- 7 weeks ago
KU Insider Henry Greenstein checks in with all things happening in Jayhawk Sports
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SportsTranscript
00:00it's another sports daily insider interview on kfh
00:07all right welcome back in everybody um we applaud the effort from henry greenstein
00:12orange journal world our ku insider uh henry clearly i'll i think i can walk you through
00:18train of thought uh fell flat on the hawaiian shirt but wanted to participate so through a
00:25background of hawaii is that uh is that honolulu behind you there you know i i actually don't know
00:30uh what it is but i just want to i just want to say for the record oh gosh my
00:35finger is phasing in
00:36and out of existence um i just want to say for the record i do have an order in for
00:42a hawaiian
00:43shirt it has not arrived yet uh so this is a stop gap measure but you might you might be
00:50seeing
00:50variants of this uh for a little while longer um until i can get that under control did you
00:57order it from hawaii exit i don't think so i don't think this is going to be the the most
01:03authentic
01:03or highest quality uh example of the genre that's okay this one this one's my grandpa's it's probably
01:11from i don't know the 50s or 60s so wow like you know this it doesn't matter where you get
01:18it from
01:19it's not but we appreciate the effort while we wait henry of course covers ku for the lawrence
01:23journal world kusports.com um we're getting ready look i don't think maybe you would have henry
01:31certainly i would not have if you asked me a month ago if i would be as excited for this
01:38border war
01:38game as i am i would have told you no but all of a sudden we see a good performance
01:44we see the
01:45batting line it's at home and it's like yeah okay fine i'm in let's go i'm in i'm in let's
01:52uh let's
01:52get excited for this game yeah i mean it's what they always say about rivalry games you know you
01:57can you throw out the record books anything can happen i think i would have been excited regardless
02:01just because it's the first time in 21 years they're playing this one on campus at ku um i think
02:08that the fan base really is going to try to bring the energy oh it's just kind of a shame
02:13this is
02:13happening in a year uh when they don't have the stadium operating in full force um and it is a
02:18little strange by the way they haven't been able to sell out despite having only 32 000 seats to fill
02:24um but all that being said uh i think it will be a great atmosphere there on friday um i
02:30think that
02:31you know with this now being played for the second year in a row i think ku's players and fans
02:36are
02:36starting to get a sense of the uh the bitter hateful energy that pervades this rivalry um
02:43for better or worse and i think that they will uh i think that might be me channeled a little
02:49bit
02:49into the goings-on we'll see i mean you know lance leifold always plays it pretty down the middle
02:54with these rivalry games in terms of saying we understand the importance we will impart to the
02:58players but we also have to play you know in this case 10 more games after this is over um
03:04that was
03:05his message again this week uh but yeah i mean this could be the best team ku plays all year
03:11so
03:11as a as guard amir herring put it the other day maybe sort of a measuring stick uh where they're
03:17at
03:18win or lose should provide some interesting clarity on how how competent of a team ku has this year
03:24god henry did you say it's been 21 years since missouri's played
03:28that ku correct anyone has it been that long since since everything went went crazy with the
03:35conference that well no because they played at arrow they played at arrowhead for a little while
03:40after that like they kept playing games at arrowhead that's true that's until 2011 um but the last on
03:47campus game at david booth kanz memorial stadium was a 13 to 3 win for ku in 2005 that's that's
03:55crazy
03:55crazy yeah it is it is getting a little nasty out there and that you know i i that it's
04:02a it's a
04:03rivalry that maybe the whole country isn't as locked into and i say that as somebody who moved here and
04:09was told about it and i'm like really and i picked up on it now it is intense um i
04:14don't know how much
04:15current players lean into that how much can you lean into that how motivated i mean you've you've had a
04:21chance to kind of be around the team this week do they feel it do they get on board with
04:26how much
04:26the fans despise each other i'm not sure i mean i think every every player has something in their
04:33own life or in their past experience they can connect it to but honestly this rivalry was dormant for so
04:41long that i think k-state has just kind of not that kku fans would never say this but in
04:48the public
04:48consciousness k-state may have overtaken mizzou in terms of like a ku rival that people are aware
04:55of and yeah ku fans won't like me saying that that's just kind of the way it is now because
05:00they have continued to play each other every year in every sport and you know the problem with the
05:04mizzou thing is this is the last time they're playing it for five more years and lance leipold says
05:10the other day oh well hopefully we can find a way to keep getting this one played and it's like
05:16well
05:16this isn't basketball like they have the schedules laid out every season between now and 2031
05:24okay you've got to go to pullman to play washington state next year they've got a home and home with
05:29hawaii they have a home and home with virginia it's not something where you can just sub in additional
05:34games against missouri in the interim so you know we'll probably again in five years be having
05:41conversations like man do kids these days really really understand this right because it's not
05:47happening for a sustained enough period of time for people to understand just how big a deal it was
05:52when both teams were in the big 12 i know i deviated a little bit from what you asked but
05:56no that's that's that's i think you're i think you're right on with that that's where i'm at with
06:00that yeah i agree it's it's to me it's such a shame remembering like the old big even going back
06:06to the big eight days it's a shame and yeah i think even current students are probably just not aware
06:14i mean if you're a current student at at ku or missouri i mean you probably don't really remember
06:19how crazy the rivalry was outside maybe some basketball games over the past 10-15 years have been
06:25kind of kind of uh big big matchups and had had a big stage you know looking at this game
06:33henry on
06:34friday night again another friday night game uh missouri with uh just minus five and a half were you
06:42surprised at that line on how close uh the odds makers are looking at this one i don't know i
06:48mean
06:48that was the line last year and it was in columbia i'm pretty sure it was six and a half
06:54or something
06:54last year i i wasn't like unbelievably shocked by it i mean it bespeaks some level of confidence
07:01from the odds makers in the in the jayhawks possibly based on them looking pretty convincing
07:07against long island uh also no ahmad hardy it looks like so that probably plays a role um i think
07:15there's on the other hand like i guess it's surprising in the sense that you know if mizzou's
07:21only favored by five and a half that means only a little over a touchdown on a neutral field you
07:26think and then you think about the the disparity and spending on football rosters between these two
07:31teams and you know the fact that mizzou's entire secondary is composed of transfers from oregon and
07:37ole miss and auburn like that's a pretty high level of talent and a and a caliber of prospect that
07:43the
07:43tigers are bringing in um so i guess it's a little it's a little bit surprising but you know before
07:49i saw
07:50that line my initial prediction for this game had been missouri by five so i'm not i'm not shocked by
07:57it necessarily um i do think there were a lot of position groups where ku is going to have to
08:05play
08:05vastly better than it did in last year's matchup between the two teams and we can get into that more
08:10if you want but i i think there are some areas where it doesn't favor them on paper well yeah
08:16let's
08:16where where will they struggle it's so hard with a game like liu and the offense like the offense
08:23being good doesn't surprise me the defense being that good for the entire game maybe does a little
08:28bit but what what do you think ku struggles this week yeah i mean first of all they they have
08:33to
08:34match up better in the trenches than they did last year i mean they they lost the battle uh on
08:39both
08:40both sides of the line when you think about you know mizzou's a team that runs a lot of stretch
08:45an outside zone and though their their offensive line were able to pull so effectively and open up
08:50uh such big holes on the outside for both hardy and roberts last year so that's you know that that's
08:56one thing and like i guess that ku got a little bit more pressure on probula last year in the
09:01in
09:01the offensive line uh in the passing game than maybe people expected but overall didn't go that great for
09:07them on that side and they couldn't get off the field on defense and then on the other end
09:12you know they had no run game i think like they had like 11 combined rushing yards between high
09:19shot williams last year or something um it was only really the defensive touchdown early and a
09:26really good performance from jaylen daniels that kind of kept them in that so i think they have to
09:29be significantly more physical than they demonstrated last year the other thing is the ku secondary needs
09:35to prove it's better than it was last season i mean they didn't really get a chance to do that
09:38against long island uh because they just weren't really tested in the passing game and one of the
09:44reasons why ku lost last year was because as i said it couldn't get off the field and money downs
09:49and a
09:49lot of that had to do with you know players like the tight end brett norfleet or some of those
09:54wide
09:54receivers like aluba day who's back this year as a sophomore getting open in key moments against ku
10:00secondary um and it's many of the same players uh and this will be a very clear bit of evidence
10:07as to
10:07how much they may have improved in the off season because mizzou's loaded back up you know i mentioned
10:12aluba day they've got they've got caden lee and nation montgomery and transfers like that and wide
10:18receiver they still have norfleet at tight end of course that ku game norfleet had last year was the
10:22best game of his career and continues to be so maybe that was a little bit of an outlier but
10:27i just feel like this is an opportunity you know i think everyone can be fairly confident andy
10:32koenicki will will scheme some people open he can do that against any defense that's kind of his
10:37whole thing i i he'll he'll keep them off guard and ku will get some unearned not unearned but like
10:43some unexpected yards and big plays on offense i think we can be pretty confident that will be the
10:48case i just think ku's defense has to demonstrate that it can keep up with a unit of this level
10:54yeah for sure i i think even still in this uh second game it's hard enough to kind of predict
10:59all the week zero or week one games because it's just like you just don't know all rosters are so
11:04different uh throughout the off season and uh it's the same with k-state uh taking on nickels it's kind
11:11of like well you know good results for ku and k-state but you really still don't know exactly where
11:17they're at and i i don't know uh for you henry but going into this game it's still kind of
11:22i kind of
11:22have that same feeling of like i i just really still don't know yet how how these teams are going
11:28to look and and how they're going to play each other because i i just can't go too much off
11:33of
11:34long island but looking at that long island game where are some points where you can look at that
11:40game and see some things where you feel confident of seeing like well the defense can do this or the
11:47offense can do this against missouri i mean as i am isaiah marshall throwing a deep ball is something
11:53that every khu fan should be encouraged by he hit on a couple of them he won't have as much
11:58time to
11:59throw them against any other opponent um but you know he's a guy who's known primarily for his
12:03running ability and only thrown three passes in his career so to see him go 14 of 19 for 200
12:09something yards and two touchdowns was encouraging of course at the same time he got away with probably
12:14two passes that should have been intercepted uh over the course of that game or at least one
12:19um but you know he can throw the ball down the field with a little of accuracy nick mcmillan is
12:25maybe the best single receiver ku has had under leipold we'll see how that turns out but
12:32you know everything everything that we heard throughout the offseason was he's a bona fide number
12:38one guy and he showed that in every conceivable way when you think about tiptoeing the sideline
12:42for 19 yards on the third and 18 screen pass um making a toe drag catch uh take for another
12:49conversion uh contested catch where he holds on through contact on dig route getting behind the
12:54defense for that deep ball getting behind them again for the touchdown like he he showed off every
12:59possible skill you could want a receiver to have i understand he's doing it against lesser competition
13:02but a lot of that will transfer and then uh you know the speed and size the defense event you
13:08know
13:08i talked earlier about missouri being a team that wants to run stretch a lot well when you have the
13:13kind of lateral agility that guys like leroy harris and david santiago displayed as early as that last
13:19game that provides maybe some level of encouragement they'll be able to keep up in that realm so that's
13:23something that's something that ku fans can look at and say maybe that will transfer going forward
13:29we'll follow your coverage henry at the lawrence journal world one other thing you've been
13:33kind of reporting about a little bit melvin council real quick uh in 15 seconds or less do we need
13:40to be paying attention to this yet is it too early do we care uh like is he is this
13:45enhances chances at
13:46all oh you got to pay attention two hours in two hours his lawyers will be in court in monroe
13:51county
13:51so there could be something today we'll see and you can follow along at the lawrence journal world
13:57henry will have us covered on it at henry greenstein on x next week rocking it