Week 2 didn’t go the way the Kansas Jayhawks had hoped for in Champaign, Illinois. And yet, despite committing the most turnovers in a game in the Lance Leipold era (four) and getting one of the worst performances in their quarterback’s career, the Jayhawks still almost won on the road against Illinois on Saturday.
A loss is a loss, however, and now KU needs to regroup ahead of its nonconference finale against the UNLV Rebels. This is a massive game for Kansas, both in terms of improving vibes and also, on a more serious note, keeping College Football Playoff hopes alive.
UNLV was a nuisance in last season’s Guaranteed Rate Bowl but was eventually dispatched in KU’s first postseason win in 15 years. It’s a much different team today than it was in December, and obviously you can say the same about Kansas. Let’s look ahead to Friday night’s matchup and check out what Leipold had to say about the final game at Children’s Mercy Park this season.
LISTENING IN ON LANCE
“It's always interesting when you win and lose games, what happens on your phone, right? Who you hear from, who you don't and what people say. But the ones that did reach out kind of talked about, ‘Don't forget where this program has come from where we were, that people are now storming the field after a win.’"
Someday, hopefully soon, sentiments like this won’t need to be addressed. But after this most recent game and the scene at Memorial Stadium in the aftermath, it’s worth reflecting upon. Leipold went on to say that it’s about consistency for this program and that they need to approach every week the same way. That’s true, just like it’s been since he took over at KU in 2021. If you let the lows (or the highs) get in the way of your process, you’re missing the whole point. The Jayhawks have been very good at avoiding that in the last 3+ seasons.
“I thought we had a very solid defensive performance, but unfortunately still we had some mental errors and things we have to clean up.”
We’re just using the simple beginning to a longer answer here, but it’s important to emphasize the first half of this sentence. It was undoubtedly a strong performance for Kansas. In fact, it was the first time under Leipold and defensive coordinator Brian Borland that the Jayhawks held a Power 4/5 opponent under 300 yards of total offense. That’s impressive no matter how you slice it. The known quantities on this defense have done what you’d expect, and the emergence of contributors like Cornell Wheeler and Dean Miller have elevated the defense substantially through two games.
“I still think they've got some weapons, again solid in the offensive line. You know, in their game they put 70 on somebody, so again they're going to be pretty well-rested even though it's a short week ... I know from last year's game that they felt they had opportunities to beat us, and we felt we had opportunities to put them away."
We’ll get to more on UNLV in a moment, but the latter part of this quote is particularly interesting. Not because it’s especially out of the ordinary, but if you remember the bowl game action you certainly recall that the Rebels gave the Jayhawks all they could handle for a lot of that contest. You know that they’ve got revenge on their mind, even if the stakes are lower this time around.
“I know that guys want to be successful and they want to try to make things happen. I don't feel his body language changing in any way or form. I don't feel that, Jim [Zebrowski] hasn't said that to me in dealing with him. And I don't want to call it rust."
Leipold is speaking about Jalon Daniels here, and went on to say that while there are throws the fifth-year quarterback would like to take back, he still thinks they’ll be fine going forward. Daniels deserves the benefit of the doubt here. Yes, he had a bad game against Illinois, no one will deny that. But given his body of work, it’s an extreme overreaction, in this blogger’s opinion, to suddenly discount him. He hasn’t played much meaningful football in nearly a year, it takes a while to get back to the pinnacle of your abilities. At this stage, the best course of action is still to trust that Leipold knows what he’s doing.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY
When: Friday, Sept. 13 at 6:00 p.m. CT
Where: Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas
Spread: Kansas -7
One of the biggest wins any program experienced all offseason was UNLV retaining offensive coordinator Brennan Marion, meaning the Rebels are still running the Go-Go offense even after he received plenty of attention from other schools . As good as that was for the program, losing its quarterback to the transfer portal was also significant for opposite reasons. Jayden Maiava is now backing up Miller Moss at USC instead of running the show at UNLV, a tough blow to the program after the young passer won the Mountain West Freshman of the Year award in 2023.
Despite losing their starting pivot, the Go-Go offense has claimed another pair of victims in gaudy fashion so far this season. UNLV hammered Houston 27-7 in its season opener, then obliterated FCS Utah Tech last week 72-14. The Rebels enter this weekend with the 29th-best offense in the country per Bill Connelly’s SP+ metric at ESPN.
Kansas does still rank higher than UNLV across the spectrum in SP+, however, coming in double-digit places ahead of the Rebels in offense, defense and special teams. Stats Perform’s TRACR metric currently projects the Jayhawks as 11.8 points better than the Rebels on a neutral field, a larger number than the spread for this KU home game. Speaking of the spread, according to VSiN and DraftKings Sportsbook , 66% of all spread bets for Friday night have been placed on KU, but 58% of the handle has gone to UNLV +7.
JAYHAWK TO WATCH
It feels like cheating to use the quarterback here, but it’s also an easy and obvious choice this week. After struggling mightily against Illinois, eyes will be watching Jalon Daniels even more critically this weekend.
As we discussed above, Daniels still deserves the benefit of the doubt. His resume speaks for itself when he’s been healthy and available. We know that, generally speaking, he will make the right decisions and can make the big plays when counted on. But the intangibles may be the most important traits he needs to display this weekend, resilience chief amongst them. It’s something Leipold talks about constantly, and the ability to flush last week and rebound with a strong performance this Friday will go a long way for Daniels as an individual and for the Jayhawks as a collective.
UNLV’s defense ranks outside the top 90 in the country in SP+. KU has a bevy of playmakers who gave the Rebels fits back in December. There will be plenty of opportunities for Daniels to get back in a groove in Week 3. Now, he just needs to seize the moment.
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