Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Top 10 Questions for Kansas Jayhawks Football Ahead of 2023 Season and Missouri State

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked On Jayhawks, we're talking the top 10 questions that we have about KU football as we head into the season. It's game week for KU and college football this week. Let's get to those questions on today's edition 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. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk.

Starting point is 00:00:40 We're going to be doing a live show at a big mill before the first KU football game, so that should be a lot of fun. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us, like and subscribe to the show on our YouTube page, and

Starting point is 00:00:55 check out the Locked On Network website where you can find all sorts of stuff with Locked On right to your browser on the internet, phone, whatever it is. On today's edition of Locked On Jayh your browser, on the internet, phone, whatever it is. On today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks, top 10 questions about KU football headed into the season, which starts this week.

Starting point is 00:01:14 First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime. Okay, so we're going to get through the top 10 questions here. Locked On College for $20 off your first purchase with game time. Okay, so we're going to get through the top 10 questions here. Let's start with number 10. We're going to work in reverse chronological order. 10th biggest question for me. Will one of the wide receivers break out to have a 1,000-yard season?

Starting point is 00:01:43 It's been a long time since KU's had a 1,000-yard receiver. You have to go all the way back to Desmond Briscoe for the last time that it's happened and Kerry Meyer. Stephen Sims got close but wasn't able to do it. Can you at least get to like 900 yards, which I think Stephen Sims is the only one to do that since the Desmond Briscoe days. There have been a couple other guys that have maybe got 700, 800 yards since then,

Starting point is 00:02:06 but you haven't had that guy. Now, how important is this really? At the end of the day, the KU receiving core is good enough, whether this happens or doesn't happen, and they're such a balanced offense, both in terms of running the ball a good amount, passing the ball a good amount. There's going to be less plays that KU runs this year because of the lack of clock stoppages after first down. So there's just less plays in the game. So some of the stats might be

Starting point is 00:02:30 hard to keep up there. And with all the balance you have of all the good receivers, especially those three starters, it might be difficult for somebody to break out into doing this because of the usage. But I'm generally curious if it can happen. We just saw Luke Graham have like 170 yards in the bowl game. Lawrence Arnold had some unbelievable, I mean, his potential and flashes as much as anybody on the roster. Quentin Skinner is someone who, you know, big body receiver with all sorts of speed. What if he has a year where he's just taking the top off defenses

Starting point is 00:02:59 and has unbelievable numbers all the way through? Could this end up happening for KU? And how beneficial would that be if it does? I mean I said we know the depth of the receiver position is good uh Stephen McBride who was buried on the depth chart last year for KU football he transferred to Hawaii and in the week zero game against Vanderbilt he had like 100 yards or near 100 yards I mean he had a really good game. So that shows you the depth of this unit. So this isn't the biggest thing at the end of the world,

Starting point is 00:03:32 but I am curious if it happens because I think in the case of all those receivers, they do have that potential to be that guy for me. And I go back and forth which one I would choose to do it. I think Lawrence Arnold has the most complete skill set. I think Luke Graham has the best trust of Jalen Daniels. He's obviously a good route runner, trusted player. And Quentin Skinner, what if, you know, we've seen a lot of Baylor receivers in years past,

Starting point is 00:03:52 like where they just have this dude who, you know, you think of like a Corey Coleman or somebody who just catches like 50 passes, but they're all for like 20, 25-yard plays. And, you know, they're a deep threat and they're catching touchdowns. You get 1,000 yards of Quentin Skinner that way, just being this like dominant deep player. And if you can get that, how beneficial that would be to have that one dude to open things up for even those more receivers and your running game would be pretty awesome to add on the KU offense. Our number nine question headed into the season, how aggressive is Lance Leipold going to be? I think aggressiveness in general is a word that can be a question

Starting point is 00:04:29 for a lot of things. How aggressive is the defense going to be? Are they going to blitz more? How aggressive is the offense going to be throwing the ball down the field? Different ways you can look at it. But the main thing I'm referring to here, how aggressive is Lance Leipold going to be in those kind of fourth down decisions, in those decisions where it's fourth and one, do we go for it, do we punt? It's fourth and four

Starting point is 00:04:52 from the opponent 25-yard line, do we go for it, do we kick the field goal? Some of those aggressiveness things that I'm curious on how they approach this year. You go back to 2021, Kansas was one of the top two schools in the conference in fourth down attempts. You go back to 2021. Kansas was one of the top two schools in the conference in fourth down attempts. You go back to last year. Kansas was one of the bottom two teams in the conference in fourth down attempts. What happened over those two years? Was year one, it was kind of like year zero for you. The team wasn't as good, obviously, to where you're kind of like, oh, we're playing with house money. Might as well be aggressive, see what we can do. Were there just more fourth downs to be had?

Starting point is 00:05:27 Because the offense was more efficient last year, and so you didn't have as many options to do so. Still, even with some of those, there was a sizable enough gap that makes you think there was at least a bit of a philosophical change. I think now, though, when you look at having a quarterback that you trust with Jalen Daniels, you look at the offense being the strength of the team and being one of the better offenses in the conference, especially then you look back to the other side and you're like, well, we have some questions about the defense.

Starting point is 00:05:54 I would think it would behoove Kansas to be an aggressive team going forward on fourth down. Baylor's typically been an aggressive team in this. It is kind of a stylistic thing. And Lance Leipold has had years where he's had really high numbers when he was at Buffalo in terms of going for it on some of the fourth downs. So I don't know what goes in and out for that year to year, but I would just prefer Kansas to be aggressive, even though I do trust the field goal kicking unit more this year, even though I do trust the punching unit more this year than I did last year.

Starting point is 00:06:24 Just because you have it doesn't mean you have to use it. I think it would behoove Kansas because you still are at a point where you're not the most talented team. You do have to make up for it in the margin somehow. And going for those fourth downs, being aggressive is one way to do it. So I'm looking out for that and we'll see how aggressive it ends up being. Our number eight question headed into the year for KU football, what schematic adjustments are they going to make? This goes back in line with more coaching stuff, but what's going to be different this year? If you remember coming into last year, we didn't really know that the kind of speed option, triple option, whatever you want to call what KU was kind of running, we didn't know that was really going to be a thing. They ran it

Starting point is 00:07:04 like once or twice during the Tennessee Tech game and it was like, oh, this will just be a wrinkle they throw out every now and then. Ended up being a primary base for a lot of what they wanted to do, especially in the early part of the season against like Houston and West Virginia. So are we going to see more of that? Is there going to be something else that has maybe been hidden a bit that's going to be a surprise of like, oh, that's different. They're doing that differently than they were from the year before, right? Could there be something else that comes up that way? Would it be from the offense? Are we going to get more of the same from Andy Kotelnicki in terms of some of the creativity, different motions and formations that he used? The one that I look to is the defensive side,

Starting point is 00:07:41 though. I think offensively, you just expect it to be creative and have all these sorts of different looks and plays regardless. Defensively, I wonder if that's where the big side though. I think offensively you just expect it to be creative and, you know, have all these sorts of different looks and plays regardless. Defensively, I wonder if that's where the big shift goes. I wonder if defensively we see a lot more blitzing from KU football. Something I asked Lance Leipold at Big 12 Media Day was kind of in the same vein, like you have a trusted back end. Does that allow you to maybe throw more numbers up top? And, you know, he pretty much said, yeah, that's something we've kind of looked into.

Starting point is 00:08:08 I think they are going to blitz a lot more this year to try to generate pass rush, especially since you don't have that Lonnie Phelps, you don't have that Kyron Johnson to help get there a little bit more and be more aggressive on this end of the ball and blitz more. And it is one of those things where it's like, if you are a bad defense and I don't know we'll see we'll see how KU is defensively this year but it's like if you do end up being a bad defense at least be good at forcing turnovers or just being aggressive and going for sacks because it's better to you know risk it and try to make a couple game

Starting point is 00:08:41 changing plays than to just give up 10 playplay, 75-yard drives every time. And then special teams for the schematics too. Like what does that look like? There was some talk about having maybe two punt returners back there for KU who are going to be the returners, what are going to be the different schematics that Sean Snyder and some of the analysts bring to the table that change up this special teams kind of overhaul for KU and strategically

Starting point is 00:09:06 how they want to use that. So I really want to see the schematic adjustments, what those are going to be, and we'll find out more about those in week one. But even then, we probably won't get a full-fledged idea of all those till week two because they're not going to want to show everything that's new on tape for Illinois with a tough week two opponent coming up after that. All right, we're going to get to questions seven through one coming up. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. Athletic Brewing Company is bringing our game changer of the week. Much like Lance Leipold or Jalen Daniels is going to try to be that game changer all year long.

Starting point is 00:09:46 And I think in week one, the game changer to me is going to be Jeremy Robinson. Let's see what you got. Lonnie Phelps had three sacks last year in the opener. Let's see what the new top D end for KU can do this game and try to, you know, take Missouri State out of the game on that side of the ball. Athletic Brewing Company has completely changed the non-alcoholic beer game. They make non-alcoholic beers that actually taste good. You know, when you think of Jalen Daniels, he's scrambling around. He has changed the floor.

Starting point is 00:10:15 He's changed the ceiling of the program with his arm talent, his vision, his, I don't know, camaraderie. That's what Athletic Brewing Company is doing to the non-alcoholic beer game. Their brews are great tasting and award-winning and beat out full-strength beers in global competitions. They brew over 50 styles of craft non-alcoholic beer, including IPAs, Goldens, Sours, and more. You can find Athletic Brewing Company's non-alcoholic brews at a store near you or buy online at athleticbrewing.com. First-time customers can use code LOCKEDON to get 15% off your first order online.

Starting point is 00:10:50 That's code LOCKEDON at checkout for 15% off at athleticbrewing.com. I know you can't ship alcohol or even, I guess this is non-alcoholic in Kansas, which is kind of weird, but I did see them at the grocery store the other day, so you can go in there. Near Beer, exclusions and conditions apply. Athletic Brewing Company, fit for all times. All right, into our top seven questions about KU football headed into the season. Number seven, how will Jason Bean be utilized? You know, if Jalen has injuries, we know he'll be the quarterback, and we know he's going to be the backup quarterback. I go back to the spring. Tybo Onotolu said something about Jason Bean. We've floated around with him returning kickoffs. I don't think that's going to end up happening.

Starting point is 00:11:33 Typically when I think of the best kickoff returners, it's the guys who they're obviously fast and they run hard and they, you know, have ball carrier moves, but they're fearless. Like you just have to be able to go into the teeth that even run full speed and be okay with whatever's going to happen. And that's how you usually find those holes. Like I remember Josh Cribs, like he wasn't the fastest guy in the world. He was very fast. He wasn't the most nimble guy in the world. Again, he was nimble, but he was just fearless and he would just find those holes and go. And he was one of the best kick returners in NFL history. Jason Bean, when I think of his running style,

Starting point is 00:12:05 it's not like the fearless type of running style. So how is he going to be utilized on the field? How many trick plays are they going to use with him? How many plays are they going to use with multiple quarterbacks on the field? Are they going to use him at all ever as a running back or a receiver? What is his usage going to be becomes, I think, a very interesting thing. And if Jalen Daniels is playing really well, I don't know. Like, are people going to get upset if he's in there too much?

Starting point is 00:12:32 You know what I mean? That you're taking away from, like, do you want to not get overly cute with it? It becomes very interesting, his usage and trying to tow that line of not overdoing it, but still benefiting the offense. Number six on top questions headed into the year. Can the KU offensive line go from being a good unit that maybe had some inconsistencies or maybe had some weaknesses to being a dominant offensive line? So last year, there were a lot of games. You see a lot of highlights where KU's throwing like a deep ball or Jason Bean or Jalen

Starting point is 00:13:01 Daniels has all kinds of times and kinds of time in the pocket. And it's just, you know, bouncing on their toes before they unload it downfield and somebody makes a great catch. So many of those highlights are because of the offensive line, keeping the quarterback upright, avoiding pressure coming in. So the offensive line was great in those regards.

Starting point is 00:13:19 The offensive line was so good at opening up a lot of holes. And I guess the tight ends when they're blocking come into this too, on a lot of the running plays and the option plays that KU was running. Still though, there were, especially in the back half of the season, times where KU might only be able to run for a yard or two on first down when they were just doing kind of a standard run play and it led to a lot of third and eights or third and nines, which KU converted a good amount because of quarterback play, pass blocking, and the the receivers what they were able to do that they were able to overcome it but see I wanted to know if this this offensive line can go from being a good unit to being dominant to where you can just you know the best offensive lines you can just run

Starting point is 00:13:58 basically the same play like over and over again when you have a team that's outmatched and you're just going to bully them and keep getting four five six yards a pop and there's nothing they're going to be able to do about it. Can they take that step forward and make this offense even more explosive? Number five on the list here, can the special teams have a night and day overhaul? So yes, I want to see some of the schematic differences for the special teams too, but just overall, can it be better? Seth Keller, I think will be a lot better than what you had at the kicker last year although Charlie Weinrich and uh it sounded like Tabor Allen was doing well with with field goals though Lance Leipold not only mentioned him doing well field goals but he also said we just want to keep him on kickoff um so we'll see I I think regardless like you look

Starting point is 00:14:38 to have a an upgrade there I think big upgrade at the punter position with Damon Greaves he's been a booming him and he looks to be pretty impressive so far. What are you going to get with those schematic changes to help you in kick return and punt return? Will another year with guys like OJ Burrows, who could possibly be like a punt returner again, like will that extra year of experience help him out in any way? Can you have a night and day overhaul? Because at the end of the day, if you end up having a similar offense to where you were last year, I think they're finished ninth in ESPN SB plus. Let's say they're even 15th. If you're 15th and the defense is still where it was last year, which was just outside the top 100 and your special teams though goes from being ranked 120 something

Starting point is 00:15:15 to all of a sudden middle of the pack in the country, like 60th or 70th, that's probably going to be worth another win in its own. And that's one way you could get to seven wins. So can the special teams have a night and day overhaul and improvement from last year to this year? Number four, how impactful right away are the transfers going to be? There are a lot of transfers that came in last year for KU. You think of Eric Gileard, Lorenzo McCaskill, Kalen Girvin, and on and on and on down the list.

Starting point is 00:15:42 Not all of them had an immediate impact or made that impact right away like you know kai thomas it didn't totally work he obviously transferred out again savion morrison is still kind of battling for more playing time gilliard and mccaskill never emerged past being rotational linebackers they didn't eventually become starters a lot of the guys i think sometimes it takes time and it might take multiple years to get to know a complicated system or scheme so how impactful are these transfers going to be? Is it going to be, you know, kind of the same thing? Like you did have Lonnie Phelps who came in right away and was your best defender. Are you going to get that from anybody where they're going to come in and be

Starting point is 00:16:15 one of your best players right away? Or is it going to be more of a long-term thing for some of these players where, you know, they might not hit the field or make as big of an impact as we would have thought for this season. And maybe it takes another year for that to happen because that could certainly impact the win-loss level for KU if you're counting on some of these transfers to come in and make an improvement on your team and it just doesn't happen all right let's get into our top three questions to finish things off before we do that though this episode of the show is brought to you by gameTime. I love to get tickets last minute because I feel like that's when you get the best deals. I've scalped before, but it's not as,

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Starting point is 00:18:38 All right, into our top three questions for KU football headed into the year. Number three, does Kansas have enough pass rush and how much will that matter? You lose Lonnie Phelps year before you lost Kyron Johnson. Can Jeremy Robinson step up into that role? Will he be that guy? And if he is, then you can kind of keep hitting the ground running. You have some good potential there with guys like Austin Booker and Dylan Brooks, Hayden Hatcher, probably going to have the best year of his collegiate career this year. Patrick Joyner, who you brought in. that a lot of these guys, you're hoping to make it work. And you're hoping that you have enough pass rush. And maybe this goes back in line with

Starting point is 00:19:11 the blitzing that you won't need quite as much. Maybe you're going to use more of Craig Young and pass rushing or ways to kind of make this work. But do they have enough? Because last year, even as good as Lonnie Phelps was, still had, what, four sacks over the final 11 games, and KU was in the bottom two or three of the conference. I think they were tied eighth in the conference in sacks last season. So even with Lonnie Phelps, you still were at bottom half in this regard. So that's a little scary because does that mean you have a chance to be last in this regard?

Starting point is 00:19:39 Does that mean you have a chance to be, I guess, with more teams, bottom two or three would be different this year than it was last year. Do they have enough pass rush to make an impact defensively and get off the field enough to get the ball back for the offense? Number two, how good or bad will the defense be? This goes back in line with the pass rush. I've said it many times. I'll say it again right now. If they can be better against the run, I trust how much better they will be overall as a defense because it'll just set them up to be in better situations, passing downs, just at least be better against the run. And this defense can get even a

Starting point is 00:20:09 touchdown better from where it was a season ago, but how good or bad will they be? If they're the same as they were last year, puts a lot of pressure on the offense to be just as good, if not better than they were last year, which was a top 10 offense in certain metrics. And then you're hoping the special teams improves too, right? It just makes margin for error a lot thinner on some of those other things. If the defense is worse than it was last year, though, it's going to be hard to make it back to a bowl game. It just is.

Starting point is 00:20:35 But if you can be better, there is an avenue for eight or nine wins out there. If the defense gets a touchdown better, the offense stays the same, special teams in the middle of the pack. That's how it happens. All right, number one question. Our top question we have about KU football going into the season. What is the deal with Jalen Daniels back, and can he stay healthy all season long? This is more so just a question Jalen Daniels' health, right? For Jalen Daniels to live up to the Big 12 Offensive Conference Player of the Year

Starting point is 00:21:04 and some of the year and you know some some of the Heisman hype he was getting last year and to be all conference or all American or whatever it is he obviously has to stay healthy he is so good he's so talented he's such a good leader he's got the you know quick release live wire arm he's got great vision he's got great running ability he's tough he's fearless but fearless. But it's just, can he stay healthy? And he's dealt with injuries in each of his past years. 2020, he gets injured in the Oklahoma game. 2021, he gets injured in camp. 2022, he obviously gets injured with the shoulder injury. And right now he's dealing with back injury, which to be clear, I'm just assuming

Starting point is 00:21:42 he's going to be playing on Friday. And I think he's going to be okay and everything. I think this is just very precautionary by the KU football staff. I also think that Lance Leipold and the staff like to kind of play mind games a little bit, whether it's with media or the opponents, just to keep people on their toes. I don't think like from a bad way. I think it's just kind of having fun with it. So it is worrisome because of his past and because he is so high profile being a quarterback and being such a star player.

Starting point is 00:22:14 But will this have like, it's one thing if it's, okay, well, it's not going to impact him starting week one, but could that have impacts on him practicing later in the season? Could it have impacts on him later in the season playing games? Could it get worse if he continues to play through it? I don't know the answers to what kind of injury he has or how he's dealing with it, but just in general, of all the health, you need Jalen Daniels to stay healthy.

Starting point is 00:22:36 Jason Bean can be an admirable backup and fill in, but there is a gap there between what those two guys are going to bring to the table. And so for that reason, the number one question will just be, can Jalen Daniels stays healthy all year long? If you guarantee that, I feel great about seven, eight, nine wins, but you can't guarantee it. And that is why it's the biggest question, why it's number one.

Starting point is 00:22:56 All right, that's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page. Like and subscribe to the show. We'll see you next time. We're going to be talking more KU Football Game Week, KU Missouri State Preview, and plenty more this week with Locked on Jayhawks.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Top 10 Questions for Kansas Jayhawks Football Ahead of 2023 Season and Missouri State

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