Kansas City, Kan. — Even when the Kansas offense struggled on rare occasions in 2022 or 2023, no one could ever accuse the Jayhawks of being one-dimensional.
That’s precisely what they became for two drives in the third quarter of Friday night’s loss.
KU quarterback Jalon Daniels had just thrown his second interception of the game, and sixth in just over eight quarters of action, when he didn’t see UNLV linebacker Jackson Woodard on a short throw underneath. The Jayhawks’ defense somehow held the Rebels to a field goal on a drive that had started with first-and-goal at the 4-yard line, and so they were nursing a one-point lead. Just one strong series could have reasserted their grip on the game.
Instead, both series featured short first-down runs that went nowhere, short second-down passes that either went nowhere or fell incomplete, and then short third-and-long runs, with KU apparently resigned to the prospect of punting. The crowd at Children’s Mercy Park even booed at times.
Poor field position and penalties didn’t help on either drive, but whether the reluctance was coming from the quarterback or the coaching staff, they were unwilling to throw the ball downfield. As head coach Lance Leipold put it, they “became a little predictable there.”
“We tried to give the ball to our playmakers in space,” Daniels said postgame. “At the end of the day, that’s what we’re always going to try to do. No matter what the play call is, it’s the best play call that can be called in that situation. I’ve felt that way since 2021 when coach Leipold and them first got here, and I’m going to keep on going about it that way.”
Eventually, offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes let Daniels loose on the next drive, and after he scrambled out of the pocket in his own end zone and found backup running back Sevion Morrison for 18 yards on a drive that led to a field goal, it looked like he might have gotten his rhythm back.
But then the next time he touched the ball, he failed to complete a pass in a two-minute drill and got sacked on KU’s final play for the second straight week, resulting in the second straight loss.
Not since Leipold arrived has Daniels had a stretch like this.
In 2022 he was good enough, even after a shoulder injury, to spark hope for the future of the long-dormant program. Then even in sparse action last year due to a back injury, he looked like the dynamic improviser with the golden arm he had been throughout that 2022 campaign, like the Big 12 preseason player of the year.
Since coming back from his injury, though, he hasn’t been himself. And Leipold said that “it’s become a fragile situation that his confidence is in” as a result of the interceptions. Prior to Woodard’s pick, Jalen Catalon had changed the flow of the game by picking off Daniels as he went up the seam looking to score before the half, so instead of going up 20-6 or 24-6, KU allowed a touchdown and entered the break up just 17-13.
“I’m sure the first interception, he didn’t see the guy, and what’s causing that right now, I’m not exactly positive at this moment, because I think each play, of course, is separate,” Leipold said. “I don’t know if it’s visual or if he’s not seeing something on the field on the back side. That’s something we need to talk about this weekend.
“But with that, obviously, I thought some of his throws were low most of the day, then, after that. I think he’s trying to protect. You know, he’s playing hard … but he’s not playing (like) the Jalon that we know. But put this on me, I’m not going to put it on the kids right now.”
Indeed, Leipold repeatedly emphasized that the blame should go to the head coach.
“There’s times that you see him making throws that have been every bit as good if not better than he’s ever made before,” Leipold said. “And then there’s times where it’s not, but it’s just — everybody can do better. Everybody, like I said, and it starts with the head coach. I need to do better, our staff needs to do better, and we will find a way.”
Daniels, for his part, said the right things postgame about how he can’t let one play affect the next, and how quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski tells him, “Make your next play the best play.” When asked if he believed he could take the team down and score in the ill-fated two-minute drill, he said, “I’m always going to have 100% confidence in the guys no matter what situation we’re in.”
Even Leipold acknowledged, though, that by the time that final drive came around, the momentum had shifted against KU due to its second-half offensive issues and so the overall vibe entering that series wasn’t “exactly where it’s been before.”
Think about any big drive the Jayhawks have pulled off in the Leipold era, when Daniels has been healthy, and there’s a good chance his unshakeable confidence has been at the core of that success. There’s an oft-reposted video of Daniels nodding calmly on the KU sideline in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 2022, as the hostile crowd chants the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” after the Mountaineers tied the game at 42 with half a minute left. Daniels, of course, led KU to an overtime victory soon afterward that helped put the Jayhawks on the national stage.
Will they have that same Daniels when they return to Morgantown next Saturday?
“It doesn’t matter what negative happens, it doesn’t matter what positive happens, I’m going to come in with the same smile every single day, because that’s just who I am,” Daniels said on Friday.
The question is whether that attitude and demeanor will start to match his on-field play style and results again.
Leipold said Grimes, Zebrowski and Daniels need to work to “find some ways to get some throws again, and some things that are back in his wheelhouse of comfort.”
“The good thing is he’s such a competitive guy, I’m not worried about his work ethic or his film study or where it’s going to go from here,” Leipold said. “We just got to find that groove again.”
Kansas head coach Lance Leipold watches as the Jayhawks are forced to punt during the third quarter on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024 at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.
Nick Krug