Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Why Early Season Woes Cost Devin Neal a Spot in New York & More Kansas Football + Bball Takeaways

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked On Jayhawks, why Devin Neal would be a real Heisman candidate if the season were going just a little bit better for KU football. Other takeaways from football, early basketball takeaways, and our top and bottom performers for Kansas, Colorado from Pro Football Focus. You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Derek Johnson, you can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can find me on Blue Sky at Derek Johnson. And this is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:39 Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show on today's edition of loj we're going over our two biggest takeaways from the kansas colorado game including uh why devin neal would be a real heisman candidate if maybe just a few of those early season games started to go ku's way a little bit more some early takeaways from the ku basketball season two ahead of their game against Duke on Tuesday night. And then we'll get into the top and bottom performers,

Starting point is 00:01:09 according to Pro Football Focus. Maybe some interesting snap counts, what it can tell us from the KU-Colorado game. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. You can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. Just visit fanduel.com to get started today. So let's start with the football field. Two biggest takeaways. Well, our first big takeaway here is this would have been a perfect

Starting point is 00:01:37 year for Devin Neal to be a Heisman candidate if KU had more wins. Unfortunately, the least amount of wins we've seen from a Heisman winner is nine going with a nine in a season. And you look at KU, obviously that's not possible to get to that point. So this is not me saying that this is going to happen or whatever, but if you look at a few of KU's early games, I mean, those five one score losses that they suffered to open up the season, you look at the UNLV game, West Virginia game uh the Kansas State game if you win a couple more of these and swing it your way not only would KU be in a position where they would probably be ranked right now not I mean if if you swing two of the early games Kansas is probably would end up being ranked this week right because then the record would be seven and four with three straight ranked wins that

Starting point is 00:02:23 would be right if you flip three of those games where you know in the UNLV game you just fall on the ball in the West Virginia game you don't don't give up a 10-point lead with under four minutes to go and the Kansas State game you either just don't fumble or they miss the field goal or you know yada yada yada like a multitude of things happen or maybe the Arizona State game like you know you hit Quinn Skinner on the open shot whatever whatever it ends up being. Yeah, you switch three of those games. Then all of a sudden you're looking at a eight and three record at that point in time. And now you're being talked about as a ranked team and you have the chance to get to that ninth win. And at that point in time, Kansas would be in the driver's seat to play for a big 12 championship game. So you would have the team success if some of that stuff

Starting point is 00:03:02 happened early. And it is a shame if that stuff weren't there because it's not just about what Devin Neal has accomplished but it's also what happened on Saturday in about as big of a moment as you could talk about going against the Heisman front runner and Travis Hunter if Devin Neal would have done that in a position where let's say a was a top 20 matchup between Kansas and Colorado and it was being billed as a the winner of this is going to be probably playing for the Big 12 championship game and you have two Heisman candidates Devin Neal Travis Hunter going at it and then Devin Neal did what he did on Saturday where he almost out yarded individually Colorado by himself I mean that would have been as big of a Heisman moment or a Heisman level game as you're talking about. And the reason I say as well, like this would have been the perfect year for this to actually

Starting point is 00:03:49 like come together and happen had the team success been there a little bit more. This is not one of those years where you have a Lamar Jackson, you go back to last year, Jaden Daniels or a Joe Burrow, where there is a quarterback putting up just ridiculous, monstrous stats where you cannot deny that guy because we know the quarterback position is the most impactful position on the football field to where if you're putting up monster numbers too like you're just going to win the award that is what happens and we can have a conversation about well it's the best player in the country and that's how i think it should be determined as i think too often it becomes an MVP trophy with the Heisman,

Starting point is 00:04:25 which I don't think that's what it was intended to be. But point being, this isn't one of those years where you have a bunch of quarterbacks that become the obvious award winners of this trophy. Like you look at the top of the list right now, it's Ashton Gentry. It is Travis Hunter. And yes, I think that would be a tough hurdle of saying, hey, you know, even though Devin Neal's doing it against a power level competition, like compare his rushing stats to Ashton Jenty, and it would be probably impossible for him to get the vote over Jenty. But could he at least be a candidate? Could he at least be somebody who gets invited to New York, which we haven't seen, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:03 and like that would still be a very big deal and yes like those things would be a little bit there and there and you look at it and like devon yale is one of 19 running backs right now across college football for all levels of division one football um with 1100 or i should say fbs football uh one of 19 with 1100 or more rushing yards so like you know that's good um but is that heisman worthy well of that 19 he's one of 19 with 1,100 or more rushing yards. So that's good, but is that Heisman worthy? Well, of that 19, he's one of just nine who has 15 or more rushing touchdowns. Then if you narrow that down even more, of the nine, he has the second least amount of carries.

Starting point is 00:05:36 So then you start factoring in the efficiency. You start factoring in that Kansas is not a super up-tempo team, that they are playing lower plays per game and it becomes even more impressive then you factor in like maybe some of the receiving stuff he would need in this scenario like another big game against Baylor both in terms of team success and you know um to bolster his stats and then with more publicity but again that Travis Hunter game would have been his Heisman moment narrative game, so to speak. He also had the Kansas turnaround story similar to, you know, with Robert Griffin when he won the Heisman.

Starting point is 00:06:12 Part of it was like, I mean, he was an unbelievable player and everything, but like would have Andrew Luck won the award if RG3 wasn't the one turning around a Baylor program, which was like in the dumps in the Big 12. Plus you have the local kid story for Devin Neal, where you get that kind of emotional sentiment on your side. But I guess regardless of all this, since this is, you know, what ifs and stuff that isn't going to end up happening, I will say to me, he's going to go down as the greatest running back in KU football history. And when you look at the back-to-back bowl games, a chance in a third straight, which would be incredible,

Starting point is 00:06:44 if they can accomplish that, winning a bunch of ranked games over the course of his career, his time is going to be remembered fondly one way or another. All right, number two takeaway for KU football, making a bowl game this season would be more impressive for KU than making a bowl game in the 2022 season so if you remember obviously 2022 if you remember if you remember two years ago um if you remember back to 2022 snapping the bowl streak for ku of what over a decade going back to 2008 season for the 2009 inside bowl or no i guess the inside bowl was played in 2008 right um so you're talking about a a bull streak of basically 14 years and that was an unbelievable accomplishment by Lance Lightwell then they went six and six in the process to get there they had to limp to the finish line a little bit they started five and oh they needed that Oklahoma State win to get them there right and obviously that was a gigantic

Starting point is 00:07:38 accomplishment and it doesn't take away from that this would be a bigger accomplishment because it's easier when you're on the upslope and it's easier i think to overcome losses in that situation kansas was coming off a bunch of seasons where they won zero one two three games right so when you when you start five and oh and then you lose some games you know it might not tank your season because you're still sitting there going hey like this we haven't made a bowl game in so long like we're right there like this isn't gonna bring us down like yada yada yada for this team what all the expectations in the world to start two and six things not going your way it would have been a lot easier right i mean it's one thing if you're suffering a five game losing streak this year or whatever it was at the peak i don't know i don't

Starting point is 00:08:24 think it was that bad but three four whatever um versus if you're suffering a five game losing streak this year or whatever it was at the peak. I don't know. I don't think it was that bad, but three, four, whatever. Versus if you're suffering a three, four losing streak in that year, it's just handled differently. Like this year, it feels more of just like a, when it happened, when things were not going well, it felt like more of a death sentence, so to speak. Like it felt so much more disappointing and frustrating when it happened. And so for Lance Leipold, for the seniors, it felt so much more disappointing and frustrating when it happened.

Starting point is 00:08:48 And so for Lance Leipold, for the seniors, for the players to stick together, to stick through it and get to this point where, yeah, they still have to take care of one more just to get bowl eligible, and there's no guarantee that's going to happen, but just to get to a point where you've gotten to this opportunity, to where you've gotten back to five wins, to where you've won three straight ranked games, it's unbelievable. And again, for you like when you look at the path to getting bowl eligible you look at that 2022 season it was you know um

Starting point is 00:09:13 getting some some decent wins like west virginia ended up not being very good that year houston ended up not being very good that year right like beating oklahoma state to get bowl eligible that was a ranked win but also oklahoma State was on their second slash third string quarterback who weren't very good. For you to get to a bowl game this year, you had to go through three straight ranked teams. You're going to have to go through on the road Baylor, who all of a sudden is a good seven win team that has actually a chance to play for the Big 12 championship if they win this game. I think this would actually be the bigger accomplishment of making it to a bowl game. Not obviously if you viewed it from the standpoint of before the season started, but kind of the adversity that you had to overcome in the middle of the season.

Starting point is 00:09:52 Just incredible for what they've done. But still got to win one more to get to that point. All right, let's get to our two big basketball takeaways from the early portion of the season. Next, this is Lockdown Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. This is Locked on Jayhawks. college basketball, college football, whatever you're looking for, all in one place. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your live bets. Just visit Fanduel.com to join today.

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Starting point is 00:10:53 and thanks for checking out Locked On College Football or Locked On College Basketball for your second listen. Our top two takeaways from the early portion of the season for KU basketball. Number one, Kansas needs to figure out its identity in terms of doing something that they can rely on that wins possessions. I think right now, if you're looking at things that Kansas can rely on, that is their identity. It involves interior offense, two point offense, not that dissimilar from what it was a season ago. I think you have more of a three point game

Starting point is 00:11:20 than you did this year. I don't know that I would call that their identity necessarily, but what I'm talking about is necessarily like maximizing possessions in some way or maximizing the math game, I guess a little bit like there are different ways to skin a cat. There are different ways to be successful. You can be an awesome three-point shooting team that takes a lot of threes, right? That wins the possession game, the math game. You can be just an elite offensive rebounding team that gets a bunch of extra possessions. You can be an elite, I don't know, defensive rebounding team and team who doesn't turn the ball over. And now you're preventing them from getting possessions in both ways, right? There are different ways that you can maximize possessions and it doesn't matter how

Starting point is 00:11:57 you go about it, but you have to be good in one way or another because there are going to be certain nights when shots are not falling for you. There's going to be certain nights where shots are falling at a higher rate than normal for the opposition if you can win those extra possessions in one way or another right you think back to like um the bob huggins west virginia teams right like they were really good at offensive rebounding and stealing the basketball you think back to some of the best bill self teams what have they done well they're typically good rebounding teams and maybe they're good at getting steals if you have some good guards to do so, or you're going to be good at avoiding turnovers on the offensive end.

Starting point is 00:12:31 There are certain things you have to be able to be at least proficient in some of these things, and right now, I think that there are some areas to improve, and I think this was a bit of an issue for last year's team right now Kansas ranks outside the top 200 nationally in offensive rebound rate free throw attempt rate three-point attempt rate and steal rate defensively um I think just being like a well-oiled machine offensively and avoiding turnovers that's a great starting point and one that I am like okay this team should be able to do right you have a veteran point

Starting point is 00:13:09 guard into one Harris you have a bunch of ball handlers you have uh good passing big men and KJ Adams and Hunter Dickinson but I think for this team to take that next step and for them to remain one of the elite teams in college basketball you have to figure these things out like you have to be able to maximize your possessions and or the math game in some way. I don't understand why Kansas can't be better at offensive rebounding. But I've thought that for a year and a half now. When you have KJ Adams, who's this ultimate athlete,

Starting point is 00:13:39 he should be a better offensive rebounder. But I've thought that for a while now, and it just hasn't happened. So, like, I don't know that that's the one I'm going to point to and be like i'm expecting that to get like i still think it can but i'm just not expecting to so honestly kind of the same stuff with steel right like it's one of those things where it's like oh dewan harris should get a lot of steals for him he actually has done a good job getting seals but like hunter is at least an alert big man and getting some steals here there there's no reason why kj or rylan griffin or aj store some of these athletic wings can't be

Starting point is 00:14:05 good at getting steals for you if you're playing a lot of guards that should increase that right um but that just hasn't been the case so like i'm not necessarily expecting that to be the one either i think the three-point attempt rate might be the most doable because that's one of the easiest ones to accomplish in a sense of just like just do it like just make that your game plan just make that a little bit more shoot a little bit bit more threes. But also, it might just not because with what they want to do and being an interior-focused offense, that just might not be possible. So maybe the one that is most possible to accomplish that's realistic is either getting to the free throw line more.

Starting point is 00:14:39 This team needs to get to the free throw line more. Like, that's one way you can win on the margins here, which I think would naturally happen with ku's offensive profile already you would think that if you're pounding the ball inside with these big men eventually you're going to start getting more attempts at the free throw line now you have to take advantage of those you have to make them in a higher clip but that's kind of what i'm looking at here like what ways can kansas get better at maximizing the possessions of the game because i feel like they're going to be an efficient two-point offense.

Starting point is 00:15:06 I like the three-point shooting that they have in terms of at least efficiency from the outside. Can you maximize possessions in some way other than defensive rebounding, which you've done to this point, that can really take you over the top in a lot of different ways? Number two takeaway here, KJ Adams has quite the opportunity this week against Duke. I would imagine he's going to be the primary defender on Cooper Flagg, right? I'd imagine it's going to be Hunter Dickinson and Common Malawach that are going to be kind of going at it at the center position. I think KJ and Cooper Flagg are going to be the matchup. And so I think it's a big opportunity for KJ Adams. He's had some lower production games recently. I think a lot of people have kind of chalked it up to some of the

Starting point is 00:15:47 recent injury stuff that he's had. If things don't go well against Duke overall for the game, he struggles in the matchup. I think that the noise that maybe you see from a lot of fans of wanting more four guards, like that noise is only going to increase tenfold of, you know, wanting the minutes to drop down to the low 20s as opposed to being in the high 20s or something, playing more with AJ Storer, Ryland Griffin at the four. That stuff is only going to amplify. If you're KJ Adams, this is an opportunity to, I don't know, show your value, I guess, in a real way. Like if the idea here of KJ Adams is that he is this really good defender and that he's this connect good defender and that he's this

Starting point is 00:16:25 connective piece and he's this glue guy and does all these little things to help you win the game. What better way to do it against the guy who's probably going to be the number one pick in the NBA draft and Cooper flag make life difficult on him, right? Play a good defensive game. Because if that is the idea of what you are, this is the type of game that you're needed for. So I think that'll be a big one coming up on Tuesday, but we'll get more into that matchup coming up on Tuesday show of Locked on Jayhawks. All right,

Starting point is 00:16:50 let's finish up here. Top and bottom performance for Kansas, Colorado, according to pro football focus. This episode is brought to you by game time, which is a new feature called game time picks. It makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play live even easier. GameTime Picks filters out the fluff to show you all the incredible deals on great seats

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Starting point is 00:18:10 Game time. Finishing things up on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks with the top and bottom performers according to Pro Football Focus and maybe some stuff about what it can tell us for the Kansas-Colorado game. Let's start with the offensive side of the ball. you won't believe who was graded the highest. That would be Devin Neal. Shocking, right? I think we don't really need to go into that one much more because we've talked plenty

Starting point is 00:18:34 about it in recent episodes. Second on the team out there, how about this? Trevor Cardell. He had that one catch where he had the hurdle a little bit afterwards, but he did well in blocking. Graded out as a 72 run blocker uh he was 68 and pass blocking played 50 snaps for the game so how about trevor cardell uh popping up there kobe baines got a 71 overall grade he was a 70 and run block 68 and pass block leading the

Starting point is 00:18:56 middle of that offense for uh devon neal to run through jaylen daniels was fourth and then luke grim was fifth connecting for those two in the passing game uh for the jay hawks as far as the bottom five on the offensive side of the ball to vita noah it was just nine snaps but he graded just a 43 calvin clemens played 31 snaps he uh graded just a 49 he actually graded really well though in pass blocking 84 and pass blocking uh just a 54 in run blocking but like with as successful as KU was running the football I'm not sure I totally buy into that number uh Logan Brown only graded out a 53 he was kind of the opposite 65 in run block only a four in pass block which I don't know if I buy

Starting point is 00:19:37 that either um let's see Lagan Cure 57 and then Bryce Cable do was a 58 uh in 80 snaps he was an 81 pass block 52 in run blocking so some inconsistent stuff in terms of what you're seeing there now on the defensive side of the ball for ku uh the top guy was jalen todd he played 41 snaps which is a new career high for jalen todd uh freshman corner he's going to be i mean i'd imagine he's going to be penciled in as one of your starters next year kobe and mellow depart I think Jalen Todd I have high expectations what he can be next year and he showed why in this game 41 snaps had KU's best defensive grade at 76.4 he had a 76.9 coverage grade for KU and he was targeted four times in coverage he did give up all four catches but only went for 23 yards and this is what's crazy too he gave up 23 yards on four

Starting point is 00:20:25 catches 31 yards after the catch so you might be thinking wait how does that add up receiver screens throws behind the line of scrimmage so realistically he you know if you're just talking air yards he gave up negative eight air yards for the game he also had a pass breakup but a penalty with it i don't i guess the pass breakup was on a play he wasn't targeted because it was at the end of the game that's right on that uh fourth down i think in the end zone uh kobe bryant was second that might be a surprise to some people because travis hunter had the big game not all of it was on kobe a lot of it was on that receiver screen um kobe was targeted seven times in coverage he had four catches for 51 yards and that touchdown

Starting point is 00:21:02 but even then that touchdown that he gave up was I don't really think his fault I think it was like a cover two where Kobe was passing the receiver off and expecting the safety help to be there and Travis Hunter just kind of sat in the zone and the safety wasn't there in time and he ends up making the catch and that one was dinged against Kobe Bryant but I don't think that should have been on him. So if you don't count that one, he would have only given up three catches on six targets for just 24 yards, four yards per target with two pass breakups. So Kobe had a really good game. He graded out a 74.7 second on the team. By job, only six snaps, graded out well. So I guess that's good to see, even though limited snaps, 73-8. That was the same tie for Dylan Woodke, who played more snaps at 18 with a 73-8 overall.

Starting point is 00:21:46 And then Dean Miller, who I think has quietly been improving over the course of the season and has been your most consistent pass rusher overall. He had three pressures in the game, had a 70.8 PFF grade in 31 snaps for KU. But if you notice there, a lot of those snaps were the DNs down a little bit more. They did a good job of rotating guys, playing a lot of different bodies, but Miller led the team with those three pressures. Blake Harold and J.B. Brown were second on the team with two of them. Bottom five performers on defense. The bottom was Tywon Berryhill. 11 snaps. He had a 41 grade. That was just a 20 grade in tackling, a 42 grade in coverage. Devin Dye played just seven snaps, 42 grade on the defensive side. I'll say this.

Starting point is 00:22:26 I think coming into the year, the backup safeties were the two Dye brothers. I think we've seen enough from Taylor Davis that I wouldn't be shocked if Taylor Davis ends up being one of the starting safeties next season. DJ Warner, nine snaps, 46 overall PFF grade. He continues to go through some lumps in his early freshman season,

Starting point is 00:22:43 but good that they continue to get him snaps and he'll still continue to show flashes.j burrows had just a 47 grade and then keenan caldwell had just a 50 grade which that one surprised me because it's only seven snaps and he was in on one of the snap one of the uh sacks for ku at that end of the field now there were only 46 snaps available for the defense because the KU offense just possessed the ball for so dang long so some of the the uh snap numbers are certainly a little bit off but but certainly telling we go back to like Jalen Todd 41 snaps Demarius McGee played only three and McGee was certainly ahead of Jalen Todd when the season began seems like now and maybe they were just

Starting point is 00:23:19 doing it this way because they wanted to preserve the red shirt for Jalen Todd and now that you're at a point of the season where that doesn't matter as much, you're just like, hey, full go for Jalen Todd. So he ends up playing a lot more. I think that was certainly telling when you look at like maybe next year's depth chart, for instance, Tommy Dunn only played nine snaps in this one. When you look at the defensive tackles that played the most, it was Blake Harold with 23 snaps. It was DJ Withers with 20 snaps. Caleb Taylor was 17 for the Jayhawks. I don't know if this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, you can find our show anywhere. You get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to

Starting point is 00:23:55 the show back on Tuesday's episode for a Kansas and Duke preview. You're not going to want to miss it. So make sure you subscribe. See you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Why Early Season Woes Cost Devin Neal a Spot in New York & More Kansas Football + Bball Takeaways

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