Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What Kansas Jayhawks Football Player Will Make the Biggest Leap From the 2023 to 2024 Season?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks Football Friday, who's going to make the biggest jump from last year's team to this year's team? 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 give me a follow on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio, and you can find our show, Locked on Jayhawks, anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. You can like and subscribe to the show here.

Starting point is 00:00:37 You can give us a five-star review wherever you listen on the audio side of things. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're posing the question, which Kansas football player will take the biggest leap from 2023 to this year in 2024? And how important could that be for KU? There's also some news that the new college football 25 video game could be revolved around pro football focus ratings. So what does that tell us? We're going to examine some of the top pro football focus player ratings from last year's KU team. And then we'll get into the number 69 days away from KU Lindenwood,

Starting point is 00:01:09 Kansas' first game of the season, under 70 days away right there. First, we were brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOllege for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply with GameTime. All right, so which KU football player will take the biggest leap here from where they were last season to where they're going to be here this season and how important will that be for Kansas?

Starting point is 00:01:34 Let's start with the offense side of the football because I think you can really divvy this up between offense and defense. And I think there are a lot of candidates you could go over. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to talk through the different candidates and then we're going to make our official pick. In fact, I'll pick one for offense and I'll pick one for defense too. Let's start with offense. Luke Grimm. I think Luke Grimm has a chance to take a biggest leap from last year to this year. And I don't even know if it's as much

Starting point is 00:01:58 of the level of player Luke Grimm is. I think Luke Grimm was a really good player last year. I think he was a really good player two years ago too. And I think Grimm was a really good player last year I think he was a really good player two years ago too and I think he'll be a really good player this year too I I could see the production matching it a little bit more right last year up until the bowl game he had 400 receiving yards on the year which was not as indicative of how impactful how good of a receiver as he was because KU spreads the ball around they have two other good receivers they had a bunch of good tight ends they had running backs that were running the ball and catching the ball around. They have two other good receivers. They had a bunch of good tight ends. They had running backs that were running the ball and catching the ball. They had quarterbacks who were running the football, right? It's a very balanced offense, but that doesn't minimize what the impact is. But as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, the numbers when Jalen Daniels is the

Starting point is 00:02:36 starter and starts and finishes the game, him and LJ Arnold's are pretty much neck and neck through the receiving categories and Graham with way more touchdowns there. So if Jalen can stay healthy throughout the year, the production might go up even more for Luke Graham to really signify more so of the be reflective of the level of receiver that I think he is. So I could see that being a big leap in terms of that. What about Trevor Cardell? Trevor Cardell went from being a backup tight end for a couple of years.

Starting point is 00:03:08 He came in and, you know, he was playing football and baseball and then gave up baseball to focus on football and never has really been able to capitalize on, hey, you're going to get some snaps here or there, and all of a sudden have a huge cap or snap spike where he went from 20 snaps one game to like 60 the next and then just started playing 60 every game. And yeah, KU plays a lot of tight ends and everything like that, and it's going to limit that. But it feels like this year kind of sets up for it, right?

Starting point is 00:03:34 He's had Mason Fairchild in front of him for a couple of years, who was a very productive tight end for Kansas. And Jared Casey's just kind of a different type of tight end for Kansas because he's more of that like H-back, fullback in how Kansas uses him. Well, enter Deshaun Hanneke, the transfer, and it looked like he was going to be the starter, and Cardell maybe would assume his same role from the past couple of years. But Hanneke gets the injury in spring ball. This one is almost out of necessity for Kansas, but it feels like there is a real opportunity for Trevor Cardell

Starting point is 00:04:03 to establish himself this year, and Kansas could use it. He is an athletic tight end that would certainly add another pass catcher for Kansas. I think there's going to be a real opportunity for him to do it. What about Logan Brown? Logan Brown was injured a season ago, and he clearly has all the talent in the world, and this isn't just the situation of a kid who came in as a five-star recruit to Wisconsin and then just never played or never lived up to the potential or when he did play he wasn't very good he not only was a five-star coming into Wisconsin he played for Wisconsin and like you look at some of the PFF grades like he was a good player for Wisconsin you know and so he suffers the injury last year um I don't know if

Starting point is 00:04:41 he would have even been a starter on last year's team, but certainly with getting more time in the system and everything, I think I'll put it this way. It would have been a really fun competition between Calvin Clements and Logan Brown for who would be the starter this year at left tackle. Feels like Calvin Clements because of the injury he suffered. I don't know if he'll be back at some point in the season, but it feels like that opens up the lane even more for Logan Brown. But I can see Logan Brown breaking out. It almost is a little bit more forgotten now because

Starting point is 00:05:08 he had the, I guess, the medical redshirt year of like, hey, you have this former five-star recruit who could play left tackle for you and might end up being like really, really good for you. But obviously he has to overcome the injury too, right? That's something that you have to kind of rehab back from. Kobe Baines is one that I've been big on. He was, I thought, a really serviceable player for KU. And KU basically had six starting offensive linemen. When you look at the snap season ago, Baines was one of those guys. I could see Baines going from being a solid starter to turning into like an all-big 12-level player. I think there's another level that he can reach. Bryce Cabledew, another offensive lineman. Kind of forgotten that he's been starting for you for, what, three, four years now? And what does another

Starting point is 00:05:49 year for him do? Sometimes we get caught up in the idea that, oh, we've seen you start for so many years. You're just going to be the same guy that you've always been. I don't know. Sometimes you can hit that next level as a senior. Wouldn't be surprised if that happens with Bryce Cabledew. My official pick, though, for the offense, I think those are the biggest candidates. It's going to be Logan Brown. I'm going Logan Brown, and it's easy because you got zero production from him last year because he was injured. But I think even before the injury, it was trending toward him being a backup for you, that everything hadn't clicked yet. And I think things, I don't know, if you're KU, you're hoping things certainly click coming into another year here.

Starting point is 00:06:29 But, you know, sometimes, like we saw this with Kobe Bryant. They mentioned it a lot, that he got injured in the 2022 season against, I think it was Oklahoma. And the staff mentioned a lot afterwards how it took that injury for him to realize how much he loved football and didn't want to be away from it. And I could see that being the case for Logan Brown, that it just added an extra level of injury for him to realize how much he loved football and didn't want to be away from it. And I could see that being the case for Logan Brown that it just added an extra level of motivation for him.

Starting point is 00:06:49 And I'm going to say that he breaks out and gives KU a viable replacement for what they lost with Dominic Poonie. And Logan Brown has a very high ceiling and potential. Our defense side of the ball. I think you'd argue DJ Withers or Tommy Dunn. You know, they've made the progression from this is what you want to see consistently in your program. You bring in a guy from the high school level, maybe you red shirt him, you get the body right. Then by maybe year two, year three, they're starting to get a

Starting point is 00:07:13 few rotational snaps. You're starting to hear things about them in practice and during fall camp and during the bowl game practices. And then all of a sudden by year three or year four, maybe even in some guys' case, year two, you're getting on the field more. And last year in year three for both those guys, they're becoming starters or quasi starters. And then you take the next step, which would be the next one you're hoping from these guys from being starters to being like really good players, you know? And so that wouldn't surprise me with either guy i like both players uh if i would lean one i don't know i'm slightly lean toward dj withers i guess but i think the potential is there for both i would add caleb taylor into that discussion too at defensive tackle because

Starting point is 00:07:53 taylor was a guy who uh i was kind of pining for a breakout coming into what was it 2022 he played a lot in 2021 but then he kind of had ebbs and flows with his his body and getting everything right with Matt Gildersleeve and became more of a rotational guy. We saw him play even more last year, though. And now with Gage Keys leaving, I think he has an opportunity to even be one of your starters and try to beat out one of those guys. So maybe it ends up even being him, a defensive tackle. What about Dean Miller? Dean Miller was kind of buried on the depth chart, you know, even just a year ago, but through different opportunity, through injuries this year, through departures of players, through just getting better. Like Dean Miller has a real opportunity to be a starter on this year's team and that inherently going for maybe being like your fourth string defensive end or whatever he was a season ago to being a starter that signifies vast improvement.

Starting point is 00:08:42 The level of how good he is, though, like if he ends up being a good pass rusher and gives you five, six sacks, I think that would probably end up being the answer here. Now, Dylan Brooks, if healthy, might be an even bigger one because this is a former top 200 recruit that you're still looking to kind of break out. And there is that opportunity there that Dean Miller might be a part of, that some of the freshmen you bring in might be a part of. If Dylan Brooks can get healthy, and I don't know the status there of his injury and how that's going to impact the start of the season for him, he goes in that same bucket with Dean Miller. Jeremy Robinson was a guy who coming into last year thought he could maybe break out because he showed some real flashes in 2022. He had that big Baylor game,

Starting point is 00:09:22 but it wasn't as consistent. You heard that from coaching staff. And in 2023, it was basically a kind of rerun of 2022, which was good. He was a very quality player for you, and he had some flash plays, but you didn't get the consistent level of, hey, this guy's going to have eight sacks. If he can become a more consistent player and gives you six, seven, eight sacks, or gives you a bunch of TFLs because he is one of that strong side defensive end, Robinson wouldn't shock me either. I really like the linebacker position for KU because I think both these guys are going to break out even more this year. Jamie Brown and Cornell Wheeler, they really showed a lot of good flashes for KU last year. Brown was a thumping linebacker, sometimes rushed the passer. I think with another year under his belt, it's only going to get him

Starting point is 00:10:01 better. I think that he was arguably in the flashes he showed. It was asked to play maybe a more minimized role, KU's best linebacker a season ago. And then with Cornell Wheeler, he's got the green dot this year, which is new to college football, but he's basically the one calling the plays. That signifies the leadership he's added. He's a former Michigan recruit, former four-star kid, and he graded really well in pro football focus in the flashes he came about last season. I think if not for seniority, where you basically had a situation last year where you have guys who are returning, seniors, you know, they're coming back. You're not going to take away that spot unless it's like severely different between the two positions.

Starting point is 00:10:40 But, I mean, you could make the argument that J.B. Brown and Cornell Wheeler performed best, and the pro football focus numbers kind of back that up of the linebackers season ago. So a bigger role on this year's team and another year wiser, another year older, another year stronger for those guys. Sign me up. Secondary OJ Burroughs. He's somebody who I've been waiting to have like a five, six interception season. Maybe this is the year for him, for Burroughs, a guy that I've kind of been high on ever since he was a true freshman. And then Jameel Croft. You know, you're going to obviously have a lot with Mello Dotson and Kobe Bryant at the corner positions.

Starting point is 00:11:11 I think Jameel Croft is kind of next in line. And it would not shock me at all if at some point through the season, Jameel Croft ends up being your third corner this year. Super, super talented guy. Maybe you even get him on like kick return a little bit here. Really good athlete, really talented guy. Maybe you even get him on kick return a little bit here. Really good athlete, really competitive corner. I think Croft is going to be the next star corner for KU. But my official pick, I'm going to go Cornell Wheeler.

Starting point is 00:11:33 I think it signified a lot that they gave him the green dot. The captain side of things, I think he's going to make a ton of tackles for KU, living up to all that recruiting hype when he came in. Again, he was a four-star in Michigan before he transferred to KU. Went through the program for a few years. really showed a lot of great flashes last year I think he's going to be a really good linebacker for Kansas this year and kind of break out so my picks on offense Logan Brown on defense I'm going with Cornell Wheeler all right let's continue on what pro football focus helping with college football 25 ratings means for what the KU football player ratings

Starting point is 00:12:04 could be this upcoming video game season in about a month. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime, which makes getting tickets to MLB or anything else going on this summer. You want to go to a comedy show, you want to go to a concert. Prices on the GameTime app actually go down the closer it gets to first pitch. They have killer last-minute deals all in prices, views from your seat, and their lowest price guarantee. Some of the awesome features, you know, if you're not tied in, do I want this specific seat? You can just like a zone.

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Starting point is 00:13:37 in College Football 25, and then we'll talk about being 69 days away from KU football's first game. So according to Andy Staples, Pro Football Focus is going to be helping out with the ratings. I don't know to what degree are they going to be going like verbatim off of them? Is it just going to be, you know, helping in addition to like counting stats or how are they going to make this work? But I have Pro Football Focus numbers in front of me here. And if you're watching with us on YouTube, you can see some of them. So I think what this tells us is, I mean, I don't think they're going to be reflective of like, okay,

Starting point is 00:14:11 on pro football focus, like your highest graded players, typically you're in like the eighties, high eighties, low nineties. Maybe they're just going to slap an extra 10 onto everything. So like if you're a 65 on pro football focus, that's a 75 in the game, or maybe they're going to add like 15 or 12. I don't know. I don't know how that's going to work, but Devin Neal rates out very well. Jalen Daniels rates out very well.

Starting point is 00:14:30 Like that's not surprising for KU in terms of what they're going to have, but Daniel Hyshaw's rated out very well. So like they'll have a very good one too in that regard. I do. I was curious, I guess I should say, and I was thinking that KU's receiver group was going to be underrated on the game because, again, as we talked about earlier, the counting stats aren't necessarily fully reflective of how impactful they are and how good they are because of how

Starting point is 00:14:55 much KU spreads the ball out and runs the ball and plays a slower tempo and does all these things that might keep the counting stats down despite the impact being there. But if they're going off PFF ratings, those KU receivers grade out really well. And so I think they're going to be pretty good there. Even like Trevor Wilson grades out really well. So he could have a nice rating among all this. Michael Ford is somebody who's one of the top five guards in the Big 12. So I think he's someone who you don't get a lot of flash as being a guard.

Starting point is 00:15:21 So he might not have been rated overly highly coming into this year. But if you're going off PFF ratings, he's going to be up there a little bit more. Bryce Cable will probably get good worth to him because of the fact that he's been a multi-year starter, and he graded out pretty well on Pro Football Focus, too. On the defensive side of the football, what this tells us is, I guess, first of all, the corners are going to be rated really highly with Mello Dotson and Kobe Bryant, but we kind of already knew that. Dean Miller rated out really well in Pro Football Focus. It was 29 snaps, but he rated pretty well. So they're going to give him a nice little bump

Starting point is 00:15:56 there. I think that'll be kind of interesting. J.B. Brown and Cornell Wheeler should have decent PFF grades, despite the fact that they're starting for the first time so i think that'll be a little bit interesting there um you don't see a lot of ku defensive tackles on this list that uh we're going over the ones that you do see like devin phillips he graduated right and there is tommy dunn kind of sitting on there so maybe dunn will have a nice rating um but yeah i think it'll be very interesting and then you'll have certain guys where i'll be very interested where they rate them because they have certain players on KU who PFF did not like very much, but maybe have been a starter or maybe a multi-year starter or something like that.

Starting point is 00:16:33 And how does all that factor in to the ratings for PFF with college football 25? All right, we're going to finish up here. We are 69 days away from Kansas' first game happening against Lindenwood. We'll discuss it coming up in a moment on Locked on Jayhawks. I'm finishing things up on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks with the number 69 signifies for KU football as they're that many days away from their first game of the season against Lindenwood.

Starting point is 00:17:04 And by the way, thank you to the everydayers. T tuning in to each and every show. And we'll be back on Monday. Again, if there's any breaking news over the weekend, we'll try to get to that. But Monday, we're going to talk is the KU basketball offseason and the roster done and examine the full roster overhaul. And then we'll have another football Friday, next Friday. So plenty to come at you here with Locked on Jayhawks. But 69 days out from the first game for KU football. Well, Trevor Cardell had six catches last year for 69 yards. This goes back to a conversation we were having at the beginning,

Starting point is 00:17:34 which KU football players will take the biggest leap from last season to this upcoming season. I'll be honest. Obviously, again, KU balances the ball so much, and they did a season ago. Trevor Cardell was the basically second-slash-third-string tight end. If you count Jared Casey, he was the third-string tight end. Again, I think you can count Jared Casey as his own position, that kind of H-back-fullback role, where Cardell sort of was the backup there. But honestly, even knowing all that, I thought he had more than six catches for 69 yards. I don't know. It just feels like he's been around for a while. So for his career,

Starting point is 00:18:11 he has 16 catches in 35 games for 220 yards and two touchdowns. If I set on this season, 16 catches, 220 yards, two touchdowns, all three of those categories, I think you'd take the over on all three of those with the current state of the tight end position. And probably for KU to be at its best, you are going to need all of those things to hit. But I think he's primed to really blow by a lot of those numbers. OK, here's another stat. KU's opponents finished with 69 penalties last season for 659 yards. That was less than what Kansas had. Kansas had 73 penalties called against them for 740 yards, so about an additional 80 yards of penalties, which if you're just looking at the penalties called against Kansas,

Starting point is 00:18:53 they ranked 92nd in the country in average penalty yards per game. You go back to the first year of Lance Leipold era at Kansas 2021, that was a number that they got way down. For Kansas to reach that next level here this season, which would be going from being a 9-4 team to winning double-digit games and or competing for a Big 12 championship or maybe even playing in the Big 12 championship or winning a Big 12 championship, right?

Starting point is 00:19:18 All that stuff's on the table. But for them to get there, you have to look at things, okay? What are you going to do just as well as you did a season ago and what are you going to do better? Is the offense going to be just as good as it was a season ago? Can the defense be a little bit better? Can the special teams be a little bit better? And can you maybe get a little more turnover luck? I don't know. But penalty yardage is one of those that sneakily is there. Again, 92nd in the country season ago, an average penalty yards per game. If Kansas can

Starting point is 00:19:46 become a more disciplined team with avoiding those penalty yardage and you turn into at least being average at it, or maybe you can become top 40 at it in the country or something like that, that's a slight difference you made up to make yourself better from last year to this year. So that is one area that should be correctable, I would think, to make Kansas better this upcoming season. That'll be keeping an eye out. And then the last one here, Kansas averaged 6.9 yards per play against Kansas State last season. That was actually middle of the pack for last year's Kansas team. And so for fun, I went back, obviously we don't need to get in more into the K-State game because that was heartbreaking, but I went back and looked because the 6.9 yards per play that Kansas averaged against Kansas State last season,

Starting point is 00:20:29 again, that was middle of the pack for what they did a season ago. That was about an average performance for them when you're looking at just kind of the median or sifting through the different games that they had. But even though it was just kind of middle of the pack for last year's team. That would have been the best game, 6.9 yards per play, for the 2020 team, the 2015 team, the 2014 team, the 2013 team, the 2012 team, the 2011 team, the 2010 teams. And it would have been top three for the 2018, 2017, and 2016 teams. I mean, we all know KU football is way better than they were those years, right?

Starting point is 00:21:05 So it's kind of like a duh stat. But at the same point in time, it never makes those get old. And it always is a little bit incredible there that even one of KU's more average offensive games with a third string quarterback against a good Kansas State defense would have been like the best offensive performance that you had seen in like 12 years, which is just pretty resounding to say the least. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:21:37 We'll be back for another edition of LOJ on Monday, unless anything big happens over the weekend. Make sure you subscribe to the show and find it anywhere you get your podcasts. See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What Kansas Jayhawks Football Player Will Make the Biggest Leap From the 2023 to 2024 Season?

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