Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Will Bye Week BOOST Kansas Ahead of West Virginia and What Can the Jayhawks Show Improvement in?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked-on Jayhawks, we'll look at what hopefully got better for KU football during the bye week. A look ahead to some of the upcoming schedule, including a look ahead to the West Virginia Mountaineers, KU football's next opponent. You are Locked-on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network,

Starting point is 00:00:24 your team every day. What's going on, Derek Johnson here? is locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it to your first listen every day. And thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere to get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of LOJ, we're breaking down the buy week for KU football, what hopefully it led to in terms of improvement and KU getting ready for the rest of the season. What does the rest of that schedule look like for KU, especially after another week of data points in college football and an early

Starting point is 00:00:58 peek at the West Virginia Mountaineers, which is KU's next opponent upcoming on Saturday. Today's episode of the show was brought to you by FandualSports book. Right now, new customers can bet just $5, and if your bet wins, you get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the app today

Starting point is 00:01:14 with Fandual. Okay, so KU had a buy week this past week as they get ready for the West Virginia game. What are some of the biggest things you hope that they got improved? And maybe some areas that I don't think you can really expect to be improved after Kansas has this by week. I think the first one that you would look at is tackling. You know,

Starting point is 00:01:33 we talked about this a lot over the first couple weeks of the season that Kansas missed 12 tackles in their first two games combined. And a majority of those it felt like was on the first drive that they played against Fresno State. I mean, you could probably count three or four alone on that first drive by Fresno State that went down and scored a touchdown. From then on, though, they were pretty solid in terms of tackling until the Missouri game happened. And then in the Missouri game, they missed 24 tackles, according to pro football focus. Now, obviously, it's going to get tougher, the better athletes that you're playing against. And Missouri has better athletes than Wagner and Fresno State.

Starting point is 00:02:06 But where does that rank in terms of the athletes that you're going to play in the West Virginia game, the Cincinnati game, the rest of the games, the rest of the way is Missouri, you know, do they have the best athletes on the outside compared to anybody else that you're going to play? How applicable is it? How close is it to these other games? How much of it was just a bad game by KU? Can they get that better? Can you get it better during the by week?

Starting point is 00:02:25 I'll be interested to see if they can because if they do become a better tackling team, I think there's a lot to like about this defense and some of the improvement and some of the positions that they have. If you can be a more sound tackling football team, I really like where they'll finish at the end of the year. The next one is offensive line play and cohesion. So right now, it still seems like they're still not totally settled on who those five guys are going to be. Now, we've really seen a big split recently.

Starting point is 00:02:53 the snaps between Amir Herring and Tavaki, Tuiko, Lovatu. We've seen a little bit go to Nolan Gorsica, right tackle for Enrique Cruz. Cruz still getting the majority there, but it's enough to make you wonder, how settled is this stuff? And then, you know, how much does the continuity help? It hasn't been the best starts to the season for Calvin Clements and Bryce Foster. They've had some good moments, but, you know, I think there's another level that both of those guys can get to at the same point in time.

Starting point is 00:03:20 And when you look at that, how much do both those guys get? helped by having just more continuity as an offensive line. It's not just that the KU offensive line had a bunch of dudes on it, whether you look at a couple years ago with Dominic Poonie or last year with Logan Brown or with Bryce Cable do. It's the fact that you had guys who, you know, played cohesive football and played a lot of snaps next to each other. And this year, yes, Bryce Foster and Kobe Baines, they played a good amount of snaps next to

Starting point is 00:03:47 each other because of last year, but the rest of the offensive line hasn't played a ton of snaps together. So you would think inherently at a position where like, you know, if you're a receiver and the other receiver on the other side of the field runs the wrong route, you can still get open and catch a pass and then, you know, make a big play or go for a touchdown or whatever. If you were the, I don't know, like the left tackle and the right tackle messes up or I don't know, like there's a blitz and there's a free man coming and somebody else messes up if you're the center, right? and the guard messes up, it can make you look bad or it can like, it just makes life a lot easier on kind of everybody else on the team at that point of time. And so it's a much more cohesive position. It is a position where like you really are counting on the other players.

Starting point is 00:04:34 I mean, obviously football is a team sport, but like it is a team within a team on the offensive line. And so you just wonder if the playing next to each other, the cohesion, will that help KU moving forward and just getting more of those reps during the biweek? And I would say the same thing about the defensive backroom. that one maybe a little less so in terms of that cohesion as the offense line, but it still does matter, right?

Starting point is 00:04:54 If you're playing like a zone defense, you know, where exactly do I feel comfortable like letting this receiver go off and now that guy has me covered? And, you know, are you able to kind of communicate before the snap, like where you need to be after the snap, like this is a young DB room and can those just extra reps?

Starting point is 00:05:09 Can you take a deep breath? Because it is a talented DB room, but you're going to have your ups and downs throughout the season because it is a younger room. you know, can you take in that deep breath during the biweek and getting those more reps during extra practice and during the by week, can that help that room, you know, play to that talent level even more? Because I imagine for a lot of those young players, the first three games in season, it's probably been kind of a whirlwind with how fast it went with entering into action for the first time

Starting point is 00:05:35 and maybe things start to slow down a little bit more after this by week. You know, maybe I should have led with this one, but maybe the most important one for Kansas is player health. Can that get better going into this week with us, Virginia, and moving forward the rest the season. Obviously, Kansas has two more by weeks, so you're going to have more opportunities to do just this. But it's both the small injuries, right? Guys are consistently going to be sore and banged up a little bit and have bumps and bruises and that stuff can get a little bit better. The fatigue that, you know, whether you're playing through it, maybe it's just making you run a little bit slower, like, does that get a little bit better? And then obviously,

Starting point is 00:06:07 most importantly, the guys who, whether they are playing through it, and sometimes we hear about them, sometimes you don't, or the guys that, you know, we just know our missing game. are out. And one of the beauties of this being a big 12 game is the fact that we're going to get an injury report from Kansas and Lance Leipold. I think that has to come out on Thursday. Maybe it's Friday, but that'll be coming later this week. So we're going to have a better idea of where that's at. But like when you look at Bengali Kumar, he played against Missouri, that would make you think he's going to play against West Virginia. How much can his situation heal over really the two weeks leading up into the game? Is it a little bit of a help? Is it a full help? Is it not a help at all?

Starting point is 00:06:43 What about some of the guys who we haven't seen play yet? Does this give them the extra opportunity to get fully healthy for the season or, you know, the guys who are playing through things. And you think of like a Bryce Foster, for instance, who was injured at the start of fall camp, came back around and, you know, does that extra time off allow him to get back to the level he was playing at last year when he was healthy, right? Like, those are questions that you wonder about the health that can be a good thing for Kansas, but it's also like, okay, if your injury theoretically is a five-week injury and you're going to try to play through it, what does the one week actually do?

Starting point is 00:07:18 Either way, you're playing through the pain, whether you're coming back in week two or week four. I don't know, maybe it's a little less pain, but there's certain threshold there where it's just like, it hurts regardless, you know? So that'll be kind of interesting. Now, as far as things that I'm not really expecting to change off the by week for Kansas, I would say game management is one of those.

Starting point is 00:07:34 I guess there's a chance that they self-scout and they come to the conclusion that, hey, look what Missouri did. They're going for all these fourth downs. Like, is there an advantage to be had there? But I think we have a big enough sample size that, This is just what the coaching staff wants to be more conservative on fourth downs. They're going to be more conservative at the end of halves. Like that's just kind of what they do.

Starting point is 00:07:55 So I'm not really expecting that to change. But, you know, maybe there is kind of a come to Jesus moment, so to speak, in that regard. But that's not something that I'm going to be expecting, but it will be interesting against West Virginia. I mean, ideally you don't have to get, you know, overly aggressive. Ideally, you can be conservative and find a way to win. But that will matter, you know, whether it is the West Virginia game or some games down the road, if they do become kind of coin flip games. Like you said earlier, the long-term injuries,

Starting point is 00:08:20 you know, I guess it does get you closer to being ready to play. But like, if somebody, again, was out five weeks, it's not going to necessarily change that night and day. It doesn't completely eliminate some of the injuries. Some guys are still going to be playing through stuff. It just maybe helps a little bit or maybe get you closer to it. But yeah. And then the other one is like, this is one where it's like,

Starting point is 00:08:37 if the running game is indeed broken, which we saw in the Missouri game, though it was, you know, much better against Wagner and Fresno State. So I don't know that one game should make us think it's broken. But if there are issues to it, how much does the buy week fix with the KU running game? Because I guess if the running game just ran into like a really good defensive line that Missouri has, you're not going to see that talent level again on that defensive line. Maybe Utah, but it should be improved.

Starting point is 00:09:05 But I don't know that like any improvements there are something that I'd correlate to the buy week as the cause. Does it allow you to get in the lab a little bit more? with what you want to do with blocking schemes or I don't know just retraining the fundamentals of how you want to do things but you would think that would kind of already be there maybe it gives you more time going back to the health stuff for Lashon Williams to get healthy and maybe that adds that extra boost to the running game maybe gives more for the young running backs to you know maybe they start to come in a little bit more and give you a little extra flare because those guys are a little bit different runners than what you get with Williams and high shaw so it'll be interesting

Starting point is 00:09:39 but I don't necessarily think like if KU comes out and they run well against West Virginia Now, I don't think it's necessarily about like, oh, it's because they had the buy week. I think they just probably figured some stuff out in film and had a better game against a less talented defensive line. I think that's what I would kind of point to from there. All right. How did some of the upcoming opponents for KU perform this week? And how have they looked over all this season? We get to that next.

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Starting point is 00:11:59 Locked on College basketball for your second listen every day as well. So how did some of the teams that Kayu's going to be playing this year perform over this past? Well, for starters, we got to see Kansas State and Arizona play. Those are both teams you're going to be played, although it didn't count as a big 12 game, which is silly, but the reason why they just had a schedule before, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:17 they became conference members. So Kansas State ended up actually coming back in the second half to make things look a little better. Arizona wins the game 23 to 17. I come away a little more impressed with Arizona. I think Noah Fafita has, you know, bounced back. Really good two years ago last year, kind of an up and down season this year.

Starting point is 00:12:38 I think he's been better, really impressed with her running back. the dude is really fast. I thought their defense looked good. K-State is one of those situations where it's like, I know it doesn't look good and the record doesn't look good, but they keep losing these close games where it's like, are they going to be the Kansas of last year where Kansas was losing these close games

Starting point is 00:12:55 and then they end up being better than the record? They play spoiler on some better teams, but they end up not with a very good record in the end. I could actually see that being the case, so it'll be interesting what they do. But there's definitely some holes in that Kansas State team. And I think Avery Johnson on like 15 passing yards at halftime, like, at times the defense doesn't look very good.

Starting point is 00:13:14 At times the offensive line doesn't look very good. They've got some problems. And yet still, I'm sitting here awaiting that game on October 25th going, how's Kansas going to mess this one up? Because it's almost like, unfortunately, even with Kansas State winning 16 straight in the series, now I feel like Kansas State is getting to a point where they are doing so poorly that Kansas is going to be expected to win to where somehow the pressure is still going to be on Kansas despite losing 16 straight in the series, which is just stupid.

Starting point is 00:13:40 And I don't like that one bit. But if not now, then win. Like, we've talked about this more. Like, your own five in rivalry games now between K-State and the Missouri game, you have to be Kansas State this year. One, because your own five, two, because look at what they've started out with now. Go beat Kansas State this year. Please, go beat Kansas State this year.

Starting point is 00:14:01 So anyway, but yeah, like I said, you know, in the offseason, I was kind of on board that, like, a lot of people are picking Arizona to finish at the bottom of the league. They went four and eight last year, so you sort of understood it. But I've kind of said all along, like the Big 12 very much is going to ebb and flow with how close these teams are together in talent. Would it surprise anyone if Arizona was a six or seven win team? Wouldn't surprise me. I think that's what we've seen so far. So now that game where you're playing at Arizona, if they do end up a six or seven win team,

Starting point is 00:14:24 those games become a little bit more difficult in playing them on the road. As far as some teams that Kansas has already played, Fresno State beat Southern 56 to 7. They're three and one, and they've looked pretty good ever since the Kansas lost. So that's a good sign for Kansas. Missouri crushed Louisiana 52 to 10. I think I saw stat that Missouri is the only team in the country who was like top five in it was like yards per game and yards allowed per game or yards per play yards allowed per I don't know one of those numbers they've been really good so far this season what happens if Kansas has lost in Missouri ends up being like one of the best teams of the country and uh you know Fresno State ends up being like one of the best teams in the mountain west and wins like eight or nine games or something like I don't know you would approach how you feel about the two and one not that you feel bad I feel good about the start to the season for KU but you feel even better if you're if you knew those were going to be the cases. Cincinnati, who will be KU's opponent after West Virginia,

Starting point is 00:15:15 didn't learn a ton about them. They beat up Northwestern State, but 70-0, I'm not going to say that, oh, I have a billion takeaways from them beating Northwestern State, but, you know, if you're going to play that game, might as well blow them out, and they did. Texas Tech beat Oregon State 45 to 14. Now, that one becomes interesting because Oregon State now is a common opponent for Fresno State.

Starting point is 00:15:36 Fresno State only beat Oregon State by nine. Texas Tech beat them by 31. And obviously you're playing Texas Tech. You played Fresno State. I will say Fresno State had to play Oregon State on the road. So at Oregon State, Oregon State had to play Texas Tech in Lubbock. So those are very different situations and circumstances. I guess if we're doing the transit of property, KU beat Fresno State by 24 points.

Starting point is 00:15:57 Fresno State beat Oregon State by nine. So theoretically you'd win by 33, Tech won by 31. Boom, Kansas is good to go in Lubbock against Texas Tech. But obviously we know it doesn't always work that way. Iowa State struggled against Arkansas State. That was 24 to 16. I don't have, again, sometimes I feel like Iowa State in some of these non-con games doesn't want to give anything away.

Starting point is 00:16:16 And they're like, we're just going to prioritize our playbook in conference play. Arkansas State is at least a feisty team. But yeah, I mean, I do feel like a little bit early in the season. Like, I don't think Iowa State has this super explosive offense. I do think they are missing those two stud receivers from last year where you don't have as much explosivity in some of these games. Utah had a bit of an early struggle but wound up winning by 25 against Wyoming. Again, I'm not coming away from that one,

Starting point is 00:16:43 feeling any worse about thinking that Utah is a really good team and what they're good at necessarily. And then UCF and Oklahoma State both had buy weeks. So we didn't learn anything good, anything bad from those teams. Though UCF, the schedule kind of looks pretty light in this first half where they could come in to that Kansas game. I guess they'll be the home team in that one with a pretty good record coming in. And then, of course, there's West Virginia.

Starting point is 00:17:04 They had a big win against Pittsburgh coming from behind. We'll touch more on the Mountaineers, though. Next, this is Locked on Jayhawks. In today's episode of LOJ is brought to you by Price Picks, the Daily Fantasy app where making the right call can actually pay off. You and I make decisions every day. But on Prize Picks, being right means cashing in. With football back, prize picks is the simplest and fastest way to get in on the action.

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Starting point is 00:18:17 They're going off actually now, Fandual. They can open an 11-half. Now it's 12 and a half. KU minus 410 on the money line. Seems pretty rich. And the over-under is 54 and a half. You can also still get futures for the season. You can get futures for the NFL season.

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Starting point is 00:19:04 That's their opponent this week. plenty of time later in this week, get your crossover episode with Mountain Year Paul, get you a preview episode, keys to the game, all that coming up later this week on Locked on Jayhawks. Let's take that early look at West Virginia, who, you know, on the season now is two and one. They blew out Robert Morris, 45 to 3. Then they lose at Ohio, which you kind of question, okay, lose into a Mac school, 17, 10, how good are you? If you remember, though, you know, okay, first of all, Ohio has been one of the most consistent and best teams in the Mac. Second of all, if you remember a couple years ago, gosh,

Starting point is 00:19:35 where this has been, I think, 20, 22, maybe it was 23. Iowa State lost to Ohio in the early part of the season. And then all of a sudden they finished like six and three in the big 12 or something like that. So it can be done. And they ended up getting a 31, 24 win against Pitt, which is, you know, solid team in the ACC. So it also, Ohio was like hanging tight for a while with Ohio State and ended up losing by like 28 points. But it's not like the worst loss in the world is basically what I'm saying.

Starting point is 00:20:01 So I wouldn't necessarily judge. West Virginia just on that loss and say, oh, if they lost to Ohio, they should lose to Kansas. Like, I don't know. I still think this is going to be a close game. And we look to really the last like three times these schools have played, you know, you go back to last year, Kansas gets up 10 with like four minutes to go and you blow the lead and West Virginia wins the game. You go back to the game back in 2022.

Starting point is 00:20:21 And it's back and forth, Kansas wins in overtime. You go back to the game in 2021, where Jalen Daniels is finishing out the season for KU the last couple games. It's the final game of the season for KU. and West Virginia wins kind of a close game that Kansas had a shot in and were competitive in and made you feel better heading into the offseason after building off the Texas game.

Starting point is 00:20:41 You have the close TCU game, the close West Virginia game. But point being, there have been a lot of close games recently between these two schools. Now, for them, Deheme White was injured in the second game. He's out for the season. And, you know, when you have Rich Rodriguez, he's had so much success running the football, but that was a big loss for them.

Starting point is 00:21:01 He's been a really good running back so far to this point in this season. Interestingly enough, it's actually their defensive profile that looks better than their offensive profile through the first three games of the year. Right now in like total EPA per play, they're 104th in the country on offense. Yet on the defensive side, they're 35th in the country in EPA per play. You look at what they do well. They've been pretty good stopping the run defensively, and that's a little worrisome with what we just saw from Kansas their last game stopping the run or not being able to run the ball.

Starting point is 00:21:31 but they're top 10 in the country right now, an EPA per play, total EPA and EPA per game, stopping the pass. So if they're able to slow down the KU passing game, what does that mean for that KU running game that we did see struggle in the Missouri game and how important does it become in a game like that? When you look at the West Virginia passing game, they've really struggled.

Starting point is 00:21:48 They're 129th in the country in EPA per play passing, but they are 35th in the country in EPA per play rushing. And again, that's where Rich Rodriguez comes in. They'll have quarterbacks who can run the football. Even without Jeheme White, it is a big loss for them. but they're still going to have other guys who are going to be able to, you know, come in and kind of split the load and make things happen. So it is interesting, too, because we haven't seen Lance Light pulled against Rich Rodriguez. And so it's one thing to point to, okay, those past matchups with Neil Brown, it's a different coach now.

Starting point is 00:22:18 It's a different system. It's different scheme. It's also a different KU defensive coordinator. How are they going to respond to the type of offense that West Virginia has? Because it is a little bit more unique in terms of some of the teams that you have played or are going to be played against. Like you look at West Virginia, they want to be a spread football team. You look at Fresno State. They're kind of like a, I don't know, spread, like power type of football team.

Starting point is 00:22:38 I guess maybe they'd be a little bit more equivalent to West Virginia, but still, it's different there when you're talking about some of the speed option, the spread option, the triple option concepts that Rich Rodriguez will use and has perfected for so many years there. So I do think it's a very interesting game for KU. Obviously, they're coming off the buy week. I don't necessarily hate the fact that KU is getting a buy week and that West Virginia is a team that is, You know, you can make both arguments. You could say, hey, they just beat their rival pit. That's going to lead to a huge whirlwind of momentum for West Virginia, and they're going to come into this game hot.

Starting point is 00:23:09 You can also view it as, hey, it just took them having a crazy comeback. They were down like double digits late in that game, end up coming back, forcing overtime, winning it overtime. It's their biggest rival. It's an emotional game to begin with. You add on the big comeback that they had, probably a big emotional high. And a lot of times after a big emotional high,

Starting point is 00:23:26 it's hard to get back up to that point. That could be a good thing for KU. Then again, you could look at, at like the NFL, which is different. Those are professionals, right, as opposed to 18 to 22-year-olds who, after such a big win, they're probably going to go out and party and have a good time, maybe a little bit more. But like you look at the Buffalo Bills, they have that crazy comeback against the Ravens, and they go out and blow the jets the next week.

Starting point is 00:23:44 So we'll wait and see what happens with that. But KU.S. Virginia, plenty more preview of that coming up later this week with Locked on Jayhawks, and we'll see you next time with L.O.J.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Will Bye Week BOOST Kansas Ahead of West Virginia and What Can the Jayhawks Show Improvement in?

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