It’s only Week 3 of the college football season, and the Kansas Jayhawks are at a turning point. That’s what happens when a team has high expectations after having no expectations for as long as college football has been played at the University of Kansas.
After a stunning 23-17 loss at Illinois, Kansas will need to dig deep and figure things out quickly before things snowball out of control.
What’s Up with Jalon Daniels?
It starts with Jalon Daniels. Yes, there was a lot of hype surrounding the return of Daniels this season. When healthy, he’s proven to be an electric playmaker. He helped get Kansas off to a 6-0 start a couple of years ago. Many people thought if he could get back to that version of himself, the Jayhawks would be in a great spot. That can still be the case, but Daniels needs to get back into the game mentally.
Over the first few games, Daniels has turned the ball over too much. In Week 1 against Lindenwood, he stared his receiver down and threw an interception right to the opponent. It was a bad play for Daniels, but in Week 2, things got worse as he faced a better defense. Daniels threw three interceptions against the Illini, including a back-breaking pick-six that occurred on a third and long screen pass with less than a minute left in the first half. Instead of taking a 10-6 lead into halftime, the Jayhawks were behind 13-10.
Unfortunately for KU, the vibes were never the same after that.
Grimey Play-Calling
The play calling has been put under a microscope as well. New offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes has been called out for the game plan against Illinois. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but some of the calls were very curious, including the aforementioned screen play call that ended up hurting the Jayhawks just before halftime. There was also some concern seeing running backs Devin Neal and Daniel Hishaw dominating on the ground, but not sticking with them at times.
Neal finished the game with 14 carries for 101 yards, averaging 7.2 yards per carry, while Hishaw only saw seven carries but added 39 yards for an average of 5.6 yards per carry.
When the running game is working so well, why go away from it? Grimes needs to figure things out quickly with another non-conference opponent coming up on a short week.
A Dangerous UNLV Team on Deck
The Jayhawks will host UNLV on Friday night at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas. It’s the temporary home for Kansas home games against non-conference opponents. This is a rematch of last season’s Guaranteed Rate Bowl. Kansas won that game 49-36 behind an incredible, record-breaking effort from quarterback Jason Bean. Are we going to see another offensive explosion this weekend? It’s quite possible.
UNLV and Kansas have most of their offense back this season and it feels like any defensive stops may be a rare occurrence. UNLV has looked very good early this season, even beating Big 12 opponent Houston 27-7. Then you look at what Houston did last week in nearly pulling off an upset over Oklahoma, and this should put KU on notice this week. The Jayhawks need to be prepared. They can not make simple mistakes, turn the ball over like they have been doing, or have a less-than-desirable play-calling situation. This team needs to be on point and can not have another slip up like last week before conference play begins. A loss to UNLV would put the season in jeopardy.
It’s All Still Ahead of Them, but the Time is now.
There’s still a high ceiling for this Kansas Jayhawk team. Head coach Lance Leipold will get things right with this group. Beating a good UNLV team would be a nice way to get back on track. The Jayhawks should still have legit hopes to make a run for the Big 12 championship. In a year that seems wide open in the conference, it’s now or never for Kansas. Go get a win in front of the home crowd on Friday night and turn the ship in the right direction before jumping into conference play next weekend.
It’s early in the season, but this is a turning point for the Jayhawks.
