Weekend Notes

Not a bad weekend at all. The weather was wonderful, and looks to remain that way for a few more days, then seasonably warm after that. Changing the clocks always sucks. And plenty of football, of course.

HS Football

The Cathedral game was on TV so we were able to watch them get a relatively easy 20–3 sectional championship win over Lawrence North. Their defense was great and their running back went for over 260 yards.

On to regionals, where they will play Ben Davis, ranked #3 in the media poll but #1 in the computer poll. (CHS is #7 and #4 respectively.)

The win also clinched CHS staying in Class 6A for two more years. Which should be really interesting since, as of now, they don’t have a quarterback on the roster who is on the level of the three guys who have held that spot down for the past six years. I would imagine they will find a way to remedy that situation.

College Football

What a day! Well, that’s what I hear. We spent much of the beautiful day outside trimming plants for the winter and putting away the last of the outdoor furniture that was still on the pool deck. Then I took a nap. And in the evening I watched the KU game, so missed much of the other many great games that took place.

Hey, how about them Jayhawks??? 7–2, bitches, after a tough win on the road at Iowa State. A couple huge plays, a handful of long drives, and one of the better defensive performances of the year keyed a start-to-finish win. That was just a good, well-played, evenly-matched game.

Here’s a fun stat: from 2008, when KU won in Ames,[1] until 2020, the Jayhawks had one Big 12 road win. They now have three in three years. That doesn’t sound like much, but winning on the road is hard even for decent teams. If you can grab one or two a year, that is generally the difference in making a bowl for mid-tier teams.

Jason Bean was actually quite solid. He didn’t do anything spectacular, other than run a couple well-designed plays to perfection in key moments. It still feels like he’s not taking full advantage of his speed, and I’m not convinced he ever looks at anyone other than his primary receiver. But, fuck it, he’s responsible for four of KU’s seven wins and deserves all the props. Great job by the coaching staff to tweak the offense to account for the differences between what he can do and what Daniels can do.

Someone on Twitter called him Football David McCormack, which is hilarious, if unfair. McCormack was a high school All American who exuded potential and drove KU fans crazy for four years with his uneven play. Bean was a transfer KU took very late in the process who only started his first year on campus because Jalon Daniels was, stop me if you’ve heard this before, injured. Bean was going to transfer last summer but I don’t think anyone wanted him other than KU, so he came back for his sixth year. He’s been a wild-mood swing of a player his three years on campus. Like McCormack, it seems like he’s saving his best games for the end of his career. Which will likely wrap up with him starting in a bowl game.

I’m not sure what to say about Daniels anymore. There are so many rumors and idle speculation that I’ve tried to tune it all out. He is KU’s first experience with the negative side of NIL, with random KU “fans” suggesting he owes the school and supporters to play no matter what his injury is since he’s getting paid. There are lots of people who claim he’s just sitting out so he can transfer, which doesn’t make much sense. These people don’t know shit about what is really going on, but that doesn’t stop them from posting online.

I’ve reached the point where I don’t expect him back this season and am absolutely fine continuing with Bean at QB. I just wish KU and/or Daniels would share more about what’s going on. We don’t need to know the entire story. But tell us if there’s a legit chance that he’ll play again this year, or even next, or if it will take a miracle for that to happen and we should stop asking about it/hoping for it. Or say, “We have tried everything and his back isn’t getting better and we are flummoxed at what to try next. We have no idea.” Stop with the “Well, he practiced Tuesday and seemed better,” only for him not to travel for the game on Saturday.

For all the good around the KU program, it sucks that we still have a mediocre kicker. Or kickers, I should say, since two guys have got chances in recent games. During the Iowa State game some of my text buddies and I were trying to remember when the last good KU kicker was. I’m sure there were a few over the years, but I jokingly said Dan Eichloff, who played when we were in school. Turns out he still owns pretty much every KU kicking record. He even punted, which was pretty sweet. Anyway, might be time to put a priority on finding a decent place kicker. The kicking game was a factor in the Oklahoma State loss, and was damn close to being a factor Saturday.

The Jayhawks won. The Hoosiers got their first Big 10 win of the year. Only the poor Bearcats amongst our household’s schools lost, falling to UCF on homecoming weekend. M was at the game. I heard a lot of boos on TV when I had it on. Not sure if she knows enough about football to understand why the UC fans were jeering their own team. I wonder if she joined in anyway.

NFL

I watched most of the Colts game. Awesome day for Kenny Moore II, becoming the first Colt to ever have two pick-sixes in one game. In front of four of his sisters, no less. Their celebrations were fantastic.

It struck me yesterday, as CJ Stroud was tearing up the Tampa Bay defense, that the AFC South could be on the verge of a terrific set of quarterback rivalries. Jacksonville has Trevor Lawrence, who seems on the way to being an above average QB. Stroud has ranged from solid to exceptional through his first eight games. Will Levis elevating to starter should give the Titans hope. And if Anthony Richardson can get healthy, he’ll have the Colts in the mix.

Since I have lived in Indy the division has almost always been a Two Good, Two Bad group, often based on who had the best quarterbacks at the time. If those four guys continue to develop and the teams are smart in how they build around them, the next decade could be incredible to watch for AFC South fans.