The Film Room Previews: The Kansas Jayhawks

The 2015 edition of the Kansas Jayhawks are arguably the worst FBS team to ever play the sport, and it's not entirely their fault. Yes, they were bad already, but they were hit with a rash of injuries that can only be described as Lemony Snicket esque. They lost something like 60% of their production to offseason injuries alone. That isn't factoring in graduation or transfers. They're rolling with David Beaty at Head Coach, and while he's a pretty solid one, there just isn't any real way to make this team good. They have the schemes in place, just not the players. The poor Jayhawks just have zero luck. I almost feel bad for them. Not bad enough to not have a little fun at their expense, though.

WEEKLY PLAYLIST:

Basketball - Lil Bow Wow

Hit 'Em High (The Monstar's Anthem) - B-Real, Coolio, Method Man, LL Cool J and Busta Rhymes

I Believe I Can Fly - R Kelly

Carry On My Wayward Son - Kansas

Dust In The Wind - Kansas

Rock Chalk - Matt Easton

JOKES:

It seems that Charlie Weis must have rubbed off on y'alls team because good lord y'all just look slow and confused.

Y'all have this really cool thing with the Civil War and Missouri, it's too bad y'all don't show any fight on the field too.

Kansas is so flat you can watch people score on you from miles away

That would explain the amount of people not in their stadium. Not their fault you can watch the game from South Dakota.

Kansas Football fans, there's nothing anyone can say that'll hurt you anymore. And that in of itself is both sad and hilarious.

UNIFORMS:

I swear y'all have a different uniform for each loss. I suggest wearing whichever uniform hides the tears of eternal sadness the most. Honestly, I don't know what I expected from a team whose mascot looks like a carbon copy of those mad racist crows from Dumbo. On a serious note, I hate all white helmets worn with dark pants/jersey. It looks like y'all are trying to be fresh but only from the head up. More of that blue please, it's a good look. Just no white with it.

OFFENSE: Balanced Spread, Not Really A True Air Raid

Kansas's David Beaty follows heavily in the Kevin Sumlin form of offense: try to hit big plays at any given point. The only issue with that is that Kansas definitely does not have the firepower to do that at this point. At this time I would normally point out an impact player or something, but the only guy who really jumped out to me was Montrell Cozart, and he's injured. Even with Cozart, the Jayhawks weren't a threat through the air. To date they only have 2 passing touchdowns. They don't really turn it over through the air, but it's pretty evident that they're one-dimensional, and not in the good way. I am trying very hard to find the positives in this Kansas football team and give them a fair shake, but I can't see any at all.

DEFENSE: 4-2-5, Looks Eerily Similar To The Gibbs Defense

This is most definitely the package that we're gonna see on Saturday. It's exactly what David Gibbs runs too, so I expect our guys to have a little experience with it. Once again, I find myself trying to find positives and I just can't. LB Ben Heeney was one of my favorite Big XII players of all time, but he's gone. They really didn't have much outside of him last year, and they have even less this year. CB Tyrone Miller is pretty good, but he can't cover everyone. The youth of Kansas really sticks out in the secondary. To their credit, this unit brings it every single play, they play a lot harder than many other D-1 teams. The problem is that there just isn't the talent to keep up with everyone.

WHY I'M WORRIED:

Let's backtrack a little bit to Kansas's near upset of that juggernaut of a TCU team last year. If that team can nearly be upset by Kansas, then we surely can. However...

WHY I'M NOT WORRIED:

Literally the only thing I have in the "Why I'm Worried" section is "it technically could happen". That's all you really need to know. Kansas is historically bad this year. It would be comical if it wasn't so dang depressing. I know they've been bad over the past couple of years, but all of those older Kansas teams would have a field day with this one. I blame Weis and Mangino.

HOW WE MATCH UP:

Speed, speed, speed. Thankfully, we will be faster than just about every team we will go up against. Especially this Kansas team. The youth that they have in their secondary is especially vulnerable. And this is not the week to have a vulnerable secondary.

I don't know what to say about this play other than bad. I don't know what is going on with the Rutgers man in motion, I don't know why the safety #39 takes his first step forward on an obvious passing play/down, I don't know why this ball was under thrown so badly, and I have no idea how the Rutgers receiver caught that ball without #19 making more of an effort to knock it out. This is just bad.

There are no redeeming qualities about that play. It looks like something out of a 4A High School game. Y'all know I try and shoot y'all straight every week on the strengths and weaknesses of each team. This might be the shortest Film Room post to date, because there's nothing positive about many of the things Kansas does. For once, when people are saying that Kansas is one of the worst teams of all time, they aren't kidding and they aren't wrong.

Much like us, Kansas is incredibly susceptible to the read-option.

Kansas just can't seem to get aligned right. The defensive end is the one who looks like an idiot because he's chasing the RB and the QB just pulls it and goes for 6, but the real offenders are in the secondary. Watch the safety and the corner double cover the slot receiver who makes zero attempt to block them. The safety even had the corner in front of him and never thought he was incorrect until after the play. I'm trying to remember of times that i've seen this happen, and i'm coming up with a number I can count on one hand. We can argue that the man in motion fooled the Kansas secondary, but with the lackluster fake carried out by the ISU slot receiver eliminates that. There's no reason that both of those guys should be within a yard of each other.

I don't blame Kansas for being this bad. They've been gutted by Charlie Weis, and had an obscene amount of bad luck with transfers and injuries. It's not their fault. However, just because it isn't their fault doesn't mean they aren't bad.

Kansas's Offense under David Beaty has shown signs of life though.

With Iowa State running the exact same kind of coverage that we typically do, it wouldn't surprise me if Beaty pulled this play out a couple of times.The inside receiver delays in the middle flat before creeping out into the middle of the defense that has been vacated by the two "fly" routes pulling the Cover 2 safeties out of the picture. As we talked about last week, Iowa State's pass rush is pretty good, so Kansas being able to hold them for that long is a definite positive for them. ISU's only rushing 3, and we're gonna have a one-on-one matchup with Pete Robertson on the edge, so I really doubt that Kansas gets this kind of time against us. If they do, they can hurt us, but I really don't think they do.

This game has the potential to put our defense back on track. Kansas's Offense is easily the better of the two units, but it's still not good.

... How? What? Why? Huh? Is it a miscommunication? Did the running back knock the ball out of the QB's hands with his side? Why did he try to pick it up instead of just fall on it? Kansas isn't just bad. They've been bad for a while. I honestly believe that Charlie Weis cursed them when he left, because no one ever deserves this.

This Kansas team has less luck than Odysseus. It seems like every week they find a new way to look impressively bad. Don't get me wrong, they're trending in the right way, and I love the David Beaty hire, but there's just no way that they're gonna be good anytime in the next couple of years. Rebuilding this program will not be easy.

THE VERDICT:

I wish I could say that this is the game our defense plays well and holds Kansas to a score that you can count with less than two hands, but I don't think that's the case. Despite the ineptitude of the Jayhawks, they're still going to get a couple of drives and maybe a big play or two on our defense. That won't matter though, because the thin Jayhawks secondary does not have a way to defend the talent we put on the field, especially with the apparent return of Devin Lauderdale. This is a rout.

SCORE PREDICTION:

Texas Tech 63, Kansas 20.