Latest / Cocaine Willie / Can Kansas Finally Snap the Streak? 🌻 Sunflower Showdown Preview w/ Braiden Turner (S4//E27)

Transcript

Can Kansas Finally Snap the Streak? 🌻 Sunflower Showdown Preview w/ Braiden Turner (S4//E27) · Cocaine Willie

• 0:00
  Do you actually have to be on cocaine
• 0:20
  a great day. What's up everybody?
• 0:33
  You are listening to yet another edition of Cocaine Willie, the
• 0:36
  official K State representative on the college huddle.
• 0:39
  I'm your commissioner, Bob Trollsby, and as always, I'm
• 0:42
  joined by my Co host Fireball, Matt Marciustini, because the
• 0:47
  good chef has a sick kid tonight so he will not be here.
• 0:51
  We are also joined tonight by Braden Turner of the Ain't No
• 0:55
  Seas podcast. Four time recurring guest, the
• 0:58
  only guest that we've had who's done every single preview for
• 1:01
  his team every single year that we've had this podcast.
• 1:04
  Braden, it's always a pleasure to have you.
• 1:06
  How are you doing tonight, man? I'm doing well.
• 1:09
  Thanks for asking. I'm glad to be back on Matt.
• 1:11
  I missed you last time, but I'm glad you're on tonight.
• 1:15
  I miss Chef, obviously. It's always fun talking ball
• 1:18
  with him, but I guess we'll have to do it again next year and
• 1:22
  hopefully next year KU will have ended the streak.
• 1:26
  That is very much a possibility. Very much a possibility.
• 1:31
  I don't like it, but I think it might be a possibility.
• 1:34
  Before we get into the episode, we do want to give a quick shout
• 1:37
  out to our sponsor, Auntie Maze Parlor, located at 616 at N 12th
• 1:42
  St. This beer crack is brought to
• 1:44
  you by Auntie Maze Parlor, once again located at 616 N 12th St.
• 1:49
  in the heart of Aggieville in Manhattan, KS.
• 1:51
  Auntie Maze have been in business for 51 years.
• 1:53
  It's an absolute must visit destination in Aggieville on
• 1:57
  game days and school nights alike, and they've got all sorts
• 2:00
  of events, drinks, anything you could possibly imagine.
• 2:03
  They probably have it at Auntie Maze.
• 2:05
  Just a quick shout out. They also have their pavers are
• 2:09
  getting put in in that pedestrian mall thing that
• 2:12
  they're putting in outside of Auntie Mae's.
• 2:14
  So the construction is finally nearing an end.
• 2:17
  Don't don't worry, they are open.
• 2:19
  Be sure to check them out. Don't be scared off by the the
• 2:22
  chain link fence in the construction in the pavers.
• 2:24
  But it's going to be a pretty sick outdoor area that they're
• 2:26
  going to have once they have that all completed.
• 2:28
  But check them out trivia smack down tomorrow night, Wednesday,
• 2:31
  October 22nd. They've got Augustus is
• 2:34
  performing Thursday, October 23rd and we've been building up
• 2:37
  to this one for a while. Pie and cocktails with Thera
• 2:40
  pie. Tuesday, October 28th, be there
• 2:44
  or don't eat pie or be square 1, whatever you want it to be.
• 2:49
  Last one pride in the parlor Thursday, October 30th.
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  So be sure to check it out. I'll be sure to tell Willie sent
• 2:55
  you if you haven't been there yet and even if you have been
• 2:59
  there, if it's if it's not your first time, you just want to
• 3:02
  tell them cocaine really sent you.
• 3:03
  You can do that as well. You can also buy our koozies
• 3:06
  Wildcat country. Let's ride in the parlor.
• 3:09
  So check them out. And that's all I have to say
• 3:12
  about that. Brayden.
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  It's it's been a while. It's been a while, but a lot has
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  happened since we last spoke. K State kind of had a horrible
• 3:21
  end to the season last year, losing 3 games in the month of
• 3:25
  November. Start the season with a loss in
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  Ireland and you Last time we talked to you, I feel like you
• 3:32
  were deflated and dejected and maybe at your lowest point as
• 3:36
  far as KU football is concerned. But things are seem to be on the
• 3:40
  up and up while things are at least work for the time being.
• 3:43
  Trending downward for K State. But maybe things have turned
• 3:46
  around the last couple of games. But where's your head at with KU
• 3:49
  football so far this year since we last chatted?
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  Yeah, obviously excited. We, I mean, years ago we were in
• 3:56
  the dumps or the worst teams in the country.
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  So obviously thankful that Leipold and Cohen and Lawrence,
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  I know some of our fans don't feel that way because we don't
• 4:07
  win a lot of close games. But I think the grass isn't
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  always greener. And I, I feel like if you were
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  to let go of a coach like that, you're, you might just go right
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  back to the bottom again to where we were.
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  So I'm, I'm happy to be even a middle of the pack Big 12 team
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  and maybe eventually compete for Big 12 titles.
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  Who knows? I think some years of the
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  schedule can break your way. Who knows?
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  I mean, if KU were to somehow beat K State Saturday, I think
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  their schedule's favorable the rest of the way.
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  You got Oklahoma State next week, which almost feels like a
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  buy, no disrespect to them. And then Arizona, we've randomly
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  been really good against Iowa State three years in a row.
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  And then you have a good Utah team, but it's at home.
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  And Utah. I think they can be got by
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  multiple teams in the Big 12, but also a really good team.
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  But yeah, I'm I'm excited and I think honestly, The Saturdays
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  you can make a case for the biggest game in the light pole
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  era. I mean, we haven't beat you guys
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  in what, 1716? Seventeen years. 16 years.
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  The streak is 16. Yeah, that's half of my life.
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  Same. So I mean the TCU game on game
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  day a couple years ago you could probably make a case for.
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  But like I just said, if they were to end the streak in BK
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  State, maybe they have a chance to make it to the Big 12 title
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  game when you got 2 undefeated teams up top.
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  God, who are they undefeated teams?
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  BYU. Cincinnati.
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  Yeah, Cincinnati and that, I think if KU were to, if they
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  would have won that Cincinnati game, I would actually be all
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  the way in on making the Big 12 title game.
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  But they're going to need some help.
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  Obviously the Big 12 will beat up on each other.
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  But I think K State has looked better recently too.
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  I mean, TCU is not a pushover. That was a what, 3 point spread
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  in Manhattan in K State. K State kind of gave it to him.
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  So and you guys seem to play fundamental sound ball against
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  us. I think KU finds ways to do
• 6:24
  silly things on special teams against K State.
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  Not taking any, not taking any credit away from you guys, but
• 6:31
  two years ago in Lawrence, you must the punt.
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  Last year, you catch a kick off at the 1 yard line, step out of
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  bounce safety. Next play K State scores a
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  touchdown. Yeah.
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  Stadium Saturday. We've been the ones with the bad
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  track record of special teams this season like that and and
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  going back to what the Houston game, some of the some of the
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  muffed long snaps last year. So it could be a a bad on bad
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  special teams match up, but we'll save that.
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  We'll save that for the caboose. That's going to be at the end of
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  the at the end of the pod. We'll talk special.
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  It's I don't like going into the Iowa State game.
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  You guys had to start the year. I just that's that's just a
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  tough spot because like, I mean, if it were to if it was a coin
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  flip game, really if that were to happen to Iowa State, maybe
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  their season unravels. I'm not saying your guys's is,
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  but like those are two of the best teams in the Big 12.
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  You win that game on a neutral field, you're in a pretty good
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  spot to win or to make it to the Big 12 title game.
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  And you guys, I mean, obviously had a chance last year if you
• 7:35
  guys won the names or whatever, but God, it feels like that game
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  could have went either way. I mean, it kind of came down to
• 7:42
  Avery on the fourth and one or whatever.
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  But it just that feels like that game doesn't decide your season.
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  But yeah, that's just that's a tough way to start the season.
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  Like I, if that was KUI, feel like I wouldn't be very happy.
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  Yeah, I mean. Not like losing, but I'm saying
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  just that spot, having to play a really good team, well coached
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  team in another country that can almost decide to make it the
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  victor title game or not. Well, you'll get to do it next
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  year. Just in what Game?
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  Three-game 4? Yeah, I'm excited for that.
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  You went right. We did.
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  Yeah, Yeah. Not to bring up bad memories,
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  but I think you were the Your tweet was the reason I found out
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  about Avery's family. I was like, he was playing
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  during and I was just like, I read your tweet and I was like,
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  what is he serious? I thought you were just fucking
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  around. I was like, well, they just got
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  in a fight, so that's, that's cool.
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  Yep. Keep the positive vibes going.
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  I kind of want to, I want to dig in a little bit to, you know,
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  obviously the Sunflower Showdown as a whole.
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  I mean, this is one of the longest rivalries in football.
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  123rd meeting between these two schools.
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  KU, you know, it's been a 16 game win streak for K state.
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  My freshman year was the last time KU won in this game, but it
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  really seems like this game is one that has been circled.
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  I, I feel like there's a little bit of a different kind of
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  mindset with this game on both sides this year, because I think
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  both teams feel they could either win this game, but both
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  teams can also are also with the way they've played this year,
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  think they could lose this game. And so I'm just kind of curious,
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  especially from the KU angle with the bye week this week and
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  a lot of people are still talking about the Texas Tech
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  stuff, you know, which has been, you know, maybe it's not
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  necessarily a distraction for the team, but I feel like it's
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  kind of been it. It's been in the college
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  football like, you know, discussion for for the past, you
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  know, 10 days. Do you think some of that
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  distraction is, is affecting the mindset not of the necessarily
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  just of the team, but of the fan base of like, you know, we have
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  a big game coming up, but we keep hearing about, you know,
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  Texas Tech and now that they can't throw tortillas because of
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  this and all this. Yeah, no, that is a good
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  question 'cause I think it's affecting the fans a little bit
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  and I think it's affecting like our administration, like it's
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  just been a weird past couple of weeks or just some guys in the
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  athletic department have been pretty active on social media.
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  Late night. I went to late night.
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  It was kind of weird. I've been to a lot of them in my
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  life so I'm kind of used to, it's kind of just it's a kid
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  friendly event. Like I'm so I'm kind of just
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  used to what happens. But a lot of fans weren't happy
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  with the late night turn out. So yeah, there's been some
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  tension like in the athletic department.
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  And obviously it was weird after the tech game.
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  Like you hear about the knife and I think I tweeted at someone
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  like why would life hold make that up?
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  Like what does he have to gain? But maybe he did like it kind of
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  sounds like he did or maybe he just got wrong information.
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  But supposedly, I mean, our athletic director and whatever
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  just were out of this world mad and made a huge scene in
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  Lubbock. And so yeah, it's just weird.
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  And I don't really know what's going on, but everyone's pissed
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  off. And yeah, it is kind of annoying
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  to have distractions going into a rivalry game and a game that
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  maybe they could have won the last few years at least once and
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  they kind of choked down the stretch.
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  That's kind of that's really the main topic with KU fans right
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  now as far as the football team goes.
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  It's just losing a lot of close games.
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  Last year. They lose UNLV one possession
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  game, Illinois, one possession game, TCU, it was tight late.
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  I think I was probably was on here melting down about it last
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  year. But so many close games that
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  they lost, like even Mizzou, they're so much better than us
• 12:12
  and their defense is nasty. Hardy's amazing, but they were
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  up 21, six and then it felt like they made a lot of weird
• 12:20
  coaching decisions. It feels Lifehold to me.
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  Like I said, I'm thankful for him.
• 12:27
  Obviously, I every coach is going to have flaws.
• 12:29
  Even Chiefs fans will get fired up about Andy Reid, who's been
• 12:33
  unbelievable. But I think Lifehold has the
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  tendency to play not to lose instead of playing to win.
• 12:41
  I think honestly, Andy Reid kind of has the same thing where he
• 12:45
  kind of has trouble keeping the foot on the gas.
• 12:49
  The Chiefs have kind of been better trailing.
• 12:52
  I mean, all three Super Bowls they've won, they've been down
• 12:54
  to scores. So I guess I got to deal with
• 12:57
  that my whole life with my coaches and my football teams.
• 13:00
  But. All three of us.
• 13:02
  Yeah. So I don't like, I don't know
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  how much you guys watched that KU Mizzou game, but if you ask
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  any KU fans, like Lightfold was doing whatever it took to just
• 13:12
  go into halftime killing the clock when I could have went
• 13:16
  scored points. There was a minute left.
• 13:18
  He was all pissed at the refs because they didn't rule
• 13:21
  Highshaw out of bounds, which would have taken the clock.
• 13:24
  So they basically were just conceding the half.
• 13:27
  But we ended up having to punt it.
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  Mizzou went 85 yards and 12 seconds and it's like, K, you
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  had the ball with a minute, 30, whatever.
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  And they're trying to go into halftime on the road against a
• 13:40
  non con. It's like non cons important.
• 13:42
  I feel like we've talked about this, but it doesn't really
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  decide your season anymore as long as you were to run the
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  table or lose 1 game in conference play, make the title
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  game. And if you win that, you're
• 13:54
  obviously in the playoff. But and he just he plays not to
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  lose. I agree with our fans with that.
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  But yeah, it is it is frustrating to have other
• 14:02
  distractions going in this game because it's been so long and
• 14:06
  but yeah, it's been the one score games late and we've kind
• 14:10
  of been in those spots against you guys the last two years.
• 14:12
  So I wonder if that has a mental effect on the players swear, or
• 14:17
  at least our offense, because our offenses had chances to ice
• 14:19
  games with the first down or they've had multiple chances,
• 14:24
  multiple games where they just need to go get 3 points or get
• 14:27
  in the end zone and they don't even, they don't move the ball
• 14:31
  or pick up a first down. So I wonder if there's some
• 14:33
  pressure on on the offense and just the team in close games.
• 14:39
  So I mean, JD obviously had the ball laid against you guys in
• 14:44
  Manhattan last year and didn't come through.
• 14:47
  So I wonder if that's in their minds and the coaching staff's
• 14:51
  minds and and the players so. Yeah, it could be.
• 14:57
  I want to talk about the offense.
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  So KU's offense currently ranking among the Big 12's best
• 15:02
  in rushing yards. Two 214 yards per game, unless
• 15:06
  that's that's wrong. Who knows, I'm trying to think.
• 15:10
  That may be that may be wrong. That may be wrong.
• 15:12
  No, I'm just, I'm thinking of, we had like negative rushing
• 15:16
  yards against Mizzou Tech. Their fucking run defense is
• 15:20
  unreal. But we've played, we played
• 15:23
  Wagner in West Virginia. So yeah, like Leyshawn Williams
• 15:28
  had some big games and JD's pretty good on his legs, so.
• 15:33
  But K state defensively, the bye week, maybe it's a reset, maybe
• 15:38
  it's helping to regain focus, but you're also down a couple of
• 15:41
  guys and and we lose Tobios and Sami off the edge, who's was
• 15:45
  pretty critical on the defensive side of things.
• 15:48
  But but looking at KU's offense, it's kind of the approach here
• 15:52
  is to stay balanced in and avoid being one-dimensional.
• 15:54
  Because if you if you are one-dimensional, you run into
• 15:57
  either you're putting the whole game on JD or you're putting the
• 16:00
  whole game on those two running backs, whether it's high Char or
• 16:03
  Williams. But you look at you look at Jim
• 16:07
  Zabrowski, first year offensive coordinator coming in after at
• 16:10
  KU, coming in after Jeff Grimes, which I was thought the whole
• 16:14
  time was a completely, totally uninspiring hire.
• 16:17
  But how how much do you trust the offensive approach of Jim
• 16:21
  Zabrowski? And, and Kansas has proven
• 16:23
  balance when it comes to, you know, just their offensive
• 16:26
  approach in general. Yeah, I love Coach C and I think
• 16:31
  our personnel does, too. I think JD is really comfortable
• 16:33
  with them. They brought back Lubic.
• 16:36
  He was with us, Wentz in Nevada, now he's back.
• 16:39
  So him and Zabrowski, I think our guys are just comfortable
• 16:44
  with them. The offense just seemed out of
• 16:45
  whack last year. I'm pretty I could be wrong but
• 16:49
  I'm pretty sure JD passed his touchdown.
• 16:54
  I think he threw for like I think he threw like 12 touchdown
• 16:56
  passes last year. I think he's already at like 16.
• 17:00
  He had like 12 touchdown passes 10 picks last year.
• 17:03
  Grimes. Jeff Grimes is a criminal.
• 17:05
  Like that dude is so bad Wisconsin hired him to be their
• 17:10
  OC like. Insane.
• 17:14
  They bailed. They bailed you out.
• 17:16
  They bailed you out there. Who's Wisconsin's coach?
• 17:20
  Fickle. Yeah, Luke Fickle.
• 17:22
  He's like he's on the hot suit, I'm pretty sure.
• 17:25
  And yes, he decides to bring in his savior, Jeff Grimes, to save
• 17:31
  his job. Also, quick quick, quick
• 17:37
  correction. A's rushing game this year, 155
• 17:40
  yards per game. Not the not the 214.
• 17:43
  That was the last year's stat, so it's down from last.
• 17:46
  Year I was like they or better than I thought.
• 17:50
  No, I'm so pissed about Grimes and like Devin Neil's
• 17:53
  unbelievable. You guys watched him obviously
• 17:55
  and NFL running back. He should be getting more reps
• 17:58
  with the Saints moving forward. But yeah, JDI mean JD to me.
• 18:04
  It was tough having crazy expectations for him going in
• 18:07
  this year because he's dealt with injuries and last year.
• 18:10
  Obviously you want to blame Grimes, but in the back of your
• 18:12
  head you kind of wonder, like, is JD just not that good?
• 18:15
  He made a lot of weird decisions.
• 18:18
  Like I said, our offense wasn't clutch when they needed to be.
• 18:21
  So going in the season, you couldn't really have crazy high
• 18:24
  expectations for JD. He, I mean, even K State fans
• 18:30
  have talked about the injury history, like everyone's pretty
• 18:32
  familiar with it. I think teams are trying to
• 18:35
  poach him out of the portal too. So that's in the back of your
• 18:38
  mind. And like, with that being said,
• 18:41
  he's he's been like as good as I ever possibly could have
• 18:46
  imagined. I'm not saying he's like a
• 18:48
  Heisman candidate or like a best GB in the Big 12, but there's no
• 18:53
  way KU fans could have predicted him being this good.
• 18:56
  He's made great decisions with our online really not being that
• 19:00
  good, and the entire receiving core is brand new.
• 19:04
  They lost Graham Skinner and Arnold, and pretty much every
• 19:07
  receiver they have is out of the portal besides a couple.
• 19:10
  Our two biggest threats, Cam Pickett and Emmanuel Henderson,
• 19:14
  are from the portal. So he had to build a repertoire
• 19:18
  with those dudes all offseason and supposedly the entire
• 19:21
  offseason he was just putting in work with especially those two.
• 19:25
  But yeah, JD has been awesome and you could tell he's more
• 19:29
  comfortable with the new play callers.
• 19:34
  Yeah, I want to talk a little bit more about him.
• 19:36
  So just for everybody listening, you know, he's been, you know, I
• 19:40
  think really good this year. 1800 yards passing, 18
• 19:45
  touchdowns, only two interceptions, 69% completion
• 19:50
  percentage. Very nice.
• 19:53
  So you, you look at him from 2024 to 2025, I feel like he's
• 19:59
  made some strides in what's going to be his last season
• 20:02
  playing college football. You know, he's a guy who's a
• 20:06
  dual threat guy, you know, able to run the football when he's
• 20:09
  needing to. But you've talked about some of
• 20:12
  the mistakes and trying to execute.
• 20:15
  Under pressure in certain games. So thinking about, you know, the
• 20:19
  the games you've seen with him this season, is there anything
• 20:21
  that stands out maybe from his 2024 season, you know, that you
• 20:26
  think he's improved on or is there, you know, anything that
• 20:29
  you know, it's kind of noticeable for you, you know,
• 20:32
  with how he has played in 2025? I think he's so much more poised
• 20:36
  and confident and I wonder if the injury stuff was in the back
• 20:41
  of his mind or he didn't want to take as many hits or he didn't
• 20:44
  want to move the chains with his legs more.
• 20:46
  But he's been, I mean, I don't know how much KU football you
• 20:50
  guys have watched, but he's taking some licks just running
• 20:53
  the ball. He's and you got to think about
• 20:56
  it like you just talked about his career coming to an end.
• 20:59
  Like he knows he has to ball out like this is it.
• 21:03
  I'm not saying he's going to get drafted or whatever, but he's
• 21:07
  got a chance to make a kind of legacy at KU.
• 21:12
  Like he hasn't done anything crazy obviously and KU hasn't
• 21:16
  won anything but talked about how bad KU was and they don't
• 21:21
  have a crazy good tradition of quarterbacks.
• 21:25
  I mean, it's Todd reason, Jason Bean kind of.
• 21:28
  He got some heat, but his last year was awesome and everyone,
• 21:33
  every KU fan loves Jason Bean now.
• 21:35
  I think JD like how it's kind of like how do you want to be
• 21:39
  remembered? Like do you want to be a guy
• 21:41
  that was known to always be hurt or never won big games or never
• 21:48
  like beat your biggest rival? And I'm not hating on JD, I'm
• 21:51
  just saying this is all the stuff he could do this season.
• 21:54
  You could take KU to another bowl, you could potentially play
• 21:57
  in a Big 12 title game and you could be the QB.
• 21:59
  The end of the streak. Like if JD were to come back
• 22:02
  this year and he played in like 3 games, whatever forever,
• 22:06
  people would have been like JD. He could have been so good.
• 22:09
  Like he was always hurt what what could have been.
• 22:13
  Now you play a full season, he's on pace for what, 30 plus
• 22:18
  passing touchdowns and minimal turnovers?
• 22:20
  So I think he can become one of the best quarterbacks in school
• 22:25
  history. And I I've never wanted someone
• 22:29
  to succeed more than him. He's got a lot of heat.
• 22:31
  I think a lot of people thought it couldn't play through
• 22:34
  injuries or just injury prone in general or I don't know.
• 22:40
  He's just, he's obviously got a ton of heat.
• 22:42
  You guys know that. And I, I don't think you could
• 22:46
  ask for much more from him this year.
• 22:48
  He lose a ton of seniors from last year's team and he's, he's
• 22:53
  been an awesome leader too. I think that's another thing to
• 22:55
  answer your question, it's his leadership.
• 22:58
  He's kind of taking all those receivers under his wing.
• 23:01
  KU has a bunch of young, promising, hopefully QBs that
• 23:04
  he's taking under his wing too. So I love him and I, I hopefully
• 23:11
  he continues his play obviously. Yeah, for sure.
• 23:16
  So a guy that that does have a legacy at KU, Devin Neal, he
• 23:20
  he's got big shoes to fill this season and high shots.
• 23:25
  The guy that's been around, we kind of, you know, not running
• 23:29
  back by committee, but he was definitely that change of pace
• 23:31
  back that we would see from time to time mixing it in with with
• 23:35
  Devin Neal. So I think coming into the
• 23:37
  season, a lot of people from the outside looking in thought that
• 23:40
  high Shaw would kind of take the mantle, similar to with K State,
• 23:43
  Joe Jackson taking the mantle from DJ Giddens.
• 23:46
  But Lashawn Williams is currently the leading rusher for
• 23:49
  KU. He's got 309 total yards on the
• 23:52
  season with 5 touchdowns. Great, great numbers there
• 23:55
  through seven games. When you look at High Shaw, he's
• 23:58
  got 231, one touchdown. So those two guys have combined
• 24:02
  for 540 yards. But that's really only about
• 24:05
  half of the total rushing yards that KU's accrued so far through
• 24:08
  this season. So it's kind of interesting when
• 24:10
  you look at it, usually you'd see that those top 2 backs would
• 24:14
  have a higher percentage of, of total rushing yards, but it's
• 24:17
  really been spread out by a number of guys from top to
• 24:20
  bottom. So it's it's something that I
• 24:23
  look at a lot because K State's rushing defense is 75th in
• 24:26
  defensive efficiency against the rush.
• 24:28
  It's not exactly been our highest point so far this
• 24:31
  season. But how much do you trust KU's
• 24:33
  ability in the rushing game to impose its will against K State?
• 24:37
  And and is it, are we going to see more of a committee kind of
• 24:41
  approach or or do you think it's going to be one of those two
• 24:43
  guys kind of carrying the load? I would say Leeshawn gets more
• 24:48
  of a load. Heyshawn's been pretty banged up
• 24:54
  and it sounds like even a couple weeks ago like it sounded like
• 24:58
  he was just going to be done for the year.
• 25:00
  I don't know if it was injury wise or if he was just done, but
• 25:04
  like people that cover the team are making it seem like he could
• 25:07
  potentially just be done for the year.
• 25:09
  And I, none of us thought he was coming back for the season.
• 25:12
  Like it was almost like 100% that he was just gone.
• 25:16
  He was back in Oklahoma at home. They got at least shot in the
• 25:21
  portal. We were hoping maybe like a
• 25:24
  freshman or one of the younger guys stepped up.
• 25:27
  But getting him back was amazing.
• 25:29
  Like he talked about it. He's been the back behind Dev
• 25:33
  for multiple years and he's shown flashes for sure.
• 25:36
  So I I think he's pretty banged up and I wouldn't expect him to
• 25:41
  get a ton of work. But like you said, he has shown
• 25:46
  flashes. And correct me if I'm wrong, K
• 25:49
  state's been a little better against the run lately, right?
• 25:52
  Or at least against TCU. For sure.
• 25:55
  Most part, yeah. So secondary's kind of been the
• 25:59
  issue, right? Yeah.
• 26:01
  They've both been hit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 26:03
  It's like 1 game, one game we'll have, you know, we'll give up no
• 26:08
  rushing yards and then that same game like we'll, we'll just get
• 26:11
  gashed through the air. So it's, it's we, we never had.
• 26:15
  I think all all three position groups on the defensive end play
• 26:20
  at the same clip, like at the same caliper in in a single game
• 26:23
  is not what it's felt like. And it's kind of hard to judge
• 26:26
  against Josh Hoover. He's pretty good quarterbacks.
• 26:29
  So I don't know, he he played, he played pretty well against K
• 26:33
  State, but I feel like I feel like K State's kind of trending
• 26:38
  up. Maybe you guys don't agree, but
• 26:41
  I like I said, I don't TCU is no joke to me.
• 26:44
  And that was supposed to be a really good game.
• 26:46
  It felt like you guys kind of controlled it for felt like 4
• 26:49
  quarters, at least what I watched.
• 26:52
  Yeah. I mean, you know, I would say
• 26:54
  for at least the second, third and fourth quarter, the first
• 26:57
  was kind of, you know, both teams didn't score and I the
• 27:03
  defense I think had it's probably one of its strongest
• 27:06
  games against TCU, which is good, especially coming off of
• 27:10
  bye week where, you know, you get some guys just, you know,
• 27:14
  freshen up a little bit and try and get your defensive scheme
• 27:17
  ready to go. But I mean, I don't think TCU is
• 27:19
  a pushover by any means. I mean, they they had had some
• 27:22
  really good games this season. You know, the Arizona State game
• 27:25
  that they lost was, you know, kind of a tough one for them.
• 27:28
  But I think for for a lot of K state fans, I think there's
• 27:33
  there's definitely more of a nervousness with this game
• 27:35
  because of how the team has looked, especially on the road
• 27:41
  through the season. This is a team that has not won
• 27:45
  a road game since over a year ago at Colorado.
• 27:49
  And I, I think, you know, for the the high stakes of what this
• 27:54
  game, you know, means to a lot of people in the state, you
• 27:58
  know, you want to be able to have a team that you feel
• 28:00
  confident can go on the road and win.
• 28:02
  And so, you know, the TCU game at home was was obviously great,
• 28:08
  but this team has some demons right now, you know, trying to
• 28:10
  win, win on the road. It'll be a kind of kind of just
• 28:16
  sitting here thinking about the games they've lost.
• 28:18
  It feels like the season could be completely different.
• 28:20
  We talked about Iowa State, but the game in Arizona was like, I
• 28:25
  felt like they could have won that game and the Baylor game
• 28:27
  was kind of a shootout. Yeah, yeah.
• 28:29
  Felt like that so. I won some games those.
• 28:32
  Are. Three games over the same, yeah,
• 28:36
  your same complaint about Lipo that that KU fans have
• 28:39
  complained. Oh, he loses one score games.
• 28:41
  His record right now I think is the same as Chris Kleiman now
• 28:45
  over the last three seasons, if I'm not mistaken, I think
• 28:47
  they're 5 and 15 in one score games through the last three or
• 28:51
  Four Seasons. I forget exactly what the stat
• 28:53
  was, but they're more comparable than they are different at this
• 28:56
  point when it comes to the one score games.
• 28:58
  Going back to last season with Houston and gosh, like Iowa
• 29:03
  State and all these, yeah, it's been, it's been not great.
• 29:08
  There's been a lot of discourse about about that the last few
• 29:11
  weeks just because, you know, if if light bulb has that
• 29:15
  reputation and that's his one knock right now.
• 29:18
  And Chris Klein is really not all that different when you look
• 29:21
  at it at face value, at least through the last three seasons.
• 29:25
  So it's, it's been interesting to see that develop, I'll put it
• 29:28
  that way. How do you guys feel about Avery
• 29:31
  in the season he's having? Is he progressing?
• 29:37
  You know, it's funny. Like, you could probably ask 10K
• 29:40
  state fans and they're going to have 10 different opinions about
• 29:43
  Avery. I I mean, for me, I'm going to
• 29:46
  be more kind of on the positive just because if you look at him
• 29:50
  statistically, I mean, he's probably going to break the
• 29:54
  season touchdown passing record this year with the way that he's
• 30:00
  been playing. He's been very successful
• 30:02
  through the air. The biggest struggle has been
• 30:05
  his unwillingness, I guess to run the football, which I think
• 30:09
  for us is, you know, he's such a fast player, you know, agile and
• 30:15
  mobile quarterback. But it just seems like he
• 30:20
  doesn't have a willingness or the coaching staff has really
• 30:23
  kind of pushed this on narrative for him to be more of a pocket
• 30:26
  passer or guy who's making plays through the air.
• 30:30
  When in reality, I think one of his biggest strengths is being
• 30:32
  able to run or at least, you know, leverage his own read in
• 30:36
  good situations. But I mean, this season, you
• 30:39
  know, he's I mean, he's at 13 touchdown passes right now.
• 30:41
  Overall, our record I think is 25 in a year.
• 30:46
  So, you know, he's, he's looking like, you know, if he has some
• 30:50
  pretty strong games, he'll be in good shape there.
• 30:54
  But I, I, but then you ask somebody else and they'll be,
• 30:57
  you know, very hesitant about saying, you know, oh, I'm, you
• 31:00
  know, a fan of Avery because of the pick six that he threw
• 31:03
  against Baylor. That really changed the whole
• 31:05
  like scheme of that game or the Iowa State game, not being
• 31:09
  aggressive on that fourth and one, you know, to do everything
• 31:12
  you can to get that first down. The Arizona game was probably
• 31:15
  one of the worst games of his career passing the football.
• 31:19
  So, you know, you can probably ask different people.
• 31:22
  I I'm more of a guy that is like, yeah, he's really put it
• 31:26
  out there that, you know, he's, I feel like he's improved as a
• 31:30
  passer. He does have better weapons on
• 31:32
  the outside this year compared to previous seasons.
• 31:35
  But I, I mean, you know, he's, he's, he's shown a lot.
• 31:39
  I I think I just wish he did run the football a little bit more.
• 31:43
  That's why I wonder if it's one of those things where they know
• 31:45
  it's a long season and if they don't trust the QB's behind
• 31:49
  them, like if he were to go down, they'd be screwed.
• 31:51
  But I feel like, I don't know, maybe like the Iowa State game,
• 31:56
  it felt like, you know, if he just head down, run through
• 32:01
  someone, he gets the first down. Maybe a little fragile.
• 32:04
  Yeah. Yeah, and, and Chris Kleiman
• 32:07
  went on. He's fast as it like he's so
• 32:10
  fast. He he Chris Kleiman went on a
• 32:12
  press conference and basically said as much of it's not that
• 32:16
  they don't trust the guys behind him.
• 32:17
  He didn't outwardly say that, but he said it's a long season
• 32:20
  and we don't want Avery to get hurt, which there's validity to
• 32:25
  that. And there's not.
• 32:26
  I think there's yeah, he's kind of a scrawny guy.
• 32:29
  He's not, he's not built kind of the way even Jalen is.
• 32:32
  And even Jalen, Jalen's had a lot of his injury history
• 32:35
  because he's put his shoulder down and he's not afraid.
• 32:38
  He's not afraid to barrel into a guy.
• 32:40
  Avery doesn't even have that that kind of muscle mass that
• 32:43
  Jalen has. So maybe, maybe he does have
• 32:46
  potential to to get hurt more, but he's been then he hasn't
• 32:51
  gotten hurt and we've got a tremendous track record of
• 32:54
  quarterbacks getting hurt and he's so far been pretty much
• 32:57
  healthy the entire time with the exception of a little stint last
• 33:00
  year. Maybe it needs to be one of
• 33:02
  those things, though, where when the moment is really big, they
• 33:06
  do need to trust him on his legs like that.
• 33:09
  Iowa State play like that should be.
• 33:10
  That's the ball game right there.
• 33:12
  Like you, whatever it takes to get one yard, but who doesn't?
• 33:17
  Who? Who threw 25 touchdowns in a
• 33:19
  year for you guys? Avery Avery did.
• 33:21
  Last year he threw 25. Oh, so he has the record?
• 33:25
  Yeah, yeah, it broke. Four years in a row, so it was
• 33:28
  Will Howard with 24. He tied the record and prior.
• 33:31
  Snyder had a bunch of running quarterbacks and you.
• 33:35
  Yeah, it. Was like Bishop and then.
• 33:37
  Roberson. Beasley was there.
• 33:39
  Yeah. Roberson ran a lot.
• 33:43
  Yeah, yeah. I mean back then too, I think
• 33:47
  college football obviously has changed so much.
• 33:49
  You know, even, you know, obviously in his first 10 year,
• 33:52
  but then even, you know, his his second where he had Colin Klein
• 33:55
  and you know, he was Colin Klein was not throwing the football as
• 33:59
  much as he was kind of running it.
• 34:01
  And you know, it's it's definitely a different era,
• 34:05
  obviously. But you know, the fact of the
• 34:07
  matter is, you know, for a dual threat quarterback, I think to
• 34:10
  be successful, you truly, you know, if you recruit a
• 34:13
  quarterback as a dual threat quarterback, you have to
• 34:15
  leverage both of those threats. And I think we've seen it, you
• 34:19
  know, across, yeah, at least on our side.
• 34:22
  You know, Avery, we see like his strength run in the football.
• 34:26
  But this year he's definitely whether he's being coached to be
• 34:29
  more of a passer, but, you know, we have no idea.
• 34:32
  But just seems like there's more of an effort on the passing
• 34:35
  side, which is has caught us I think a little bit off guard.
• 34:38
  You guys miss Colin Klein. Oh, without a doubt, without a
• 34:43
  doubt. And see what you forget What
• 34:46
  game? Oh, it was the Arizona game,
• 34:48
  which, yeah, you talked about Avery, but it felt like the play
• 34:50
  calling was terrible against Arizona.
• 34:53
  So I didn't know where you guys are with the offensive play
• 34:56
  callers, but I feel like maybe sometimes I don't utilize
• 34:59
  Avery's strengths. Yeah, yeah.
• 35:02
  I mean, yeah, it's. Just for me, it's consistency.
• 35:05
  I, and we've, we've seen Matt Wells executing that Baylor
• 35:09
  game, what, 28090 plus yard drives, but then you get the
• 35:14
  ball back on 2 separate takeaways and, and you don't
• 35:16
  capitalize on either of those takeaways with, with a score.
• 35:20
  I think one of them you went three and out and then the other
• 35:22
  one I, I, I forget what happened, but you didn't score
• 35:24
  on it at all. So if, if you're unable to
• 35:27
  consistently get points on the board during those drives, it's
• 35:31
  it's frustrating to see that because what, what good is
• 35:34
  turnover margin and being positive through four games if
• 35:37
  you're only one in or three and one in those games?
• 35:41
  It's it's frustrating to see that.
• 35:42
  So anyway, we could talk K state all day.
• 35:45
  I, I do want to keep talking about KU because this is, this
• 35:48
  is a team that maybe I, I'll be honest, I've only really gotten
• 35:51
  to see, I think 22 KU games all season.
• 35:54
  So, Matt, you want to ask about the receiving game?
• 35:58
  Yeah, I just quickly so for for K State fans who may not know.
• 36:03
  So kind of the big name out of the portal that KU got was
• 36:07
  Emmanuel Henderson coming from Alabama.
• 36:09
  And he's been one of those kind of top guys at the wide receiver
• 36:13
  position. And then you have a tight end
• 36:15
  who's been pretty good this year.
• 36:17
  And like Bowen, I can't pronounce Bowden grown.
• 36:23
  I got it OK. But in some of the games that
• 36:26
  I've watched for KUI mean, it seems like the tight end
• 36:29
  positions being utilized. I mean, similarly, you know, you
• 36:32
  guys have had some pretty good tight ends come through the past
• 36:34
  handful of years, but overall like a really kind of good stat.
• 36:38
  I would say you have 7 different guys on the roster have caught a
• 36:41
  touchdown pass this year. So you do show that you have
• 36:44
  some death in the wide receiver in tight end position.
• 36:47
  So thinking about it from the KU side, I mean, you had some
• 36:51
  really good, you know, wide receivers, you know, especially
• 36:54
  last year and and here in past years.
• 36:57
  So about the ones you have this year, I mean give us a little
• 37:00
  bit of insight as to maybe who are the impact players that are
• 37:03
  going to be catching a lot of the balls on Saturday?
• 37:06
  Yeah, obviously you talked about Emmanuel Henderson from Bama.
• 37:08
  He's game, game breaking type receiver.
• 37:13
  He, I know he ran the opening kick off back against Sensei.
• 37:15
  He had a 80 yard touchdown catch in the same half.
• 37:20
  Like he's he's probably as electric and as fast as any wide
• 37:24
  out in the Big 12. And it'd be awesome to have him
• 37:28
  pass this year. And then Cam Pickett from Ball
• 37:32
  State, he started the year off incredibly well, kind of been
• 37:36
  more silent since, but he's been as reliable as can be.
• 37:42
  I think the one downside the Emmanuel has been like clutch
• 37:48
  drops at Mizzou. KU was down I think 3 or 4 late
• 37:53
  in the fourth quarter and JD threw beautiful balled him on
• 37:56
  the sideline to move the chains on 3rd right in his chest,
• 38:00
  dropped it. Leipold ended up punting, which
• 38:03
  KU fans are still pissed about, but he's had multiple big drops.
• 38:08
  Outside of that, he's been awesome.
• 38:09
  Kim Pickett, super reliable. They got Levi Wentz from Albany,
• 38:14
  they got they got another guy out of the portal.
• 38:18
  I can't even think. But Doug Amelian's been around
• 38:21
  for a while. Keaton Kubeka has been around, I
• 38:24
  think he's a sophomore, yeah, they had Hanukkah tied in from
• 38:29
  Iowa State, who out for the season.
• 38:32
  Feel bad for him, obviously, but I think it's important to have
• 38:43
  guys around for multiple years. So like continuity.
• 38:46
  So having these receivers just get some games under their belt
• 38:50
  and then next year, obviously I don't know who the quarterback
• 38:53
  will be, but continuity is super important.
• 38:58
  I feel like college football and I was very nervous about losing
• 39:01
  those receivers you talked about.
• 39:02
  They were here for a while and our whole receiving crew is
• 39:07
  brand new, barely have any snaps at the D1 level.
• 39:09
  So I'd like to me, Emmanuel Henderson's probably the most
• 39:14
  electric receiver we've had in close to a decade.
• 39:17
  He's not like insanely polished route runner, like can't miss
• 39:24
  Prospect yet, but I think he could be.
• 39:27
  I think he could potentially get to that.
• 39:29
  Just the way people around the program talk about him, it's
• 39:32
  like one of the most exciting things that I've experienced in
• 39:37
  a while. I feel like just from a talent
• 39:39
  standpoint, like KU just doesn't get talent like this.
• 39:42
  That's just how it is. But to get a guy from Bama is
• 39:47
  just super exciting in itself. So yeah, he's a type.
• 39:51
  Emmanuel is the type of guy that can change a game.
• 39:53
  One play, yeah, we we got a guy from Bama this offseason and
• 39:58
  then he got arrested in southeast Kansas after two games
• 40:02
  or something. So yeah, it's like.
• 40:07
  SCK man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 40:10
  I don't know what he was doing in that part of the state, but
• 40:15
  anyway, defensive themes and defensive fronts.
• 40:19
  So K State's offense this when you think about K State's
• 40:22
  offense this year, it it's a lot about potential.
• 40:25
  Like they have the potential for Avery to break off a big run,
• 40:29
  but he hasn't really hasn't really done that for longer than
• 40:32
  25 yards. They've got potential to be
• 40:34
  loaded and deep and explosive when you have everybody healthy.
• 40:38
  But we haven't really had everybody healthy.
• 40:41
  Dylan Edwards has been hurt, Jace, Jace Brown has been
• 40:44
  healthy, but JB Bradley was hurt for a little bit.
• 40:46
  So we haven't really had everybody be healthy.
• 40:50
  So there's been a lot about potential when we talked about
• 40:53
  KU's defense, where K State can really be able to exploit
• 40:59
  defenses is with large chunk plays and an explosive offense.
• 41:03
  When you think about KU, they've they've really made an emphasis
• 41:07
  this year finishing games and closing out opportunities in
• 41:09
  close contest. So kind of to your point of
• 41:12
  maybe playing not to lose, we kind of see that play out with
• 41:15
  the defense a little bit. The team that gets off the field
• 41:18
  on 3rd down is probably going to be the team that wins this game,
• 41:23
  the teams that maybe avoid making those mistakes on big
• 41:26
  plays on defense. How well do you think KU's
• 41:30
  defense is positioned to make those big stops or force those
• 41:34
  consequential turnovers? That might be the key to what I
• 41:39
  think will probably be a pretty close match up on Saturday,
• 41:41
  yeah. I think the thing I like the
• 41:45
  most about KU's defense is their def, that defensive tackle I
• 41:48
  think they've had. They got guys that have been
• 41:51
  around for multiple years, but they've been, we've been getting
• 41:55
  gassed on the ground lately. I mean, UUCF got us.
• 41:58
  Texas Tech is a wagon, but they ran for like 400 yards.
• 42:03
  Cincinnati had 600 plus yards of offense.
• 42:08
  I know they're undefeated, but they scored close to 40 and are
• 42:12
  pretty much perfect on offense besides the fumble at the inch
• 42:15
  yard line and still somehow lost.
• 42:18
  So I just don't have a ton of faith in the defense.
• 42:24
  Like they do have some talent. They got some guys that have
• 42:27
  played D1 snaps at other schools, Trey Lathan from West
• 42:32
  Virginia, Bengali Kamara from South Carolina.
• 42:35
  And then I talked about the D tackles.
• 42:37
  I the other I think downside is our pass rushers.
• 42:41
  We just have no DNS that have any juice, like we can't get
• 42:46
  after the quarterback and giving a guy like Avery that much time
• 42:51
  kind of disaster because of how good he is on his legs and how
• 42:54
  Dewey is to break some runs here soon.
• 42:58
  So if they could somehow get pressure against him would be
• 43:03
  awesome. But they don't really have pass
• 43:06
  rushing juice, solid D tackles and D tackle depth.
• 43:10
  But I worry about us. I would do worry about us giving
• 43:15
  up big chunk plays like you talked about.
• 43:19
  Well, hopefully K State will get a couple of those, but I, I
• 43:24
  doubt it. No, I, I do want to talk a
• 43:27
  little bit about like from the defensive back kind of position
• 43:34
  because I, when I think of KU and kind of recent history,
• 43:39
  they've had some really solid guys in the defensive backfield.
• 43:43
  You know, obviously most recently Kobe Bryant, which he's
• 43:49
  on the, is he on the Seahawks now?
• 43:50
  He like is he in the NFLI? Could have swore they're
• 43:53
  actually Kobe. Bryant, they have.
• 43:54
  The player, yeah. Oh, they also have a player
• 43:56
  named Kobe Bryant. Oh.
• 43:57
  Man, I. Looked this up, 'cause I was
• 43:59
  watching the Seahawks game. I'm like, wait, that's where he
• 44:01
  landed, No. Man, OK, well, there goes there
• 44:06
  goes that talking point, but. I think he signed with Atlanta
• 44:09
  as an undrafted free agent. I don't even know where he is
• 44:13
  now. Maybe he's.
• 44:14
  He's with Atlanta. He's still with Atlanta, OK with
• 44:18
  Atlanta, but still, he was a very good, he was.
• 44:20
  He was a very good player. Obviously state fan favorite.
• 44:24
  He loved the social media. Don't, don't make me bring up
• 44:27
  Gavin Potter, but no. Yeah, but.
• 44:34
  You know. They the secondary has been very
• 44:37
  good this season if you think about it just from an average
• 44:41
  only averaging 226 yards or at least giving up 226 yards per
• 44:46
  game through the air and the season low is actually against
• 44:50
  Texas Tech a couple weeks ago. Morton got hurt and then, yeah.
• 44:56
  Yeah, yeah. So you know, it, they've kind of
• 45:00
  had their ups and downs. I mean, what do you think seeing
• 45:03
  you've seen K State this year and you've seen obviously KU.
• 45:07
  You know, how do you think the KU defensive backs are going to,
• 45:10
  you know, fair against AK State offense, which, you know, you
• 45:14
  have some pretty good wide receivers, but you also have a
• 45:16
  pretty good tight end group as well.
• 45:19
  Yeah, Jace. Terrifies me like he's he's a
• 45:22
  game breaking receiver. I love watching him play.
• 45:25
  He's really good route runner. Jalen Todd is a stud for KU.
• 45:30
  That's a guy just talking to Kobe and Melo last year like
• 45:33
  they had rave reviews about Jalen Todd.
• 45:36
  He's a sophomore. He'll be around multiple years.
• 45:40
  Austin Alexander, same class. They got Lyric rolls from
• 45:45
  Oklahoma State safety, who's been pretty solid.
• 45:48
  So yeah, I feel good about the secondary.
• 45:51
  I mean, kind of thinking about the only game they really got
• 45:53
  gashed in is is that Cincinnati game, and they just kept running
• 45:58
  wheel routes. Some guys are wide open down the
• 46:00
  sideline. So I don't know if that was like
• 46:02
  a personnel thing, but I guess, yeah, thinking about our
• 46:04
  secondary has been solid. Yeah, Jay scares me.
• 46:11
  Who else? Who's the other guy they got
• 46:12
  from the portal? It's Jaron.
• 46:14
  Jaron Tibbs, yeah. Has he been good?
• 46:17
  Yeah, he's he's he's been good. He had some early season kind of
• 46:21
  moments with some drops, but he's really shown, you know,
• 46:25
  here recently when he gets the ball thrown to him, he makes
• 46:27
  some plays. So he's been pretty good.
• 46:30
  JB Bradley, you know, was out, but he had a touchdown pass in
• 46:34
  TCU game. So, you know, the the wide
• 46:38
  receivers have been pretty decent, but it's the tight ends
• 46:40
  that are really getting a lot of getting a lot of play right now.
• 46:44
  Who's they still have Oakley at tight end.
• 46:47
  Yeah, Oakley, Will Ancio, Braden, Lofton, Lincoln Cures
• 46:53
  out there, you know, but he's not a he's not a Jayhawk.
• 46:57
  Yeah. The race, the race for the the
• 47:00
  race for the Cure. We've got Leighton and Lincoln
• 47:03
  and I don't think either of them are really playing particularly
• 47:06
  well or getting a ton of snaps so far from what I've seen.
• 47:10
  Lincoln had the most snaps in the TCU game he's had all year,
• 47:13
  but he played he's he's getting snaps at a wide receiver.
• 47:16
  He's not really getting him a tight end so.
• 47:18
  It is a true freshman. That's pretty impressive.
• 47:20
  To me, so got, you know, it's it, I feel like in recent years,
• 47:29
  maybe, you know, 5-6 years, you know, we, we haven't necessarily
• 47:33
  had a tight end or excuse me, a wide receiver group that you
• 47:36
  know, has been like super heralded.
• 47:38
  You know, you have maybe one guy and you got some other guys
• 47:42
  below who may or may not do anything.
• 47:46
  But Jace has been hurt. He he he was hurt, didn't get a
• 47:51
  lot of snaps in a few of these games, just dealing with like, I
• 47:55
  think it's a, a toe injury. So just trying to get him back
• 48:01
  into the groove, you know, if he's at full strength, that'd be
• 48:03
  obviously a huge plus for us. And, and kind of seeing what,
• 48:07
  you know, Tibbs does kind of in a possession receiver role, you
• 48:11
  know, that's kind of I think where his strength lies.
• 48:13
  But you know, he's averaging to get about 700 receiving yards
• 48:16
  this year, which is not, not terrible by any means.
• 48:22
  Yeah, it's, I think it think it's still about the defense.
• 48:25
  I guess the last kind of couple of position groups I want to get
• 48:28
  to is the the guys up front. So D line linebackers.
• 48:31
  You mentioned Trey Lathan leading the team in tackles
• 48:34
  right now. He's also got 1 1/2 sacks, 3
• 48:36
  pass deflections, 1 interception, A fumble recovery,
• 48:39
  kind of an all around dude, which is awesome.
• 48:42
  And then the other guy that really popped out to me was
• 48:44
  Leroy Harris, the 3rd at defensive at 4 1/2 sacks, 15
• 48:49
  tackles, 3 pass deflections. He's 5th in the Big 12 and sacks
• 48:52
  currently 1/2 of a sack ahead of Tobio, which Tobio is out for
• 48:56
  the season now. So he's not, he's not going to
• 48:58
  get a chance to chase him, which is a bummer.
• 49:00
  But couple of couple really solid dudes in that kind of
• 49:03
  front 6 front seven that KU has. Just tell me about how they're
• 49:08
  going to be able to wreak havoc. Like what?
• 49:10
  What have you seen in these some of these previous games or have
• 49:14
  you not seen in some of these previous games with these guys
• 49:17
  up front and how they're able to wreak havoc or not wreak havoc?
• 49:21
  I just think they have a ton of depth on the D line.
• 49:24
  I mean they have Justice Finkley who has early broke out yet but
• 49:28
  transfer from Texas. He talked about Leroy.
• 49:31
  He like he was probably to me, besides Emmanuel, the most hyped
• 49:35
  player this offseason. Like I didn't even really know
• 49:39
  who he was, to be honest. Like hadn't heard about him.
• 49:42
  But that's all people around the program we're talking about.
• 49:45
  So just kind of people talking about who could potentially step
• 49:51
  up as a pass rusher and he was the guy.
• 49:54
  So yeah, I think he obviously is a name.
• 49:58
  And then just the defensive tackles, they have AI Mean,
• 50:02
  Keenan Caldwell, senior DJ Withers, Tommy Dunn, like they
• 50:10
  have a ton of D tackles that can play.
• 50:11
  So I think their depth could present some challenges.
• 50:16
  I'm not quite sure how good K State has been upfront.
• 50:19
  Feels like they've been good upfront since I was one years
• 50:23
  old. So I feel like it probably
• 50:25
  hasn't changed. I mean, it's yeah, it's a a
• 50:32
  good. I think they have like the, I
• 50:34
  feel like they usually have NFL lineman.
• 50:37
  Yeah, like for. Sure, NFL talent, but.
• 50:40
  You know, there there may be some at some point on this line.
• 50:44
  You have some young guys that are out there and you have some
• 50:48
  guys that have made some strides to get into the starting lineup.
• 50:51
  You know, we had some people transfer in who haven't
• 50:54
  necessarily maybe impact, you know, that we expected or George
• 50:59
  Fitzpatrick, who had a medical, you know, episode at the
• 51:02
  beginning of the season and hasn't played in any games.
• 51:05
  You know, he was expected to be a really big kind of cog in this
• 51:10
  offensive line the he changed. It from a big school.
• 51:14
  Right, Ohio State, Ohio State, yeah, big school.
• 51:18
  And he was getting, yeah, he's getting some time there last
• 51:20
  year, so. Shout out to Will Howard for for
• 51:23
  the assist on their. Yeah, shout out to Will.
• 51:27
  So why does he have a chance to play this year?
• 51:30
  I, you know, they, they talked about originally potentially
• 51:33
  coming back in the beginning of October and then, you know,
• 51:36
  there hasn't been much talk since.
• 51:37
  So, you know, that may have something to do with just not
• 51:41
  not being great and, you know, wanting him to be at 100%, you
• 51:45
  know, getting back into the swing of things.
• 51:48
  But the TCU game, I, I will say, I mean, the offensive line, I
• 51:51
  felt played probably one of their best games of the season,
• 51:55
  did a really good job of getting, you know, space for Joe
• 51:57
  Jackson to run the football, gave Avery some really good, you
• 52:01
  know, time to make some plays. So I it the, the offensive line
• 52:07
  may not necessarily right now have a guy, you know, an NFL guy
• 52:11
  right now, you know, you have a Cooper BB or you know this and
• 52:16
  that. But, you know, it's a it's a
• 52:18
  group that I think has grown in each game, which is important
• 52:21
  and, and could, you know, do a really good job of, you know,
• 52:24
  kind of limiting some of KU's pass rush if the TCU game has
• 52:28
  anything, you know, to say about it.
• 52:32
  So if you guys had to pick like a weakness on the offense, would
• 52:35
  you lean towards the offensive line?
• 52:38
  Sounds like the beginning of the season are pretty talented.
• 52:41
  At the beginning of the season, it was definitely offensive line
• 52:44
  not seeming to really mesh or gel.
• 52:46
  But as always, it it kind of comes together at least to a
• 52:51
  serviceable degree. And I feel like it's been it's
• 52:53
  looked a lot better in in the last game or two, but rushing
• 52:57
  was probably one of the biggest areas of of improvement through
• 53:00
  the first few games. But then Joe Jackson this last
• 53:03
  game had what, a hundred 110 yards rushing the ball so career
• 53:06
  high for him. So it's, I, I think the biggest,
• 53:12
  I think the biggest thing is again, it comes back to
• 53:14
  consistency. One of one of the biggest
• 53:16
  glaring flaws on this offense is consistency.
• 53:18
  It's consistency with play calling and it's consistency
• 53:20
  with execution. Yeah.
• 53:22
  I mean, I think we could pick a position group, but I think the
• 53:26
  biggest like issue we've had this season has been the
• 53:28
  coaching on the offensive side. I mean, Matt Wells, you know,
• 53:31
  kind of taking over play calling duties and you know, the, there
• 53:35
  has been a lot of inconsistency with how he calls games.
• 53:38
  You know, you can talk the TCU game, you know, in the first
• 53:41
  quarter we had three drives that went past, you know, into TCU
• 53:44
  territory and left with 0 points, you know, and, and some
• 53:48
  of that's execution with penalties.
• 53:50
  Some of that is, you know, can, can be talked about maybe a
• 53:53
  little bit of play calling. But the rest of the game, you
• 53:56
  know, it's pretty solid and and at least, you know, gave him a
• 53:58
  little bit of positive. But you know, the, the games
• 54:01
  we've played on the road, I feel like have been our worst play
• 54:04
  called games that we've had. And so you know, yeah, yeah,
• 54:09
  yeah. So if, if it gives you any hope,
• 54:13
  if you see Blake Barnett coming in, you know, our our backup
• 54:16
  quarterback, you know, he does that.
• 54:19
  Yeah, well, there was a, there was a couple games here, two or
• 54:23
  three games where he was bringing in, you know, Blake and
• 54:26
  in certain situations, you know, which didn't necessarily turn
• 54:31
  off, you know, turn turn out super well.
• 54:33
  So other than the first drive of the, the UCF game, which we did
• 54:36
  win, but I, I think the TCU game, you know, for as much as
• 54:41
  it was a win, it showed a little bit more consistency across, you
• 54:44
  know, all the different, you know, phases.
• 54:46
  And, you know, and Matt Wells, I think is just going to have to
• 54:49
  continue to kind of build on that and using Avery in the
• 54:52
  right ways to, to be successful and, and, and drives with
• 54:56
  points. That's very key.
• 55:00
  I'm not trying to like interview you guys, but like I just, I'm
• 55:05
  not crazy familiar with K state. Like I don't sit there and watch
• 55:09
  every game, every drive. So what it like?
• 55:11
  What about on the defensive side?
• 55:13
  If you had to pick whether it's D line, linebackers or defensive
• 55:17
  backs, what if you had to pick a weakness?
• 55:19
  What would it be? Right now, right now I would say
• 55:24
  it's depth up front, depth of the defensive line because it's.
• 55:28
  With. With Toby O getting hurt, I
• 55:31
  mean, Ryan Davis was hurt for a good chunk of the beginning of
• 55:34
  the season. We've started to see some more
• 55:35
  of him. But Malcolm Alcorn Crowder's
• 55:38
  kind of become one of our best guys up front, which is a guy
• 55:41
  who we kind of took a flyer on with JUCO and didn't really know
• 55:45
  if he would pan out. But that's, that's a group
• 55:49
  that's been a little lackluster. I I know the DBS have gone
• 55:52
  through their feast or famine, so to speak.
• 55:56
  I feel like some games they're great and some games they're
• 55:59
  just non existent. So again, it's a lot of
• 56:02
  inconsistency with that position group.
• 56:04
  But I mean, linebacker kind of across the board, I feel like
• 56:07
  has been solid like that. I don't feel like they've lost
• 56:11
  us any games so far necessarily, whereas that maybe couldn't be
• 56:16
  said for, you know, defensive line and DBS, but I don't know,
• 56:20
  man. What do you think?
• 56:22
  The secondary I think is, you know, the past two games, CC
• 56:26
  Baylor, which you you have two kind of high, high-powered
• 56:29
  quarterbacks in those games. I think a lot of teams would be
• 56:32
  giving up a good, good amount of, you know, yards.
• 56:36
  But you know, Sawyer Robinson throws it for 345 yards against
• 56:40
  us. And you know, Michael Treig, who
• 56:43
  is going to be playing, you know, on Sundays easily, you
• 56:47
  know, hopefully, maybe for the Chiefs, but you never know.
• 56:50
  You know he had 150, you know, receiving yards and Hoover had
• 56:53
  376, you know, passing yards last week.
• 56:56
  Which I think was a season low for Hoover, for whatever that's
• 57:00
  worth. Not that that's.
• 57:01
  Yeah, you know. Yeah.
• 57:04
  So you know it, those are those are hard guys to seem against
• 57:09
  and and you know that if you're going to be in situations where
• 57:14
  you know, you get one-on-one coverage against some of these,
• 57:16
  you know, receivers, those are really good quarterbacks that
• 57:19
  are going to take advantage of that.
• 57:21
  So for me, the secondary, you know, it's kind of continued to
• 57:24
  be just a really big struggle. I think on the defensive side,
• 57:28
  you have some guys who do have talent.
• 57:30
  I think they're just trying to still like put together the
• 57:32
  scheme and and making things work.
• 57:34
  But you know, in the safety position, Gunner Maldonado is in
• 57:38
  Arizona transfer that was injured at the beginning of the
• 57:40
  year. He's at full strength.
• 57:42
  He's had, you know, a couple of his best games have been the
• 57:45
  last two games. And so, you know, having a guy
• 57:48
  like that back in the DJ there who, you know, is been hit or
• 57:52
  miss this year for sure, But the the secondary is a tough one.
• 57:55
  I mean, I think if Jalen, you know, can really, you know, see
• 58:00
  some of his guys, you know, and and if Emmanuel Henderson can
• 58:03
  get open, you get, you know, you're going to the explosive
• 58:07
  play, I think is going to be there.
• 58:10
  It's just can you find it? You know it, it really is
• 58:13
  because that has been the thing that has really killed us.
• 58:16
  You know, we saw it against TCUI mean it was in, you know, late
• 58:19
  game situation, but you know, 85 yard touchdown pass, you know,
• 58:23
  that's stuff that you really can't do if you're, you know,
• 58:28
  even if the game's at hand, you don't want to be giving up stuff
• 58:30
  like that. So Speaking of explosive plays
• 58:34
  and explosive situations that can change the game, special
• 58:38
  teams, both KU and KC have had returns for touchdowns this
• 58:43
  year, which you know, with with how bad the special teams has
• 58:46
  looked for maybe both teams for you in the Sunflower Showdown
• 58:50
  for us in virtually every game this season except for one,
• 58:55
  there have been a lot of really downsides to, to both special
• 58:58
  teams units as well, in addition to the bright spots of the kick
• 59:01
  returns that we've seen for, for touchdowns or pump returns for
• 59:04
  touchdowns. But I I guess with with this
• 59:08
  being a phase of the game that has decided so many games for
• 59:11
  you in this series and for us in, in, you know, the first
• 59:14
  seven games of this season, how many special teams errors are
• 59:19
  going to occur in this game and who will commit the most?
• 59:24
  I got Kansas with six K State with 0.
• 59:29
  No, our our special team has been really solid.
• 59:31
  It's our kicker. I mean, it's probably the best
• 59:34
  kicker we've had in decades. Lathe Marjan and then solid
• 59:43
  punter, obviously Emmanuel Henderson as electric as a
• 59:47
  returner as anyone in the league.
• 59:48
  So I'm almost to the point where I just almost hope K State
• 59:52
  doesn't have to punt because we will muff it.
• 59:55
  I've just watched it every year. I guess last year maybe not, but
• 59:59
  for some reason we caught a kick off at the 1 yard line instead
• 1:00:03
  of just letting it go out of bounds.
• 1:00:07
  So I don't know. I mean, K State, I feel like
• 1:00:11
  it's pride of themselves. Special teams you for a long
• 1:00:13
  time. So that always worries me in
• 1:00:17
  this game. Hopefully it's not a mental
• 1:00:20
  thing, which I wouldn't think it would be.
• 1:00:23
  It's kind of a new roster. They've lost a lot of seniors,
• 1:00:28
  especially after last season. So yeah, it's it's always a big
• 1:00:32
  deal in this game. So hopefully they don't do the
• 1:00:36
  same stupid things they usually do in this game.
• 1:00:39
  Yeah, I think we'll, it, it'll be very interesting because K
• 1:00:44
  State just is not necessarily been very good with special
• 1:00:47
  teams outside of our our field goal kicker has been been
• 1:00:50
  really, really good. All right, what's your
• 1:00:53
  prediction for the game? I mean, I, I kind of knowing,
• 1:00:56
  you know, what you're hearing about K State, what you know
• 1:00:59
  about KU, you think about, you know, 16, is it 17 for K State
• 1:01:06
  or is the number going back to 0?
• 1:01:11
  You know The funny thing, before I came on, I knew you guys were
• 1:01:15
  going to ask me this and in the most serious way ever.
• 1:01:19
  I was like, I'm not picking KU like I until we beat him.
• 1:01:23
  I'm not picking KU like until I see it, I'm not going to do it,
• 1:01:27
  but I am. I'm picking KU to win this game,
• 1:01:30
  but I can't believe it. I'm.
• 1:01:33
  Not. I'm pretty much I've done a bit
• 1:01:36
  all year where I'm like we're not winning.
• 1:01:38
  So I don't know why you guys are going to watch it.
• 1:01:40
  Like we can't beat them. We will never beat them until I
• 1:01:43
  die. And I'm picking them on AK State
• 1:01:46
  podcast, which I don't think I probably I don't think I've
• 1:01:49
  picked KU on here yet. Maybe I have.
• 1:01:53
  I don't think you have, no. I know I picked you guys last
• 1:01:57
  year and the year before, but I'll go.
• 1:02:02
  Do we know the total in the game?
• 1:02:04
  I know it's 3 point spread or 2 1/2.
• 1:02:08
  It's got to be 50 something I. Had it out here.
• 1:02:13
  It is 56 in it, yeah. I'm going 3127 Kansas.
• 1:02:22
  Oh my God, Shady 645 passing yards.
• 1:02:30
  Negative -40 Rushing cards. Yeah, that is the thing you said
• 1:02:35
  pass rush. I would say our weakness is our
• 1:02:37
  offensive tackles. So maybe they offset each other.
• 1:02:41
  But yeah, I guess we're taking KU, you guys.
• 1:02:45
  Can you guys give me a smart prediction or at least how you
• 1:02:48
  feel? Yeah, You know, what's what's
• 1:02:50
  really funny is that I was going to give 3127 KU.
• 1:02:56
  That was my score prediction also.
• 1:03:00
  I think the I think it's going to be, I think I don't, I don't
• 1:03:06
  know, you know, I, I just, I'm very like heavy on the fact we
• 1:03:12
  haven't won a road game in over a year.
• 1:03:14
  And I think this KU team is better than Arizona that we
• 1:03:20
  played earlier this year. I think this KU team is better
• 1:03:24
  than like last year, like the Houston team we lost to.
• 1:03:28
  I think there's just there's going to be a lot on KUI feel.
• 1:03:32
  I feel like this is like one of the most attainable K State
• 1:03:35
  Games. They're going to like you've
• 1:03:36
  probably had in a handful of years and you can kind of see
• 1:03:41
  this like wounded animal coming into town and you're you're, you
• 1:03:46
  know, in a position where you can like just completely, you
• 1:03:49
  know, got it. So, so I I literally my score
• 1:03:55
  prediction is going to be 3127 KU.
• 1:03:59
  I'm going to the game and Lord knows that I'm going to see it
• 1:04:04
  in person. So.
• 1:04:10
  I've got I've got 31 for K U2, ironically enough, and I was
• 1:04:14
  basing this off of stats of WAR CFB graphs.
• 1:04:19
  He has this game as 3124 KU based on the advanced stats.
• 1:04:25
  And I'm like, well, might as well go with the advanced stats.
• 1:04:28
  So I'm going 3124 KU and similar to Matt's thoughts, I mean, if
• 1:04:34
  if it's not going to happen this year, I don't know when it's
• 1:04:38
  going to happen. When is it going to happen?
• 1:04:40
  Definitely not next year, I would say.
• 1:04:42
  I would assume Avery's back. I don't know.
• 1:04:46
  Maybe he'll be in an Ole Miss uniform and we're playing Blake
• 1:04:49
  Barnett. You know I, you know I, I think
• 1:04:53
  Avery will be back. Well, I just, I had like family
• 1:04:57
  members that were saying they could see him go in pro.
• 1:05:02
  I don't think he's, he's not there yet.
• 1:05:04
  I think he needs, if he like for him, I, I think he needs another
• 1:05:08
  year in college, but I, I think he's going to stay at K State.
• 1:05:14
  I, I do believe he really enjoys it here.
• 1:05:18
  He gets paid pretty damn well as well.
• 1:05:22
  And, you know, to go into a different situation where you're
• 1:05:26
  not guaranteed that you're going to start.
• 1:05:28
  I think there's some things there.
• 1:05:30
  So, you know, I, he's going to have to have a really big game
• 1:05:35
  on Saturday. I I think he's just he, he has
• 1:05:39
  to show he's the leader on this team and you know, you bring
• 1:05:42
  your team in and, you know, trying one on the road and just
• 1:05:47
  just isn't there. Yeah, and if he's going to
• 1:05:49
  GoPro, he can't, you know, he can't be sliding 2 yards short
• 1:05:53
  of the sticks if he is breaking the pocket.
• 1:05:55
  He can't, you know, be afraid to use his legs in situations where
• 1:06:00
  he's able to able to use his legs like you're a dual threat
• 1:06:02
  quarterback. Michael Vick wasn't known as a
• 1:06:05
  pocket passer. And it's not to say Avery isn't
• 1:06:08
  a good passer. He has his moments.
• 1:06:09
  He's he's obviously shown it on the field, but where NFL teams
• 1:06:14
  are really going to want him as if he can be prolific in both
• 1:06:16
  phases. Of of the.
• 1:06:18
  Game so I. Don't know, I do.
• 1:06:22
  Do you have two minutes? I want to, I do want to pivot
• 1:06:24
  the basketball really quick 'cause I do I, I I'm genuinely
• 1:06:27
  curious because I think this is the first year in my.
• 1:06:33
  I mean, obviously I've cheered for K State for years, long,
• 1:06:35
  long time. I feel like I know nothing about
• 1:06:38
  this KU basketball team this year other than Darren Peterson,
• 1:06:42
  who for a lot of people listening, you know #2 ranked
• 1:06:46
  high school prospect. He's going to be a name that's
• 1:06:50
  going to, you know, this year. You're going to be hearing a lot
• 1:06:52
  about him. But I feel like outside of
• 1:06:55
  Flory, I don't know much about this KU basketball team.
• 1:06:59
  So what is kind of the overall like, how is, how are KU fans
• 1:07:04
  kind of anticipating this season going?
• 1:07:07
  And, you know, just with a lot of these guys, I, I don't know,
• 1:07:10
  some of these transfers you got Rosario, who, you know, is now
• 1:07:13
  playing in this year, who I feel like people have been, you know,
• 1:07:17
  talking about after he reclassified.
• 1:07:19
  So you know, what's what's kind of the mindset this year for KU
• 1:07:22
  basketball? You know, I think, I think
• 1:07:24
  there's a lot of question marks outside of DP and who's going to
• 1:07:28
  step up and who's going to score it outside of them.
• 1:07:31
  And it is, it's a new roster. They lost a ton of guys that had
• 1:07:34
  been around for so long. I mean, Hunter was in college
• 1:07:38
  for 10 years. Dewan, KJ.
• 1:07:41
  So yeah, Cole Rosario to me, outside of DP has definitely
• 1:07:46
  gotten the most hype. El Marco Jackson is back.
• 1:07:49
  He was a big recruit 2 years ago, tore his ACL last
• 1:07:54
  offseason. So there's question marks with
• 1:07:56
  him. Jayden Dawson they got from
• 1:08:00
  Loyola Chicago, they got Trey White from Illinois, Melvin
• 1:08:10
  Council from Saint Bonaventure. So yeah, it's a lot of new
• 1:08:13
  faces. Like it's, it's like a pretty
• 1:08:17
  much new brand new roster. I mean, even Flory, Flory's the
• 1:08:20
  guy that played like 1520 minutes maybe a game last year.
• 1:08:25
  So I mean, he's still got questions with him.
• 1:08:27
  But yeah, Peterson, I mean, I would assume top two pick in the
• 1:08:32
  draft, yeah. How close do you think self is
• 1:08:35
  to hanging it up? I was, I was like, pretty
• 1:08:41
  convinced that this would be his last season.
• 1:08:43
  Yeah. And then you get more health
• 1:08:46
  stuff this offseason and then you bring in Jacques, who it
• 1:08:50
  feels like they're kind of 1 to hand the reins over to, if I had
• 1:08:54
  to guess. I feel like that is our next
• 1:08:56
  head coach, which obviously make I'm sure a ton of people feel
• 1:09:00
  that way. It just makes sense.
• 1:09:02
  The guy that's coached multiple NBA franchises was really good
• 1:09:06
  point guard at KUII. Feel like Bill's not a huge fan
• 1:09:12
  of the portal and just having to re recruit a roster every year.
• 1:09:17
  Feel like you think about it, all those KU teams that Bill's
• 1:09:21
  had that have been really good been guys that have just stuck
• 1:09:24
  around for so long. I mean you think about Devante,
• 1:09:28
  Frank, even the 22 team with Oats, CBJ, Will, they were all
• 1:09:34
  around for a long time. Dave Big Dave McCormick, he was
• 1:09:40
  something else. But.
• 1:09:43
  Yeah, it's like, I feel like he's thrived off upperclassmen.
• 1:09:46
  Like obviously we've had the one and done's because we've gotten
• 1:09:49
  big recruits, but some freshmen come in and Bill doesn't trust
• 1:09:53
  them at all. He has a short leash with him,
• 1:09:56
  Even the transfers that he's gotten out of the port.
• 1:09:57
  I mean, KU fans, we're so excited about AJ Store, Ryland
• 1:10:02
  Griffin, all that last year, like we finally have wings that
• 1:10:04
  could shoot and Bill's just had the quickest leash within
• 1:10:08
  because they didn't they didn't guard like they got away with
• 1:10:12
  whatever at their previous Ryland Griffin played for Nate
• 1:10:15
  Oates. Like they just run a gun.
• 1:10:17
  Give him 100 points. Yeah, Bill, Bill's.
• 1:10:20
  Really like this is it but maybe I'm wrong.
• 1:10:24
  He's one of the last guys left, right, like Coach K, Coach K
• 1:10:27
  retired, Roy Williams retired, Tony Bennett retired, Jay Wright
• 1:10:31
  retired. Like a lot of those guys that
• 1:10:33
  I'm Bruce Weber, no longer coaching, I don't know how he
• 1:10:36
  would do with and I help. Probably not well.
• 1:10:39
  God. Probably not.
• 1:10:40
  Well, I hope the FBI investigates Kansas.
• 1:10:44
  Right. Jesus Christ.
• 1:10:47
  Yeah, and Jay Wright was a crazy one, too.
• 1:10:50
  He's. On the Big 10 network, by the
• 1:10:51
  way. Yeah.
• 1:10:53
  He won retiring as well, like he won two and three years.
• 1:10:55
  I was like this. I think everyone came to the
• 1:10:57
  consensus that he was probably the best in college hoops.
• 1:11:01
  Like Bill. Bill is consistent.
• 1:11:03
  But yeah, Texas Tech. Yeah.
• 1:11:07
  I mean, I, I think from the, from an outsider perspective,
• 1:11:10
  they think of like the Big 12 for basketball this year.
• 1:11:13
  I mean, you know, there's, there's a lot of names.
• 1:11:15
  Obviously, you know, AJ at BYU is going to be, you know, talked
• 1:11:19
  about a lot. And you know, they still have
• 1:11:21
  Richie Saunders that Manny killed all of our teams at one
• 1:11:25
  point. But you know, Houston, Arizona,
• 1:11:29
  you know, it just seems, it seems like KU is kind of under
• 1:11:33
  the radar for the Big 12. You know, they're pick what, 6
• 1:11:37
  in the Big 12 this year. It it I wonder if that a lot of
• 1:11:41
  that is going to be good, like kind of being under, you know,
• 1:11:45
  you're not hearing much about these guys, but selfs getting
• 1:11:48
  them together to where they can make a run in Big 12 play.
• 1:11:51
  I mean, they have a very kind of interesting schedule for sure.
• 1:11:54
  A lot of you know it's going to be a tough schedule early on.
• 1:11:58
  Yeah, I know, I know our fans are excited about being like
• 1:12:02
  kind of under the radar. I mean, there's been multiple
• 1:12:05
  teams even I feel like the last two or three years where they're
• 1:12:08
  pre season 1, they have all this hype and obviously they haven't
• 1:12:12
  made it out of the first weekend.
• 1:12:17
  I mean, we've made it out of the first weekend like one time
• 1:12:20
  since 2018. It's which is crazy like 2020
• 1:12:26
  the COVID year didn't happen. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:12:30
  Yeah, Devante his senior year they made the final four in the
• 1:12:33
  1921232425. They didn't make it on the first
• 1:12:39
  weekend with some high seats, but yeah, that like they beat
• 1:12:44
  Duke last year in Vegas without Hunter Dickinson for the last 12
• 1:12:49
  minutes. That team had a bunch of hype.
• 1:12:53
  And then yeah, this year it doesn't feel obviously DP, but I
• 1:12:56
  think they're what friends top 20 team?
• 1:12:59
  They're like the 19th. So that's just it kind of feels
• 1:13:02
  weird as a KU fan, you know, usually we're like top five, top
• 1:13:05
  ten pre season, but I think our fans are excited about it.
• 1:13:09
  But they're, they definitely, to me, seem like they're deeper,
• 1:13:12
  more athletic team than they've had the last few years.
• 1:13:17
  Yeah, it'll be interesting. I mean, to to kind of see, you
• 1:13:20
  know, how the Big 12 teams do before you hit conference play.
• 1:13:23
  And I think they're probably one of the most interesting teams in
• 1:13:26
  the Big 12 early on of like who who do they have?
• 1:13:31
  You know, for K State fans, like if you're watching KU, no, I
• 1:13:35
  you're going to know Flory and that's it if you're listening.
• 1:13:40
  So it it'll be interesting. Those games obviously will be be
• 1:13:44
  fun, but basketball season is right around the corner.
• 1:13:46
  I mean, it's it's. NBA Tonight.
• 1:13:49
  Yeah, yeah. So I'm excited.
• 1:13:52
  To come to the zoo on. Friday.
• 1:13:54
  Friday, yeah. So.
• 1:13:57
  What does Mizzou have do? You get, you get the SEC
• 1:13:59
  Network. I'll find a way to watch
• 1:14:02
  anything. Yeah, turn on, turn on your
• 1:14:05
  cats, your Wildcats. Fuck Mizzou.
• 1:14:08
  Who does Mizzou have back? Yeah, like from from the names,
• 1:14:12
  I mean Mark Mitchell. Mitchell.
• 1:14:15
  'S back, yeah, Mitchell's back. I was trying to remember like
• 1:14:19
  some of these players that they. Had last year.
• 1:14:22
  No, Bates is not he. He graduated, Yeah.
• 1:14:27
  I mean, some of these names, I just don't know, you know,
• 1:14:31
  anything about them. So it'll be.
• 1:14:33
  They've been they've been pretty electric offensively the last
• 1:14:36
  few years. Yeah, well, they had Caleb
• 1:14:38
  Grill, everyone's favorite, you know, last year he's gone.
• 1:14:43
  But Anthony Robinson's back. I, you know, they're, they're
• 1:14:47
  A-Team. That's that, you know, if
• 1:14:49
  they're going to win games, they got a they score a lot of
• 1:14:51
  points. You know, I think they're last
• 1:14:53
  season they kind of struggled with on the defensive side.
• 1:14:56
  Who do you guys have? Dude?
• 1:14:59
  I'm so. Adamant.
• 1:15:00
  Yeah, I. Mean Obak Guruka is returning.
• 1:15:04
  Yeah, DJ Haggerty from Memphis. Yeah, he can score.
• 1:15:10
  He's a, he's a, he's a great scorer.
• 1:15:13
  All American last year that we've kind of hit the
• 1:15:17
  international route with a couple players that, you know,
• 1:15:20
  we think are going to going to do some damage.
• 1:15:23
  Nate Johnson from Akron. He was conference player of the
• 1:15:26
  year last year. Doug's.
• 1:15:27
  Game yes we did it was almost. He went to Memphis, so yeah.
• 1:15:32
  So we, yeah, kind of a trade. Honestly, I think we turned out
• 1:15:37
  better for that, but not a lot of.
• 1:15:40
  Felt like he was just so hit or miss last year.
• 1:15:42
  Yeah, you know, he had some good games.
• 1:15:44
  He he had some misses, but I. Him and Pullman just didn't seem
• 1:15:49
  like they. No, but it it seems like the
• 1:15:53
  guys that have they've brought in, you know, every coach is
• 1:15:56
  going to talk a big game, you know, prior to the season about
• 1:16:00
  their team. But it just seems it does seem a
• 1:16:03
  little bit different this year. It seems like the team's a
• 1:16:05
  little more, you know, together with what they need to do.
• 1:16:08
  And I think I think there's potential we could be really
• 1:16:13
  good. I think this team will make the
• 1:16:15
  NCAA Tournament. You know, they're not going to
• 1:16:18
  make a splash and be top 3IN Big 12, but you know, they're
• 1:16:21
  they're an NCAA tournament team, which is way better than yeah,
• 1:16:24
  5, four. Yeah, you never know.
• 1:16:27
  Yeah, say eight seed. When we did, the other guy
• 1:16:32
  that's worth mentioning is Abdi Bashir.
• 1:16:34
  He was the leader in three pointers made last year.
• 1:16:37
  And all of NCAA. At Plymouth, so not exactly the
• 1:16:41
  best level of competition, but they definitely wanted to get a
• 1:16:45
  three-point shooter and I think they got him so.
• 1:16:47
  Dude it's so like this nil shoot is just weird.
• 1:16:50
  Like feels like so many programs are going to have new rosters
• 1:16:54
  every year. It's like 3 agency.
• 1:16:57
  Yeah, I it's. Been that way.
• 1:16:59
  It's been that way for us every year.
• 1:17:02
  Yeah, I think the bubble burst last year with the NIL amounts,
• 1:17:06
  you know, I you saw a lot of guys this year that we're not
• 1:17:08
  getting the same amount, you know, being out in the portal.
• 1:17:12
  So I think they've kind of cut down on that, which is good.
• 1:17:14
  But I mean, it's a different game now.
• 1:17:16
  You know, for as much as you're going to get good high school
• 1:17:19
  players, McDonald's, all Americans, you know, you kind of
• 1:17:22
  have to have these guys, you know, that are coming from, you
• 1:17:25
  know, these different schools and just, you know, trying to
• 1:17:29
  work a roster. I, you know, that I, I do agree
• 1:17:32
  with what he said earlier though, like Bill Self, like one
• 1:17:35
  of his biggest strengths was having guys in the program for
• 1:17:37
  3-4 years and developing them and making them better.
• 1:17:41
  And that is just not the game right now.
• 1:17:43
  You know, across I, I mean, I would say most programs, I mean,
• 1:17:47
  maybe outside of like Houston, you know, Houston, but Even so,
• 1:17:52
  like Dave Uzan came from Oklahoma, like they have work
• 1:17:56
  transfers, but it is just completely different.
• 1:18:00
  And and you wonder if self is kind of like not checked out,
• 1:18:03
  but like, you know, is, is the NIL era with the transfer portal
• 1:18:07
  like leveraging his strengths of developing players and finding
• 1:18:12
  these players and making him better.
• 1:18:14
  You know, that is an interesting kind of thing to think about.
• 1:18:18
  Yeah, I don't think he's enjoying it very much.
• 1:18:21
  This could be it. Yeah.
• 1:18:24
  This could be it. Well, you heard it.
• 1:18:26
  You heard it here first, Brayden.
• 1:18:28
  Thanks again Ton for coming on tonight.
• 1:18:31
  I'll let the people know where they can find you and plug
• 1:18:33
  anything that you've got going on.
• 1:18:36
  Yeah, we got to get the Apple reviews up.
• 1:18:39
  Back up. We need more five stars.
• 1:18:41
  Someone ruined your guys ratings because of me.
• 1:18:45
  Give us five star police brutality.
• 1:18:48
  I hate the Fed. Yeah, Twitter beats Turner 2/3
• 1:18:54
  if you want to listen to our podcasts that we don't really
• 1:18:57
  record anymore. Ain't no seats pod.
• 1:19:00
  It's all KU sports. I'm sure all the listeners that
• 1:19:03
  are listening to this will just love it.
• 1:19:05
  They love KU Rock Chalk. Yeah, that's it.
• 1:19:11
  But obviously I always have fun doing this.
• 1:19:14
  Can't believe you guys still have me on every year.
• 1:19:17
  It's an honor. I'm blessed.
• 1:19:19
  Thank you. God, Andre, I'm pissed.
• 1:19:23
  But we'll talk soon. What?
• 1:19:25
  What do you what do you think his score prediction would have
• 1:19:28
  been? K State's winning.
• 1:19:29
  He's he, he said last week that K State is going to dominate.
• 1:19:36
  I believe he used, he used that word last week.
• 1:19:38
  So he would have actually spelled all three of us really
• 1:19:41
  well. Is he?
• 1:19:44
  Is he like the optimistic fan all the time or?
• 1:19:50
  No, no, he's not. He's probably the most
• 1:19:53
  optimistic out of all three of us.
• 1:19:54
  But I think the TC, the TCU game really gave him like the thought
• 1:19:59
  process that like we're going to go in and probably he's probably
• 1:20:01
  going to say like 4517 or something stupid stuff like
• 1:20:05
  that. Like that's just who he is.
• 1:20:10
  But you can, yeah, yeah. Just message him on Twitter, you
• 1:20:13
  know, call him out. He'll he'll give you the score
• 1:20:15
  prediction. But I'm pretty sure he last week
• 1:20:17
  he used the words K State is going to dominate this game.
• 1:20:22
  I love that dude. Awesome.
• 1:20:25
  Well, thanks again, Braden. That's that's going to do it for
• 1:20:27
  us today. Once again, shout out to Auntie
• 1:20:30
  Maze. Visit them 616 N 12th St. get a
• 1:20:33
  koozie. If you're in Manhattan, be sure
• 1:20:36
  to tell them cocaine will he sent you.
• 1:20:38
  You can also check out our merch store, cocaine willie.com.
• 1:20:41
  You can buy that that Wildcat country.
• 1:20:43
  Let's ride merch there. Check that out as well.
• 1:20:45
  And then finally, we are the K state representative on the
• 1:20:48
  college huddle, the largest community of fan driven content
• 1:20:52
  in the nation. Check them out at the college
• 1:20:54
  huddle.com or follow them on social media at college huddle.
• 1:20:57
  Last but not least, you can follow our show at Cocaine
• 1:21:00
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• 1:21:03
  any other social media site where social media can be found
• 1:21:07
  or follow us individually. I'm at Bob Trollsby, Chef is at
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• 1:21:13
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• 1:21:17
  We are all coke and no joke Wildcat country.
• 1:21:20
  Let's ride. Let's ride.