Covering a Friday night game always means you get to sit around on Saturday and watch football on Saturday. Got back home a little after midnight from the game, looked over video and quotes. Back up around 6:00 to go back over stats, PFF grades, and that gave me an excuse I was too tired to do yard work. Therefore I sat in front of the TV from 9:00 a.m. until midnight.
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It is so hard to try and dissect football teams by their week one performance. But you can at least watch games and look at personnel.
When I watched Illinois I saw a team that is built to stop opponents like Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc. They are big and physical. They play a 3-4 and their inside guys are all well built guys and pluggers. Their DE or what they call OLB are all 245 and bigger. Their best "DE" are in the 265 range.
Their defense really struggled in space trying to defend Toledo's QB. I thought he was a really good runner and not a great thrower. The defenses in the Big 10 don't see a lot of QB like that who run the ball 20 times. Heck there aren't many teams who have a QB who runs the ball 20 times a game. Toledo's QB really gave Illinois trouble. The closest thing KU has to do that is Daniels but you just can't run Daniels like Toledo does their guy especially if he isn't 100% healthy and you want to protect him. Bean is fast and can run straight line but he isn't a true runner with elusiveness like Toledo's QB or Daniels.
Personally I thought Illinois was poorly schemed defensively. Toledo's RB (I forget his name) had big holes to run through all night. I was surprised he didn't get more carries. Last year Illinois was one of the best defenses in the country. It is a new DC so will be interesting to see what adjustments they make. I didn't think Illinois had great speed on the outside and the outside zone and option plays could work for KU.
On offense I had Illinois pegged all wrong. I expected a big, physical line which they were. But they weren't very athletic up front. Their running game wasn't great, which I thought it would be. Their passing game was solid and the QB made good decisions and ran the ball well. All of those were the opposite of what I was expecting.
In the end it is hard to be too critical in a comparison with Illinois because their first week opponent was night and day better than KU's. The Jayhawks would have their hands full with Toledo. I have heard you won't see Leipold schedule MAC teams because he knows how good they can be. If Travis Goff walked in his office and said they are scheduling Toledo in week one in 2025 I think he would get an earful and then start looking for another opponent. That I know for a fact.
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I don't take too much from week one in the Big 12. The game that surprised me the most was Baylor losing the way they did. They even benched their QB. Unfortunately KU doesn't play them this year.
I watched UCF and they had some athletes and we will find out more about them when they travel to Boise State this week. Hard to tell anything from Cincinnati playing Eastern Kentucky. BYU scoring 14 against Sam Houston isn't impressive (I didn't watch any of that). Texas Tech will be okay. They will still be a challenge. This is the year I wish KU could play Houston, TCU, Baylor and West Virginia.
I didn't watch KSU because it was the same time Illinois played. KSU will have a better opponent this week in Troy.
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If there was a team that impressed me the most it was Colorado. Coming back to the Big 12 they are going to be a problem. I have always said Deion can sell and promote. He might be the best in the business. But in my opinion he needed to show me substance and that he can oversee a P5 program on game day. Well, he did all that and more yesterday. They were impressive. In less than a year that OC has worked wonders and he's a great offensive mind. The played hard and were prepared. When you combine his style and ability to recruit along with being coached up they way they were, he is going to be an issue to deal with.
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It is so hard to try and dissect football teams by their week one performance. But you can at least watch games and look at personnel.
When I watched Illinois I saw a team that is built to stop opponents like Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc. They are big and physical. They play a 3-4 and their inside guys are all well built guys and pluggers. Their DE or what they call OLB are all 245 and bigger. Their best "DE" are in the 265 range.
Their defense really struggled in space trying to defend Toledo's QB. I thought he was a really good runner and not a great thrower. The defenses in the Big 10 don't see a lot of QB like that who run the ball 20 times. Heck there aren't many teams who have a QB who runs the ball 20 times a game. Toledo's QB really gave Illinois trouble. The closest thing KU has to do that is Daniels but you just can't run Daniels like Toledo does their guy especially if he isn't 100% healthy and you want to protect him. Bean is fast and can run straight line but he isn't a true runner with elusiveness like Toledo's QB or Daniels.
Personally I thought Illinois was poorly schemed defensively. Toledo's RB (I forget his name) had big holes to run through all night. I was surprised he didn't get more carries. Last year Illinois was one of the best defenses in the country. It is a new DC so will be interesting to see what adjustments they make. I didn't think Illinois had great speed on the outside and the outside zone and option plays could work for KU.
On offense I had Illinois pegged all wrong. I expected a big, physical line which they were. But they weren't very athletic up front. Their running game wasn't great, which I thought it would be. Their passing game was solid and the QB made good decisions and ran the ball well. All of those were the opposite of what I was expecting.
In the end it is hard to be too critical in a comparison with Illinois because their first week opponent was night and day better than KU's. The Jayhawks would have their hands full with Toledo. I have heard you won't see Leipold schedule MAC teams because he knows how good they can be. If Travis Goff walked in his office and said they are scheduling Toledo in week one in 2025 I think he would get an earful and then start looking for another opponent. That I know for a fact.
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I don't take too much from week one in the Big 12. The game that surprised me the most was Baylor losing the way they did. They even benched their QB. Unfortunately KU doesn't play them this year.
I watched UCF and they had some athletes and we will find out more about them when they travel to Boise State this week. Hard to tell anything from Cincinnati playing Eastern Kentucky. BYU scoring 14 against Sam Houston isn't impressive (I didn't watch any of that). Texas Tech will be okay. They will still be a challenge. This is the year I wish KU could play Houston, TCU, Baylor and West Virginia.
I didn't watch KSU because it was the same time Illinois played. KSU will have a better opponent this week in Troy.
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If there was a team that impressed me the most it was Colorado. Coming back to the Big 12 they are going to be a problem. I have always said Deion can sell and promote. He might be the best in the business. But in my opinion he needed to show me substance and that he can oversee a P5 program on game day. Well, he did all that and more yesterday. They were impressive. In less than a year that OC has worked wonders and he's a great offensive mind. The played hard and were prepared. When you combine his style and ability to recruit along with being coached up they way they were, he is going to be an issue to deal with.
