Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - TIME TO DOMINATE: Kansas Jayhawks Football vs FCS Wagner Seahawks Week 1 Preview

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks football faces FCS opponent Wagner Seahawks. Can KU dominate as 46-point favorites?Derek Johnson breaks down and previews the upcoming matchup, analyzing Wagner's strengths and weaknesses. He highlights the Seahawks' solid secondary and unusual 12-quarterback roster. Key topics include Kansas' game plan, potential playing time for backups Cole Ballard and Isaiah Marshall, and crucial performance metrics for the Jayhawks' defense. Johnson also examines Wagner's quarterback options, including transfer Jordan Barton's impressive junior college stats.Tune in for expert insights on how Kansas can assert their talent advantage and avoid costly mistakes against Wagner.Listener SurveyWe’ve put together a survey to learn more about our listeners and make your favorite podcasts even better. Go tohttps://lockedonpodcasts.com/survey/ to get started. Everyone who completes a survey will be entered for a chance to win one of ten $100 Amazon gift cards. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!UpsideSimply download the free Upside app in the App Store or Google Play and use the promo code FOOTBALL to get an extra 25 cents back per gallon on your first fill up. Start earning cash at the pump, today!  Click Here: https://getupside.onelink.me/zlLr?af_xp=custom&pid=barrington&c=barrington_lockedon25&deep_link_value=promo&deep_link_sub1=lockedon25&af_dp=upsideapp%3A%2F%2FRugiet150,000 men have made the switch →https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEUse code LOCKEDONNFL to get 15% off your order!SupplyHouseJoin the free TradeMaster program today and score serious perks like priority shipping, lower prices, and a dedicated support line. Visit https://www.supplyhouse.com/apply-for-trademasterto sign up for free and use promo code SHCOLLEGE5 for 5% off your first order. 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 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)

Week zero, it was so much fun. How about we do it again? Week 1, KU Wagner preview on today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's going on, Derek Johnson here? This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks to make you to your first listen every day.

and thank you every day or is catching each and every episode of the show, including some of our bonus content like we had last night, whether it's on YouTube or anywhere that you get your audio side of things with the podcast on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks. We're breaking down Wagner. We're going to get into our top storylines for the game. We got our full scouting report of the Seahawks. We got our matchups to the game.

Full preview of Kansas Wagner. We'll have the keys to the game, players to watch and more on tomorrow's episode as well. So make sure you subscribe to the show again, anywhere you're podcast, including on our YouTube. page. So let's just get right into it. So Wagner comes into this one zero and zero. Kansas obviously comes into this game one and oh on the season after playing in week zero, which love me the week zeros. By the way, if you saw some of the scheduling stuff, KU was going to be playing Hawaii in week zero in 2028, locked on network. Please find me out there. Anyway, when you look at this Kansas

Wagner game, this is typically your week zero game or your first game of the season, the game against the FCS opponent. It's your tune up opportunity. It's the opportunity to get young guys playing time. get other guys reps and to keep your starters healthy before the long season ahead. I kind of like that it's your second game of the season. I mean, the SEC does it. They're like eighth or ninth game of the season, right? And that's helpful for them. So I kind of like this for for KU that they get this after the Fresno State game.

I like it that they get it before the Missouri game to where, you know, hopefully, ideally you're not having to show too much on film and some of the fun stuff you do show on film. Hopefully are things that you want to show on film that they have to over prepare for and you have like a counter for. like that's kind of the idea but some of the biggest storylines i think coming into this one to me i mean obviously you have to be able to win big the spread in this game is like 46 points so you were expected to win big you should win big you still don't want to take anything for granted you know from a team perspective from a lance light hold is telling the team he's got to tell

him stay focused one play at a time you know all the coach speaks stuff that is true from the team perspective, I don't have to worry about that. I'm not part of the team. I am talking as we are in fans. And so from that standpoint, I am sitting there going, yeah, okay, go blow this team out. And then when you're blowing them out, I want to see what some of the young guys can do. I want to see what some of the backups can do, you know, because this is an opportunity to get a look into the future. What players are ahead of who that are going to set up them to be key contributors or starters in the future when some of the guys in front of them graduate or transfer away or go pro you know um what are some of these backup battles look like you hear so and so is doing well in practice and is developing but

it's one thing to hear it it's another thing to see it on the field when you get an opportunity to and so that notion yes i want to see you know a lot of the young players i want to see a lot of how these guys perform i want to see more of running back three and i want to see more of you know what some of these young guys who have high potential and can do if they get into game time. And I think chiefs amongst that has to be the backup quarterback spot. Again, ideally you're getting up big enough in this game, not just that you can put in the backups, but that you can put in the backups for a good amount of time, right? If you're only up, you know, 17-0 at halftime, starters are going to have to keep playing

deep into the second half. The most ideal situation is you're up so much that you can put your backups in to like start the second half. and then you can even put your third strings in in the fourth quarter, you know, third and fourth strings. That would be the most ideal situation for Kansas, that they're able to get some of those guys' reps. And so that battle of QB2, that's one of the biggest storylines for me because assuming all does go well and all goes to plan, you get to a situation where, okay, we're going to have

some time for Cole Ballard to play and we're going to have some time for Isaiah Marshall to play. And it felt like you got a little take. of Isaiah Marshall's speed you didn't get seen much from Cole Ballard I want to see like more from both guys and like some actual pass plays it doesn't have to be a bunch of them but like I want to see a couple throws on on a real route tree or something from both of those guys I think that would be entertaining and interesting to kind of take note of so that's something I'm really interested in because it's it's twofold it's one the idea if Jalen Daniels gets hurt on any play one of those guys

has to come in and then it's the twofold of hey Jalen's going to be gone after 2025, who's going to be the start in 2026, right? Whoever that guy is, right now, Cole Ballard clearly has the edge for that. Whoever the number two quarterback is, though, once we get to week 12 on the depth chart, that's going to be the guy with a real big advantage going into spring ball that's getting those first team reps. I'm also interested, I think one of the big storylines of this one, is this going to be just a continuation of the second half playbook we saw against Fresno State?

It was vanilla for KU, and deservedly so. You don't want to have to put too much on tape. I mean, you're dominating that game. You got the Missouri game in week three. You got Big 12 play after that. You don't want to give up too much. And again, you want to practice certain things in game situations. You want to put certain things on film that is going to make them have to prepare longer.

You're going to want to put certain things on film that you have a counter to that you're showing them so that they hopefully study it and approach it this way. And then you have the perfect counter to that, right? There are certain things you want to do with that. But you don't want to overdo it. and you want to keep things vanilla. And the idea here, I think, in this game should be, you know, Wagner's trying to get their first FBS win.

There's a four-and-eight team from a season ago, your 46-point favorites. You should be able to just run your base plays. The plays that everybody on your schedule knows that you're going to be running and is going to prepare for you to run, but that you should still be able to make your bread and butter in that, you know, it's the plays that, you know, you run against any team and they've worked on it all week, but you still might be able to get a four-yard gain out of it. Those plays, you should be able to get six, seven, eight yards in a game like this, right?

Your half-back power, your half-back dive, your wide zone, whatever KU running plays are there bread and butter for this team. You should be able to have success with those. You should be able to have success with your screen passes and some of your more basic passing concepts, right? I'll be interested to see how that goes, but especially for the defensive side of the ball. You know, a lot of multiple different fronts and different things that D.K. McDonald's, threw out on the defensive side against Fresno State. Curious to see if it's more vanilla for both sides of the ball in this one against Wagner. I'm also curious from the crowd perspective.

I mean, is it going to build off week zero? Is it going to be a sellout again? A couple things that make this one a little more challenging are that it's a Friday night. You know, 630 people are going to be coming off work. How does that affect things? Is the energy? I mean, it was awesome being there in week zero. Does that carry over?

What about the students? How are they going to be? You know, is it going to match the entire? or because you're playing an FCS opponent on Friday night, is it going to be, yeah, still, you know, close to full and still energetic, but not quite the same. It'll be interesting to see what that is for KU in this one. Some news from the week as well.

Dean Miller, it sounds like he's going to be back for KU. At least that was the update from Lance Leipold earlier this week. It's, you know, we heard that in the previous week's presser that like D.J. Graham and Bryson Canty were progressing nicely. And I don't think Graham played and Canty only played four snaps. So who knows, but you also have the, you know, argument of should you play Dean Miller in this game? And that kind of is like a, you can make the argument both ways. If Dean Miller's battling an injury coming back, do you want to waste the bullets, so to speak?

Do you want to fire them away? Do you want to waste his reps in an FCS game? Or would you rather just have him fresh for the Missouri game? The flip side, though, that is, does he need to get some real live reps? does he need to get some game reps to shake the rust off so he's not rusty when you really need him in the Missouri game, right? I can kind of see both sides of the coin there. But some of the other injuries for KU sounds like they're more questionable or like guys like Jason Gilliam aren't going to play. You know, so it'll be interesting to see who suits up, who plays in this one for Kansas.

And it doesn't just go for the young guys that I mentioned earlier that I want to see. But it goes for some of the guys who are kind of banged up like Bryson Canty. I want to see what he can do. Can he get a bigger snap load in this game? And can he, you know, working back from the injury? you know, maybe get some more reps with the ones and then maybe get some reps with the twos, again, assuming all goes well for KU here that he's able to ramp things back up because if Bryson Canty gets to a point where, you know, he's fully healthy and in the swing of

things, you could definitely make an argument. He'll be one of KU's three best receivers on the team. So I think a lot of interesting storylines and people who are going to be playing or are they not in this FCS game for KU against Wagner. All right. Let's get to our opponent's scouting report of the ski hawks and then we'll finish up with matchups of the game this is locked on jhawks today's episode of locked on jhawks is brought to you by upside are you still paying full price for gas stop leaving money behind get real cash back every time you fill up with the free upside app simply download the free upside app in the app store or google play store right now and start earning cash at the pump today use my limited time promo code it's football in

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For your second, listen every day, we'll have a Big 12 squad coming up later today on your Thursday. We also had a bonus episode yesterday talking to Col Rosario after we talked a little Trey White. So a little basketball going on, little football going on. Catch it all right here with Lockdown Jayhawks. Okay, so Wagner comes into this season off of four and eight season from a year before. They did have an FBS game. They lost to Florida Atlantic 41 to 10. That was not a very good Florida Atlantic team.

Florida Atlantic was three and nine a season ago, although I think they randomly almost beat Michigan State last year. But point being, Florida Atlantic was not a very good FBS team, and they dominated Wagner. So that's why the spread is as big as it is for Kansas. The coach is Tom Macella. He is gone just 9 and 38 at Wagner. So I'd imagine this is a big year for him for his career, 53 and 104 as a head coach. And the predicted finish, or I guess the media poll selection, whatever, I think it's actually a coach's poll. They were picked fifth of the eight teams in the NAC, NEC coming into the years.

Kind of a middle of the pack NEC team, which is not one of the better conferences necessarily in the FCS. that is their highest preseason pick since 2020. So this is one of the better teams of recent year. But ESPNSB Plus, a little down on them too, that has them ranked 114th in the FCS. They're 129 teams. So again, Kansas go out and dominate this game. It has them as the 126th best offense.

So bad on offense. 82nd best defense. So a little bit of a pulse there on the defensive side of the ball. When you look at some interesting position groups and stuff for them, they did have 10 players picked to the Phil Steele all NEC teams, which is third most in the league. So they actually do have some interesting player talent. That group featured one offensive linemen,

one running back, one wide receiver, one defensive lineman, one linebacker, and three defensive backs. It also included their kicker and their punter. So I think you can kind of see why the defense is the strength of the team, right? You get five players in defense plus having the punter. That helps for the defense too. And I think you can also see the secondary is definitely a strong.

strength of the team again. Three players who are defensive backs were picked to one of the all NEC teams by Phil Steele, which goes like four deep. Um, so when you look at the quarterback for Wagner, I think that'll be an interesting storyline coming into this for them. Who's going to be the starter? At time of recording right now, I have not seen anything come out for Wagner. I'm constantly looking for like Wagner football preview on Google or whatever and there's just nothing out there. I don't even think they have like a beat writer online. It's just like, there's nothing there. You can't find any any information there. And I haven't seen them like. release a depth chart or something. I don't know if it's different rules for the

FCS or what has to go on there. But regardless, fun fact, Wagner has 12, 12 quarterbacks on the roster. That is insane to have that many players on. I get it. Like, I think Kansas probably has a couple walk-ons. I don't know. They probably have six or seven themselves. That's half the number of what they have. And it hasn't been a super fruitful position for Wagner. They haven't had a quarterback, an individual quarterback, throw for 2,000 yards in a single season since 2016. So this has not typically been, you know, an offense of a quarterback powerhouse, but they do have some interesting pieces here. So last year starter, Jake Katie, didn't throw for a ton of yards, had a decent touchdown interception ratio. He's gone. Player who was second

on the team in past steps, Damien Maisel, he's now listed as a wide receiver. So I think fair to say, he's not going to be the quarterback. To me, just based on scour, the quarterback roster. I don't know. Maybe it ends up being one of the other 12 quarterbacks they have. They had like a freshman coming in from IMG Academy, which is usually a good school. So I don't know. Maybe it's one of those guys. But to me, based on what I looked at, I was thinking it's going to be one of two guys, Jack Stevens. He's a sophomore. He had the third most attempts last year at nine. So that would tell you he was probably the third string a season ago. Maybe that means he's the starter now with those two guys, you know,

either changing position or moving on. And then the other one in this, might be the guy that I'm expecting. He's a transfer edition. Jordan Barton, he was a stud at Riverside City College in 2023, which is junior college in California. Then he transferred to Sacramento State, which has, like, been really productive. I don't know how they've been in the last two years. I just know they were really good in the FCS and then their coach took the Stanford job.

But he was the backup at Sacramento State for a season. And then he obviously comes to Wagner now. When you look at Stevens, the returning sophomore, more. He, uh, six of nine, 68 yards, no touchdowns, no picks. He was four for five over the middle of the field. Also six carries for seven yards, but, uh, not much to go on there. When you look at Barton's case, two for four for 11 yards at Sack State, 31 rushing yards. So again, not a big sample size to go on there. You have a bigger sample size if you go off as Juco stuff, where he was really good. Um, 4,000 passing yards almost in his final year there, 72% with 35 touchdowns

and nine interceptions. And he had 306 rushing yards and seven scores. So, I'm kind of thinking he's going to be the starter. And if he is, I kind of think based on the production he had at the Jucco level, I think he could be an upgrade over what they've recently had at the quarterback position. So he's kind of an interesting player there, but we'll wait and see what they do with the quarterback position. Five happy stats, five sad stats for our key stats here. Going back to that with Barton, he guided Riverside Junior College to the California 3C2A title with a 24-21 win over College of Mateo.

So not only really productive, but let his team to win. So, you know, maybe he ends up being a diamond in the rough. And maybe Wagner ends up being a lot better than you might think because they have a stud quarterback. So that would be kind of interesting. Other happy stat, Wagner had two, one score losses. They had another loss by 10. It was really a three point game with like six minutes to go. So you look at them as being four and eight a season ago.

They easily could have won five, six, even seven games from last season. They were also 62nd in the FCS, again, 129 teams. So about average there. in run block grade on Pro Football Focus. So the offense line did a solid job at least, a decent job in run blocking. According to Pro Football Focus as well, they were 32nd in coverage grade, which led them, this is all one stat, to allowing just 13 passing touchdowns compared to 13 interceptions. Overall, this is a really good pass defense last year in the FCS.

And we mentioned earlier, three DBs on that Phil Steele all conference team in the preseason. They also had the second most forced fumbles. in the NEC last season. It seems like something that they kind of emphasize for Kansas. He got a hold on in the football. I mean, Daniel Hysha has seven fumbles in his career. I don't think he fumbled last year, though. So this seems like something that he tightened up.

You hope that's the case continuing into this one. Kansas can't give away, you know, a couple fumbles. That's how you kind of give them life and let them into the game. Five sad stats for Wagner, 110th last year in past block grade on pro football focus. So they really struggled pass blocking, and that's against an FCS schedule. Kansas should be able to feast here, especially if Dean Miller comes back.

127th in the country in pro football focus in tackling grade. So they were second to last in the FCS in tackling grade. That is licking your chops if you're the Kansas skill players. Again, the teams are different. We know there's so much movement nowadays in college football. So it is a little different, but it's all we have to go on and there are at least some things you can pull out here. They also converted just under 36% of their third downs last season.

they were not very successful there. They only averaged 3.7 yards per carry running the football last season as an offense. So, you know, that's not a great number there. And then the last sad stat for Wagner special teams was a problem for them a season ago. They only attempted four field goals, which maybe, I mean, on one hand, maybe it just tells you they're the most aggressive team in the world. Here's what it tells me, because there's this other stat. They missed three PATs last year.

The reason they probably only attempted four field goals, their kicker probably wasn't very good and they couldn't afford to take them because they thought they were going to miss them. They also averages 41 yards per punt, 37 net yards per punt. The 37 net yards per punt would have ranked as the 15th best punter in the Big 12th. So special teams is an area that I look at and say, you know, I think Kansas has an advantage here to say the least. All right, that sets us all up for our next segment, matchups of the game that could decide. I mean, I think you would hope that Kansas wins the game. But do they cover the spread?

We'll get to that next on Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Game Time, where you can get tickets for the game between Kansas and Wagner. College football is back, baby. I couldn't be more excited. The tailgates, the rivalries, the energy, and the stands. 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.

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Again, you can check out Lockdown College football for your second listen every day. You can also check out Lockdown College basketball if you want to stay in tune with that for your third lesson every day. All right, matchups to the game for this one. First down, Jimmy's and Joe's over the X's and the O. those, something we talked about earlier, you know, you shouldn't need your more complicated players, nor do you want to put them out on tape, nor do you want to, you know, burn them in this game. If it ends up being closer than you expect, maybe you have to burn a couple, you hope that's not the case. You hope that you're able to run your basic plays, your bread

and butter plays, a few things here or there, and be able to dominate with those. That's what you should do. You're the more talented team. Go show it. And when you look at Florida Atlantic and that FBS game last year, Florida Atlantic had 315 rushing yards and five touchdowns. Again, that was not a very good Florida Atlantic team. Kansas should be able to dominate with the jimmies and Joe's more than the X's nose in this game. Second down, no special team blunders. I just talked about how they weren't the best special teams from a season ago. But that is how you let a team like this hang longer than they should, right? Kansas goes down on the first drive of the game, you get stopped to a field goal and you drop a

pass or something on third down. And then you have like a, I don't know, a 40-yard field go. It's blocked to return for a touchdown. Now all of a sudden, sitting there going we let them into the game we gave them hope at the early part of the game just don't allow for something like that to happen now the good news for k u isn't just that wagner struggled on special teams last year's the kansas looked pretty sharp on special teams in week zero of the season but yeah no special teams wonders a third down tackling improvement now or maybe even sustained tackling i don't know uh this might be something i'm more interested to see moving forward because when you're talking about wagner again from

Wagner still, I don't mean this whole thing to, like, come across disrespectful. Wagner is still like a football team with a pulse, like they're an FCS team. Like to get into Wagner and be playing FCS football, that requires a lot of skill. You were probably like one of the best players in your high school area to be able to do that, right? It's just from the, we're previewing the game from the Kansas perspective. And from the Kansas perspective, Wagner has the probably, you know, least athletic skill players that Kansas will go up again. this year, right? And so from that perspective, you know, you should be able to have a good tackling game, right? Because if you don't tackle well in this game, what are you going to do when

you have to play, you know, the best athletes that you're going up against, you know? But Kansas was good in week zero tackling, which is always kind of a dice roll because when you look at week zero, sometimes you're not hitting as much in preseason camp, sometimes it can be a little harder to recalibrate the tackling at the beginning of the season. You need to kind of get back in that flow. Well, Kansas had eight missed tackles in week zero, which was good for a 16.7% mistackle rate. So a little under one in every five tackles they missed. And honestly, like, I can think of off the top of my head, like at least two or three of

those that were on the first drive. Like after the first drive, that number was probably pretty nails for KU. But overall, that was the number. last year, 16.7% tackling rate, the only games that would have rated better, though, for KU a season ago were the games against Lindenwood, Illinois, and BYU. They actually had the same numbers against Iowa State and Baylor. So that means actually, you know, the tackling game Kansas had in Week Zero, which can, again, be a little tougher, would have actually ranked as kind of a middle of the pack to upper end game for KU last year.

But in total, Kansas missed 129 tackles last season. That's an average of about 11 missed tackles per game. So you were under that mark in week zero. Can you continue to stay under that mark here in week one? And I just kind of want to see if they can back it up. You know, what you did last week, can you back it up this week and then make this the best tackling team of the Lance Leipoldera and carry that over into the power four portion of the schedule, which starts after this one.

Fourth down is pressuring the quarterback. Kansas had 19 pressures in week zero against Fresno State. They have five different players log two or more pressures and 11 different players get at least one. So it was, it was good pass rush for KU, and they did it in a lot of different ways. And they did that without Dean Miller. But you look at last year, the best games for KU in terms of total pressures, 23 against UNLV, 22 against West Virginia, and 20 against Houston on the season, 14.6 per game. So the fact that in 19 in Week Zero Guns, Fresno, when you didn't have Dean Miller speaks to some of the depth of the defensive line and some of the multiple different looks,

that D.K. McDonald was kind of throwing out there. So in kind of the same vein of, like, the tackling, I want to see this backed up, have another good pass rush performance, especially knowing that, again, going back to last year, they were the 127 team of 129 teams and pass blocking grade. So if Dean Miller comes back, go get a sack. You know, I want to see them be able to continue to get pressure. I don't want to see this be an inconsistent thing.

Blood in the water, be a shark. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll be back at you on Friday to talk more about this game, keys to the game for KU, how they win, how they cover, players to watch, all that and more. Make sure to subscribe to the show anywhere you get your podcast,

including on our YouTube page. I'll see you next time with LOJ.