Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What Takeaways Will We, And Won't We, Be Able to Have for KU Football vs Tennessee Tech

Episode Date: September 1, 2022

What can we and can't we take away from KU's season-opener against Tennessee Tech? Player battles and things we're interested to see on the field for Kansas Football in Year 2 of Lance Leipold, including Quentin Skinner, Lonnie Phelps, Craig Young, Lorenzo McCaskill, Jacobee Bryant, OJ Burroughs, Marvin Grant and more. Joined by Scott Chasen.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're joined by scott chasen to look at what we can and can't take away from the season opener for ku football i'm derrick johnson you can hear me as well on rock chalk sports talk on day through friday from three to six on klwn thanks for making locked on jayhawks your first listen day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, joined by Scott Chasen, to go over things that we can and can't take away from the Tennessee Tech game. Obviously, it sounds a little weird. Of course, you can take everything away, right?

But it's still a game against a three-win FCS team from a season ago. So what can and what can't we take away based on what's going to happen? We got Scott Chasen, Booth Review, Kansas City Sports Network. You can also hear him over there. KU takes on Tennessee Tech on Friday. And one of the things that's always interesting when you play an FCS opponent, certainly one that KU is a 30-point favorite against, is how much can you really take away from that game?

Because at the end of the day, if KU wins by 28, 35 points, it's going to be like, okay, that was good. They showed a lot of good things. And I'm not saying you can't have any positive takeaways there. But certainly they get mitigated a bit by you just saying, well, look at the opponent. Let's wait and see it against next week versus the flip side if they do struggle or if they lose there are probably a lot of negative takeaways you can take away from a game like this more than you can positive takeaways so I guess what do you go into this game being like yeah I feel like I'll be able to learn about that

three things I want to see, Derek. The first is running backs, how they run. We've seen Devin Neal. We've seen Daniel Highshot to an extent on film. I've seen Kai Thomas. We've seen what Savion Morrison can do. I just want to see what it looks like in person, if it looks like they're hitting their holes, making the correct read,

running the plays correctly. That was an issue at times last year. Certainly I think Velton Gardner really had a hard time adjusting to the scheme that KU had. So I want to see what that looks like. It doesn't need to, you know, like you said, it'll be for a lot of yards. It'll be an exaggerated total because KU is much better than this team. So I'm less concerned with production more about how that looks. Second, I want to see how many times KU uses multiple

tight ends. I don't expect them to show anywhere close to the full complement of plays they have, but I do think personnel will probably be pretty indicative. Like Mason Fairchild was named the starting tight end. I know you've talked about this in your depth chart breakdown. I said on booth review, I'm skeptical. I think Trevor Cardell is this team's best tight end. I think Jared Casey is this team's second best tight end. And I think Mason Fairchild is a definite third. But, you know, I want to see what it looks like when there are two or three tight ends out there. I want to see how creative these formations get, even if you don't see all the plays and even if it is a little more vanilla.

Finally, defensively, KU's got to smother them. Like, I want to see the KU defensive backs, especially Jacoby Bryant. If he's pushing for a starting spot, this KU team should be locked down on the perimeter or on the edges defensively, and I'm really curious to see that, Derek. Those are my three. Do you have any thoughts on those or any of your own? Yeah.

See, for the defense, for me, it's kind of the defense as a whole, but again, this goes back into the light of the conversation of, well, if the KU defense gives up 28 points or something like that, or they struggle, or even if it's 21 points, but clearly the other team's moving the ball well up and down the field, maybe they just have some missed field goals or red zone turnovers or whatever, then you're going to come away from that going, I don't know if the defense is fixed, right?

Whereas if they do hold Tennessee Tech to seven points, we're going to be like, that was a good sign. But let's not forget Kansas held South Dakota to 14 points last year and then ended up giving up over 40 points per game. So the defense to me kind of becomes like a waiting game of let's actually see what it looks like in future games, really no matter what they do. They could pitch a shutout.

I'm still going to be sitting there going, okay, but let's see it against Power 5 competition or against some of these teams you're going to be playing here with West Virginia and Houston. I do think you can have individual takeaways, though, from the defense. If Lonnie Phelps looks like a man amongst boys, that's great. Now, maybe him a little less than some other guys because that is the question there like what's the jump like from the Mac to power five and that doesn't really answer that question when you're facing an FCS opponent but like I look at individuals like Craig Young we've heard so much about his athleticism

let's see what it looks like on the field right we've heard a lot about Tywon Berryhill and Rich Miller what these guys are doing let's see how much better this linebacking core is this year because even though like I was saying with you only giving up 14 points to South Dakota there were times where South Dakota was opening up big holes in the running game and maybe that was a sign that we should have taken for the rest of the season. So let's see if that is no longer a thing. And then just playing time in general. OJ Burrows, Marvin Grant, they're listed as oars. Is that going to be something that it's just, hey, Marvin Grant's getting acclimated with the playbook and eventually he'll be the full-time guy? Or are we going to see a lot of OJ Bur. Burroughs? You know, we're both big O.J. Burroughs guys, high on what he could possibly be.

When I look at the offense, it's just getting a push from the offensive line. South Dakota game, how many times did they try to run wide zone? Even if the playbook, which I don't think it will be for this game, you're not going to want to give a bunch of stuff away to West Virginia. You're going to want to keep it a little bit more vanilla, but you have to be able to do your bread and butter. And that's that wide zone play. And that first game against South Dakota last year, the

offensive line was getting no push. Maybe a yard forward and then it would be yard, two yards, negative one yard on first down and you're in second and long every time. Get a positive push forward because if you're not able to do it against Tennessee Tech, who are you going to do it against? So that's the other thing.

And then I'm just excited to see some of the receivers. I think opportunity has been created for a guy like Quentin Skinner. I want to see what he can do. I was looking at his 24-7 sports recruiting profile. I had him at 6'2", 160 pounds. He's now listed at 6'5", 190. That's a lot of growing, Derek. I didn't do that much growing in college.

I wish. Yeah, no, look, everything you outlined is good. And actually, it's funny. You're very much in line with Kent. Kent was talking offensive, defensive line when we talked about this topic on our show. I am interested in that, but I almost expect it to be much better.

I think to go back to your point of maybe you have more to gain by or more to lose by losing than you do to gain by winning. That's how I feel about the lines in this game. If the lines are dominant and good, that's where I'll feel like, okay, yeah, that's what I expect. And if they get pushed around, I'll be concerned because there are so many returning guys. And Derek, this kind of ties back to a different conversation about KU and if it's better that they play their hard games early or late. I will maintain, and I will say this no matter what happens, if KU starts 0-8 and is

playing its best football at the end of the year, I will say the same thing. With the amount of returning production KU has, especially on the offensive and defensive line, it is good to play those winnable games early. You will never have this much production, including a quarterback, a center, a left tackle, a right tackle, running backs, like you will never have this much production returning. It is good to catch some of these games early. So in that regard, I do expect that from the lines, but I agree with what you said about individuals, especially in that secondary, man.

I'm really watching that secondary because technique travels. Like technique against one team is going to be your same technique even if you're running different plays different schemes whatever you're going to do a lot of the same things and I want to I want to see what that secondary brings as far as what we can't learn in the game I'll be honest yeah there's going to be a lot like the offense is going to be more vanilla I don't think we're going to get a clear indication of what Jason Bean's role is going to be whether it is just the backup or using him in a few trick plays, wildcat, maybe coming in in different formations. I don't think they're going to give a lot of that stuff away outside of maybe one play

where they just want to put it on film for the defense staff to study that next week. I honestly don't think we're going to learn much about Jalen Daniels. Like, yes, if Jalen Daniels goes out there and throws five interceptions, like, that's not great. But, like, realistically, I don't really think we're going to learn much about Jalen Daniels. Like, yes, if Jalen Daniels goes out there and throws five interceptions, like that's, that's not great, but like, realistically, I don't really think we're going to learn a ton there. Um, I don't think we're really going to learn a ton about the running back and tight end groupings because I'm just expecting like all of them to kind of play. And I don't think we're going to get a clear indication of, Oh, it's this guy, or it's this guy, at least in this first game, um, basically. And then defensively, I guess that's kind of what I'm alluding to earlier.

Like, I don't think if they have a game where you hold them to a proper amount of points, which I don't know what that would be, 14 or less, 10 or less, something like that. Yeah, I like that. A proper amount of points. I'm going to start using that. Well, I think if that happens, like, I don't know how much you're going to holistically learn about the defense. And again, I think it'll be a little more vanilla.

I don't think we're going to see a bunch of blitzes or anything like that. So I think there's a lot that we won't really be able to learn. To me, everything just kind of comes down to player battles or the lines of scrimmage. Yeah. And again, I want to see if guys seem like they're getting it. And that's kind of what I talked about. I think you're right. Like we're not going to know the full pecking order of running backs and tight ends.

But again, I'll say for running backs, I just want to see what they look like running. And if it seems like they know what they're doing. And it's the same thing defensively, especially for guys like Lorenzo McCaskill, Craig Young, Marvin Grant, anyone who was not on this team last year who is now on this team. Does it seem like they're fitting in? Because we've heard too that, you know, it's okay if the play isn't right. If all 11 guys are on the same page doing the wrong thing, but at least they're working cohesive,

even if it's not the perfect play call wrong, maybe isn't the right word, but it's not the perfect play call or whatever. If all 11 guys are in lockstep, at least you got a shot. Where you don't have a shot is when 10 guys are doing one thing and one guy is off in his own land doing the other, and now all of a sudden there's a breakdown, a receiver running free over the middle of the field. So I am really interested to see that from the KU individuals.

All right, in just a moment, we're going to get to our What If Wednesday. Keep it locked on with Locked on Jayhawks. BetOnline.net is your number one source for all your pro and college football betting needs and sports information this season. Find all of the latest football league developments, game matchups, news, and podcasts, including this year's opening week's games. BetOnline is also your continued source for all your sporting wagering information,

including live betting, esports, and scores. The fastest and easiest way to check in on all your favorite sports and events including mob mma boxing and golf head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends in action bet online where the game starts you know what to do with ku minus 28 on to our what if wednesday we're here with sc Chasen here. And I got a fun one for you. Is this second string defense better than last year's starting defense? I need to pull up a depth chart here. I've got it right in front of me. I've got it right in front of me.

So Hayden Hatcher, this would be your backup starting defense. Hayden Hatcher and Jeremy Robinson at D end. Or Malcolm Lee lee because there's an or there but jeremy robinson at d tackle you would have eddie wilson and caleb taylor at linebacker you would have gavin potter eric gilliard and lorenzo mccaskill like that unit is clearly just better than it was last year yeah that's the problem here is it's going to be better because of these oars with transfers but keep going going. At corner, you have Jacoby Bryant. Again, that's an oar with Kalen Girvin, but I'll just call him the two.

Let's call OJ Burrows the two at safety. Edwin White-Schultz or Jarrett Paul is the backup other safety. And then Montee McGarry and Chad Dabney at the other corner. Is that better than last year's starting defense? I would say probably. The reason I think so, it's less hot take-ish. It's for two reasons. One, I'm going to project and give at the end of the year, because for last year's defense, we're talking about the end of last year, right? We're not talking about the

beginning when that defense was giving up a trillion points to Baylor. We're talking about a defense that was actually pretty good in some pretty big situations, especially obviously in that Oklahoma game where they really flustered. That was kind of more mid-season, but flustered Oklahoma. So if I'm giving them that defense at the end of the year, I think guys specifically, I'll list a few. Eric Gilliard is going to get it. Lorenzo McCaskill, I think will be a starter for this team. I really think the linebackers room will look dramatically different. I'm high on Jacoby Bryant. I like Kalen Girvin. I like both of those guys. So whichever one you're giving me, I feel good about. I'm actually going to cheat and make Marvin Grant the backup because OJ Burrow's name is listed first, which side note, I like the oars on the depth chart that are not

listed alphabetically or numerically because those just become depth charts. That's not one of them, but the running backs room is one. I think you get into trouble in the safeties room because you don't have Kenny Logan and that's an issue. But I mean, look, you're either getting OJ Burrows a year better than the OJ Burrows who actually started last year where you're getting Marvin Grant. I think it's comparable. But again, I would take this defense at the end of this year that, you know, the list of twos right there, probably over the ones from last year, but

it is close. It's closer as I talk it through in my head than I think, or than I initially thought, but I don't know. Don't you think the transfers will start to get it and really come along? Yeah, they will, but I think even if we were to say okay Lorenzo McCaskill will eventually be a starter Tywon Berryhill as a backup this year is probably better than I don't know whoever the third linebacker was last season right or is Tywon Berryhill this year is still better than Tywon Berryhill last year exactly I think you're running into a lot of that when you when you do this exercise yeah though the one thing that last year has is the Kenny Logan part and also Kyron

John, Kenny Logan and Kyron Johnson would be the top two players on either the backup defense this year or the first string defense last year. But then I think the other nine positions like Jeremy Robinson or Malcolm Lee, whichever one you want is obviously better than Malcolm Lee was last year because it's either an older Malcolm Lee or Jeremy Robinson who has tied this version of Malcolm Lee,

which is better than last year's version of Malcolm Lee. Right. At the defensive tackle spots like Caleb Taylor is better than he was last year. Eddie Wilson better than he was last year. And last year, young or Gavin Potter is another one of those, right?

Like Gavin Potter is better than he was last year. Yeah. He's better than he was last year. And if it's Craig young, absolutely give me Craig young because I'm really high on his ceiling. So yeah, it's always weird when you do stuff like that, because you get these matchups of guys facing off against each other. But what I think this, what if Wednesday shows, I was going to say thought exercise, but then I use the actual name, Derek that's branding. Um, it shows how much deeper this roster is. And, you know, I've said,

I've said it on here. I've said it a bunch of places. I think Kansas goes where Jalen Daniels takes it this year. And the reason why I believe that is I see enough legitimate players. And I think sometimes like a roster like this is not going to get you 10, 11, 12 points. It's just not, even if you have the best quarterback in the big 12, it's just not going to get you there. It'll, it might, it might get you to the, you know, close to the top of the league. It might get you to a big 12 title game in the right year

if things break, right. But the roster is not at that level, but this is a competent roster. And it's a roster that has a two deep. It's a roster that can afford some injuries, although you never want that to happen. And it's a roster where you're not forced to play one guy. You can actually play multiple guys. Part of that's because the transfer recruiting part of that is because honestly, going back to less miles, the number of players that he and his staff brought in who at the time were freshmen were not ready for college.

And now two, three years later, they are ready for college and they are ready to take those next steps. That's both sides of the ball too. So I think that's what this really shows is that KU has built a competent two deep. And there are a lot of guys who belong in the big 12 playing. And you're really not forced to play all these freshmen like you might've in the past. Yeah. It's, it's super important. I mean, depth is so key on defense. You're going to be rotating guys in there a ton at really every position. Let me ask you though, is there a spot or a position where you think they are in a best situation due weather and injury?

And is there a spot where you think would be, I guess, the worst case scenario if they had an injury to one guy? Well, if we're looking on defense, there are two to me that jump out. They can't lose guys at cornerback and they can't lose guys at defensive end. And when I say guys at defensive end, I'm talking about Lonnie Phelps. Like a lot of this team's pass rush rides on Lonnie Phelps. And I don't doubt that Hayden Hatcher couldn't fill in or Malcolm Lee and Jeremy Robinson. Like there are names there, but I think you have one guy with a higher ceiling than the rest of the room. Conversely, in cornerback, I'm very high on Jacoby Bryant.

I have been since he arrived on campus. I know he was a highly rated recruit, so I'm not planting my flag on anything that I'm like had some special evaluation. But I thought he was going to be a starter opposite Kalen Girvin. So the fact that he's competing with him speaks well to Romello Dotson, at least. So that's, you know, that's a pro. And those guys need to tackle both Jacoby and Romello Dotson need to tackle way better this year. Um, I don't know how good you feel about that room. If one of those three guys that I just mentioned go down, I think there are

a lot of question marks there now. And in a big 12 that even though quarterback play is going to be down, even though the offenses are going to be down, cause there are no elite ones really, at least I don't think so. Um, you still don't want to be taking injuries at that position. So I think those are the two positions that would worry me. I don't know if there's a position I feel great about anyone getting injured at just because I think KU has good depth, but I do think there's a drop off. Probably linebacker would be the one just because they filled out the two deep at linebacker so well with Craig Young, Lorenzo McCaskill,

and guys improving Eric Gillyard. That's probably the one spot for me that if one of those guys went down, I think KU's still probably relatively fine. And I know linebackers in one position, it's three and sometimes more than that. But yeah, I just, if you lose a defensive end or you lose a cornerback, I think that kind of dramatically shifts where this team is. Yeah, to me, it's specifically Lonnie Phelps um and then I see I think in terms of being in a good position to weather an injury I think it's not just linebacker for me it's

interior defensive line like you have I mean with Sam Burt Eddie Wilson Caleb Sampson Caleb Taylor DJ Weathers that two deep is pretty solid and I don't think there's like a ton of difference between like Burt to Wilson to Taylor to We, and that's not even including some guys that I think are good enough to be a part of the rotation, like Tommy Dunn, who redshirted as well last year as a freshman with DJ Withers. You have Jelani Arnold, who's like a sixth-year senior. You have guys on that interior of the defensive line, that linebacker. One that I think would be really bad would be safety, with Kenny Logan specifically. With Marvin Grant and OJ Burrows, there's an or there so if one gets hurt obviously it hurts your depth

and everything and you clearly don't want that to happen but you feel good that the other can step in if Kenny Logan gets injured I think there's a bigger drop off to like Edwin White Schultz and maybe Jarrett Paul would be the guy that comes in like he's an experienced player and maybe that kind of lessens the blow that you would have there but really that's secondary as a whole with what you were saying at the corner position yeah you know I agree and I don't in one aspect I think like I want to see what OJ Burroughs is I'm quite frankly and I like OJ Burroughs shocked he's listed where he is on the two deep or maybe that's not fair I'll be really surprised if he's a legitimate in contention to start the whole season. I got to imagine Marvin Grant's going to take that from him.

But I think your point on the defensive tackles is great. And I would say this again. You don't want anyone to get injured. Injuries do happen, obviously. But if you guaranteed that like one starting defensive tackle was going to go down week one for the season would not change my projection on this team. I would feel exactly the same as I do about them right now as I would the rest for the season would not change my projection on this team. I would feel exactly the same as I do about them right now as I would the rest of the season. And I'm not saying it's a

thing where you'd be like, I would take that. No, it's injuries and it's kind of morbid and not how it works. But no, that's a position that I think you're absolutely right. Like if you told me tomorrow, Caleb Sampson retires from football. I wouldn't feel great about it. I wouldn't be happy about it. I'd be like, wow, that puts KU in a bind. But I'd still feel the same I do about this defense, that I think they've got a lot of guys who can fill those spots and a lot of guys who can play well, even though I do think,

in my personal opinion, I think Caleb Sampson will be the best player in that room. I agree with that. Well, here's Scott Chasen. You can also hear him on Booth Review with Kansas City Sports Network. Scott, appreciate the time and talk to you next week. Thanks for having me. In just a moment, we're going to get on to a fun little thought exercise, as Scott was saying here, of how much that Lance Leipold and Jalen Daniels are worth, just in terms of wins to a team. How much could that QB- combo be worth that in just a moment one question that I've kind of been pondering here is how much is Lance Leipold's and Jalen Daniels worth to a team we talked a little bit about this in previous episodes with swapping coaches on other teams

and this idea of what it would look like and And certainly, like I said, last year's team, coached by David Beatty, is probably 0-12. Or if you add Lance Leipold, maybe 2018 or 2019, maybe they win four, five, or six games instead. I'm curious, because you look at it in baseball, there's that metric war, right? Wins above replacement. What is the war of Lance Leipold?

What is the war of having a good quarterback in Jalen Daniels? I think from a coaching perspective, obviously a great coach in college football is worth everything. Nick Saban, you look at what he's done in Alabama. But if we're just narrowing it down to the in-season, the in-game, right? Nick Saban is worth all those wins for Alabama to a certain extent because he recruits all those guys there. And so from that standpoint, it's a little more tough to gauge where that would be. But once you have the talent on that team, like how much is

he worth? Once the recruiting is done, and I'm not saying that that shouldn't be a part of how good of a coach you are because that is part of the job, right? But just in terms of the war of the individual season, of what you can provide, what's the most that a coach you are because that is part of the job right but just in terms of the war of the individual season of what you can provide what's the most that a coach could be worth two wins three wins four wins over the course of the season wherever you think it lies I feel like Lance Leipold's is in a good position as far as, like, coach war goes, right? I mentioned the last year comparison with David Beatty, but also that's not wins above replacement. That's wins above a very, very bad head coach. So it's a little bit different, but I think that with Leipold,

you look at it and say there's probably going to be, and maybe this is a better way of viewing it, there's probably going to be an extra game or two or maybe three that maybe we don't win, but we're going to be competitive in that maybe weren't in the past. And then maybe you do get one or two extra wins on a given season than you would with some of those other coaches. That's kind of how I view it. And that's what you're hoping for from a quarterback or from a coach.

Now, from the quarterback position, how much does solid qb play change things up i think again the difference between being the worst quarterback in the big 12 to then being maybe the eighth best that could be worth a win or two the difference between being maybe the eighth best and being like top half that could be another two wins the difference between being top half and top three or the number one could be another win or two along the way. So there is some number there. It's not always perfect, right? You can be Patrick Mahomes with Texas Tech and your team goes five and seven because you give up 40 points per game. Obviously, if you put Todd Riesing with last year's Kansas team, how many wins are you still going

to have? Because that team gave up 42 points per game, right? In theory, though though the most important position if he's good if he's competent the war there so to speak the wins above replacement should be a couple wins and so basically if you total that up this all kind of comes back to the conversation how good is Jalen Daniels going to be if Jalen Daniels is that top five top six quarterback in the Big 12, where you'd be looking at it and, again, just continuing with this theory that I'm kind of playing out with quarterback war, he might be worth two wins.

Lance Leipold might be worth two wins. And then you've got to think, like, wins above replacement, it's not just starting at a place of zero. It's starting somewhere else. So maybe the zero is actually two wins that's enough to get to six and that's just me playing around with the numbers and just kind of a loose idea that is kind of vague and doesn't have an exact way of narrowing it down but the point there is that you could have if Jalen Daniels is as good as we think he could be the QB duo, which is as important as any duo of any two coach, player,

whatever you want to say, of any position on the football field. KU might be nailing that right now, and that's pretty exciting because that is the type of thing that leads to wins. Coming up on tomorrow's show, we're going to preview the Tennessee Tech game. We're also going to have a betting preview for the weekend. If you have anything you'd like for the show to talk about or want to follow along in 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 your day.

We'll see some of you on Rock Chalk Sports Talk later today. Adios.