- 2 days ago
KU Insider Henry Greenstein checks in with all the latest from Lawrence!
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:001240 time to get busy this is sports daily on kfh
00:07and now digging deeper with the teams you follow it's another sports daily insider interview on
00:15kfh that insider is henry greenstein in and we are glad to have henry on the sports daily
00:22rotation a part of the team here as we make our way into another ku season you can find henry's
00:28work at the lawrence journal world at kusports.com you can reach him at henry greenstein on x you can
00:36find right now the latest article up uh regarding the linebackers at ku we'll get to that in just a
00:43minute henry i guess as we've introduced you as our ku insider now we we should we should learn a
00:50little about that tell the people uh how long you've been on the beat all right let's think about
00:54this so three years and three months at this point i think that uh i my my first day was
01:00like may 20
01:01something 2023 um so i've gotten to see the worst three-year stretch of basketball in the bill self
01:08era um and then i got to see the uh the best post mangino ku football season followed by a
01:15couple
01:16of disappointing ones um historic runs by the baseball and soccer teams and lots of coaching
01:23changes and other sports so and of course that all against the backdrop of college athletics being
01:29hit by one seismic change after another so there's been a lot to write about um but yeah i came
01:35here
01:35from i came here from bakersfield california a little over three years ago uh oh what'd you say
01:42i was born in bakersfield oh there you go yeah you know that um yeah yeah so i covered csub
01:48and
01:49bakersfield college for a couple years out of grad school um but yeah it's been a pleasure being here
01:55and it's always interesting there's always something new going on and i also i'm also the sports editor
02:01at the paper so i oversee our high school stuff and get freelancers and things like that well that you
02:07know the high school stuff up from where you are that's like we're enemies a little bit
02:12east west rivalry you know we'll get we'll get you and tj and you can talk you can talk high
02:17school
02:17football trash uh later in the season uh but that's great we love it uh it has been an interesting
02:23time
02:24and it has been we'll get to basketball in a minute and the court happenings and the latest and
02:29any rumblings from inside the programs but it is football camp guys get a day off we joke all the
02:36time and you told us last week okay you you know outside of quarterback might be a little better
02:42kind of across the board of that position what would be i was talking about this yesterday
02:49it just water cooler talking like what would be the thing that is enough of a positive surprise you
02:57were there for the first year right post man gino where everybody got fired up how many wins did k
03:02you have that year six nine and four they and actually they could have been better is it gonna
03:07take nine wins to get people that fired up again because i feel like six isn't gonna do it like
03:15oh
03:15cool they made a bowl gate like i don't think that's got people ready and revved up and fired up
03:20the same
03:21way they were three years ago yeah i think you're probably right i i think it's probably fair to say
03:26if
03:26they get a six win season this year people be like oh that's nice they're back on the right track
03:30then next year there will be some expectation that they get eight wins kind of following the
03:36trajectory of 2022 to 2023 so i agree with you but i also think you know next year is going
03:43to be the
03:43one where the stadium is fully finished now granted they'll still be working on the rest of the
03:49surrounding district but they they're going to really want to build up as much fan enthusiasm as
03:54possible for 2027 so in kind of a a meta sense or a macro economic sense this is a really
04:02significant
04:03year for ku um from in terms of building enthusiasm for the football program yeah i agree i don't think
04:09six wins because basically what the situation you talked about is what kind of hope to play out the
04:15last two or three years where that was like okay we broke through we're a contender now i mean i
04:20remember
04:20the talk of like you know let's set the sights at a big 12 championship after finally breaking through
04:25with some bowl games then there was that that disappointment so yeah i i don't think ku fans
04:30want to go through that again but henry it's uh you know it's august 11th we're getting closer and
04:36closer to the start of college football season how much closer are we uh to knowing who's going to be
04:42behind center for the jayhawks um i don't think that there's been any visible progress in terms of like
04:49you know this person's suddenly getting all the first team reps you know we're not able to see a
04:53huge amount of practice we usually get about 20 to 25 minutes but in what we have seen it's been
04:59very evenly split um we also don't really get to see any kind of 11 on 11 or even anything
05:05remotely
05:05resembling it uh so we may not be getting the fairest picture but yeah we talked to we talked
05:10to lance leipold yesterday he didn't really have an update on how the competition is progressing
05:14you know they talk like they have two guys they'd be comfortable with playing in games
05:19um time will tell whether that's actually the case i think i may have mentioned this last week but
05:24there's a little bit of a contradiction between what leipold has said regarding not wanting to do a
05:29court a two quarterback system and what he said regarding hey guys just be warned we're gonna pick a
05:34starter but both these guys are still gonna play in games so he has to kind of find a balance
05:39i think
05:40um because he said i don't want two quarterback system because you have to let a guy find a rhythm
05:45but he also said they're going to use both quarterbacks so i'm kind of envisioning something
05:49where one guy gets like 55 snaps and the other gets 10 but i feel like if isaiah marshall ends
05:56up
05:56being the starter then he's probably a good enough passer to be a starting quarterback so why do you need
06:02to give cole bauer 10 snaps whereas if cole bauer is the starter you're probably getting a more of a
06:06different element from isaiah marshall and spot what's worth marshall said on saturday the coaches
06:12have not talked to them about what their role would look like if they are the number two quarterback
06:16so it's kind of a weird situation but headline no decision yet on the starting quarterback well
06:23can they run the same offense with both guys i think they think they can i think that there'd be
06:29more designed runs if it's marshall i think bauer's not a bad runner like he's physical he's big and he
06:34takes contact um he's just not as fast and you know last year isaiah marshall averaged 10 yards per
06:41carry on design runs um and that was pretty important last year because they were i don't
06:47want to say afraid but they were reluctant to run the option as much as they had earlier
06:51um in jaylen daniels time the starting quarterback so they needed some kind of way to get a qb run
06:55threat
06:56um but i think they think they can run at least something resembling the same offense maybe with
07:02some play calls tailored here and there toward the the skill sets of each player um and you know
07:08we heard from zebrowski the other day and he basically said what bauer needs to work on most
07:13is being less rigid in his mechanics he needs to be more fluid and what marshall needs to work on
07:19most
07:20is functional intelligence and like you know commanding the huddle better and getting people
07:26lined up and things like that's not prompt i don't i don't think that that's reassuring it's not
07:30it's not a phrasing that exactly sparks a lot of excitement when you hear that that's not something
07:36you want to have anybody say about you be like oh my wife says brady's a great great brady's a
07:42great
07:43guy but needs to work on this functional intelligence that's not what i'd ever want to hear
07:47uh ever yeah uh you know henry we've talked a lot about uh even go back to last year with
07:53k-state and
07:54uh the dublin game and that trip and you know getting ready for that obviously didn't go
08:00the way to wildcast one of the two and you know a lot of people kind of look at that
08:04as like just
08:04right away the wheels fall fell off uh right right out of the gate how's k-u approaching uh the
08:11union
08:11jack classic uh in london that'll be september 19th gets arizona state uh what's the approach there do
08:17you think there's anything uh the program has taken from k-state's experience last year i don't know if
08:23they even talk to each other for like hey how you know how did you guys deal with that how
08:27did you
08:27guys prepare for that what are you what are you gathering as far as the prep for uh the jayhawks
08:32going across the pond well i'm almost certain they they did talk to k-state because leipold and
08:37climbing were very close so i'm i'm i'm sure they did now it's a little different because for god knows
08:44what reason although i've been given official explanations as to why for god knows what reason
08:48this is in week three instead of week zero um and the the reason i was given on that front
08:53well
08:54i've given begin a couple but um it has to do with the soccer calendar and it has to do
09:00with the fact
09:01that the population of london is less touristy this is what travis goff said the population of london is
09:07less touristy in september and they want to attract more locals that was something i of course if you look
09:14it up online wembley stadium is also hosting an aew event during week zero that they announced
09:19two years ago to me that seems like the real reason um in any case uh it's in this random
09:26week
09:26it doesn't get its own time slot um in the way that nfl london games do but it does get
09:33big noon
09:34which was a good a good get on their part because it'll still get a lot of publicity even though
09:38it's
09:39happening midway through the season as for the logistics it's going to be different for ku as
09:44opposed to asu ku i believe is flying over there wednesday so they get in on thursday i might have
09:52that i might be one day wait on that regardless they're going a couple days beforehand whereas asu
09:58they play in college station the previous weekend so instead of going back across time zones i believe
10:04they're going straight to london from like houston after they finish playing against a&m so they will
10:12have been there longer uh we'll see if that ends up being advantage and whose method is superior but
10:18ku is going to get a couple days to settle in regardless before they have to actually play
10:22obviously this can wreak all sorts of havoc on your circadian rhythms um the six hour time change and
10:29whatnot um i think it's going to be a really fun game i think these teams you know asu's maybe
10:35got some
10:35some flashy talent they've got two really good receiver transfers um transfer quarterback from
10:42kentucky is probably going to end up winning out as the starter uh some good returning talent on defense
10:47uh they got a ku transfer safety and lyric rawls at the back end of that defense i think it'll
10:53be a
10:53good game um but i do think it may i may have said this last week but it'll ultimately be
10:59seen as kind
11:00of like whatever follows for the rest of the season uh will be seen as a consequence of what
11:05happens in the union jack classic clerical note before we talk about what you wrote about yesterday
11:10or this morning uh is this this a conference game right yeah it is yeah okay that's what i thought
11:15um all right let's talk about what you dug into a little bit uh i see a couple stories out
11:21now and
11:21it's it's the linebackers we're gonna focus on because it's the only thing we know how to focus on
11:28besides maybe dylan edwards the quarterbacks but there are other things happening notably and you
11:35can find this right now uh at the lawrence journal world kusports.com the linebackers is that a position
11:41of strength potentially for this team i mean it's a position of depth if anything else yeah i wrote
11:47about mount guy curvey yesterday i wrote about bam crouch this morning those are both up now um
11:53essentially last year ku had a pretty good top line in terms of linebackers with trey
11:58lathan and bengali kamara and i think lathan was probably a lot better than they expected
12:02but the problem was beyond that they were really really shallow um they had john john kamara who was
12:10a very highly thought of prospect but he was he was not assignment disciplined all season um and
12:16really struggled at times um and then a middle linebacker they thought they were also going to have
12:20joe sip a transfer from bowling green but he got hurt and was really not a factor for the entire
12:25year
12:25and transferred to florida atlantic logan brantley wasn't great either and you know there was there
12:31were times where there was a time where bengali kamara was hurt there was a time where there was a
12:34targeting injection they were they just did not have a full complement of linebackers
12:38even with one of their transfers for this year having been ruled ineligible they still seem deeper
12:45um quincy davis who is he was not even a starter in new mexico state last year but they clearly
12:50liked his film he's been one of the biggest recipients of praise this offseason um and while
12:58he can play at either you know k is going to run mostly a 4-2-5 this year while
13:02he can play either
13:03at middle linebacker or weak side linebacker it seems like his primary responsibility is going to
13:07be spelling trey lathan at middle linebacker and making his job a little bit easier on the weak side
13:13they brought in bam crouch uh from uh boston college who was a starter in 2024 he was a team
13:20captain and a starter in 2025 but got hurt so ended up red shirting so this is his fifth year
13:24um he has a lot of experience those those bc teams were not very good um but crouch was he
13:31was a key
13:31part of their defense um and he should slot in you know chris simpson the linebackers coach has said
13:37he's the most consistent that position right now but they have other options they also have jabril
13:41alamin who's really interesting he comes from marshall and before that he was at jacksonville
13:45state he's been playing at 200 pounds the last few years so they kind of saw him and thought we
13:51can
13:51put 20 pounds in this guy he's incredibly athletic and make him a functional linebacker um i don't you
13:58know it'll be interesting to see exactly how they use him because he can play that will spot as well
14:03but it sounds like they also want to use him as what they call the hawk as a third linebacker
14:07when they
14:08go into occasional three linebacker sets so that's something to watch and then curvey um lance leipold
14:14singled him out for unsolicited praise yesterday which is usually a good sign he's probably going
14:19to be a rotational guy he's a redshirt freshman from waukee iowa um he played defensive end in high
14:25school and he looks like a defensive end he's 6'4 245 um but he's he's also highly athletic um
14:32and has
14:33shown flashes there and you know last year he only got really to play on special teams and in the
14:37spring
14:38he was coming back from shoulder surgery but they seem to think he's a viable option too so
14:43it certainly appears any injuries pending that they will be a better rounded group um at linebacker
14:50than they were last year and that's important especially because the secondary is a bit of a
14:54concern and uh will likely continue to be for much of the season yeah henry glad you broke that down
15:01on that piece because i feel like that's something that's kind of been lost in the offseason discussion
15:05when we're talking about ku it's all about you know no more jaylon daniels and uh who the quarterback's
15:10going to be but i think we kind of forgot like that defense was a big problem for the jayhawks
15:15last year
15:15looking at the stats uh for last year i mean they weren't the worst defense but the run defense is
15:21pretty bad but i mean in all categories they're kind of definitely in that that lower lower 25 percent
15:29you know college football last year and k-state also not that far off they were pretty
15:33rough defensively uh how much has that felt like a lost talking point i mean we just hit on it
15:42but
15:42it seems like we focused a lot on the quarterbacks but defense was a big part of the issue last
15:47year
15:47because there were times where especially in the red zone red zone i mean people were just cutting
15:52right through yeah i mean it all kind of started with that cincinnati game um where they were just
15:58getting absolutely shredded by soarsby and then got what should have been the game-winning touchdown
16:03uh i think espn gave them an 89.8 win probability and then they immediately allowed a game-winning
16:10touchdown drive including like a one-handed catch on fourth and 10 uh that allowed that drive to serve
16:16and from then it was just kind of spiraled a little bit they had maybe one good defensive half
16:20well that's not entirely fair they had one good defensive half against ucf and they had
16:25three good defensive quarters against arizona the rest of the season and other than that it wasn't
16:29great um for from a defensive perspective you know it was dk mcdonald's first year as the
16:35coordinator they were trying to shift to a more multiple front with players who had been recruited
16:40to play to a four-man front um in some cases it worked and caught opponents by surprise and in
16:46a lot
16:46of cases it really didn't uh the hope is that with the personnel they've recruited kind of
16:51understanding what they're coming into um and with a second year of comfort for returning players you
16:57know like the starting cornerbacks last year were a a true sophomore and a redshirt freshman you'd
17:02like to think that now as a junior and a redshirt sophomore um they'll be better situated now granted
17:08that redshirt sophomore austin alexander has apparently not been like fully healthy for six
17:13months um he missed the spring to an off-season surgery and then apparently had another injury that
17:18hasn't limited now and so suddenly one outside corner spot is kind of shaky with the options
17:25being roman pearson a transfer from ball state who's been a little inconsistent and saeed gibbs who
17:30you know we saw last year was pretty good at nickel but when they moved him outside he had some
17:34glaring
17:35issues so you probably don't want to start him at outside corner if you can help it uh so anyway
17:41i got a
17:42little bit distracted from a main point i was trying to make there but there's reason for hope
17:47on the defensive line um i think leroy harris will have a break out year defensive end and i think
17:54the
17:54rest of the defensive ends are strong defensive tackles looking a little weird trayvon mcalpine's
17:59out for the season he was one of the biggest name transfer acquisitions they got um but blake harold
18:04should be really good all that is to say like there's reason for optimism on the defense but you kind
18:09have to see them go out out there and prove it we'll talk dylan edwards next week henry enjoy the
18:14day off from camp uh we will chat again next week lawrence journal world kusports.com go follow henry
18:21on x nice job man we appreciate it sounds good thanks
Comments