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That's indeed.com/bluewire. Terms and conditions apply. And to hire, you need Indeed. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for listening to KC Sports Network, proudly presented by MPRISE Bank. If you're thinking about starting a business or know someone who is, check out MPRISE Bank's SBA loans. It's always good to know your options and they can be your partner in possible. They hit all the winter and beware of this podcast. That's right. This is the podcast on the Kansas City Sports Network. It just doesn't hit the same saying that Kevin after a loss, but you know, gotta stay on brand. Gotta stay on brand. I'm Nick Springer. I'm here with Kevin Flaherty, we're brought to you by MPRISE Bank, your partners and all things possible, member FDIC. Kansas goes down to Waco in search of a sixth one on the air in search of a potential bullbirth in search of Kevin, their first ever win in Baylor. At Baylor, by the way, at Waco, they've literally never won in Waco. And all of those hopes are dashed as a bit of a lopsided game. Baylor wins 45-17 over Kansas. This is a live edition here on Saturday afternoon of the paid podcast. So if you're joining us live, be sure to subscribe on YouTube. Drop a comment, share your thoughts. We got Al here, who I think sums it up pretty well with the way things went today. So be sure to drop a comment if you're watching us live. If you're listening or watching after the fact, if it's still drop a comment, you can still subscribe. You can still like and interact with the show as always. And also, you can find us on social media at Payee KCSN on Twitter. You can follow me at Nick Springer 29, Kevin at K Flaherty KCSN as well. We kind of worked through the end of this K football season that was one of the most highly anticipated seasons in at least 15 years, probably more, given the veteran leadership you had on the roster and so on and so forth and kind of what Lance Leopolden building started off rough. Obviously, the year did Kansas fights back. They beat three consecutive ranked opponents. They're five and six. You're thinking, okay, I chance to go to a bull potentially going down to play Baylor. But you know, Kevin, we talked about it in our preview show of this game. If Kansas was one of the hottest teams in the big 12, Baylor was probably the second hottest or right there, right? They've also won our five game win streak coming into this game today and they, one team played with a lot of confidence and I don't think one team did and that team that played with a lot of confidence was was with Baylor and they obviously got the win. Yeah. I thought it was interesting Lance Leopold saying after the game that he thought the game was basically tired, was really worn down by that stretch of four ranked teams in a row. And if you take, if you take that at face value, Kansas did look tired. They looked a step slow, you know, for pretty much the entire game. But more than that, Nick, it was kind of, there were times this year where Kansas lost close games because of one thing or another or maybe a little bit here, a little bit there. It felt like all those issues kind of came home to roost in this one. And you look at the fact that when Kansas started winning games, they stopped turning the ball over at a real high rate turnovers were a problem in this one. When they started winning games, you know, missed tackles, I'm not saying they weren't a problem, but they weren't as much of a problem. Defense definitely a major issue in this one. The other thing too, Nick, Kansas really ran the ball well, obviously during that streak. They were physical, the BYU game maybe being the exception. When Kansas lost games this year, there were times where they really struggled to run the ball when they needed to run it most, when they basically said, "Hey, we have to have a good run on this play." This was a game where Kansas got some explosive plays in the running game, but it was also a game that the consistency and the success rate in the running game maybe wasn't what it had been to. Yeah, I think the turnovers were a real issue that you highlighted there. I mean, absolutely killer, it really felt like Jalen Daniels reverted back to a lot of the mistakes he was making early in the season. He had that one interception in the end zone where it was, I mean, you could turn on the tape of that interception, turn on the tape of Illinois, UNOV, and they're all the exact same, right? It's a guy on a seam route, and the back safety just plays him like a fiddle and jumps in up for the interception. So that was a bit disappointing to see Jalen kind of reverting back to some of those early season issues he had passing the ball with those two interceptions because that was brutal, right? And then you had to be to know a fumble at the end of the first half, which was really unfortunate. Obviously, Baylor ends up missing that fillable to end the half, but even still, you're looking at a chance to make it 21-13, probably, hopefully at worst, assuming you could make a fillable or maybe go get a touchdown at that point. So yeah, the turnovers were really killer. And then on top of that, this was, I don't know, Kevin, I mean, this was probably the worst defensive game of the season for KU, I think. Baylor over 600 yards. They were able to do pretty much anything they wanted. They ran the ball at pretty much at will. So Robinson was able to make some nice throws down the field. They were just carving KU up with some slant routes pretty much throughout the whole game. Being the 17 on third down, I mean, and the thing was, most of those third downs weren't difficult third downs, Nick, I mean, I tweeted about it, and I know you and I have talked about it. But when you play a team that operates at the tempo that Baylor does, you have to get them behind the chains early because no tempo team wants to have a 10-second possession, right? Where they run three plays and punt and seconds. So that's the way that you keep a team from using that tempo. Instead, Baylor was ahead of the entire game, Kansas was giving up stuff too easily. It just, there wasn't anything that Kansas really took away and to be frank, Nick, what they were doing, it felt pretty simple, right? I mean, in terms of when Kansas had guys in the box, they threw it to the outside and the guys made plays in space. And when Kansas took guys out of the box, Baylor ran the ball and it was just pretty much, hey, we're going to put the ball where they ain't, and it worked out really well for Baylor. Yeah. At the start of the game, they were able to get some one-on-one coverages with Monterey Baldwin against Marvin Grant, and Baldwin Kevin is probably the fastest player on the field in the game, right? I mean, he's definitely Baylor's fastest player, probably the fastest player on the field. And like, like, eight speed in college football, 90. If you are a culture ball, if you're a culture ball 25, enjoyer, you would know that Monterey Baldwin has a lot of speed because, yeah, he's one of the fastest players in the game, actually, in CFB 25. Yeah. And so they exploited that mismatch twice early in the game against Marvin Grant. And then later on, I will say though, Jalen Todd was matched up with Baldwin and actually broke up basically the exact same play. Great job. Yeah. Yeah, basically the exact same play later on in the first half, which was nice to see from true freshman player, you know, making that play. But yeah, to your point, Kansas, they didn't take anything away. They didn't tackle well. They didn't force any turnovers. There was really nothing positive the entire game from this Kansas defense performance, right? I mean, late in the game, when it's 42-17, they stopped Baylor for a field goal, but it's sort of a so what at that point, like, okay, whatever, but yeah, I really disappointing performance. Slowly Robinson didn't throw an incomplete pass, Kevin, until three minutes left in the second quarter. He was really, really good, obviously. And then yeah, with Washington on that one, he hit his receiver in the hands. And I think Bello, if I remember right, kind of knocked it out, but he still hit his receiver in the hands on that one. Yeah. So that really kind of opens up the spotter conversation about, you know, going into offseason mode. When you look at this Kansas defense, when you look at Brian Borland, he's obviously been with Lance Leipold for a very, very long time. But I mean, look, the expectations are higher now, right? It's one of the situations where for how long KU was bad, if you had a bad defense or you were bad, it didn't matter, right? Like you were going to lose regardless. But you know, this was a team that, you know, both of us project, both of us picked at the start of the year to win double digit games, right? Like they had, they obviously had the talent to do that. I mean, they beat three of the top teams in the conference consecutively, probably one of which at least is going to be playing in the big 12 title game. And you know, the other team that they're probably going to see in the big 12 title game, Arizona State is a team that KU should have beaten on the road if it wasn't for defensive lapses. So I'm sure we'll talk about the offense too in Jeff Grimes, but you know, for my money, Brian Borland, I think you have to sort of honor the fact that Lance Leipold has been so loyal to him. And I think, you know, staff integrity is important and all and so on and so forth. You know, continuity is very important. But I think it, I think he'd be foolish if you're Lance Leipold to not consider, you know, making a change there, right? And, and, you know, we love Brian Borland. He's great. He always has at least a couple of good one liners when we talk to him, you know, he's a great personality. But you know, this defense has been one hundredths basically or worse in a lot of metrics over the last four years. And you know, the offense was so good. I mean, it was that it was sort of forgivable, I guess to be the right term, but I think you have to look at making a change there in the offices and considering especially how this last game ended, right? I mean, today's game, especially I think was sort of, sort of sums it up of, man, you didn't, you didn't really do anything. I mean, I, I mean, I think there was a couple of all-out blitzes early in the game where they were able to sack so Robinson, but beyond that, you, I mean, right, rather than off just a minute ago, you didn't stop the run, you didn't stop the pass, you didn't force turnovers, you didn't get stops on third down, you didn't do anything. Yeah, yeah, it was, it was a really rough performance and I think Nick to your point, there have been points where it felt like the defense was going to take sort of a permanent step forward, right? Like I thought when you looked at last season, toward the end of the season, Kansas was playing with a lot more physicality, a lot more confidence on defense. And you thought, hey, you're bringing a lot of these guys back this year. Maybe this year, you're going to have a much better defense. And at the start of the year, they gave up some really big drives early and that really stung in key moments, but overall, they were pretty good defensively to start the year, even if they weren't getting stops in those absolute have-to-have-it situation. But somewhere in there, things kind of turned and the defense stopped being as effective. But I'm not saying they didn't do anything well. I think the defensive tackles, for the most part, had a really good year. I thought up the middle, especially when Cornell Wheeler was healthy, Jamie Brown did some great things. Marvin Grant was putting some impossible situations against Monterey Baldwin that you mentioned that led to two touchdowns. But overall, I thought he did some really good things this year. And so there were, and when you look at the corners, I get that they didn't generate pass rush with four, and that's one of the things that makes the defense effective is when you can do that. And that was one of the things that made the defense sort of take a step forward last year was Austin Booker being able to get that pressure even when you weren't sending extra guys. At the same time, I think when you look at the personnel, you look at the guys that K you had, you look at the experience, and all of the things that you had there, they were banged up at times this year, but I think you still would have thought that they would have had a better defensive season than they did. And look, on the positive side, with as much as you're losing, right, especially in the secondary, you're going to lose Melodontin and Kobe Bryant, you look up front, guys like Jamie Robinson, Dylan Woodkey was a productive player, really. Also, you're still going to bring me back a lot of young and talented players, right? I think both DJ Wizards and Tommy Dunn should be back, I believe next year, like Kevin, you look in the secondary, we talked about Jalen Todd making a nice play, and this game against Baylor as a true freshman. You think about some of the playing experience that DJ Warner got, you think about a guy like Dak Brinkley, you go to the linebacker spot, you think about it like that by Joe was in today? Yeah, by Joe, you go to the linebacker spot, you think about a guy like John John Camara, who we both saw in fall camp and he looks like he's a fruit. Yeah, he looks like somebody who could be a real dynamic player for KU in the defense. You know, Taylor Davis has gotten a ton of playing time in the secondary as well. Good. Yeah. You think about a guy like, we talked about Jalen Todd, Austin Alexander in another young corner. So, I'm a big Austin Alexander player, you know, when I was at 24/7, I tried to get Austin Alexander a fourth bar because I thought he was that level of recruit, so. Yeah. So, that's kind of the positive side when you look at this defense. There's a lot of promising young talent, which I think maybe you could use as an argument even more so, this would be the time to make a change potentially, right? Because you want to be able to tap into that going forward. So I don't know, right? You go into our season mode. I know one of the things before we go to break your Kevin that I know you had talked about previously is another big negative of losing this and not making a bowl game besides just simply playing in the bowl game is you're going to be losing out on a lot of extra practices with stimulus young guys that you otherwise would have had, right? Yeah, that's brutal, especially with all the young talent that you were just talking about. Being able to not just have them, you know, play 10-game, 10-plays-a-game or 15-plays-a-game. Usually the way the bowl practices work for those who maybe aren't familiar, usually you'll spend about half the practices with your ones actually preparing for the bowl and the other half of your practices are pretty much chances to put DJ Warner out there with the ones and basically give those guys a lot of extra time to develop. It's essentially a second spring practice, but one where you can really get your young guys out there and get them a lot of repetitions and it's great for development. And so with so much roster turnover coming with those 30 graduating seniors, this would have been a really good year to get those bowl practices because you would have wanted to slide a lot of those practice reps that way. Yeah, I'm trying to think up the top of my head, Kevin, do you know how many, is there a certain number of practices specifically that you're allocated? I believe you are 15, and so yeah, they'll break it up like eight and seven or whatever else in terms of, hey, we're trying to get young guys on the field a bunch here or we're trying to do that. Yeah. So you do lose out on that, unfortunately, if your tans is, but obviously there's a lot to evaluate on both sides of the ball. I spent a lot of time talking about the defense. I do want to get to the offense also, which will do that coming up on the other side. We do got to tell you about our friends over at Homefield Apparel, Kevin, I know you live in the Kansas area. I'm in Lawrence snow again, randomly for like two hours on Saturday morning this morning. So if you want to stay warm, homefield apparel as you cover, they've got some sweet new campus all over jackets, I actually was wearing my Homefield Apparel long sleeve Kansas shirt this morning trying to stay warm in the snow, and obviously you'll still want to get your Homefield Apparel gear as well coming up for for Katie basketball, who actually has a game coming up this afternoon on Saturday as well. So tons happening and you can definitely want to rep home field apparel wherever wherever you're at supporting Kansas or 130 other colleges. And they're still running their Black Friday sale right now through December 3rd, where you can get 30% off site wide. So you definitely want to check that out. It's a great opportunity to get yourself some Homefield Apparel gear or if you've got a family member who is a fan of another school, check it out for a great Christmas gift as well. We're going to talk more KU football coming up on the other side. 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And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/bluewire. Just go to indeed.com/bluewire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com/bluewire, terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Want to shop Walmart Black Friday deals first? Walmart Plus members get early access to our hottest deals. Join now and get 50% off a one-year annual membership. Shop Black Friday deals first with Walmart Plus. See terms at walmartplus.com. This is the baby podcast on the Kansas City Sports Network, a live edition post game here for KU and Baylor on Saturday afternoon. I'm Nick Springer, I'm here with Kevin Flaherty. Be sure to subscribe, like the channel on YouTube at Kansas Jocks KCSN, and if you're listening on the audio side, you can subscribe as well. If you're listening live right now, joining us to drop a comment, share your thoughts. We got some people in the comments talking about this game and where Kansas goes from here as we kind of do the same thing, hashing things out here as Kansas loses against Baylor 45 to 17 to end their season with a five and seven record in Waco. We spent a lot of time talking about the defense to start the show, Kevin. Let's flip over to the offense, because I think there's a lot to discuss there. We kind of touched on it early with the interceptions that Jaylen Daniels threw and the turnovers Kansas had, but this was, to start the game especially, it was a bit of a weird game. Kansas goes down, they miss a field goal to start the game, which by the way was just the second time and eight in the last eight games. They don't score a touchdown on their opening drive to start the game. And they had a touchdown too, a third down play. I know people didn't necessarily love the back-to-back Devin Neal taking a direct snap play, but on third down, I'm pretty sure Jaylen Daniels had a touchdown throw over the middle of the field, but they let a blitzer come just right up the middle. There was no way to make that throw, Jaylen had to scramble out of it and lost that opportunity. So it could have been six points if they had picked up the guy right up the middle on that play. So lost opportunity there that typically would take you from seven points down to three. And in this case, unfortunately, took him from seven to zero. Yeah. And then the Kansas offense did put together a nice drive after that. Devin Neal does his thing with a three yard run and ends up scoring a touchdown. I put Kansas up seven nothing and, I don't know, it was kind of a weird first half of the Kansas offense, Kevin, because they actually ended up out gaining Baylor at halftime by about 15 yards and yet they were down 21 to 10. So it was a, it was a bit of a mixed bag in the first half of the Kansas offense. And then in the second half, it just felt like they just kind of ran out of steam. Right. It didn't, it didn't seem like there was much left for them in the second half after that. Once they started to get that big. Yeah. Can you put that life changes comment up about keeping it on the ground? Yeah. Cause that, that was something I think ideally you wouldn't have thrown the ball as much. But I think one of the issues was they weren't having a great success rate on the ground. They were, they were getting a few explosive plays here and there, but generally speaking, they weren't winning up front at the level that they have done in recent games. And so, you know, when you're, when you're running the ball twice with Devin Neal, and you're getting, you know, second, eight, third and six, you know, things like that where you're having to then throw the ball in obvious passing downs. I think that was part of the reason Kansas sort of pulled away from it a little bit. Probably should have, should have tried to keep it on the ground. If for no other reason than, Hey, your defense is on the field a lot facing tempo. You know, maybe you, you wanted to keep it on the ground to, to kind of give them a little bit of a break. The one of the things I will say is they've generated a lot of explosive plays in this one. And they, they did so through the air. I know Jalen wasn't perfect. He obviously had the turnovers that, that we're talking about, but they were able to get some open guys and generate some explosives in the passing game. But I think that's kind of why Kansas through the ball a little bit more was just because they weren't having the success rate. Of course, it felt like they threw the ball a ton, Nick. They actually ran the ball 31 times and, you know, only threw it 23. So yeah, and look, you had five receivers, five different receivers with a catch of more than 20 yards. I mean, that's, that's not something you see very often when you think about explosive plays. Real quickly, I didn't want to jump to this comment here, yeah, the possibility of kid five and seven be good enough, it's one of those things where it's, it's, it's a really difficult to project right now, right? Like, it's one of those things where it'll be hard to say. It didn't look great heading into the week. If I remember right, like, looks like they were going to have enough six and six, I think. Yeah, I think the one thing in this particular season where there's might be an outside chance is like the fact that with the college wall playoff, I think that eliminates some more bowl games, which basically means there should be, or yeah, or it makes, it makes for more bowl. I think, I think the playoff actually helps with having potential for teams, but it's just one of the things where it's hard to say and it's hard to really project out. So time will tell, I guess, on that as we get closer to sort of everybody playing in the season, really coming to, coming to an end with that. But yeah, with the offense, you know, we talked about possibly you look at the defensive side of the ball for KU and possibly wanting to make a change there with flying board. I'm going to get out in front of it right now, Kevin. I fully expect Jeff Grimes to be the offense coordinator again in toner degree, Kansas. I don't really see any scenario where they would move on from him. He signed, I believe, a three year contract with a lot of guarantee. They would be a pretty big buy off for Kansas and just setting that aside also, just setting that aside prior to today's game against Baylor. This Kansas offense had been one of the best in the big 12 and one of the best in the country for the last really five, six weeks under Jeff Grimes. They, you know, big 12 in big 12 play coming into today, Kansas was averaging 6.4 yards per play, which was tied for second in the conference and number one was 6.5. And Kansas put up, I think, 9.1 today. So yeah, 9.1 yards per play today. So that all of that is to say that when we wake up and all this stuff is recalculated in the morning, Kansas might have ended the entire big 12 season as the number one offense in the conference in the yards per play. Yeah. Yeah. So I would, I see, I don't really see any scenario where Jeff Grimes will not be offense coordinator for Kansas next season. Obviously, I think the big question mark for KU becomes the quarterback position, right? Jalen Daniels has another year to exercise. I think I'm under the assumption right now that I think he will probably return to college to play football. The question just becomes, will he choose to finish his career at Kansas or will he decide to enter the transfer portal and be going to fresh start somewhere else, right? I mean, you look around college school right now. I think regardless of what Jalen Daniels decides, I don't think you could blame it at all for potentially hitting the transfer portal and just seeing what his options are. I mean, you look around college football, you think about what Dylan Gabriel did going from Oklahoma to Oregon, you think about, well, Howard at Ohio State, even though, you know, they had, they had a big loss today against Michigan. But I wouldn't blame him at all for considering that option. So that leaves a big question mark for Kansas and then obviously look around. And this kind of opens it up for a bigger conversation I wanted to help you come in about this, which is when you look at Lance Leipold and I've talked about this, I talked about this a lot in the past. I think I've talked about it on this show as well. One thing that has consistently impressed me with Lance Leipold and the staff is that over the last three off seasons, or I guess two off seasons. This staff has been fantastic about aggressively pursuing options in the portal to help improve the team, right? And they are about to be in a position this offseason where they are going to have a lot of opportunities to do that because they're probably going to hit the transfer portal pretty aggressively when you consider what Kansas is losing, you know, and the high school class is not any bigger. So they're going to have an option to get a lot of players out of the transfer portal. And that's what's going to make this offseason so interesting because again, I've been really impressed with the past couple of seasons with Kansas for the most part being very aggressive in pursuing what they believe to be perceived holes and needs that the team has. And they have a lot of holes now, they're going to have a lot of holes with a lot of the departing, departing seniors. So the portal is going to be very vital and this will be a real test because I think for the staff previously over the past couple of seasons, you could look at the roster and very obviously say, hey, we need this player, we need this position, we need, you know, whatever, and they could go out and get that. Well, this year, the laundry list of needs is going to be pretty hefty for Kansas. So I'm very curious to see, and I wanted to kind of toss to you on this, very curious to see, you know, what KU prioritizes and what they do with this opportunity to have in front of them because Lance Leipold really has a chance to sort of mold this roster in a lot of different ways with different players out of the transfer portal this offseason and how, how he and the staff goes about trying to, to basically do that. Yeah, I think, you know, let's, let's go through position by position real quick, you can put just sort of the back of a napkin math type step. If Jalen returns, you don't go to the transfer portal for a quarterback. If Jalen Leip, I think they probably go into the portal to get an experienced option to compete with Zeke Marshall. Al asked, you know, or said, my Zeke time, it might be Zeke time, but I do think if Jalen leaves, they would probably bring in somebody to compete with Zeke. So it's not Zeke and Cole Ballard, McComb or Cole Ballard, that you would grow another option in there, a little bit more experienced option, potentially running back, probably get somebody, I would say, maybe with, with losing Devin Neal with Daniel Hyshaw being away from the team, you might bring in somebody, I'm not entirely sure there, they could roll with the guys they've got, but that's a possibility. Receiver, you're talking multiple guys, you know, and potentially up to, what, like three guys with all of the guys that they're losing tight end, they lose a bunch of guys at tight end, you're probably going to go get a tight end or so in the portal, Nick, they haven't had a transfer class yet, or they haven't brought in offensive lineman. So I would assume that while they bring back most of those guys, they would probably bring in at least one guy, maybe even two, to be in that group. Of course, you're losing Michael Ford, who I thought had kind of an underrated season, Bryce Cable do, both of those guys are gone. Defense event, I think with losing wood key, with losing Jeremy Robinson, they've got a lot of young talent at that position, but not a lot of proven stuff at that position, you do bring back Dean Miller, that's a position where I could see them going for an experienced guy to hop in that rotation, defensive tackle. It seems like they like to take a tackle to kind of fill out that defensive tackle rotation, they could be very good at defensive tackle again next year, Nick, with DJ Withers, Tommy Dunn, Blake Harold was great at time. But yeah, they said that he was their best interior pass rusher and he's a young guy. And so you've got three of those spots, you feel really, really good about Keaton Caldwell, has played a bunch and can come back. They should have those guys, but maybe you take a guy there, linebacker is another position where they're really going to need to go to the portal, they've already got one transfer linebacker in the boat currently from South Carolina, defensive back, you're probably going to go and get a few guys, you know, I get that it's too early to say anything about the dies because they were banged up a lot of this year and even when they played, they were banged up. So don't take what the dies did on the field this year as sort of your indication of how well they play because I think when they're healthy, you know, they bring quite a bit more there and you do have Taylor Davis coming back, killed Purdy, you know, did some nice things this year. I still think you probably had a safety in there, maybe even a safety with like Marvin Grant's skill set where he could be more of a box safety slash linebacker hybrid type guy. I do think you probably bring in a cornerback even with the guys that they like in that room just from an experience standpoint. And so all of that is to say, you know, that's, that's a whole bunch of guys, obviously. And so the thing about it is, is a lot of those guys are, are guys at a premium positions. Everybody is going to want wide receivers in this portal. That's a position that I feel like 95% of America has circled. And so it's a question of how much are you willing to, to spend in a NIL, you know, can the opportunities that you promise, can that get you over the hill with some guys or are you going to wind up getting some guys that maybe aren't, you know, quite at the same level because you're swinging for starters there, Nick, because you're losing so many starting guys. Yes, you're hoping Douglas a million can step into a spot. They're hoping that Keaton Chewbacca is going to take a step forward and, and help you out there. But at the same time, you need to find at least one starter, if not outright to, or whatever, from the transfer portal at wide receiver. And so that's not going to be easy to go out and find guys that are going to not just fit and plug into your lineup, but also be guys that are going to make you feel really good about, hey, these guys are going to be able to go out and execute what needs to be executed. Yeah, I think to kind of distill that down to me, wide receiver, okay, let me, let me rewind here. Assuming Jalen Daniels comes back, which is a pretty large assumption, I would say at this point, but we'll just assume that for net for this, for the sake of this, assuming that happens, I think wide receiver and linebacker and defensive end are probably your top three most important positions of need, I would say, on the transfer portal, but, but look, you look at the offensive line, you know, Logan Brown is a guy that I think has the potential to play any NFL to be honest with you. I mean, considering you always played, you think about someone like Bryce Foster, right? Like there's, there could be some opportunities where you may need some, be looking at some more players on that front as well. But yeah, I think to me, if Jalen Daniels comes back, wide receiver and linebacker and defensive end are probably your top three, and then I, I think I probably agree with you, you know, you look at the secondary, we just talked about very in the show, we like a lot of the pieces that Kansas has, but they're, y'all, right? So you like to bring inside? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you'd like to bring in some, some proven talent or some proven experience at least to maybe help a little bit on the back end. And then I think if Jalen Daniels does decide to move on, quarterback probably becomes at that point your highest priority, right, for the reasons that you outlined because you probably want to bring in somebody else just to have an extra body in there, you know, so that it's not just Zeke Marshall and Cole Ballard, essentially with true freshman, David McComb, which by the way, David McComb, I don't know if he's not having fallen out in the Oklahoma Oklahoma State. You know, I'm a McComb guy that preaching to the choir, the, that the felt is, is under ranked by the recruiting services. I really liked David McComb. Yeah, I had to toss that in there for you, because he has been doing well in the Oklahoma high school state playoffs, but yeah, if Jalen Daniels decides to move on, I think quarterback probably jumps to the top of the list as well in the transfer portal also for Kansas. So yeah, all that is to say, like I said, you know, I've been very, very impressed, very, very impressed with what Lance Leibold has done in the transfer portal in the Aussie scene in terms of pursuing Kansas's needs, but this is really going to be a whole new challenge for him, considering what the needs Kansas may have. Al kind of asked this question, you know, it's, it's a fair question to ask, right? You see, you see players leaving in the transfer portal. I think in this era of college football, you just are of college athletics, really, in general, you almost have to assume, yeah, yeah, you almost have to assume and expect that, you know, you're probably going to see some departures from the program. In terms of specifics, it's, it's really hard to say right now, right? And, you know, it's one of those things where, you know, listen, the players in the locker room, they're just like us, right? They're just, they're season just ended, just like we're talking about the season just ending. So a lot of that can be kind of, you know, who knows at this point in time, but I would not be surprised to see possible some guys, you know, departing the program as well for various reasons. Obviously within high shots, sounds like that might be the case, but, you know, we'll see. So it's, you almost have to expect it. And I'm not really 100% sure who or what that might look like for Kansas, but again, that could also just free up more opportunities for Kansas to be more aggressive. Getting players also to come out of the transport was well, yeah, I'll also point it out. Yeah, Chris Harris, I don't know if you saw this on Twitter, Kevin, Chris Harris was evidently evidently watching the Oklahoma State playoffs and he tweeted about, man, this quarterback from Erin Memorial is a really good and then he later, he finds out that that was David McCollum and says, oh, and he's going to KU, so win-win, yeah, kind of a funny, kind of a funny moment on social media there for Chris Harris also. Okay, so we spent a lot of time kind of talking about what's next basically for Kansas, but just to kind of circle back here real quick to this particular game against Baylor. One other question I kind of wanted to ask you, Kevin, about this is does today's game, is this game against Baylor, does it impact maybe how you viewed the last four games of the season in totality for Kansas, right? They win three consecutive games against ranked opponents. Does today's performance or lack thereof, I guess, or do you back where to put it, does that sort of, you know, taint what we saw Kansas accomplish earlier this season in these last five or six games for you or it doesn't really matter, I guess, because they didn't make a bowl obviously, so does it really matter, does it just, hey, you didn't win the game, so it's irrelevant how the game happened, but kind of the way this performance went for Kansas, does that impact at all how you're feeling about what Kansas did over the last, you know, basically five, six games of the season? I don't think it does. It was unfortunate because you might have needed your best game of the season to win this one based on the matchup and you end up playing your worst game of the season. However, for all of KU's issues this year and we've set it before, Nick, if KU played the way that it did when it lost to K-State against UNLV, against West Virginia, against Illinois, all of those might have been 20 point wins. I mean, even though KU lost that game, the level of play was so much better in that game than it was earlier in the season. This is still the only time Kansas got run and, you know, yes, you can look back and say, well, a play here, a play there, Baylor had 600 yards and the defense wasn't slowing them down. You had three turnovers for if you count a missed field goal as a turnover. And so it really was, it was unfortunate in that it felt bad like it was circling back to a lot of the things that hurt them earlier in the season, whether they were tired like Lance Leipold mentioned, they felt like they were worn down after a streak, a four straight ranked team or not, I don't think it impacts the way that I felt watching them against Iowa State, the way that, you know, I saw him play, even in the loss against K-State, the way they play against KU-State, they elevated their play over that last half of the season. I don't think obviously you saw results in that they got a lot more wins over that case. You wind up winning four year of your final six after winning one of your first six. And so they did turn things around. It was just a bad performance against the team that Al mentions, you know, was a pretty hot team coming in. Yeah, and look, I think I'm kind of the same boat as you like, for me, and now Al mentioned this as well, like, the reality is like, it doesn't really matter how this game was going to unfold. Like a loss and oxygenable contention, you know what I mean, like obviously the way in which it unfolded kind of stings, but it's the same outcome regardless, right, considering what you had, what was in front of you potentially with a win here today. So, yeah, I don't know, I mean, I think you still have to tip your cap to what Kansas did. You know, we've touched on it with the fact that Lance Eipold, weekend and week out when KU was struggling, said, "Hey, nobody's lost in this locker room, we're still together." And they obviously proved that on the field with some of their performances they had down the stretch. And, you know, somebody commented earlier in the show about sort of the, what, when you were talking about KU being tired, coming into this one, you know, I think KU just poured a lot into that Colorado game. Which emotionally and physically, right? You know, it was just, it was senior day, obviously not in Lawrence, but still senior day for these guys against a Colorado team that for senior, senior day with a team where like half of your team is seniors almost. Yeah. And then obviously, you know, Colorado for obvious reasons has sort of an extra spotlight on them with, with Coach Prime and all that. So that probably adds a little bit juice to it as well. And so, yeah, I mean, I think looking back to, I think KU probably just poured a lot into that game, right? And maybe that's hurt them a little bit today against Baylor. But I do want to say this, right? Like we haven't really had a chance to mention this, but look, I know you treated about it at the end of the game, Kevin, but the senior class that Kansas has with so many guys that positively impacted this, this program so much, right? I mean, this was the worst program in all of powerful or power five or whatever the hell you want to call it at this point, you know, when a lot of these guys showed up on campus, right? Well, came to KU knowing what KU had been for, it basically his entire life that he could be aware of KU football, and he still chose to come to Lawrence, or I guess stay in Lawrence. It would be a better way to put it and, and, you know, build it, build this team up, right? You think about the seniors that had a wide receivers, a guy like Luke Grimm, right? Who is somebody, you know, he talked about it on a different podcast, I think, you know, he said it himself like, hey, I came to KU, you know, 150 pounds, and, you know, and still, you know, grew, grew individually as a person and as a fall player, as well as helping to grow this program. You think about the guys on the defense that do the same thing, like, you know, you have to tip your cap to what the seniors have done for this program, right? Because when you consider where Kansas was as a program, right, like, you were going to need a dedicated, and a really dedicated group of, not just one guy, it took a lot of guys, obviously, the 30 seniors KU has, to sort of, you know, rise up from what KU had been. And it feels like these, this group of seniors did, they did that, right? They did that, and it's unfortunate that their senior season wasn't, didn't really go the way that I think they hoped, and certainly the fan base hoped, but still, you know, nothing, but love for those guys, and what they've done, and you hope that the foundation that they created and laid is going to lead to more success in the future for Kansas, because, I mean, it's undeniable that those guys poured their heart and souls into this program. A lot of them, obviously, really encapsulated by Devin Neal being on top of that list, in terms of getting this thing turned around. You know, Travis Goff, I remember there was a quote from Travis Goff saying, "Hey, look, you know, these seniors, they won't get to play in the new booth, but they built it, right?" You know, like, they built it with what the success that they were able to have, and to generate, you know, fans coming back to this team, you know, I've talked about it time and time again, like KU fans are incredibly passionate, they're incredibly loyal, they just, they just, for a long time, didn't have any reason to, to, to care. And, you know, this group of seniors, I think, sort of made them care and brought them back, and hopefully that can continue going forward. Yeah, I 100% agree, one of the guys that I brought up in the tweet that you're referencing was LJ Arnold, and he came in in 2020. In 2020, Nick, KU went not just 0 and 9, but only had one, one score game. I mean, they were just not even competitive in games. And you think about how brutal the start to the season was. Well, when they started off 1 and 2, Nick, they had one more win, and LJ Arnold had, had his entire friendship here, and they had two more close games, then they had that entire season through three games in a season where things, you know, didn't go ideally. And so I, it's funny, you know, that tweet starting to get K-State fans in their, of course, you know, say, you only had one winning season and all of these things, but you got to look at where you're coming from. And Kansas, I don't want to say they couldn't even think of a bull, like, they couldn't even think of four wins, Nick. Like they, you know, you just hadn't had four wins in a season since 2009, they've done that each of the last three years. And so they did, they had four wins in their last six games this year, and the season that, like we said, didn't live up to expectations. And so I do think that the senior class for a lot of reasons is a really special one for the foundation that they're building. But also, I think to Nick, I realized this year, people are going to look back at this year for a while and say, hey, this is a KU team that was supposed to be there and didn't get there. It's probably going to be looked back a lot like 2009 was where, you know, the wheels kind of fell off in that season. The difference is they put the wheels back on in this season. They never truly fell all the way off. And I think if Kansas rebounds and has a solid season next year, I'm not even saying a great season because they are losing a lot of guys. But let's say they find a way to go six and six and go back to a bowl game. I'm going to find it hard not to look back at this season and the culture and the fact that they kept working even at one in five when everything was going wrong. I'm going to find it hard not to look back at that and say, hey, that's something that carried over even in a season that was far from ideal and didn't live up to expectation. Well, look, I can't help but think back to the conversation that we had both off the air and on this very show live after KU played Houston, right? And the question was posed, hey, is this a blip in the radar in route to a two in 10 season or a three in nine season? Or is this, you know, something that is actually going to make the season more meaningful? And the answer was that it made the season more meaningful, right? Like, obviously, KU still didn't, they ended up still not making a bowl game. But certainly that was something that led to what KU was able to do down the stretch here, that, you know, picking up three wins against ranked teams consecutively. They never beaten two consecutive ranked teams in their entire program history. You know, so yeah, that's what I can't help but think of is the fact that you went out and you beat a Houston team at one point after a bi-week and you're able to turn the second half of the season into something, right? And I'd return on that point, like, if I think if you look at next season and KU was able to build a little bit and yeah, make a bowl game, go six and six or even win seven games, right? I think to your point, it'll be hard to not look back at that and say, hey, if things went fully off the rails this year and KU did go three and nine, then who knows what would have happened maybe? Who knows what, you know, it's who knows what will happen in 2025? But the fact that they were able to put together some really impressive performances and kind of rally a little bit of the second half of the season, you're hoping is going to set you up to maybe take the next step forward, you know? I think with Lance Leipold, and look, I mean, it's it's impossible not to be guilty of this. I mean, I'm guilty of it all the time. I'm sure you were guilty of a two Kevin, you know, with Lance Leipold, the expectation was, hey, let's let's build slowly, right? You know, get to get to three wins, get to five wins, then go for a bowl, right? And instead it went from here to six and six with the bowl win and then way up here. And that just kind of inflated your expectations, right? When in the reality, you know, progress is not linear, right? And that's kind of, I think, what's encapsulating of the season for Kansas is that it's unfortunate, but progress isn't linear, you know, and you're hoping that next year you can take a step forward, but that's just how things go and that you can keep building off of it. But it is what it is at this point. So obviously, we're going to be continuing to talk to you football in the off season as well as news continues to happen as things continue to move. We talked about it a lot on the show. We're expecting the transfer portal to be very busy for Kansas. We'll be talking about that here on the paid podcast. Obviously, we're also going to be covering KU basketball as well. So be sure to subscribe to the channel on YouTube on YouTube at Kansas Cox KCSN. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen. If you're listening on your audio platforms as well, for more great coverage of all things KU happening here on on pay heat and also be sure to check out the booth review with Brandon McAnor. So he's doing a great job of the season as well breaking down KU football. I'm sure we'll have a couple more episodes with him also on on our KU channel as well. So Kevin, before we wrap things up here, any other final thoughts you want to get out before we get out of here? No, you were asking, you know, if the manner of the loss, you know, if it was something that cast a poll on the season. And one of the things that we talked about at the midpoint in the season is the feeling for three and nine is going to be different than four and eight or five and seven, even if they didn't make it to a bowl game. And I think you were absolutely right about that. And we you obviously are with me on the verbal commitment podcast. We had Lincoln cure on there. I think after the Houston game, if I remember right. And one of the things that he had said was that, you know, Kansas was in a spot where they were playing a lot of close games and they they weren't winning them, but they weren't far off. But you always one kind of wonder like, okay, are they really believing that? I think Kansas put themselves into a position where now they can sell that program to recruits and transfers and say, hey, we were really close. And then we ended the year four and two, we were able to build on that momentum and end on a strong note, even with the way that the game went today. And so I do think that while today was was obviously a setback, you would have loved the bowl game, loved those extra practices, especially. I do think ending the season, the way that they did over the last half of the season, put the program at a much better spot than it would have if they would have ended up two and ten or three and not. Well, no, speaking of the recruiting, I mean, obviously, I don't have to tell you this, but you look at the state of Kansas, there's a lot of really talented in-state recruits coming up in the next couple of recruiting cycles that if you're Kansas, you would love to have an opportunity to snag some of those guys as well to establish your prowess locally as well, right? Yeah, yeah, 2026 has a chance to be a really strong class for Kansas in-state. They already have one in-state commitment in Jalen Mason. It's a quarterback. So you always like to start your class with a good quarterback when he's an in-state kid from Wichita, an area that Kansas hasn't typically recruited well. I think Kansas, when you look at some of the top guys in that class, the J-Hawks are sitting better with that group of players than maybe they have in a long time. And so they're going to enter this offseason maybe with a little bit of momentum and a chance to maybe make some noise in-state from a recruiting standpoint in a way that they haven't in a long time. Well, I thought you could wrap things up here for our live edition show of the Payee Podcast here on the Kansas City Sports Network. Big shout-out, by the way, to everybody, it was in the chat. Big shout-out to Al, who was in the chat. Life changes. Anybody that was in the chat given us some messages as well during our live edition of the show. And thanks so much to everybody that's kind of tuned in live throughout the whole season as well as we've been kind of doing this after every K-Football game. So huge shout-out to you guys. Thanks so much for supporting and thanks so much for tuning in and listening. Hopefully we'll continue to do so as we move into Kansas basketball season and into the off-season and love for K-Football, which we talked a lot about on the show here today as well. As always, like I said before, you can subscribe to the channel. You can like, drop a comment here your thoughts, whether you're listening live right now or if you're listening after the fact or watching after the fact, be sure to do that as well to help grow and spread our channel as we cover all things KU sports related here on the show. But until then, listen, stay warm out there. You might have to be scraping some ice and some snow off your car if you're in the Kansas City area like I did this morning. So stay warm, stay safe. And until then, we're Kevin Flaherty, I'm Nick Springer and we will talk to you again soon. See ya. Thank you for listening to K.C. Sports Network. We appreciate your support. Don't forget to hit that follow button and leave us a review if you like what you heard. You can find all six of our channels covering the Chiefs, Royals, Sporting K.C. and the K.C. Current plus KU, K-State or Mizzou by searching KCSN wherever you listen to podcasts. We're also on YouTube. Entertain. Educate. Inform. K.C. Sports Network. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Nick Springer and Kevin Flaherty react to Kansas football's final regular season game against the Baylor Bears. The guys break down key plays, discuss important moments from the game and whether KU will play in a bowl game or not.
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