Kansas head coach Lance Leipold frequently takes care to emphasize that his team does not change its approach based on results. At a certain point, the result of a game, good or bad, can’t affect the next one.
“Things that you do don’t change based on wins and losses,” he said on Monday. “To me, that’s knee-jerk reactions to how you’re going to go about it.”
The Jayhawks have approached the week leading up to Saturday’s matchup against Houston with an even greater degree of separation from what came before. With the benefit of a bye week (their first of two) at the season’s halfway point after an extremely disappointing start, they are treating their remaining six games as “a whole new season,” as quarterback Jalon Daniels said Leipold put it.
The open date arrived at a convenient juncture for the Jayhawks, many of whom reaped the benefits of the additional rest.
“It was very much needed and I think going into that Sunday practice we had, we felt really good,” running back Devin Neal said. “We had a lot of energy and (we could) kind of see guys kind of flipping the page and focusing on the next one.”
That said, wide receiver Luke Grimm said the Jayhawks would probably have liked to have played last weekend, just to rid themselves of their losing streak.
“We’re just pissed off that we put ourselves in this position,” he said. “… This isn’t who we believe we are, but this is what we’re showing (as) who we are.”
They have an opportunity to leverage that frustration on Saturday against Houston. In the earliest stages of the year the Cougars looked like one of the worst teams in the Big 12, as they didn’t score against their first two conference opponents.
Against TCU on Oct. 4, though, Houston turned to new quarterback Zeon Chriss, who threw for 141 yards and ran for 97 as the Cougars limited a Horned Frogs offense that had just given KU a lot of trouble. UH took a 30-19 victory and entered its own bye week with the sort of momentum that has eluded the Jayhawks all year.
Chriss is Houston’s starter going forward, meaning the Jayhawks will have to figure out how to contain quarterback runs after failing to do so all season — while they still continue to deal with significant injuries at linebacker and in the secondary.
“Not so much of an elusive tackle-breaker kind of like some other guys we’ve had, but he’s long and he’s linear and a little bit hard to tackle sometimes just because (of) some of the length,” defensive coordinator Brian Borland said of Chriss. “He kind of runs through some tackles and stiff-arms and keeps guys away.”
UH has put together, in head coach Willie Fritz’s first year, a stingy defense that allows some of the lowest yardage totals in the country. KU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes noted the defensive line’s ability to “hold a gap and really make it challenging for you to get up to the second level.”
“I feel like they have a lot of trust in their defense in being able to make plays in one-on-one opportunities,” Daniels said.
Daniels has looked more like himself in recent weeks, particularly at Arizona State, but continues to emphasize he won’t have done his job until the Jayhawks win.
Kansas Jayhawks (1-5, 0-3 Big 12) vs. Houston Cougars (2-4, 1-2 Big 12)
• GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri, 2:30 p.m.
• Broadcast: ESPN+
• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9)
• Betting line: KU -5.5; over/under 47.5
• Series history: KU leads 4-0
What to watch for
1. Working overtime: Daniels and particularly wide receiver Quentin Skinner (six catches, 130 yards, two touchdowns) had breakthrough performances at ASU that provide some confidence they’ll get going in the second half of the season. Grimes, who has spoken frequently about how Daniels is playing some amount of catch-up after missing a lot of the offseason, praised their willingness to undertake extra work outside of practice. Daniels said, “I feel like every single game we’ve been able to slowly but surely be able to keep on gaining that connection back.”
2. Man in the middle: With defensive leader Cornell Wheeler doubtful for Saturday’s game, Taiwan Berryhill Jr. will likely continue in his role as the middle linebacker and primary communicator on defense. Berryhill has been a popular target for fan criticism as he’s accumulated extremely low Pro Football Focus grades, but Borland said on Wednesday, “I have no negative things to say about Taiwan Berryhill,” and fellow linebacker JB Brown praised the way in which he’s stepped up and become more vocal.
3. Seeing red: Grimes noted on Wednesday that KU has generally had success in the red zone but on two recent occasions has been unable to score touchdowns when it started with first downs deep in opposing teams’ territory. In both cases, against TCU and ASU, the Jayhawks earned a goal-to-go situation and settled for a field goal that made the score 17-14; of course, they ended up losing both games, and in the case of ASU the loss was by just four points.
Spotlight on…
Taylor Davis: The inexperienced redshirt freshman safety played 37 defensive snaps at ASU as a result of various injuries to the Dye brothers and to Mason Ellis over the course of the season. With Leipold suggesting that the bye week didn’t do as much for the Jayhawks’ health as he hoped, and Borland stating that Davis and fellow freshman contributor Jalen Todd are “really working and they’re practicing really well,” it certainly seems like the Missouri City, Texas, native is in for another big workload against his hometown school. As Neal put it, “He’s one of those guys you can just see grow each and every day.”
Inside the numbers
100: Tabor Allen’s percentage success rate on field goals through the first half of the season, obviously an improvement over what KU got each of the last two years in a similar period.
88.1: Houston lineman Carlos Allen’s run defense grade on Pro Football Focus, which is best among Big 12 interior defenders and one of the top marks in the country.
8: The total number of passes defended (five breakups, three picks) by A.J. Haulcy, a Houston defensive back who was the Big 12 defensive player of the week after the Cougars beat TCU.
Prediction
KU wins 23-16. It could be ugly, as every game Houston has been involved in has been this year, but the Jayhawks have enough weapons to emerge from this one with their long-awaited second victory of the season.
AP Photo/Darryl Webb
