Kansas Football 2021 Season

[twocoach]

People choose to see things how they want to see them. When your team is ass there are ample things that lead you to believe they will continue to be ass for the foreseeable future if you want to see it that way.

When your team team is ass but has a much better than expected game, there are ample things that lead you to believe that improvements are being made if you want to see it that way.

[jhawks99]

Seems like a lot of the sports world thought the opening of the gates for free in the 4th quarter yesterday was pretty damn cool. I'm not sure if anyone has done that in recent history, but I can see it starting to happen more often, especially for schools trying to rebuild their programs.

I remember Colorado doing this when Roi was here. CU was up a few points on us at the half and they opened it up. Crowd got pretty big. Pretty sure we won and didn't need the ref's help.

[pdub]

I remember a game, I think late Terry Allen or early Mangino, where they announced late in the week that seats were free for a Saturday.

It was a B12 game. Forget the opponent.

[hartjack8]

The goal is to have paying fans. The stadium was really empty which was a bad look on national TV.

[jfish26]

People choose to see things how they want to see them. When your team is ass there are ample things that lead you to believe they will continue to be ass for the foreseeable future if you want to see it that way.

When your team team is ass but has a much better than expected game, there are ample things that lead you to believe that improvements are being made if you want to see it that way.

The biggest deal to me, having watched most of the game, is that if you didn't know who the teams were, you would have thought they belonged on the same field.

Hard to overstate how jarring basic competency is, in the circumstances.

[holidaysmore]

I just want to see KU stack multiple good games in a row. Doesn't need to be wins just well prepared, hard fought games.
We all got fooled into thinking KU was turning the corner after beating Texas in the Beaty era and looked how that turned out. We all thought we turned the corner beating Tech two years ago and followed that up by getting completely embarrassed, at home against State.
I want consistency and the OU game showed me that is at least a possibility.

[Sparko]

After the Tech game I was frankly pissed. The whole team got their asses chewed and ready for OU. An advanced fourth down fumble away. Really exciting game. Kansas was moving at will against OU and Bean was sharp. They keep up this effort and they may get a few wins to close out. Different team.

[PhDhawk]

I just want to see KU stack multiple good games in a row. Doesn't need to be wins just well prepared, hard fought games.
We all got fooled into thinking KU was turning the corner after beating Texas in the Beaty era and looked how that turned out. We all thought we turned the corner beating Tech two years ago and followed that up by getting completely embarrassed, at home against State.
I want consistency and the OU game showed me that is at least a possibility.

I agree with everything you said except the last sentence.

don't we need to see that kind of game in 4 outta the last 5 before we're sure consistency is a possibility?

Clearly two things happened on Saturday, KU played well, OU played poorly. How much was the former and how much was the latter? That's also an issue that I don't think we know the answer to until at least 2-3 games from now.

[Sparko]

I agree PhD. I was frankly surprised at how crisp the passing attack was. The key going forward is not being predictable on offense and keep getting some stops. They do that and I think they have turned the corner.

[twocoach]

I just want to see KU stack multiple good games in a row. Doesn't need to be wins just well prepared, hard fought games.
We all got fooled into thinking KU was turning the corner after beating Texas in the Beaty era and looked how that turned out. We all thought we turned the corner beating Tech two years ago and followed that up by getting completely embarrassed, at home against State.
I want consistency and the OU game showed me that is at least a possibility.

I agree with everything you said except the last sentence.

don't we need to see that kind of game in 4 outta the last 5 before we're sure consistency is a possibility?

Clearly two things happened on Saturday, KU played well, OU played poorly. How much was the former and how much was the latter? That's also an issue that I don't think we know the answer to until at least 2-3 games from now.

Agreed. I would take that level of play 3-4 times in a season at this point. We don't have the bodies to play like that consistently. We also cannot count on a team coming in and overlooking us on an 11am start time every week either.

Kansas has 4 games left and they are against 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th in the conference. If they can come out and look competitive in two of those game then I will feel like they are starting to get it a little bit. And I only see Texas as a team that should be capable of really blowing KU's doors off. But lose at home to KSU or WVU by 40+ and there are some serious issues.

I am attending the KSU game on Father's Weekend so hopefully they can do something fun that day.

[Sparko]

If Kansas can stop the QB runs, it will make a huge difference against the KSU quarterback running attack. I still am gobsmacked that a pick-six was run down by the QB at Duke with a 10-yard head start.

[CrimsonNBlue]

If Kansas can stop the QB runs, it will make a huge difference against the KSU quarterback running attack. I still am gobsmacked that a pick-six was run down by the QB at Duke with a 10-yard head start.

Even more so apparent after the OU game: we have to recruit, develop, and retain a lot of talent.

[holidaysmore]

Who was that Mello Dotson who got run down? That was embarrassing.

It is pretty apparent and really has been for awhile that KU lacks depth and athleticism at just about every position outside of RB. (Neal, Pook, Juice, when he was here)

[NewtonHawk11]

Newell posting some really good videos of Neal over last day or so. Breaking tackles, and always going forward. There was a play to where there were 3 OU defenders in the backfield and he got hands on him 1 yard in the backfield, still turned it into a 10 yard gain.

He's a stud for a freshman.

But something that has been pointed out, the OL has been fantastic. 2 sacks in last 5 games, one of those in a game end situation. They are blowing people off the ball and opening holes for the running backs. Fuchs and Kotelnicki have done a great job with the line over the last month or so.

[holidaysmore]

Neal, is the real deal. Physical and shifty. Maybe doesn't have the break away speed but it is amazing how well he is playing down the stretch. Kid is only 18 yrs old. I like that KU brought him along slowly. Maybe minimized that chance of him hitting a freshman wall.

There are reasons for optimism. Granted OU's defense is terrible but that was the best Bean has looked all year. Managed the game, made the throws when he had to and then ran when he had to. Would like for him to put the ball more on RPO's. In the OU game he had chances to have big gains if he would have pulled instead of giving to Neal.

Of course success on the offense starts and ends with the O-line. They have been playing very well as of late and that is great to see.

[CrimsonNBlue]

Throughout Leipold's presser, he kept saying "we still lost."

2nd half of season being better than 1st half of season and fan base will be really happy.

[NewtonHawk11]

Throughout Leipold's presser, he kept saying "we still lost."

2nd half of season being better than 1st half of season and fan base will be really happy.

Mentioned the same when I watched his presser yesterday. That's what stuck out to me as well. "Yeah we can have some building blocks, but we still lost." "Sure we did some good things, but they made plays that we didn't on about 5 plays and we lost because of that"

That was the point of his presser. And it's sooooooooooo different than what we have had in the past. Beaty would say how this is the start of something new. Miles would say something about this was like oSu or something like that.

Leipold seemed still visibly mad that they lost.

[NewtonHawk11]

But something that has been pointed out, the OL has been fantastic. 2 sacks in last 5 games, one of those in a game end situation. They are blowing people off the ball and opening holes for the running backs. Fuchs and Kotelnicki have done a great job with the line over the last month or so.

https://twitter.com/jessenewell/status/ ... 51306?s=21

[UnholyLivingDead]

To me, this shows two things. Yes, the OL has obviously improved. But also, having a more athletic, mobile QB is invaluable when the OL isn't playing their best. No doubt Bean has escaped the pocket on plays Kendrick or Daniels would have taken a sack on.

[PhDhawk]

We also had 35 passing attempts in 2020 compared to 23 this year. So tempo and play calling are factors too