up for possibly being the starter or doing this or that in 2025, then all of a sudden the conversation becomes a little bit different as well.

Starting point is 00:03:15 I wouldn't quite go 10 on your first side of it, just because of the factor of there still is in the back of my head, the idea that like, well, how much of this is just Jeff Grimes? And like, what happens if you do make a change at offensive coordinator, which doesn't seem to be happening. And I'm not necessarily expecting to happen because Lance Leipold is a very patient guy, very loyal guy in a lot of ways, which I think for the most part can be a good thing in this case might not be the best thing in the world. But yeah, I think with Jalen, certainly the worry scale is up there in like each and every week it feels

Starting point is 00:03:45 like you might psych yourself up on Saturday morning like okay maybe today maybe today's the day that we see the Jalen of old and eventually just the hope meter drops down well at this point even if your hope is still high it's a little late for the Jalen of old to rear his head and appear again. Like too little, too late, right? Like, yes, you could still show up and maybe KU goes on some sort of a run, goes to a bowl game, and, you know, we look back on this. But you're right.

Starting point is 00:04:16 Like I thought that was going to happen after the two straight losses. And then I thought it was going to happen after the West Virginia game. I think I've run out of hope. I think I have exhausted my hope meter for the season in four consecutive weeks. It does not replenish itself that quickly. Okay. So Jeff Grimes, if I were to say that as a name on the worry scale, I think it would probably be another nine or 10 on the list. So instead of viewing that, what I just touched on, the worry scale that Jeff Grimes will still be the offensive coordinator come 2025. 2025? Yes, to start next year. I am not worried about that.

Starting point is 00:04:54 I do not think that is going to happen. I keep waking up every Monday for the last month expecting to hear some sort of announcement that he is either going to be demoted or that uh zabrowski is going to be promoted to co-offensive coordinator right i don't expect him to just be outright fired this season but i would be pretty shocked i i agree with you lance leipold's patient but he was patient with a really good offensive coordinator and Andy Kotelnicki. It's not, I don't know. I guess we could go back and look at what he was. There were like past articles that in year two of Kotelnicki, they were two and 10. I think they averaged like 15 points per game. And there were articles talking about, he should be let go.

Starting point is 00:05:39 And it wasn't, that was year two. And it's different now when you're at Kansas and you were expected to be really good this season. So having a bad year as an offensive coordinator doesn't exist in a vacuum, right? Circumstances matter and who you're replacing matters. Like you're replacing a really good OC and people expected you to kind of pick up where he left off and you haven't come close to that. Yeah, that's where it is.

Starting point is 00:06:04 Like if Kansas would have graduated all their good players from last year's team, it would be a little bit more understandable. The fact that it's like the same guys that just really did well the last couple of years kind of changes things a little bit there. A quick side rant that I did want to bring up because I saw this quote the other day from Jeff Grimes, just to echo how dumb I think this whole thing is. He was talking about getting Quentin Skinner and LJ Arnold trying to get them going. And he said that there were a lot of factors that dictate how they can play. He said the play call, what the defense does, protection, quarterback. First of all, I hate it when this happens, like with quotes from coaches that's acting like,

Starting point is 00:06:41 hey, you know, I don't think you would understand the reality of this. Like us, you plebs, you regular people, you wouldn't understand it. It's very hard. It's very complicated. So I'm going to dumb down the answer a little bit here. Meanwhile, you know what the best coaches do on the offensive side of the ball? You know what defines good offensive coaches? It's finding ways to get your best players the football. It is finding ways to get your best players the football it is finding ways to get your best players the ball do you think kyle shanahan like after an nfl game like it's like oh no i only gave christian mccaffrey the ball four times what am i doing what am i doing like if only the defense you know i thought the defense was going to expect run every player like andy reeds like you know

Starting point is 00:07:19 what we decided to only have patrick mahomes throw the ball eight times today because the defense thought he was going to pass so we didn't want to do that you know like figure out a way to get your good players the ball I would take it a step further I think the best offensive minds like one you just mentioned Kyle Shanahan and Andy Kotelicki like KU had last year is they don't just find ways to get their best players the ball they say how can I get guys that nobody's expecting to get the ball in space to make plays? Like Kyle Shanahan is one of the few coaches in the NFL who's getting touches for his fullback and Kyle Juszczyk. Andy Kotelnicki was running these weird misdirection plays that would end up with Jared Casey ripping off a 20-yard reception. Jared Casey's been non-existent this year in the

Starting point is 00:08:04 offense. So that's kind of, it's twofold. You're right. It's about finding ways to get your best players the ball, but it's also making life easy for everyone so that defenses don't know what is coming. It's innovation. It's creativity. And this offense right now with Jeff Grimes is lacking all of that. Which are you more worried about? Attendance for the rest of the season, the recruiting class for the class of 2025 for football, or the building of the stadium? What am I most worried about? I would say if I'm ranking them stadium one, recruiting class two, attendance three. I think you were already kind of had the card stacked against you a little bit coming into the season, like playing these games at Arrowhead.

Starting point is 00:08:51 You're never going to fill that thing up unless you're undefeated and it's the end of the season and you got a top 25 matchup against Colorado, right? That was really the only way you were going to do that. That's again, that's over. Like you've, I mean, go back to the tweet that Lance Leipold's wife may or may not have sent about fan support. And that's been a theme really for the last couple of years, Travis Goff, Lance Leipold, basically pleading with Kansas fans. They thought that two good seasons was enough to get, you know, record turnout for Memorial stadium. And now you don't

Starting point is 00:09:26 get to do that at all you don't get to play that card and if you thought it was bad before just wait to see what it's going to look like now these last what is it three games at arrowhead um recruiting class is always going to be an issue just considering how much you're losing this year and granted like i had this exercise on our show earlier this week I don't want to get too much off topic here but who's the best player on the roster that Lance Leipold and his staff brought on like this core is all guys that were here before this staff got here whether it's your two cornerbacks your running back your quarterback all your wide receivers were leftovers from the previous regime and you're going to see so much turnover. Not that that

Starting point is 00:10:06 recruiting class would necessarily make a huge impact next year, but Lance Leifold's calling card, program builder, right? He has built them up over the last three years, granted, using players that were left over. You can't let this thing snowball out of control to the point where kids start looking at this program and saying, ah, yeah, same old Kansas. Yeah, nice little run, but I'm not going to go waste away like so many guys have over the last 10 to 15 years. But the stadium's the big one, man. The stadium is huge.

Starting point is 00:10:35 That is the future of this program. I joked a couple of weeks ago that, oh, bleep, they're going to end up with half a stadium. They're going to end up with that new west side in the bowl, and that east side is going to stay there because the funding is going to dry up. Donors are going to be mad that they were pressed for money to get this thing built, and now the results are not following on the field. So that is a major, major concern. I hope that that can be fixed with some late season wins, but would it shock you if there were donors who feel like KU's not really holding up their end of the bargain and feeling

Starting point is 00:11:12 like maybe they were sold a false bill of goods with this fundraising? Well, I think that's something that probably is going to go around the country when teams start not doing well. And it's tenfold for Kansas because for a lot of these other schools, I think it's going to come from an NIL perspective. I think for Kansas, it is tenfold because you have the stadium and NIL. Eventually, some of these boosters are going to get tapped out and they're going to start saying, hey, like, you know, especially when you have bad season, it's one thing you keep climbing up the rankings, you keep doing all these things. It's another when you had a bad year. You know, some guys are still going to be committed to it. Some guys are even going to go further with it and say, okay, well,

Starting point is 00:11:45 I need to do even more. But I think a lot of people are going to say, okay, like you keep coming back to me. Like I only have so much money, you know? So I think that'll all be interesting and how that kind of unfolds. All right. Little KU basketball talk. Bill Self reiterated some interesting stuff on Zeke Mayo.

Starting point is 00:11:58 Also some interesting comments on AJ Store. We'll get to that next. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Hey, NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets.

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Starting point is 00:12:52 All right, we're back on Locked On Jayhawks and talking a little bit about KU basketball here. So we had an episode earlier in the week, and it was interesting, Bill Tuff went on another podcast and now reiterated some of the stuff he said about Zeke Mayo and in the first time we talked about it we were kind of like well what's the full context here we weren't entirely sure now you know what was the motivation was it true now that he said it twice I feel like it is kind of true so what are we talking about here if Zeke Mayo is in fact has been their most impressive player over the last two or three

Starting point is 00:13:24 months of camp like what does that look like here what does the season look like for Zeke Mayo is in fact, has been their most impressive player over the last two or three months of camp, like what does that look like here? What does the season look like for Zeke Mayo? Well, I think, you know, coming into the season with the transfer portal movement and all the quote unquote big names you brought in, one of the biggest questions was like, what's this going to look like in terms of style? Because there were a lot of different ways you could go. You could play with DeJuan and then just roll a bunch of wings out there. You could play two bigs if you want to consider KJ a big.

Starting point is 00:13:53 And with Zeke, it's do you play two guards? And, you know, we've talked so many times about how much Bill likes playing with two ball handlers. And aside from Zeke, I mean, let's just boil this down to the guys who we actually think are going to be like in that core rotation. Zeke's the only other guy besides DeJuan who would qualify as like a secondary ball handler. So that's one part of it. Maybe Bill is just falling in love with the idea again of saying, hey, DeJuan doesn't need to be the only guy who's initiating offense. Let's get another guy who can play with the ball in his hands. He can play off ball. He can shoot, et cetera. I do wonder though, is there maybe an ulterior motive? Because it seems like the guy who in this scenario is the odd man out is Ryland Griffin.

Starting point is 00:14:39 And when we go back over the years of guys who fans were maybe excited about and then didn't end up playing as much, the common denominator is like is like oh you just came here and wanted to shoot like you came here you wanted to shoot six threes a game and that was about it and that's obviously never going to fly zeke being a local kid like this is his dream to play at kansas it's not just the best offer that was out there right it? It's fulfilling a lifetime dream. Wouldn't shock me if he's the guy doing all the right things, saying all the right things, paying close attention to what the coaches want of him and trying to just be a team player, be the guy that's just doing all the little stuff. That's going to get you a long ways.

Starting point is 00:15:22 And if you have the skill to go with it, it doesn't shock me all that much. Now, I don't really know what this means for Zeke, like in terms of production. He's not going to be your leading scorer. I don't think he's going to be your second leading scorer. And where does that leave you? Maybe around 10 to 12 points per game, if you're the third leading scorer. But for a guy who spent the last four years playing at South Dakota State, that would be a pretty cool story. And he's a shooter. He's a ball handler.

Starting point is 00:15:56 Like, those are things that KU needs. So it does make sense in terms of, like, him filling a role that KU was missing last year. You know, you bring up a good point with Ryland Griffin and think about it this way, too. Like, if you're Ryland Griffin, you're coming off the final four season. Kansas was the team that lost in the second round. Like you're, you're coming in going on the stuff, right? And then think about it too, from the standpoint of, it's not just like you said, guys who just shoot threes, you played for Nate Oates. Every three was a good three. And like with Bill Self, it's not

Starting point is 00:16:22 just that he's going to get upset if you're just launching threes. If you're taking bad threes, he's going to get into you. So I still think Rylan Griffin will be good. And I do think he has more athleticism and more to him than some of those previous guys. Like if we're comparing to Nick Timberlake, I don't even think it's night and day. Also he has two years, but yeah, I do think that's interesting. I also thought it was interesting. You mentioned the motivation. I thought this is where you were going to go with it. When he listed the four starters, he said DeJuan, he said Hunt, he said Zeke Mayo. Now there was a little bit of a what color is the dress situation

Starting point is 00:16:51 with some people saying, did he say AJ or did he say KJ as the fourth guy? I thought he said KJ as that fourth guy, but I don't know. Maybe he did say AJ, and then that would leave open a different discussion, different can of worms with KJ Adams. But I think we assume it was KJ, and that would mean he's not saying that for AJ Storr. And he went into other areas in that podcast about AJ Storr saying that, you know, I think he needs to be the best offensive rebounder in the country. I think he can be a good defender.

Starting point is 00:17:20 All these sorts of things. The motivation with AJ Storr feels like to me that he thinks A.J. Storr can be like an absolute dude, and he's trying to get that out of him. Well, yeah. I mean, him saying a guy who might be one of the best pure scorers in the country and saying he should lead the nation in offensive rebounding, A.J. Storr hearing that's going, excuse me? Sorry, coach, I didn't come here to rebound the ball. I came here to shoot and score 20 a night. I am assuming,

Starting point is 00:17:56 based off of not just his statistical profile, but his lengthy track record of being a guy who just wants to get up shots, he's probably not too interested in doing all the little things. And a lesser man, a less intelligent version of myself, me five years ago would have said, listen this is all window dressing, there is no way that Bill Self would bring AJ Storr, the number one transfer in the country, off the bench. I think we've seen now, it doesn't matter who you were, what your number was.

Starting point is 00:18:33 I'm not predicting it. I'm just saying we can't sit here after the whole Remy Martin fiasco and act shocked if a transfer from a different program with bad habits comes in and immediately finds himself in Bill Self's doghouse, right? We have to at least entertain the idea that for that first game of the season, AJ Storrs, your sixth man, and then all of a sudden we start to get inklings that, yeah, he's not exactly doing everything the coaches want from him right now. Okay. Wow. I did not think we were going to go there.

Starting point is 00:19:06 Is that a hot take? It's an interesting point. I think it's a fun one. I think it's interesting. And I think you run into the issue, though, where it's like, if AJ Storr's not starting, who is? You know? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:16 No, and listen. I'm not predicting. I think AJ Storr will be a starter. I'm just saying if you asked me an open-ended hypothetical, most likely to wind up in Bill Self's doghouse, there's my answer. Okay. I like that one. Maybe we'll do some superlatives like that later up on another edition of

Starting point is 00:19:34 Locked on Jayhawks. We've got to finish up here, though, who Statlin is in any way next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making us your first listen every day. You can check out Locked On College Football or check out the Arizona State side of things. We had a crossover episode as well. So check those out with our Locked On Podcast Network.

Starting point is 00:19:53 All right, our Who Stat Line Is It Anyway for this week comes from KU Football. And here's the question for today. How many times has a Kansas quarterback led the Big 12 in interceptions? Big 12 goes back to what, like 96, I believe. Okay. Wow. So that gives me almost 30 seasons. Let's call it 27 seasons of football. If you're bringing this up, there's no way it's just like three because that's not interesting.

Starting point is 00:20:30 So I'm going to go with nine times. Nine times a Kansas quarterback has led the Big 12 in interceptions. So here's the problem. If you looked at it from a team ranking, I don't know. I'd have to go back and look. It probably was something high like that. Too many guys getting benched midseason. It's only one.

Starting point is 00:20:50 It's only one guy. And it's not even a guy you would expect. Is it Todd Reising? No, that could be a good one from one of his later years. But no, actually the answer is Carter Stanley. But it's not even like one of the carter stanley years where it's like he was getting plucked in and out with peyton better it was carter stanley's final season which like objectively was a good year for kansas quarterback but he's

Starting point is 00:21:13 but that's the problem is there was about an eight-year stretch where nobody started all season everybody would get benched and then maybe a third guy would come in so everyone would just end up with like seven interceptions in five games yeah but yeah that that was actually a good season for a KU quarterback but nonetheless the second guy to do it right now if the season ended would be Jalen Daniels which is weird because he's never been a turnover guy but again like it just speaks to we can sit here and go back and forth forever on like whose fault this is. Is Jalen Rusty? Does he not know the playbook? Is it Jeff Grimes?

Starting point is 00:21:54 It's a bad pairing. It's a really these two do not mix. They do not go well together. They are a bad duo. They are like Nelly and Tim McGraw. Individually, they have had success, but for whatever reason, when you put them on the same song together, I don't like it. And that's how it is with Jeff. Jeff Grimes could leave and go have success somewhere else next year. Jalen

Starting point is 00:22:15 Daniels could transfer and go have a great final sixth year or whatever it is for him. But together, they do not mesh. It is oil and water, we don't have any indication that it's like getting better. I guess you could say the last two games have been a little better for Jalen, but not enough. It's not enough. And maybe we're judging them off of the failures of those first three losses, but it's, it's looking pretty bleak right now. He's Nick Schwert at Nick underscore Schwert on Twitter. I'm Derek Johnson at DJohnsonRadio.

Starting point is 00:22:46 I don't know if for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, Nick, where can you check out some of your work? What's going on right now? You can check out every episode of the Could Be Wrong podcast on YouTube as well as anywhere you get your podcast. All right, we'll see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks. Check out our crossover episode of Arizona State. We'll be back on Friday for a KUASU preview.

Starting point is 00:23:05 See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - The Worry Scale for Kansas Jayhawks Football + Zeke Mayo and AJ Storr KU Basketball Talk

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