Kansas head coach Lance Leipold continues to stand by what he’s been saying throughout his tenure: “To make games rivalries, you got to make them close and competitive.”
The Jayhawks suffered a mistake-laden loss to rival Kansas State by four points last year after failing to score for the final 28 minutes. To hear Leipold’s K-State counterpart Chris Klieman tell it, “It’s turning into a great rivalry. The last few years have been really competitive games and we’ve found a way.”
KU, the fact remains, has not yet found a way.
“It’s definitely rough thinking back on that game (last year),” defensive tackle D.J. Withers said. “We were so close, but this year we got to get over that hump. It’s mandatory.”
Not since Jake Sharp and company engineered a 52-21 blowout in Lawrence in 2008 have the Jayhawks won a Sunflower Showdown. This matchup every year has effects beyond the playing field, such as in local recruiting — where the Wildcats continue to excel with 55 Kansans on their roster — and Leipold acknowledged that KU has to “find a way to get more of these, in this game, on our side of the ledger.”
As difficult as it’s been for the Jayhawks to do so in the past decade and a half — and as close as they got last year with a freshman quarterback making his first career start and a backup wide receiver running the option — this year will be no easier. It’s a 7 p.m. game in Manhattan on Saturday and K-State looks as formidable as ever. So far, a 38-9 loss at BYU has proven a blip on the radar for the 6-1 Wildcats, whose rushing defense is extremely stingy and whose rushing offense is second-best in the conference, thanks to the trio of mobile quarterback Avery Johnson and running backs DJ Giddens and Dylan Edwards.
“Giddens is a big back who’s nothing but improved each and every year in his career,” Leipold said. “He’s got very good vision, powerful runner, deceptive speed. And Dylan Edwards is a great addition for them. Everyone knows what an excellent athlete he was coming out of high school. He showed some of that last year at Colorado. He’s explosive in the return game, they can use him in different ways, get the ball in his hands.”
The Wildcats may not be as strong in the trenches on offense after losing the veteran starters who paved the way for Giddens last season, but they’re still solid.
“These guys don’t have quite all that past experience,” defensive coordinator Brian Borland said, “but you can tell they’re well coached and they function well together … I don’t know that that’s a weakness for them by any stretch.”
On the other side of the ball, defensive end Brendan Mott leads the league with seven sacks. KU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes praised Mott’s inside pass-rush move and recalled the difficulty protecting against him when Grimes was at Baylor.
“You look at your tackle, and you’re like, ‘Look, I told you all week this is going to happen,'” Grimes said. “But sometimes things happen in a game and it’s faster than what you anticipated or what it felt like maybe when a scout-team guy gave you that look.”
Grimes is doing all he can to prepare for the K-State defense, which has vexed opposing rushing offenses in particular this year, even if it hasn’t been particularly good against the pass.
“I’ve played against them the last three years, and they’re tough,” he said. “They play extremely hard, as hard as any group that I’ve played against. Their effort and their toughness is exceptional, 10 out of 10.”
He said he’s watched games featuring KU, his Baylor teams and others facing K-State.
“I’ve looked at as much film as I can without just completely not sleeping for the last 48 hours — and I’ve been close,” Grimes said on Wednesday.
Kansas State Wildcats (6-1, 3-1 Big 12) vs. Kansas Jayhawks (2-5, 1-3 Big 12)
• Bill Snyder Family Stadium, Manhattan, 7 p.m.
• Broadcast: ESPN2
• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9)
• Betting line: K-State -9.5; over/under 55.5
• Series history: KU leads 65-51-5
What to watch for
1. Jalon’s rhythm: Part of the reason KU had to dig itself out of a hole to begin with this season was a series of ill-timed interceptions by quarterback Jalon Daniels. The Jayhawks’ first three games saw him throw more picks than he had in his previous 12. Those issues seem to have become a thing of the past, as Daniels — and in fact KU as a whole — has turned the ball over just once in the last three weeks, on a meaningless pick as the Jayhawks trailed by two scores with under a minute remaining against TCU. Leipold said Daniels has become more comfortable since and that they “probably thought he was further along in knocking off the rust than he probably truly was,” in 11-on-11 practice action at the start of the year.
2. Will Avery run?: Johnson did not attempt a single rush in the Wildcats’ victory over West Virginia, the first time in his career he went a whole game without one and certainly a departure for a player with 602 yards and 10 rushing scores in his previous 14 games. Johnson was coming off an injury suffered at Colorado, but Klieman said that it was not a factor; rather, KSU aired the ball out after WVU prevented it from establishing Giddens in its usual way. KU, for its part, has been very vulnerable to quarterback runs, designed or otherwise, over the last two seasons. Johnson is among the biggest rushing threats of any quarterback it’s faced during that period.
3. Negative energy: Of all the road environments in the Big 12, Bill Snyder Family Stadium is almost certainly the most hostile to the Jayhawks. KU has faced big crowds at Illinois, West Virginia and Arizona State this year, but a Sunflower Showdown rivalry game will bring a new level of intensity, particularly given that KSU will have gone four weeks without a home game by Saturday.
Spotlight on…
Devin Neal: The spotlight is always on Neal to some extent as a Lawrence native, and he’s been KU’s most consistent overall player during an underwhelming season, as well as what Grimes called “one of the real stabilizing factors on our team.” But the senior running back acknowledged after KU beat Houston that the Sunflower Showdown could be shaping up like “the perfect story.” Neal is now just 73 yards away from fulfilling a longtime dream of becoming the Jayhawks’ all-time leading rusher, a mark currently held by June Henley, and is also within striking distance of various other rushing and scoring records held by the likes of Henley and Tony Sands. He is averaging 99 rushing yards per game this year. Of course he’ll have to work hard to get there versus the top rushing defense in the Big 12, and even if he does, if the Wildcats win it could spoil the moment somewhat.
Inside the numbers
222.13: Daniels’ best-in-the-country passing efficiency in the game against Houston.
135: K-State’s total number of non-offensive touchdowns since 1999, which is highest in the nation, including four this year after an interception return by Marques Sigle against WVU.
.500: KU’s win percentage in games against K-State played in Manhattan; the series is tied 28-28-3.
Prediction
K-State wins 42-28. The Jayhawks’ offense with Daniels is now functioning well enough to present problems for the inconsistent KSU pass defense, and they’ve been able to scheme up ways to run the ball quite consistently, so they should be able to gain some ground even against the Wildcats.
KU’s defense, meanwhile, will likely have to try to slow down the run game — which it is fairly well equipped to do, particularly with Cornell Wheeler back — and force Johnson to throw the ball downfield. The problem is that even if KU succeeds in doing that, Johnson is coming off arguably the best aerial game of his career and the Jayhawks are thin in the secondary. It should be close throughout, but especially with the game on the road, this doesn’t feel like the year the Jayhawks will break the streak.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
