Kansas Jayhawks Football Early Opponent Looks: Coach Prime's Colorado & Baylor + Hawk/Cinco Preview

on today's lock on Jayhawks we round out the regular season schedule early previews of Colorado and Coach Prime and then the regular season finale at Baylor plus our Hawk slso room preview you are locked on Jayhawks your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day I'm Derek Johnson you can give me a follow follow on Twitter at D Johnson radio thank you for making locked on J Hawks your first listen every day and thank you to the every dayers catching each and every show we are free and available everywhere 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 locked on Jayhawks we're finishing out our early look at KU football opponents with the Colorado game and the at Baylor game then we'll get to our position preview of The Hawk Cino room and they you every D is catching each of those position previews and opponent previews and of course you can go back and catch all of those anywhere you get your podcast or on our YouTube page this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by ultimate college football head coach it's a brand new mobile game that's completely free it has no ads and 100% playable offline use the promo code locked on CFB all caps all one word inside the game store to receive a free boost to your program begin your coaching Legacy today all we're going to start with the Colorado game work to the Baylor game and then finish with our position ition preview on this KU football Friday by the way six days away from the opener for KU football we got week zero football coming at you tomorrow uh which I don't know that there's any like great games but who cares it's football right I mean Florida state Georgia Tech I think at 11 point spread right that's not bad anyway uh KU Colorado so Colorado among all the teams on ku's schedule you might know or have seen as much about Colorado as any other team that Kansas is playing which is funny because they aren't even or at least weren't until this year in ku's conference um but they went 4-8 last season it was the loudest 4 and8 season that you will certainly imagine but it was an explosive three and0 start I mean they won that game against TCU that was honestly one of my favorite games from last season it was high scoring it was up and down back and fourth you had some awesome plays in it uh turns out that neither team ended up being that good but you saw some flashy newcomers and what's Wild is Colorado had 72 new players on last year's roster 45 of those 72 are already gone so this is again kind of a new roster for the Buffalo this year but they do have eight starters back on the offensive side of the football most notably has to be the quarterback shadur Sanders obviously he's the son of the head coach Deion Sanders but also he's a very good quarterback uh Travis Hunter is also back he'll play on both ends of the football he's a very Dynamic receiver and overall Colorado even with some of these talented skill players right they had Dylan Edwards before he transferred to Kansas State uh some other good receivers they only ranked 60th in the country a season ago even despite having some of that star Talent they averaged 28 points per game and there were only 133 in yards per carry running the ball just 2.3 yards per carry now that's a bit because they just didn't run it that much and they took 52 sacks in the college game sacks count against your rushing total so if you're not running as much and taking a bunch of sacks it's going to hurt your running total uh partially though those sacks the 52 of them on the offensive line they had a bad offensive line last year but also part of that was on Sanders as good of a quarterback as he is he does tend to it sometimes hold the ball too long like we've seen that with Russell Wilson through his NFL career even Russ was doing really well in Seattle he got sacked a lot and he let it be known that he was unhappy about it but part of it was just like he just holds the ball long time you're G to get sacked more right sacks as much as they're an offensive line stat are also a quarterback stat um but anyway they were 30th in quarterback rating they were fourth in the country in touchdown to interception ratio and they were 16th in passing ysb game so this was a very Dynamic passing offense a season ago really explosive passing game you got your top quarterback you got uh what has the in pick six previews the number three receiver group in the Big 12 led by Hunter Jimmy horn horn and some awesome transfers but they are just 15th in running back group again Dylan Edwards gone and their last for offensive line so very unbalanced between those two uh that line was already poor a season ago as we just mentioned the 52 sacks now they don't have eight of their 10 10 from their two deep back so they were bad I guess you could argue though that's addition by subtraction like it was bad so they just replaced it with a bunch of new guys and we'll see how that goes right I mean it's a bunch of new transfers they have like the top freshman left tackle so maybe the line actually ends up being better even though it's less experience I don't know we'll wait and see or it could be a disaster again right on the defensive end of the ball eight starters back for Colorado most notably is BJ green who's a defensive lineman and Samuel okunola uh who's another defensive lineman I mean they actually have a good D line plus you have Travis Hunter at the secondary which I mean corner is probably the the NFL position Travis Hunter will play this was a very bad defense last season though they they were 124th in scoring they were 114th in points allowed per play they were 1130th in Total Defense they were 116th and yards allowed per play and that included 104th and yards allowed per carry and 111th and yards allowed per pass so like they were just not a good defense last season but they added a bunch in the portal they're not 19th and returning production on the defensive end according to pick six previews it's the good defensive line right I mean according to pick six previews they are top five unit in the league with the dline because they added two Pittsburgh starters uh green comes in from Arizona State and they added a three-year starter from Houston at the nose tackle spot so you know if you're at least good on the defensive line that's going to earn you some stuff on that defensive end where you won't be as bad the back seven though um you know you do have star power with Hunter and and Shiloh Sanders but it seems like there's a lot of questions beyond that uh not a ton of depth on this team not a ton of o line play like last year it feels like uh so it's going to be interesting what they do this season what's going to be the key for KU in this game throw away from Travis Hunter don't let him have a gamechanging play I I think back to that TCU game where he made that unbelievable interception kind of diving and the good news for KU in this game is that okay if Colorado doesn't have maybe as much depth maybe they have the star power but they're number two they're number three whatever aren't nearly as good the good news for KU is because they're so balanced and because they have three stud receivers guess what if Travis Hunter taking away LJ Arnold or Luke Grim or Quinton Skinner that day there's still two others that can kind of go off so I think that's going to be a key for KU in that game and and kind of using whoever is guarded by Travis Hunter as a decoy in a certain way uh ku's depth of defensive backs and pass defense packages I think are going to be keys to this game obviously Colorado likes to throw it around the yard they're going to throw it around the yard and so and they're going to move fast it's going to be a combination of a lot of guys are going to play and also it's going to be a combination of a lot of guys are going to be the field at once um I've kind of said before like obviously you feel great about the the two starting Corners the Melo and Kobe what about the backups well it's it's a lot of Youth obviously demarus McGee is a little bit older but it's a lot of young freshman or redir freshman behind him very talented players and when you think about this game it'll be the 11th game of the season so they'll be even more experienced by the end of the year I think you feel good on paper right now about where you could be at that point in time but I would say there's so many things that could happen between now and then and then just keep rushing the quarterback because Sanders will give you a sack or two by holding the ball too long you just have to have a Relentless pass pass rush because you might not get there uh in an orderly time but if you keep working you might get one or two extra in a game like this especially if the coverage is good on on kind of pre- snap and makes them hold the ball a little bit longer so what will be the expected result here well uh they are about a fivepoint favorite according to ESPN's fpi so you figure at home again the arrowhead maybe not as much of a bump as a normal home game uh Colorado might bring good visiting attendance right it's back to the Big 12 days it's close enough travel for them it's at uh Arrowhead Stadium like so there's going to be more tickets to be had so maybe that's a couple points maybe KU at least on paper right now would be like seven seven and a half Point favorites all right let's get on to their regular season finale KU at Baylor Baylor has been a house of horrors for KU in recent memories so we'll discuss that then the hawk sinko preview unlocked on Jayhawks we are brought to you by ultimate GM I want to take a moment to give you heads up on this brand new mobile game ultimate college football head coach in this amazing game and simulation you get to step into the shoes of a head coach and lead your college football 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to receive a free boost to your program make sure to take advantage of this perk as it will get your team off to a strong start to download the game just visit ultimate d cfb.isd finish things up with the KU Baylor game special award to you if you've heard all the uh Team previews here and don't forget you can make lock on college football your second list and we we had a locked on Big 12 show that went on our feed and all our other school feeds earlier this week too previewing the Big 12 and that was catching up with a lot of the other Big 12 hosts as well okay KU Baylor is the next game up here so Baylor basically has 19 starters back which makes them a little bit dangerous even though they just had a down year obviously didn't make a bowl game this past season uh and it's been kind kind of a a down arrow for Dave Randa he went from being Big 12 champion in 2021 when Jeff Grimes was the OC then you drop off you're still bold team in 20122 but you're winning seven games then you drop off to being not bull eligible in 2023 this is kind of a make or break year for Dave Rand you gonna get back to seven or eight wins or are you gonna only win four or five and and then Baylor could have a new coach next season right uh but they did have freshman play over 4500 snaps that was over a thousand more than the next most in the league but still they ranked 10th or worst at every position if you look at pick six previews Big 12 position ranks and they're eighth or worst at every position on Phil Steels Big 12 position ranks so neither one too high on them um offensively gone is Jeff Grimes they're gonna have much different looking offense Jake spavital who runs kind of an uptempo spread passing offense is taken over there they're GNA have either have Sawyer Robertson who played a lot of games last year and Blake shapen was hurt um or Toledo former quarterback dayquon Finn who's a really good runner not as good of a passer but he transferred over and then they've got a good running back room Richard ree Dominick Richardson Dawson Pendergrass that's a really good one two three between the three of them I mean Pendergrass might be the third string and he was like big 12 honorable mention a season ago uh it's a capable receiver room on the outside I always just think of like Baylor just having speed on the outside which on its own is dangerous um the line is kind of the big question though they were really bad last year they ranked 90th in offensive line put push in the Run 91st and sacks allowed per attempt but it's kind of be expected when you play so many freshman and the offensive line was certainly one of those half of their to Deep by the end of the year at the offensive line spot was freshman right and that's a position that it's really hard to play at the power level that many freshman that early so maybe a big growth for them on the line this season now on the defensive side of the ball I kind of just always trusted Dave Randa to have a good defense whether he was a defensive coordinator when he was at LSU and some of these other schools and then his early time at Baylor like he just always has good defenses but that's what made last year weird they were ranked 69th of the 70 power five teams in defensive efficiency according to pick six previews and they were last in P defense and then on top of that they lost two good players on the D line they lost two linebackers they have an experienced secondary after playing a lot of young players but um you lose a lot in that front seven in terms of players who are starters and impacting things and very real way so that's kind of a big question for me like how much better can the offensive line be for them and what is like how much is Dave Randa worth on the defensive end of the ball to kind of figuring out the problems that they had what's going to be the key for KU in this one well outside of the offense and defense what about special teams because Phil steel actually gives Baylor the top special teams unit in the entire Big 12 and you know late game in last game of the season could be a little bit colder it'll be in Texas so maybe it won't be as cold as if you're playing up in the midwest or something like that but ball security becomes important right and you think of like a muff punt at the end of the season so special teams so important and KU continuing to have their kicker battle and and some of their special teams battles um that's gonna obviously be key in this one uh defending Tempo and the passing game all over the field now this could be something that the Colder Weather helps you out with makes it a little bit tougher to pass we'll see I mean who knows maybe it's 70 degrees by that game playing down in Texas but um you know for Kansas they haven't always been the best defense against Tempo I think they were better at it last year than they were the year before so you hope the arrow continues kind of rising up into this season too but that'll be the question and then kind of I I mean there are a lot of similarities honestly to the Baylor game and the Colorado game like Colorado has shadur Sanders the Star Quarterback Baylor kind of has questions who the quarterback is going to be right Colorado has some other star players um but both teams have questions on the offensive line both teams are going to throw it around a lot and play at a faster Tempo and I I think in Colorado's case probably more star power in Baylor's case even though they were really bad defensively I I trust Dave Randa to maybe have a better defense than Colorado but I guess we'll kind of wait and see so what will be the uh expected result here about a 9 and a half Point favorite right now on ESPN fpi on a neutral site for Kansas so you figure on the road six six and a half seven point favorite at least on paper right now but it gets tough knowing that Baylor a does have a high ceiling I've been saying this all offseason like between Baylor TCU I guess Houston that one seems a little more unlikely UCF um one of these schools who is sitting on a talent-rich area and has recruited well because they're on that talent-rich area and has more Talent than maybe the record would indicate from a season to go one of them is probably going to break out what does breakout mean it could be eight wins could be nine wins I don't know could be 10 wins whatever but most likely one of those at least will have a better season than they had the season before and you play a couple of them right you I mean I guess you play three of them with TCU Houston and Baylor so we look at Baylor right now they're bad a season to go but like what if all of a sudden Bor ends up being an eight- win team right this game at the end of the season all all of a sudden becomes a lot more difficult in that scenario and then you look at how they have just kind of owned the series I mean you haven't been able to beat them in basically like 15 years and they've blown you out in a majority of those they've beaten You by 20 30 plus points now obviously the one that LS lipold was around 4ku was getting blown out in the first half but then uh fought like heck to get back into it and had it as a one- score game with like under five minutes to go so we'll see what you can do here but uh certainly that'll be an interesting one to finish for KU and and could have a lot of pressure to it right it could be you need to win this to get double digit wins or you need to win this to top last season's regular season win total or you need to win this to secure a spot in the Big 12 championship game or to to you know ice something else right I mean there could be a lot at stake for KU in that game all right we're going to finish off the Cino room preview on locked on j-hawks we're brought to you by game time which has a new feature called Game Time picks that makes it getting tickets for your favorite Live Events even easier game time picks uh filters out the fluff to show you 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redeem code locked on College l c k d o n c l l e g for $2 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right I'm excited for next week so you're not going to want to miss that unlocked on Jayhawks because guess what next week week will be game week so uh we'll talk a little bit more about the KU Lindenwood game um we'll have the two deep out next week so we'll do an episode kind of talking about that uh we're going to talk about things that do and don't matter to evaluate in this game we'll get to our preview of the game we'll of course have our recap after the game so you're not GNA want to miss the show that we'll have shortly very shortly after the game ends on H Thursday night against lyen woods so make sure you're subscribed to anywhere you get your podcast or on our YouTube page all right what is the hawk cinko position we did our safety preview on a previous episode this week shout out every ders if you caught it uh this is kind of similar to that but also kind of different the hawk position is basically a safety linebacker hybrid the Cino position is basically a more defensive back version of the hawk version right so if you have a if you have like a full spectrum of on one end is linebacker on the other end is defensive back and then I don't know is is I I maybe safety would be at the other end of the spectrum right Hawk is somewhere in between and then Cino is is kind of in between that and full defensive back although sometimes you just play another Corner as your Cino and it's basically a Nickelback or a dimeback or whatever it is that you're getting an extra Corner out there for PR pure coverage reasons right um so this one's kind of interesting because over the last couple years Craig young has occupied a majority of these snaps so here are the players that I think could be playing Hawk and Cino so I I think when you're looking at the hawk which again again that's more of um if you're playing one that is more like a true linebacker I think Marvin Grant Jason Gilliam Logan Brantley maybe a little bit sounds like he'll play a lot of special teams too and then Alex Reich are the ones to look at maybe you get some games later in the season where like John John Kamara because he's such a good athlete is able to get on the field later in the season when he I don't know figures everything else out with the game with improving his body and getting the the scheme and the system and feeling comfortable there and everything like that because the poal off the roof for a guy like that but those are the ones there as far as the Cino position that again now you're trying to get even more I guess uh pass coverage out there I still think Marvin Grant applies in that bucket Devin or Jaylen die I think Mason Ellis applies here um and then you could just say using another corner right if it's third down and 14 doesn't it make sense to just oh we'll throw out demary SME or Jal Croft or Jaylen Todd in that kind of position as long as they kind of know what they're doing so those are the on that I kind of look at and then I do think at certain times it'll be like basically more of a true linebacker type Hawk maybe in early downs and running downs and running situations maybe in goal line and that would be more of like Jason Gilliam and Alex Reich I think for the most part maybe a little bit of Logan Brantley so what are the biggest storylines from this position well I mean big shoes to fill without Craig young because you had the luxury of Craig young basically being multiple of those guys Allin one Craig young was basically a safety at Ohio State that basically means that that he was able to play the linebacker version of the position the hawk version of the position and the DB version of the position a season ago and and I guess two seasons ago now we did see more a little bit last year than 2022 he still did get subbed out for more of that DB version at times because there were times when other teams were targeting him in the middle and early portion of the season in the passing downs and if he was on a slot receiver it was a little tougher for him to guard him because even though he's really fast and really big maybe not as agile as a like slot receiver so he was a very athletic player really good player um I do think that um it was starting to wne a little bit in terms of his usage being I'm just gonna be out here all the time and it was more of like I'll be again if you're viewing it as three positions the linebacker typ Hawk the DB typo and the Cino role um basically he was two of those three by the end and maybe he started as three of those three but I think this year it's gonna more so be like KU has one guy for each maybe Marvin Grant occupies the latter two of those but like I think to that um uh quote from Moneyball the the movie um where they're talking about replacing Jason giomi the quotes guys you're still trying to replace giomi I told you we can't do it and we can't do it now what we might be able to do is recreate him recreate him in the Aggregate and so that's how you view it they are recreating Craig young in the aggregate here right it's going to be Jason gilam in this situation it'll be Marvin Grant in this situation it could be a DB it could be Marvin Grant could be Devon Dy or or whoever in this other situation um and so I think that's totally fine to do it that way obviously it creates its own challenges against teams who run Tempo and are going to keep you on the field in a certain package and so you still need somebody who can be as versatile as possible but in a lot of other ways when you are able to sub or against teams who don't run Tempo you can really do that aggregate stuff as much as possible so overall is this position better worse or the same to last year so I think you could say on paper it's worse than last year because last year you had the commodity of Craig young playing that role but I would actually say it will end up being better in how it's used because you will really have a lot of guys that are like like again if we're comparing stuff to baseball it'll be like okay this guy we only use when we're facing righties or this guy's really good at Hitting off speed and we're facing a pitcher who throws his curveball 40% of the time so we're going to put him in his lineup like I feel like you can get a little bit more as long as you have players who are good at specific roles and you know what you're doing which I think this coaching theft does know what they're doing um you're going to get them in the right situations and if you get them in the right situations boom you could end up with a uh in a weird aggregate a better situation that'll do it for this episode locked on Jayhawks back next week for game week can't wait make sure to subscribe to the show and catch it anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page with locked on Jayhawks