Morgantown, W.Va. — As Kansas and West Virginia entered the home stretch of a hotly contested Big 12 opener on Saturday, Mother Nature intervened.
With KU leading 21-17 and 10 minutes and 43 seconds remaining in the game, the public-address announcer at Milan Puskar Stadium declared a severe weather delay at 2:46 p.m. Eastern Time, one minute after a visible lightning strike in the vicinity of the stadium.
By 2:53 p.m., stadium officials were projecting a full 90 minutes of lightning, with participants unable to return to the field until 30 minutes after the final strike. The weather delay was actually slightly shorter, as it kept players off the field until 4:29 p.m. before a 15-minute warmup period; in all, the game stopped for 118 minutes. By the time it returned it had also switched networks from ESPN2 to ESPNews and ESPN+.
During the delay, KU and WVU personnel retreated to the locker rooms, while fans evacuated the venue or in some cases sheltered indoors or beneath the stadium’s second deck.
The delay coincided with an interesting moment in the game. Referees had just announced that they planned to review an attempt at a one-handed catch by KU tight end Trevor Kardell on third-and-2 — even though KU had already taken a delay-of-game penalty, after the play was ruled an incompletion, to make it fourth-and-7.
The officials ended up announcing in the opening minutes of the stoppage that the ruling on the field would stand after the game resumed. The fourth-and-7 down and distance was displayed on the stadium’s video board throughout the delay.
That intrigue made little difference because a punt by WVU almost immediately followed KU’s punt and the Jayhawks took over near midfield.
KU previously experienced a 58-minute weather delay in what became a victory over Oklahoma in Lawrence on Oct. 28, 2023. West Virginia had a weather delay in its season-opening loss against Penn State in Morgantown on Aug. 31.
This time around, the delay was foretold by a “threat of severe weather” posted in the stadium about 25 minutes beforehand. And this time, the outcomes were reversed as WVU came out on top following the delay.
The game between Kansas and West Virginia enters a weather delay on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Morgantown, W.Va.
Storms continue at Milan Puskar Stadium around 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Morgantown, W.Va.
Logistics
As expected, KU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes moved up to the box for Saturday’s game, allowing co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski to return to the sideline.
The new arrangement emulated more of what KU had done in previous seasons when Andy Kotelnicki was the coordinator and worked from the box. As Grimes had noted, it allowed quarterback Jalon Daniels to have more direct interaction with his position coach Zebrowski, whom he interacts with most regularly.
Grimes had said all along, even as he initially chose to coach from the field to take advantage of his relationship-building strengths, that he was comfortable working in either place. This is not the first time Grimes has made such a change at midseason, after previously switching back and forth in 2018 and 2019 during his tenure at BYU.
This time the change came following two erratic offensive performances by the Jayhawks against Illinois and UNLV.
After the game ended with a loss for KU, head coach Lance Leipold said he wasn’t sure if it had helped or not.
“It didn’t help in the win-loss column, so that’s probably the biggest one we got to worry about now,” Leipold said. “But I didn’t see anything, and we’ll talk more about that as a staff tomorrow, and with Jalon (Daniels), whatever, on Monday.”
To hear Daniels tell it, having his longtime coach on the sideline provided a boost of energy.
“I’ve always told y’all how interactive he is with the quarterbacks, how much he always brings the juice, always brings the energy,” he said. “Not having him on the sideline for those few games, definitely not going to say we felt juiceless, but you know, you don’t have that Coach Z energy around. Today it definitely felt more happy on the sideline, felt like Coach Z brought the energy, brought the juice.”
Personnel updates
Hawk linebacker Jayson Gilliom missed time for the second week in a row with a leg injury.
As against UNLV, former JUCO transfer and Switzerland native Alex Raich saw increased time as the Hawk linebacker when KU played its base defense.
Running back Daniel Hishaw Jr. returned to the fold after suffering both flu-like symptoms and an unspecified physical malady in the week leading up to the UNLV game. He participated fully in pregame warmups, then caught a swing pass for five yards on his first play of the game. Devin Neal still received the bulk of the carries by far, but Hishaw got heavily involved with a 32-yard run in the second half before scoring a go-ahead touchdown. He finished with nine carries for 72 yards.
Also, Utah transfer Devin Dye got his second straight start at safety. After injuries had slowed him down in fall camp, Leipold said earlier in the week, he earned the right to play and got 44 snaps against UNLV compared to just 13 in the previous two games combined.
“It wasn’t so much somebody else didn’t do something,” Leipold said, “it was he was in a position now to get himself back on the field.”
Significant meeting
Three days following KU’s unexpected loss to UNLV, Grimes met with a group of team leaders.
“I don’t know if Illinois was rock bottom for us,” he said, “and sometimes you got to get all the way to the bottom before you recognize what level of commitment you’re willing to make to get it right.”
Grimes said he meets with several players from time to time, but running back Devin Neal characterized the meeting on Monday as more of an unusual one, also in comparison to previous years.
“New times,” he said. “And I think those types of talks are good, especially with how old we are on offense.”
The result was a discussion that both coaches and players found fruitful, with Neal describing it as “the perfect start” to getting KU back on track.
“That was a great talk for us,” he said. “I think it was well needed not only to talk schematically but to talk about what we need more from our leaders. When you can have those types of talks it shows a lot of growth, it shows a lot of maturity, and really you just lay everything out there.”
KU’s offense showed improvement with 431 total yards on Saturday, but still couldn’t get a key first down on its penultimate drive of the game and had to give the ball back to WVU for its last scoring drive.
This and that
WVU inducted a collection of eight athletes into its Sports Hall of Fame shortly before Saturday’s game, including former Mountaineers quarterback Rasheed Marshall, who currently serves as the Mountaineers’ director of player relations.
WVU also recognized coach John Beilein and its 2005 men’s basketball team, which made a run to the Elite Eight as a No. 7 seed, on the field during the second quarter.
AP Photo/John Raby
Henry Greenstein/Journal-World
Henry Greenstein/Journal-World