D.K. McDonald used bye week to self scout, look ahead to Kansas State

Kansas had a bye week to regroup after getting blitzed by Texas Tech 42-17. Defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald said he used the bye week to self scout and prepare for Kansas State. McDonald touched on what he saw from the self scout, the Wildcats’ offense, and the Jayhawks’ multiple fronts.

Self scout gave McDonald a closer look at individual performances

Both Kansas and Kansas State enter Saturday’s game coming off of a bye. Because all the film was already out on the Wildcats, McDonald used the beginning portion of the week to self-reflect on where the Jayhawks can improve. He said there were a lot of self-inflicted wounds from the Texas Tech game.

“Naturally, it’s just, you know, us fixing some of the things that we did during the last game that we played,” McDonald said. “Some of those were self-inflicted wounds that, you know, we need to clean up. We can’t have those. It’s hard enough to win games, but you can’t beat yourself.”

McDonald also narrowed the scope, getting the opportunity to look at individual players’ performances. The Jayhawks’ defensive coordinator mentioned guys up front like D.J. Withers, Kenean Caldwell, and Leroy Harris III, along with Jalen Todd and Taylor Davis in the back end as players who are playing really well.

“I think sometimes when you’re grading a film, you don’t always get to see that as a totality, but I think when you kind of slow it down and look at the whole group, you kind of see like, wow, this guy’s playing pretty well,” McDonald said. “I think that’s the biggest thing that I really like about these open weeks is that you really get to see kind of that whole picture of your team, of your defense and who’s doing what, who’s kind of good at what and where you can tweak some things and different things like that.”

Kansas State running the ball well, Avery Johnson making good decisions

The Wildcats lost three of their first four games, scoring 21 points or less in those losses. They’ve bounced back, scoring 34-plus in their last three. McDonald said Kansas State’s run game has played well, and Avery Johnson isn’t turning it over.

“They’re running the ball really well right now, that quarterback is starting to use his legs a little more than he did to start the year,” McDonald said. “And like I said, he’s throwing a lot of great balls and he doesn’t have a lot of interceptions.”

Johnson is completing a career-high 63% of passes this season. He’s always been known for his dual-threat ability, but he’s developed into a strong decision maker as a passer.

“The decisions he’s making, those are some fast decisions that he’s making with the football,” McDonald said. “He’s getting a lot better at reading the defenses and making quick decisions. And honestly, he’s one of the best dual threat quarterbacks in the nation.”

McDonald said Kansas State’s formula has been staying competitive in games and winning them at the end. This year, however, that’s been a struggle point for the Wildcats, losing by one score in all four of their losses.

Multiple fronts has allowed the defense to attack offenses in different ways

Kansas has switched between three, four, and five-man fronts throughout games. McDonald said each front helps the Jayhawks in a different area of the defense.

“Some of the [five-man] stuff has allowed us to put pressure on guys which is, you know, our sack numbers are pretty good, so that’s kind of helped us there,” McDonald said. “Some of the four man front kind of helps us with some of the run game stuff. The three down stuff just allows you to bring different guys from a lot of different areas which we kind of used in there a little bit.”

McDonald said he thinks they’ve all been pretty successful, but there are still things to work on. He also looked at the fronts for areas of improvement over the bye.

“I think it’s a little bit of all of it that you know, has kind of been good and some things that, over this bye week, we had a chance to self scout and kind of see how we can improve in those areas also which has been good,” McDonald said.