Why the ‘My Bads’ are a big talking point for Kansas Jayhawks football this week
Let’s look at this from Kansas offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s point of view.
It’s the second quarter against Duke, and you’ve schemed a play you think will surprise the opponent. After not using your offensive linemen to pull most of the year, you do it here, with center Mike Novitsky coming around as a blocker for running back Torry Locklin.
And from your spot in the press box, as the play develops, things couldn’t look any better.
“It was like Moses and the Red Sea basically,” Kotelnicki said, “when (Torry) cleared the D-end.”
Receiver Trevor Wilson picks off a linebacker. Fellow wideout Tristan Golightly executes a kick-out block, while L.J. Arnold is so effective pushing back his man that he takes out two Duke defenders on the play.
The final result: a 36-yard touchdown run by Locklin — he goes untouched into the end zone — and a whole bunch of encouraging signs for KU’s developing offense.
“You see everybody fitted up on blocks, making big-time blocks. Torry actually had the easy part of that play,” KU running back Devin Neal said. “He made it look easy, but he read it really well.”
If you’re Kotelnicki, you feel good. It looked great. The guys know how to do this.
So up 24-21 in the third quarter during a red-zone drive, you run the same play.
And this is how Kotelnicki says he gained one of his best teaching moments of the week following the Jayhawks’ 52-33 loss to Duke.
KU, on a first-and-10 from the 13-yard line, gets a similar defensive look from Duke. The Jayhawks have their same personnel in the game while trying to run this play in the opposite direction.
Only ... this one gets derailed from the start.
One difference: Wilson blocks the player in front of him instead of finding the linebacker inside. That leads to confusion from teammates behind him, and also leaves Duke’s Shaka Heyward unblocked, as he gets to the backfield to corral Locklin for a 1-yard loss.
“Every snap matters, right?” Kotelnicki said. “You never know when that’s gonna be the difference on a drive or a play or a game.”
This one was part of a costly sequence. KU settled for a field goal that made it 27-21, but quickly lost momentum after that as Duke scored 21 straight third-quarter points.
“Those are great learning opportunities for our whole organization, from the players to the coaches to sit there and make sure that we’re talking about those, coaching and teaching,” Kotelnicki said. “And say, ‘Hey listen. See these are the opportunities that we’re talking about. And those are the differences — right guys? — between kicking a field goal and scoring a touchdown.’”
The second play diverged in another way as well.
Duke’s defensive end crashes up the field, and instead of leaving him unblocked like before, Novitsky decides to shield him off. That keeps him from potentially finding someone else to block in the hole.
It was all part of a play that changed significantly from its first run.
“We talk about just completing our assignment, and we’re just going to keep striving to complete that,” Neal said. “Sometimes if we don’t complete it, then that’s the two different results. You saw one big play another one not, and that’s what we’re going to keep trying to focus on and keep fixing.”
Kotelnicki says he often talks to his team about how mental busts can be the difference between success and failure in a play or game.
“I call them, ‘My Bads.’ I said, ‘We need to eliminate the My Bads,’” Kotelnicki said. “The, ‘I know what I’m supposed to do, but I just had a brain fart or something happened, and I just didn’t quite get that done.’”
Kotelnicki still had plenty of good tape to examine after Saturday’s loss. KU’s 7.4 yards per play was its highest mark since 2019, while the team’s 33 points were a season high.
He still wasn’t about to let a good teaching moment pass ... especially when one play call against Duke produced such different outcomes.
“That’s one of the things we talked about with our guys, and it’s an emphasis. It’s a sign of a team that can still grow,” Kotelnicki said. “I said, ‘You can do it right one time. But good and great teams are able to do it again and again and again.’”
