The exact juncture at which Jason Bean found out he was going to start Kansas’ season opener in place of Jalon Daniels may be lost to history.
Head coach Lance Leipold said that “just by the amount of reps he’s had” over the course of the week as Kansas prepared for Missouri State and Daniels contended with a back injury, Bean “pretty much knew that it was leaning that way.” Bean said post-game that he wanted to keep the details of how he learned he was starting between him and Leipold.
Watching the sixth-year senior Friday night, as he completed 22-of-28 passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns, you wouldn’t know the plan for the opener had ever been anything different.
In fact, KU had been optimistic earlier in the week that intended starter Jalon Daniels would overcome his back tightness, a recurring issue for about three weeks prior, and start as expected, after he practiced fully Monday.
Daniels warmed up with the team ahead of Friday’s game, and even took some reps with the first-team offense, though they came after Bean had already done so. Leipold preempted any possible questions about Daniels’ status after the 48-17 Kansas win by saying, “Jalon is feeling better. But it wasn’t enough practice reps to feel comfortable, (so) we made the decision to go with Jason. And we’ll see how we go from there, OK?”
“Comfortable” sums up Leipold’s and the Jayhawks’ overall sentiments about Bean.
“He’s very reliable, we depend on him a lot, him and JD,” wide receiver Lawrence Arnold said postgame. “Whenever they’re in the game, we know a play gonna be made. Either (they’re) getting the ball to us or they’re doing it with their feet.”
Bean played his 40th career collegiate game Friday night, but his 39th — the 2022 Liberty Bowl, in which he became inextricably linked with a game-losing failed two-point conversion — could easily have been his last at KU, following a season in which he admirably replaced an injured Daniels. Leipold said he was “very, very, very” grateful to have him back for a final year of eligibility.
“How many times have I talked about Jason Bean’s improvement?” Leipold said. “I have, haven’t I? Sometimes you get those things that you just say — he continues to get better, he’s done everything we’ve asked, and watching him mature and be more confident, you saw that.”
Bean had his misfires Friday, even with the high completion percentage. He threw an awkward pass to a blanketed Jared Casey late in the first quarter that he was lucky to have knocked down, then overthrew Casey in the end zone in the third. Even his 52-yard no-huddle deep ball to Arnold in the second quarter, a shot in the arm for the KU offense as the Jayhawks trailed 10-7, was rather errant.
“I honestly felt like I overthrew him,” Bean said, “and then I was a little surprised that he was just sitting there waiting on the ball.”
However, he also delivered sharply and with pinpoint accuracy on a few key third-down throws, like a third-and-13 dart to tight end Mason Fairchild early in the second half, and Bean, who has always been a runner and one of the team’s top athletes, impressed Leipold with his instincts on the ground.
“Even on his runs tonight, the few that he had, he really turned the corner and planted his foot, he didn’t look to go out of bounds,” Leipold said. “All those things that we challenged him to be better, and he has. Really happy for him.”
But while certain finer points of Bean’s game may have been new and different, Arnold said that Bean’s ability to swap in for Daniels without a drop-off was not.
“He knows all the plays, he knows everything JD knows,” Arnold said, “so just seeing him come in be able to throw the ball and get in and out the pocket, being able to move, control the offense, it was something that he’s not new to.”
Friday’s unexpected start — though who can know just how unexpected it was — is another data point for Bean, who has gathered many since he arrived at North Texas in 2018.
“I’ve been through a lot here, even just in college football,” he said. “I’ve played a lot of snaps, and I’m just trying to utilize those snaps, lessons that I’ve learned in the past, and just trying to make myself that much better.”
Mike Gunnoe/Journal-World photo
