Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Why Kansas Jayhawks Football Should be Ranked + Will KU be Featured in College Gameday in 2023?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked On Jayhawks, very simple, rank Kansas. They are receiving votes in the latest AP poll, but why they should be ranked, and if not now, when, could this lead to some college game day appearances later in the season? You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page. Thank you to all the everydayers out there tuning in to each and every edition of the show. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we are talking about KU football coming in, receiving votes in the latest AP poll, but not quite ranked. I think they should be ranked. Rank Kansas.

Starting point is 00:01:04 Let's make this a thing. If not now, when will they be ranked? Possibly as long as they keep on winning. And could this set up some possible college game days down the road for Kansas? First on this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLE college for $20 off your first purchase. Again, that is with game time. And Kansas currently is, you know, receiving votes in the latest AP poll.

Starting point is 00:01:34 They are one of the top couple of teams that is outside of the poll. They're currently basically, if you were to count the rankings, they would be ranked tied 28th or 29th. Clemson is the first team out, Arkansas after that, and then TCU and Kansas are both tied with 19 receiving votes outside of the top 25. So technically you're tied 28th if you view it that way with the AP poll. So it's not that you're that far off, and that is a good sign of respect for what Kansas has been able to do early on in this season and how they've looked. But I guess the big question here is, should they be ranked, right? Should they be in the top 25, even though it is kind of splitting hairs and how much really does the top 25 rankings matter?

Starting point is 00:02:14 It's funny, from a KU basketball perspective, I give like zero bleeps about where KU is ranked. Are they seventh? Are they fourth? Are they third? Like you care from a certain standpoint where it's like, well, if they're second or 25th, that's probably you care because that's indicative of how the season is going. But realistically, it's more so about is Kansas basketball ranked to keep the ranking streak alive or are they not, right? Like at the end of the day, if they're ranked third versus fifth,

Starting point is 00:02:39 it's not that big of a deal in terms of how it affects things at the end of the year. And I guess rankings a bit affect things in terms of watchability and what people are going to turn on because they see, oh, there's two unranked teams or one team that's ranked. I guess I'll watch the ranked team. Let's see what they're all about, right? Sometimes it does affect that. And there is a bit of an impact there. And maybe it has a bit of an impact on, you know, you're picked for a slightly better bowl game if you're between one other team in your conference or something like that. So there are certain things.

Starting point is 00:03:05 At the end of the day, does it matter if Kansas is 25th or 29th or whatever? No, probably not. It doesn't have an impact on changing how they should approach this week or how they're going to play the rest of the season, at least you would hope. So it doesn't matter a ton, but I think they should be. And I think for a Kansas football program that you are still building things up, we saw how much it meant for this program to be ranked two weeks last year. I think it just means a lot for this program. And I think it means something for you from a recruiting standpoint, right? Who knows what's going to happen? We

Starting point is 00:03:34 talked a little bit about in the past, like Nick Marsh, for instance, who's a kid who's committed to Michigan State with their situation. Will he decommit? Does being ranked give you a better chance at landing kids like that? I don't know. But here's the argument for why they, I think, should be ranked right now. The offense is absolutely legit. Right now you're averaging 7.9 yards per play on the offensive side of the ball. You were number one in the Big 12 last year at seven yards per play. Now, albeit it's only a two-game sample size, and one of the games was against an FCS opponent,

Starting point is 00:04:01 which is going to raise some of those numbers. But that's almost a yard improvement from where you were. And you were already number one in the big 12 a season ago. The offense is absolutely legit. You've shown it with Jason Bean. You've shown it with Jalen Daniels. Jalen looks like a legit dude. And I mean, one game of work against Illinois, you saw why he was the big 12 offensive preseason player of the year. The running game looks really good. Offensive line looks good. We know what they have at the receiver and the tight end room, but the defense looks improved too. That was kind of the big question coming into the year. Is the offense going to be the

Starting point is 00:04:30 same, if not better? And can the defense be better than a year ago? Well, so far, early returns would say, yes, you're giving up 20 points per game, which that number I'm sure will go up as the season goes on because you're going to play good offenses as the season goes on. But the pass rush has really been there. Kansas was one of the bottom three teams in the conference a season ago in sacks. If you stay on this pace that you're on right now, you would be one of the better teams in the conference in sacks. Again, FCS game in there. Sure. You only had one sack in the FCS game. You had six in the Illinois game, right? Like the defensive line, the pass rush has looked good so far. You've stopped the run in a good number so far, under four yards per carry through the first two games,

Starting point is 00:05:07 including an Illinois team with Brett Bielma that wants to power run the football. So the defense looks improved. The offense looks legit. We haven't seen enough from the special teams to, I think, judge one way or another, though I guess them not making any mistakes this early in the season would make you believe that they are just improved on that merit on its own from where they were a season ago. And where you were a season ago, let's not forget when you had a healthy Jalen Daniels, you were a ranked team. You were ranked what, 19th in the country when you started

Starting point is 00:05:33 5-0? You were ranked 19th in the country even the next week after you lost to TCU. So with a healthy Jalen Daniels, this was a top 25 team last year. And if we start from that base point and say, okay, with a healthy Jalen, they were top 25 last year. Now they have Jalen, all these guys back, and some of these things are improved from a year ago. Why would they not be top 25 at that point in time? You're 2-0. You have two wins that you've won going away.

Starting point is 00:05:57 The Illinois game looked closer than it ended up being. And maybe that's something that is hurting Kansas here. I mean, if you have an AP vote like as much as you'd like to watch each and every game you just can't it's just not feasibly possible right so did some people maybe now you would think for the Kansas game being on Friday more of a standalone game that the AP voters would have been able to see it a little bit more um but did were there some box score people who just said okay they won 34-23 that's a solid win but I'm not going to just jump them up for nothing

Starting point is 00:06:27 as opposed to watching the game and being like, oh, Kansas is a lot better than this Illinois team was in this game, and they were up this much at halftime, and they were up 31-7 at one point, and they were dominating the game. And if not for this small thing or that small thing, they won the game even more than they already did, and the score wasn't totally indicative of how much better they were in that game. Then I think you would have gotten more votes going your favor and going your way. But if you're just looking at the box score, the final score, you might not

Starting point is 00:06:52 give them enough credit to what they probably should have gotten. You could argue just to begin with that, you know, if this was a lot of other schools, they would have been ranked in the preseason rankings just to begin with. I've mentioned this a lot during the offseason, but take like a lot of these other Big 12 schools, right? Take Baylor, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma. If you had a team who won six games and returned 16 or 17 starters, including the first team, all conference quarterback and running back. And the quarterback is your preseason conference player of the year. You did all those things.

Starting point is 00:07:31 You returned those. You returned every single coach. You returned all your coordinators and everybody thought highly of your head coach. If that happened to Oklahoma state or Baylor, Oklahoma, those teams are preseason top 25 teams might not be, you know, top 10 or top 15, but they're probably at the back end of that top 25 right I mean TCU was was in the preseason top 20 now part of that is based on what they had last year but they lost a lot of players from last year right Oklahoma we've kind of made those

Starting point is 00:07:53 comparisons before you could argue Kansas should have been a preseason top 25 team to begin with it's just that there was the nom the name of Kansas on the front of the jersey that even though last year was a nice season it's like okay well we, well, we'll show it to you, show it to us for more years, right? And I don't blame anybody nationally for doing that. A lot of times we give the benefit of the doubt to people with good track records. It's the same as if, you know, you have employees at your work who sometimes you have somebody who shows up late every day versus somebody who gets everything done. You're going to give the benefit of the doubt to the person who gets everything done. You just are. That's just how life works. You know, I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to the person who gets everything done. You just are.

Starting point is 00:08:26 That's just how life works. You know, I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt that Alabama is going to have a good team every year under Nick Saban, right? You just give it the benefit of the doubt. You don't want to be the person who bets against streak. So I understand that from a national perspective. I'm just saying you could have made the argument. They should have been ranked in the preseason based on some of the merit of what they had

Starting point is 00:08:41 coming back and what they did from a season ago based on what other teams maybe had in those specific ranges anyway. Now that they've started 2-0 and won that coin flip game, kind of going away against Illinois, I think you can put them there. And if you're cross-comparing, because to get here, to be like, why should they be ranked, you do have to compare and be like, well, who should they be ranked over, right? But I look at the rankings. Colorado has been an awesome story.

Starting point is 00:09:04 I think Colorado is a good team. They could win seven or eight games this year. They have an elite offense. Travis Hunter, Shadur Sanders have been awesome. Isn't Colorado this year, though, just kind of Kansas last year? You had this program that was really bad, and then you have this quarterback who jumps onto the scene, and your offense is really good. Now, the defense looked really good against Nebraska, too, so maybe there is more there. But are we sure that Colorado beating TCU in the first week is that much better than Kansas owning Illinois in Lawrence? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:09:34 Should Kansas be ahead of them? Maybe. I think they should be ahead of Duke. I know Duke has the big win over Clemson, but it's like, well, what if Clemson's just not very good? That game was 21-17, and then Clemson just dominated from there in Clemson's FCS game in Week 2. But Kansas beat Duke last season in a game that was kind of similar

Starting point is 00:09:51 to the Illinois game. Kansas won by eight over Duke, but that was a game you walked away from being like, man, I felt like Kansas should have won that game by more. I know that was last year, but there are a lot of similar faces to Duke last year to what they are this year, too. Same goes for Kansas. So I don't know. I'd probably have them ahead of Duke.

Starting point is 00:10:06 Why is Miami's win over Texas A&M carrying a lot more water than Kansas' win over Illinois, for instance, right? You could argue over Iowa if you want any semblance of offense. So a couple different there. And for me, I would have them ranked. I did have them ranked in my top 25 that I submitted to Locked On. I think I had them at like number 21 or something like that. Now, as far as you are making an argument against it,

Starting point is 00:10:34 I guess you could say how much of they're really proven. FCS win. What if Illinois is bad? This week, Illinois is playing Penn State. This is going to be a great litmus test for Kansas from what Illinois does. If Illinois plays close with a really talented, good Penn State team, I think that proves it well. But if Penn State beats Illinois, you know, 45 to seven, then maybe we will say, okay, maybe how good was that Illinois win? And while I could argue Kansas and would over some of those teams

Starting point is 00:10:58 that I just mentioned, it is also splitting hairs. So you can see it both ways. Also Arkansas is like 27th in the receiving votes. And based on how last year finished, it's hard for me not to be like, eh, I feel like Arkansas might be better than Kansas. Although it was a close game, but them being ranked basically 28th shows that they're right there. So I guess what is the big deal at the end of the day? All right, let's continue on with some of this talk. What will it take? What is Kansas going to need to get to, to get ranked in the AP pool top 25? That in just a moment. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime.

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Starting point is 00:12:42 game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. What is it going to take for Kansas to be ranked in the top 25? They're so close at number 28. This week you play Nevada, which lost to Idaho and got blown out by USC. So this win wouldn't necessarily carry much water. Also, if you only win like 31-17, that's probably not going to look too good. But if you blow them out and kind of have your ho-hum win, even if it's, you

Starting point is 00:13:10 know, 45 to 21 or something like that, then it's more so just going to be about who in front of you loses. I don't think there's really anything you can do against Nevada this week that's going to jump you in, right? It's not like you're playing a number 10 opponent and if you beat them, it's like, oh, now we have to jump them in. You're going to have to need to win, take care of business and hope teams in front of you lose, which makes me kind of wonder, because if you look at the college football slate this week, not a lot of great games. Now, maybe that means there's opportunity for teams to lose to unranked teams and then you slide in front of them. But that kind of makes me think that this week, it's going to be tough for Kansas to slide into the rankings slide into the rankings based on some of the teams who they're playing and that they're going to be

Starting point is 00:13:48 expected to win and stay in the rankings. So it might be getting to 4-0 that it takes for Kansas to be ranked in the top 25. And if you can get to 4-0, that would mean you would not just be beating Nevada. That would mean you would need to beat BYU at home. And I think BYU is a solid team. I don't know that BYU is an 8-9 win eight, nine win team, but I think they could be in win five, six, seven games, somewhere in that range in the big 12. They're two and O to this point in time. And they're playing Arkansas this week. So, I mean, that'll be actually a good litmus test too, right there. But that would give you another solid win. It would give you two more weeks of having some carnage among other teams in the polls and everything like that, that I think if they

Starting point is 00:14:24 get to four and O, I would be surprised if they weren't ranked, to be honest. I think they have a chance if they win this week, but if they get to 4-0 with a win over BYU, I feel very confident that they would be ranked at the end of that. Now, I'll be very interested to see if they do get ranked at the end of that BYU, like if they can beat BYU again. That is going to be more of a coin flip game, right? It's going to be kind of similar to the Illinois game. If you play like that, you of that BYU, like if they can beat BYU again, that is going to be more of a coin flip game, right?

Starting point is 00:14:45 Like it's going to be kind of similar to the Illinois game. If you play like that, you should beat BYU, but you never know with, you know, you have college kids, right? Is everybody going to step up to the same level? Who knows? But if you do take care of business and you are a 4-0, and I do feel like you're ranked, that would set up quite the week five matchup, which would be against Texas.

Starting point is 00:15:07 And Texas, coming off the Alabama win, is ranked in the top five. And with some of the funny punchlines and storylines we've had over the years with Kansas-Texas, if Kansas is ranked in the top 25, headed into week five against presumably a top five Texas team, last trip for KU to Austin before Texas leaves for the SEC. Would it be college game day? Question mark. Let's discuss that next and what other games,

Starting point is 00:15:40 what other possible matchups in the future could give potential for KU to have college game day this year, whether it's at home or whether it's on the road because because you had College Game Day last year. Got to keep the streak going. Need another game with KU on it that has College Game Day. Got to get a KU game where they're on College Game Day, whether it's home or away, where they win this year, because now that's the next step you need to take in the process. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.

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Starting point is 00:16:22 You can get it on the KU Action. You can get it on the over-under of the game. They'll have player props up for Jalen Daniels' passing yards, touchdowns, Devin Neal. This could be a good game to take any time touchdown score on a player like Savion Morrison or Dylan McDuffie or some of these guys that, if you play like you're expected to against a lesser team, could get in the game and score touchdowns here,

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Starting point is 00:17:01 There's other good games those weeks, but I just talked about it. The week of Texas, because part of this isn't just who you're playing, where you could be at, could you be ranked, could you be a good team, could they be a good team, could they be ranked? It's also what are the other games going on that week in the college football slate? But the three ones I think they have a chance of is Oklahoma at home, Kansas State at home, and at Texas in week five. So the week that you play at Texas in week five, we already went over that if Kansas can go into that game, obviously it would require Kansas being 4-0 going into that game to where they're ranked in the top 25. They'd

Starting point is 00:17:34 probably be in that 21 to 25 range. Texas, assuming they continue to win out, would probably be ranked three or four, somewhere in that range, and they'd be undefeated too. The other games going on that week, you have Utah at Oregon State. That could be a good game. Utah's a top 15 team. Oregon State's a top 25 team. We'll see if they both continue to win up until that point over the next couple of weeks. The one thing that might be going against this though, I don't know if this matters at all. Let's not forget ESPN did have a big hand in kind of disbanding the Pac-12 here like and it's not just that the Pac-12 disbanded it's that Oregon State has nowhere to go and now they're left there's Oregon State Washington left off for the Mountain West or Pac-12 merger whatever's

Starting point is 00:18:17 going to end up happening here would ESPN have the gall to do college game day at Oregon State because I don't think that would be received super well by Corvallis and by Oregon State. So I don't know, even though that could be a really good game and would be a fun game to go to, I don't know that they would for that specific reason. Georgia's at Auburn. Auburn's 2-0. They won at Cal. I don't know that Auburn's like that good. They might be a six or seven win team, but maybe it's interesting. You know, Hugh Freeze there now and everything. Georgia, your number one team. I guess there's a chance there. USC at Colorado, which that should be a really good game.

Starting point is 00:18:50 Colorado could be ranked in the top 20. USC will be ranked in the top like six or seven, you would think at that point in time. Should be a high scoring, fun offensive game. Two really good quarterbacks. That one seems like it makes a lot of sense, but also they're going to Colorado this weekend. And would they really go back for college game day two weeks later?

Starting point is 00:19:07 I don't know that they would. It feels like they may have burned that bullet, but there's not a lot of good games this weekend, so they kind of had to. So I don't know. Maybe they won't go back to that one. Notre Dame at Duke could actually be a lot of fun. Duke is now in the top 25. Notre Dame's really good.

Starting point is 00:19:21 That one is definitely one to keep an eye on. And then LSU at Ole Miss, they always have fun anytime they go to Ole Miss. That could be a top 20 matchup. But did it lose some of its luster with LSU losing? So I don't know that they would pick Texas-Kansas over any of those. I don't know if they would pick any of those over Kansas or over the Texas-Kansas game, but I think it's close. So I think that one's very possible.

Starting point is 00:19:39 The week of the Oklahoma game, you have Ohio State-Wisconsin, which Wisconsin doesn't look too hot to start. Tennessee at Kentucky, that could be pretty good. Oregon and Utah, that could be pretty darn good. And Colorado at UCLA, but also game day kind of stinks when it's at UCLA. They don't get a good turnout. So there's tough competition in that one. And then the week of the K-State one, you have Colorado at Washington State.

Starting point is 00:19:57 We'll see if both those teams continue to be like top 25 adjacent teams. Georgia and Tennessee, that's probably the leader in the clubhouse right now. But what if Tennessee ends up being not as good as we thought? What if they end up being like seven and 14 going into that game or something? UCLA versus USC. Again, I don't know. We'll see how that goes. They don't tend to get great crowds when they go to UCLA or USC. Washington and Oregon State, same thing though. And North Carolina at Clemson, which who knows about Clemson at this point in time, but that would be an ACC title rematch. If I am ranking the most possible though,

Starting point is 00:20:27 I think the Texas week is the most likely for you to be on game day this year. So I'd say number one would be the Texas game. I think number two would be the Oklahoma game and number three would be K-State, even though like if Kansas goes into that K-State game at let's say seven and three and Kansas State is eight and two,

Starting point is 00:20:41 even though that could have implications on who plays for a big 12 title, if that would be, you know, if Kansas holds up their end of the bargain and that would be the situation there, and even though that would be a fun rivalry to go to and everything, it's just that Georgia-Tennessee game feels like such a roadblock and a game-day lock that I have at number three there, the most likely, I think, of what to happen.

Starting point is 00:21:00 I think that would be the most fun for them to go to, but I don't know that it's as likely because of that Georgia-Tennessee game. That's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us with our YouTube page. Like and subscribe to the show. We'll see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Why Kansas Jayhawks Football Should be Ranked + Will KU be Featured in College Gameday in 2023?

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