Stock Up, Stock Down

Stock up

Jason Bean

16 of 24 for 262 yards and 4 touchdowns in one half of play in relief of Jalon after his injury is more than you could hope for. Under his direction, the offense was a different beast in the second half. He was the #3 ranked Power 5 PFF quarterback this week. He is a no-doubt stock-up guy this week.

The mistakes I saw I hope were a result of rust. A week of practice may cure some of the slow reads it seemed like he had. That said I am happy he is the backup quarterback we have and he can step into the situation he did and perform so well. If he is the starter this week and possibly multiple weeks going forward, KU still has a good chance of winning games. I just hope we do not have to see our third-string QB (Ben Easters?). The experience is just going to be different than the one we have had with Jalon under center. Jalon is a much more consistent player. You know what you are going to get every play, and what we have gotten to this point in the season has been terrific. What we will get with Jason is much closer to “all or nothing”. He may make the spectacular touchdown throw on one play, and the next time he gets the ball he will overthrow not one but two wide-open receivers on one play and have the ball nearly picked like he did Saturday.

Put another way if both Jalon and Jason are rated at a 50 on some fictional quarterback rating system. Jalon gets his 50 rating by performing in a narrow band between 45 and 55. Jason on the other hand gets his 50 by performing within a much wider band. He may at times perform at a 75 rating and at other times he performs at a 25 rating, but overall they both get a rating of 50. Jason just does it with a much bigger variance.

Recruiting

The Hill looked great for ESPN GameDay. The fans turned up early and represented very well. It may not be a deciding factor in a recruit coming to KU, but it may get recruits to consider KU when they might not have in the past. It could not have been a better day to showcase what can be when KU is just good and leave them wondering what it is like when the team is great.

Mason Fairchild

I do not know if his no-look catch made any top 10 plays for the weekend, but in my book, it was THE catch of the week. It took an off-target throw by Jalon to make it happen which would have been an unforgivable miss, but somehow Mason was able to whip his shoulders around from right to left in time to throw his hands out for an unbelievable catch. He backed up that catch with two more catches including one for a touchdown. Not sure how he was so wide open all three times. The only negative about his receiving day was he did not get more targets. Why were we not trying to run these same plays over and over until TCU proved they could stop them?

Quentin Skinner/Luke Grimm

In the second half, Jason Bean’s performance would not look as good if it were not for this pair hauling in catch after catch and somehow staying inbounds. Between the two of them, they had 10 catches, 171 yards, and 3 touchdowns. They alone have made my preseason pick of the wide receiving group being the weak point of the team look completely ridiculous.

Stock down

Injuries

In the last two weeks, injuries have started to hit big contributors on the offense. Last week Daniel Hishaw, now Jalon Daniels. Unlike Hishaw, it seems like the injury to Jalon may only keep him out for a week or two. But unlike the running backs who have plenty of experienced depth, the next up on the QB depth chart after Bean is probably Ben Easters, a red-shirt freshman who has yet to record any stats in his college football career. Of course, you could substitute any quarterback on the roster for Ben Easters and the statement would still be true.

Update: I wrote the above early on Tuesday morning and everything about it is still true as I write this early Tuesday evening except now there is a report Jalon is out for the year. KU players and coaches have taken to social media to refute it. But if true, his injury makes this stock down a bigger downer, but also makes the Jason Bean stock up a bigger stock up.

Kickers

They have not contributed directly to a loss in the manner the Iowa State kicker did when he missed three field goals against KU. But Jacob Borcilla was 1 of 2 on field goal attempts, making a 40-yarder in the first half, and missing a 31-yarder in the second half. He is very shaky when he is not kicking PATs. What contributed more directly to the loss was the kicking of Tabor Allen. Not once but twice he had kickoffs go out of bounds. The second one compounded the penalty after Quenton Skinner’s TD, giving the ball to TCU at the 50. It was just a momentum killer. The kickers just need to be better.

Officials

I am good with the officiating crew being under-involved in a game. I tend to fall into the “let them play” side of how involved they should be. As I said in the “View from the Stands” post this week, the no-calls did not cost KU the victory, but they did cost KU the chance to continue to push for the victory. If the flag is going to be glued to your pocket fine, but in a high-leverage situation that will determine the outcome of a game, if a foul blatantly occurs you need to get the acetone out, dissolve the glue and throw the flag.

Stock Neutral

Defense

I wanted to put them in stock up, but when you let TCU go 99 yards on 6 plays in 2:36 it bumps you out of that category. But they continue to keep the team within striking distance of their opponents giving the offense a chance to provide the winning points. This week’s effort I think was better than meets the eye. The offense should have scored a touchdown and kept the defense out of the situation to give up the above-mentioned touchdown. The special teams and offense also let the defense down in the third quarter after Skinner’s touchdown to tie the game at 24. If Skinner does not draw an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and Tabor Allen doesn’t follow that up by kicking the ball out of bounds on the ensuing kickoff, the game looks a lot different going down the stretch.