Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What Amount of Competitiveness is Needed for KU Football in 2022?

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

Based on past season's, how many games would be an improvement for the Kansas Jayhawks Football team that they're competitive in? Why is that important for Lance Leipold in year 2 prior to 2023? What's a reasonable expectation of amount of competitive games? Plus KU linebackers discussion with the newly added Eriq Gilyard, Craig Young, Lorenzo McCaskill, and Tristian Fletcher to the unit already featuring Gavin Potter, Rich Miller and Taiwan Berryhill.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we look at how many games KU needs to be competitive in and how they can make that a successful season. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Mondays through Fridays, from 3 to 6 on KLWN in Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts.

On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to look into the competitiveness factor for KU football. How can they be more competitive than they have been in the past? What's the number to look at? How many wins could that relate to if you're more competitive in more games?

And that is just kind of a big topic, a big storyline we head into every KU football season with. The idea that the fan base is exerting time and money to go to these games, and some fans view it as kind of a holdover until basketball season. There are plenty of other fans who are even bigger KU football fans than they are KU basketball fans. Point though is that you want competitive games. You want games that you felt like, well, that was entertaining. That was fun. I'm glad I used up my five, six hours on a Saturday between driving to the game, tailgating, leaving the game on something that was enjoyable for me. And so a lot of times you'll hear people say, just make the games competitive.

It rings true. But also, if you're more competitive in certain games, then you're going to win more games. The more games that you're in, the more coin flip opportunities you have, the more coins that are going to toss over on your side of the call. So it all matters here. It all leads to possible winning. And we've seen a lot with teams in the past, and we're going to do this on a later show coming up on Locked on Jayhawks, looking at past teams who did maybe have a season where they only won two, three, four games, but they were ultra competitive in a lot of the losses. And then maybe the next year it started turning into wins. Sometimes that can be a signal.

Sometimes that can be a cue of what's to come for that team. So for all those reasons is why being competitive is obviously important. As we take a look at this and kind of take a deep dive into this, I think the first thing we have to look at, like, how do we define being competitive in a game for KU football? I think that it's kind of one of those things like how, and not to get too crass here, but how the Supreme Court defines porn. You know it when you see it, and that's kind of with a competitive game. Like, I don't want to sit here and say, well, it has to be a one-score game in the last five minutes, or it has to be a one-score game in the last five minutes,

or it has to be a 10-point game headed into the fourth quarter within two scores, or whatever it is. Because it's not always the case, and there are exceptions. It's like, well, what if the game is within two scores with a minute left in the third quarter, as opposed to when the fourth quarter starts? Or what if the game is 16 points versus 17 points? What if it's 8 points versus 11 points? It's just one of those things where you just know it when you see it. I think that if we're to put general guidelines on it,

you probably had a chance to win the game or be within striking distance into the late third quarter or preferably the fourth quarter. Obviously, if you won the game, even if you won by 20, for the sake of this, of viewing KU was competitive, not that the game was competitive, you chalk that up into saying that was a competitive game. So, because you are viewing this from a KU standpoint, meaning that like the Boston College game from a couple years ago, KU blew out Boston College. That was not a competitive game from the game itself, but from

a KU perspective, they were competitive in that game, if that makes sense. So again, not an exact metric. It's mostly eye test, but you mostly know it when you see it. And basically, this is a way to see two things. One, to make a jump in wins, you have to be close in a lot of the games, be competitive. And two, it makes games and time spent just a lot more worth it for the fan base, like I was saying earlier. If you look at last season, Kansas was competitive in seven games. What I really want to do here, though, is just focus in on the. Power five games. You would add in the South Dakota game, you would add in the Coastal Carolina.

The reason I don't want to focus on those as much is because. Like all the FCS games should be competitive, meaning that you should just beat all of them. And like I said, I would count that into KU being competitive. But I don't want to dilute the sample because that means that, I don't know, KU blowing out Rhode Island is going to be chalked up as the same as KU losing to Nickel State. And yes, the Nickel State game was competitive, but you shouldn't have those losses to FCS teams. So it's not one of those games where, hey, it's a competitive loss. That was at least entertaining and maybe a good sign of progress for KU.

No, it's not. So I don't want to even have that dilute the process at all. I just want to look at Power 5 games. If you just look at Power 5 games, Kansas played 10 of them last season. They had the nine Big 12 games. They had the Duke game. Kansas was competitive in five of them, and they got one win among the five. And obviously those games were the Duke game, which ended up losing by like three scores. It was really a game into the late third

quarter. Oklahoma game, you very easily could have won. Texas game, you did win. TCU and West Virginia to finish out the season. I mean, that's four of your final, what, six or seven games, too? Competitiveness really went up there. If you did want to change the parameters, because, again, that is something that it is more of the eye test stuff, and you just wanted to say they're in the game at halftime, basically leaving you a reason to stay in the stadium at halftime, you could add the Baylor game too.

That was a game at halftime. Even though KU wasn't really moving the ball or doing much, they had some turnovers in the first half. They kept the Baylor offense down. So scoreboard-wise, it was a game, and then Baylor just blew them out from the third quarter on. I'll just leave it at the five, though. Let's compare this to past seasons.

Amount of games where you were competitive each season against Power Five opponents. 2020, there was only two games. The West Virginia game in Morgantown. Ironically enough, Les Miles wasn't even coaching. And then you have the Texas Tech game, which was in Lubbock, that you lost 16-13. They had like four turnovers in the game,

and it kept you close. You got zero wins out of that. But that was a very non-competitive season and a very bad season. A 2020 team really struggled. Then you go to 2019. You had five games, just like this past year, that you were competitive in. The Boston College game, which you won. The West Virginia game, which you probably should have won.

The Texas game in Austin, which was Brent Dierman's first game, taking over as coordinator. you probably should have won, the Texas game in Austin, which was Brent Dierman's first game taking over as coordinator, very easily could have won that, the Texas Tech game, which you did win, and the Iowa State game in Ames, which you were in it till the very end there. That's five close games. You recorded two wins of the five. Go down to 2018. You had six games amongst Power 5 opponents that you were competitive in. Rutgers, which was you blowing them out, getting the victory. West Virginia, which it was 21-14 until the last play of the third quarter. A West Virginia touchdown made it 28-14. Even then, two-score game headed into the fourth quarter. You're still in it. TCU game, K-State game, Oklahoma game, the Texas game

in 2018 as well. You were in all those games. You ended up with two victories. The K-State game, Oklahoma game, the Texas game in 2018 as well. You were in all those games. You ended up with two victories. The K-State one in 2017, I believe, was the one where Peyton Bender just dropped the ball. Otherwise, they probably beat the Wildcats in that one. Then you go back to 2017. You have just two games you're competitive in with zero wins. K-State in Texas, 2016, it's just three competitive games.

2015, you had just three competitive games. And then pretty much if we keep going back to like the Mark Mangino days, you had, what, three in 2015, four in 2014, three in 2013, four in 2012, three in 2011, and two in 2010. I don't mean to inundate you with numbers here, so just to sum this up, KU has not been competitive in more than six of their Power Five games since the Mark Mangino days. And even then, six was the high watermark. The next closest were five, which was last year and 2019. And what did the 2018 season, when you did have six games you were competitive in, along with even if we want to look at the 2019 season,

where you could have easily won, even though you won three games both seasons, four or five games that season if a couple more of the coin flips go your way, which would be the most since Mark Mangino. So I think if we look at that, you could easily say if KU can be competitive in six of the ten Power Five games, that maybe gets you on track to be able to win three games this season. But if you really want to make that jump, KU being competitive in seven or eight of their ten or eleven Power Five games, that would be the new high, and that would represent improvement outside of the win column, while also helping them in the win column the more games you're in the more coin flips you have a chance of going your way and for a Kansas team that hasn't been as talented or prior to Leipold

hasn't been as well coached as their big 12 peers they lose more of those coin flips than not meaning if you do get nine competitive games it's not as easy to say you should win four or five maybe for KU it's three but now that you have a good coach maybe you can chalk that up as getting a few more wins so that's kind of the number I would target and I'm kind of looking at there we are going to take a further dive into this and how plausible that is for KU and how it would probably have to happen as far as the schedule goes in just a moment. BetOnline.net is the fastest and easiest way to check in on all your betting needs. Find all your favorite sports and events at the number one online source for odds, lines, and games.

Find reviews and news of every league, including Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA, NHL, combat sports, esports, and even golf. Golf season just coming to a close here. BetOnline continues to be the top online resource for all your sports wagering information from live in-game betting, scores, and podcasts. They have you covered. Head to BetOnline today or use the mobile device to learn more about the action happening today. BetOnline, where the game starts. No idea what the opening spread for KU

is going to be. I'm just going to blind bet it because I think they have a lot to prove. I don't think Tennessee Tech is very good. And I think KU is going to be able to run all over them. There's your early blind tip without actually knowing the spread. On tomorrow's show, we are going to be joined by Nick Schwert.

We're going to talk some more KU football. We're going to look at the running back position, and we're going to try to figure out how much does the running game, how much do running backs, having a good running back group, really matter to turning it into wins in football in general, in college football in general. I think the lower level you get like in youth sports if you have the best running back that's worth a lot of wins nobody's going to tackle him it's more run

first offenses then you go up to high school it's like if you have the best running back it's going to lead to a lot of wins but there might be some hurdles along the way then you get to college you have guys who maybe they're the best running back in the country but their team maybe only wins six or seven games and then you get to the pros and it's like you can be the best running back, and your team goes four and 12. So it kind of decreases as you go. We'll talk more about that with Nick Schwerk coming up tomorrow. As we've been talking today, though, with Kansas football,

how often can you be competitive? How many do you need to get to the win total you want to get to? And just to make it a more successful season, a more competitive season that's more fun for the fans and makes you feel like they're closer to getting over that hump on on some of these win totals headed into future seasons including in the 2023 season as we mentioned before if you can get to seven competitive games heck shoot for higher than that try to be competitive in every game obviously but if you can at least get to seven, that would be the most games you've been competitive in. And again, I'm just talking about the Power Five games. I'm not including the Tennessee Tech

game. I'm not including, I guess, I don't know. It depends how you view the Houston game. For the sake of this, I am going to view the Houston game as a Power Five game because they're going to be in the Power Five next season. So how do you get to those seven to eight competitive Power 5 games? The Duke game, I think you circle that right off the bat and you just say if Kansas has any chance of, and this applies I think too for getting to four wins or more, if Kansas has any chance of doing that, if Kansas has any chance of being competitive in that many games, the Duke game is an absolute must. There's no path that you get to that point without going through the Duke game and having

that happen. So that is like the required reading part of the class there with Duke. Then you look at some of those early games. You have at Houston and at West Virginia in weeks two and three, and I reversed the order there. Then in early October, on October 1st and 8th, between those two you have Iowa State and TCU coming into town in Lawrence. Iowa State is kind of interesting to me.

They lost a ton of players from last year's team after they seemingly underperformed because they brought so much back the year before from a team that won the Fiesta Bowl. And so they're kind of an unknown because they've been recruiting well and Matt Campbell always seems to develop well there. They seem to really like this new quarterback

they have coming in. But are they going to take, because that was a seven-win team last year and you lose so much, so does that mean they take a step back to a five-win team? Did they find some more talent with this year's team and they're going to kind of surprise and be a seven- or eight-win team? They're kind of the one that you don't really know, but they're also not a team that you look at in that matchup and say, oh, yeah, they're just going to completely out-athlete and out-talent Kansas.

That's kind of the biggest question among all those games for me, though. TCU, you've played really close in recent seasons, very easily could have beat them last season. TCU has a new coach. They have some question marks. You should be able to be competitive in that game. The Houston game, yes, they are a ranked team. It's kind of like the Coastal Carolina game, though.

Coastal Carolina was a ranked team. Kansas played them on the road. They were competitive, though, late into the third quarter of that game. I think it was 35-22 with a couple minutes left in the third quarter, and Kansas was driving. They had a fourth down and short in Coastal territory near the red zone, and they throw a swing pass. I can't remember if it was Velton Gardner who just dropped the pass. Otherwise, they get the first down. Maybe they end up scoring a touchdown. Maybe it's still one score game

basically headed into the fourth quarter, and the game's totally different or you're competitive even longer. Point being, as much as Houston will probably put together a top 25 season and they'll have the record and everything, it's not like right now they are a top 25 Big 12 team that's recruiting all these 4- and 5-star kids. Don't get me wrong, they have the Houston Metroplex area, so they still have all this ultra talent, and there's a reason that they are top 25 but there still is not this overwhelming gap in certain ways of talent that is like Oklahoma versus Kansas right it's a little bit different there I think Kansas could be competitive in the game I don't think that's that crazy to say and then you have the West Virginia game which again Kansas almost beat West Virginia last year. They've almost beat them a couple times over the last handful of meetings between the two of them.

That's a team that Neil Brown is kind of on the hot seat. Is he going to keep his job at the end of the season? I don't totally know. But I think you need to be competitive in three of those four. If you get blown out in one of them and you're competitive in three of the four, that can get you to where you're going. So you have the Duke game, three of the four. If you get blown out in one of them and you're competitive in three of the four, that can get you to where you're going. So you have the Duke game, three of the four there. Between Oklahoma, Baylor, and Oklahoma State, you've gotten killed by Baylor over the last decade. Like every game is like 50 to 7.

The Oklahoma State series, there's been a few in there where you just kind of randomly were in it. Like the game that you lose, I think it was 27-20 or something like that that you lost to Oklahoma State because Tyree Kill had like a kick return touchdown when the game was tied. That one was close, but a lot of other ones, including last year, have been one-sided to Oklahoma State. The OU series, they've had some close ones. Obviously, last year, KU very easily could have beat them in Lawrence.

You had the matchup in Norman a few years back where Puka Williams ran all over the defense. Never really felt like they threatened to win, but they were always in it. I think it was 55-40 was the final score of that one. You had the one in Lawrence when Charlie Weiss was a coach, and he kind of shut down their offense with Blake Bell when he was the quarterback, and it was at least competitive-ish in that game. So this is not one that you want to bank on and be like, well, we have to be competitive in all three, but maybe they can be competitive in one of the three, which they did last year, the Oklahoma game.

So be competitive in one of those three of those teams. Then you have the late season matchups. You take on Texas Tech in Lubbock. You have Texas at home for senior day, and then you have K-State on the road. Be competitive in two of the three. And maybe you should even be competitive in three of the three. But if we add that up, you have the Duke game,

three of the four of the early going, one between OU, Baylor, Oklahoma State, and then two of Texas Tech, Texas, and K-State. That gets you seven. And that gives you room to be blown out four times. And if all four of those early games are close, or all three of the late games with Tech, Texas, and K-State instead of two two you give yourself

more margin for error or you go up to being having eight games that are competitive and i think you feel good about things working in ku's favor if you play seven competitive games at the very least you should probably win two of those but with the lance leipold factor with if jalen daniels is as good as we think you're going to win more of those coin flips maybe it's three or four of them and that's how you get your three four five wins on the season but also make it more entertaining for the fan base you feel like you're more competitive and you feel like you're closer to taking that step to next season we continue on answering our top 10 questions we're excited to get answered at the KU football season in just a moment. Continuing on with our top ten questions we're excited to get answered for the KU football season.

Right now we're into the top five. Number five on the question list. How much improved is the revamped linebacking core? Just how much really is it better? Last year, complete slog. They had one of the worst linebacking cores just how much really is it better last year complete slog they had one of the worst linebacking cores in the country I feel like it wouldn't be crazy to say it was the worst among power five schools they just had issues with everything stopping the run making tackles reading the deep or reading the offense understanding the scheme it was troublesome and there were some nice highlights in there Gavin Potter had a really good final game or reading the offense, understanding the scheme, it was troublesome.

There were some nice highlights in there. Gavin Potter had a really good final game against West Virginia. Rich Miller had some really good flashes for you. But overall, it wasn't good enough from the starters, and you didn't really have any depth. Now you have completely overhauled that position. You brought in three transfers. Eric Gilliard, who's an experienced player from UCF, great run stopper, and Chris Simpson, the linebackers coach, actually said he's been impressed with his pass coverage game, which I think speaks pretty well to his chances of playing a big role on this team. program the last couple years he was an all sunbelt performer just again good tackler good

stopper not necessarily somebody who's making a lot of chaotic plays but he's kind of solid in there so you add him to the folds clearly good enough to be on a very good team from a season ago and start and play a key role then Craig Young who's the guy I'm most excited for because he's just this ultimate athlete, like 6'3", 6'4", 225 pounds, runs like a 4'4", 40. He's kind of playing that hawk role, the linebacker safety role. He had so much talent and speed into that defense that's going to really help you out this season. You also have Tristan Flesher you brought over from the JUCO ranks, although I don't know what his role is totally going to be this season if we'll see him much on the field then you have guys who even if they weren't quite good enough to make the linebacking core good last year they have improved into this year we've heard so much about some of the improvements that have been made there especially

from a guy like Tywon Berryhill that just having, because he's another really good athlete and everything, for him it was just trying to understand the playbook better and the ins and outs of the game and the mental side of things, and he has worked very hard on that. You should expect a big jump from him. Gavin Potter is, you know, he's an inexperienced linebacker. He just started playing linebacker like his senior year of high school, so there should be improvement even for him headed into his last season.

Rich Miller obviously started to get going at the end of last season. The linebacking group is going to be a lot better as the starters. It's going to be a lot better with depth. And it has a lot more options that you can go to where you can say, hey, this is a rundown. Let's throw Eric Gileard in there. He's great against the run. This is a passing down. We'll throw Craig Young and this other linebacker because they're better against the pass. You just have different options, different ideas that you

can do. There's no doubt this linebacker core will be better than it was last year. But back to the question, how much better? Is this better in that KU went from by far the worst linebacking group in the Big 12 or the worst linebacking group in the Power 5 to where now they're just as bad as the next worst team in the Power 5 or the Big 12? Or did they jump up and now they're ahead of a couple teams in the Big 12 in terms of what their linebackers are going to provide. That question right there might be the difference in KU giving up 10 less points per game this season than it is maybe five less points per game this season. They gave up over six yards per carry last season. That was by far worst among Power 5 teams a year ago.

This unit has to be a lot better. It certainly looks that way, but how much better that gap remains to be seen. If you have anything you'd like for the show to talk about or want to follow along on the action, you can reach out at D Johnson radio on Twitter and don't forget to subscribe to the show. So you're getting all the latest with locked on Jayhawks. That'll do it for today's episode. Have a good rest of the day. See on Rock Chalk Sports Talk later today from three to six later.