What’s going on with Jalon Daniels? KU football has an unexpected QB problem

The football flopped on the grass for six seconds, an eternity in this sport. It traveled 23 yards, forward and backward, more distance than any Kansas completion covered through the air Friday night.

It connected with four players wearing KU black, maybe five if you zoom in on the replay, some of them even in perfect form to pounce on it.

This is the description of a nine-yard UNLV gain . Really.

But let me back up. Two quarters earlier, UNLV decided it was content to let the first-half clock run out and hit the locker room — only to, what the heck, just toss one last throw to test KU’s best cornerback.

What on earth, you might ask, do those two sequences have in common?

They were two UNLV touchdown drives — the only two — as the Rebels escaped KU’s temporary home , Children’s Mercy Park, with a 23-20 win.

A lot of wild, uh, stuff has happened to the Jayhawks during back-to-back losses to Illinois and UNLV. We could spend a significant amount of time going through it all.

But none of it is KU’s biggest concern.

There’s a far more pressing question in Lawrence — or Kansas City, for the moment — than the literal bounce of a football:

What is wrong with Jalon Daniels?

For the first time in a year, that question is not a reference to the quarterback’s health. It’s his play.

It’s him.

The player most front and center in rescuing this program is in need of a lifeline, and KU’s revamped offense hasn’t been equipped to throw him one.

Sure, he looks like a quarterback who hasn’t played in competitive games in a year. But he looks far more like a quarterback who hasn’t seen 11 defenders on the field in quite some time.

He’s still not seeing them.

Daniels threw two more interceptions Friday — a string of six in nine quarters, at one point — to spark 10 UNLV points, including that end-of-half fiasco. After being confused by coverage three times against Illinois (the difference in that game too), Daniels and his decision-making against UNLV were even more inexplicable.

It wasn’t just the inaccuracy, though there was plenty of that, too.

Daniels would characterize the collection of interceptions this season as different plays, as different situations. While he wouldn’t be wrong, a pretty clear theme has become apparent: He’s just plain not seeing the defense.

His turnovers Friday fit neatly into the chests of defenders, the second just five yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Darn near hit him in stride.

“What’s causing that right now, I’m not exactly positive at the moment,” KU coach Lance Leipold said, “because I think each play, of course, is separate. I don’t know if it’s visual, or if he’s not seeing something on the field in the back side.

“That’s something we need to talk about this weekend.”

This is the most hyped KU football season in nearly two decades because of the clean bill of health this quarterback has. But now a different word comes to mind, and I didn’t even have to come up with it.

Leipold used it.

Fragile.

A 21-year-old who once walked into a winless program as a teenager not yet old enough to vote and told coaches he was their answer now has a confidence problem he doesn’t care to admit. There is no backstory better built for what awaits, in that way.

But Daniels doesn’t need to admit he is shaken. We can see it for ourselves.

After starting 7-of-8 Friday, clearly in a groove, he completed just five of his final 16 passes.

Forget the numbers, though. As the second half wore on, there became just two outcomes for a Jalon Daniels pass:

An overly aggressive blind throw into who-knows-what coverage (or coverage he certainly didn’t see) ... or, and here’s the visible uncertainty, a series of passes that skipped into the grass.

Throws built on hope.

Then throws made without any at all.

Moving forward, the individual response is unpredictable, because the fact that we’re even talking about this was unpredictable. For his part, Daniels spoke of unwavering confidence, even if his lack of eye contact and pep in his voice said otherwise.

But KU can help. The play-calls at Children’s Mercy Park seemed far too intent on solving Daniels’ confidence issues in the moment, the middle of a tight second half, rather than moving on to next week.

There were no better examples of that than a second-and-1 wide receiver screen in the red zone that turned a promising drive into just a field goal.

The Jayhawks do have a dominant running game, which might or might not be news to them. There’s an improved offensive line, and a running back whose trips to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium later this season (KU’s other temporary home during construction at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium ) won’t be his last trips to NFL venues.

Devin Neal ran for 120 more yards Friday. Averaged 5.2 yards per carry.

Stood and watched that wide receiver screen.

But let’s be honest about it: That’s a Band-Aid, even if it’s one KU should’ve removed from the box Friday night.

The stitches will have to come from the source of all that preseason optimism in Lawrence — the optimism healthy enough to invite playoff talk.

From Daniels. He is unexpectedly part of a problem today, but he, too, is its most obvious solution. There is a far different ceiling to KU’s season — to any KU season in recent memory — with him back, front and center.

If he can see it.