5 keys to an improved football season
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- Average scoring improvement. Last year Kansas was up 7 points from 2015 @ 20.3 ppg but that still was 120th in the land. A similar improvement seems likely returning a core group of offensive players and would most likely give them a top 75 scoring offense rating, that hasn’t happened since Mangino was here.
- Cut down on turnovers. KU had 36 turnovers last year which again put them in the bottom 10 of the country. 14 fumbles and 22 ints just can’t happen again if the Jayhawks hope to improve upon last years 2 win season.
- Success running the ball. Kansas had the worst rushing attack in the big 12 and 116th in the country last year. In tight games like last seasons TCU and ISU contests it would’ve been nice to run the clock. Once again returning 4 of 5 offensive linemen should be a key factor in teams having to respect the run this fall.
- Stopping the run. Kansas has one of if not the best defensive lines in the conference and had success against the air attack ranking 54th in passing defense a year ago. The rushing defense was another story, giving up big chunks at time and ranking 115th nationally. The linebackers must be able to sniff out and stop the run especially with Armstrong more than likely getting double teams.
- Special teams improvement . Kansas lost to TCU bye a single point a year ago after missing 4 Fgs, 3 of which were very makeable. The kicking game has to resemble that of a D1 school for the first time in ages. Punting wasn’t consistent at all ether and Kansas ranked last in punt return yards in all of FBS. Consistently starting deep in our territory and shanking punts to give prime field position to others doesn’t work.
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4 .Stopping the run. Kansas has one of if not the best defensive lines in the conference
I am curious, where you get this ranking? I have looked at several publications that rank the various units of the conference teams and I don’t see any of the KU units even in the top 5. Here is one…
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The burden is on everyone else to capitalize on the attention that Armstrong will get. Our other defensive linemen need to punish teams when they double Armstrong so that teams can’t always send help to his side of the line. That’s the only way that our defensive line play can improve. Having just one playmaker on that unit won’t work because you can always double one guy. You need at least one other guy that can beat a one on one matchup because you can’t double team two guys on the line without leaving linebackers unblocked every play.
We just haven’t had that second guy. We desperately need that second guy to emerge this season.
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@JayHawkFanToo KU’s pass rush is maybe the best in the Big 12, but the run defense still sucks.
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@JayHawkFanToo Well, that’s my rating but one of our defensive ends was a first team all big 12 last year and preseason POY.
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KU’s run numbers are still going to be really bad this year. Even if the running game is good, the numbers won’t be because of the nature of the Air Raid and Bender not being a guy who’s going to burn you on the ground like some QB’s might.
This is where those bubble screen type plays are important because they’re not officially run plays, but they work like running plays. Get 4 to 5 yards on those plays and that’s what the goal is of those plays.
