Kansas City, Mo. — After sustaining four one-score losses during its five-game losing streak, the Kansas football team found an innovative solution to its recurring problem: building bigger leads.
KU scored the first three touchdowns of the game on Saturday against Houston and, despite a problematic stretch late in the second quarter, managed to keep the Cougars at bay throughout to earn its first conference win of the season and improve to 2-5 with a 42-14 victory.
“This team’s been pretty fragile for a while because we’ve been so close,” head coach Lance Leipold said, “and for us to have a win and have a win of this margin is definitely something that we’ve been waiting for, and I don’t want to say expecting, but wanting to happen if we could put four quarters together.”
Quarterback Jalon Daniels amassed four total touchdowns, including two on passes to tight end Jared Casey, in a near-perfect showing on par with his best games in 2022 and 2023 (247 passing yards, 58 rushing), and cornerback Cobee Bryant, whose injury status in advance of the game had been in doubt, matched a decades-old school record with three interceptions.
Aided by a 54-yard run in the fourth quarter, running back Devin Neal ran for 108 yards and two scores, putting himself just 73 yards away from breaking KU’s all-time rushing record.
The Jayhawks also had significant success in the trenches, tallying six sacks after struggling to muster a pass rush for most of the year, along with 12 tackles for loss.
“You see what happens when the pass rush happens,” Bryant said. “They kind of get frustrated, quarterbacks just want to lob the ball up.”
The Houston offense mustered occasional explosive plays, particularly after a first-half quarterback switch from Zeon Chriss to Donovan Smith, but squandered multiple chances in KU territory in the second half.
The Jayhawks were methodical and balanced on their first drive. Neal plunged ahead for a 9-yard gain on a key third-and-short outside the red zone, but wasn’t able to get enough on third down from the wildcat formation near the goal line. On fourth-and-1, Daniels managed to cut inside for enough yardage on a speed-option keeper, and he hit Casey for a touchdown moments later to complete a 15-play opening drive.
“Just under a nine-minute drive to open the game, that’s about as good a start as we’ve had in a while,” Leipold said.
Houston got one first down before Bryant broke on a pass by Chriss, grabbed it and returned it past midfield to set up the Jayhawks in enemy territory.
On the first play of the ensuing drive, Quentin Skinner leapt over Houston’s Jeremiah Wilson to snag a 48-yard touchdown from Daniels.
“The Houston defense came out and tried to double-team and triple-team Luke Grimm a few times today, and they were leaving one-on-one opportunities with a lot of my other receivers,” Daniels said. “When I came out for that drop-back, I was looking back to be able to see if Luke Grimm’s going to come open. They ended up double-teaming him, which left a one-on-one with Q-Skin and the DB out there.”
The Cougars faced a third-and-5 on the opening play of the second quarter but handed off to J’Marion Burnette for no gain and had to punt for the first time. KU faced a third down of its own, but Daniels flung a deep ball to Lawrence Arnold, who pulled down an acrobatic catch and managed to get a foot in bounds for 40 yards.
Luke Grimm ran for 37 yards on a reverse immediately afterward, and then Neal scored on a 2-yard touchdown run.
“I feel like it complements our option game very well,” Daniels said of the reverse. “When we looked at it on film on the sideline, we were able to see the whole entire defense flow to the side of where Luke Grimm was, where we were doing the fake to … When you give the ball to Luke Grimm in space, there’s no telling what he’s able to do.”
Houston went to its early-season starter Smith — Chriss suffered a hamstring injury, per the Houston Chronicle — and embarked on its most successful drive of the day. Smith hit Devan Williams on third-and-7 for 12 yards, then Mekhi Mews on second-and-long for 16 more. The Jayhawks left running back Stacy Sneed completely uncovered and allowed a 23-yard touchdown pass to get the Cougars on the board.
KU was undeterred on offense and moved down the field with ease on its next drive. After Lawrence Arnold exited with an injury, Daniels escaped two defenders and rolled to his left to find backup Trevor Wilson for a 29-yard strike. Casey caught a second touchdown two plays later to boost the Jayhawks’ lead back to three scores.
Predictably, though, the Jayhawks’ pre-halftime woes continued. After allowing Smith to scramble for a first down just inside the two-minute timeout, KU gave up a 52-yard catch-and-run to Mekhi Mews for a second Houston touchdown.
The pre-halftime stretch went from bad to worse for the Jayhawks as they had to punt and gave up a big run to Smith on a quarterback draw, but Dean Miller came screaming off the edge to sack Smith and then Bryant got his second interception of the day to end the half with the Jayhawks up 28-14.
Houston got the ball out of halftime and KU offered little resistance. The Jayhawks almost got off the field thanks to a holding penalty on David Ndukwe, but allowed Smith to scramble for a first down on third-and-long. However, UH went to an elaborate reverse flea flicker on which Smith threw into coverage and Bryant got his third pick of the day.
KU had to punt in short order, though. Houston managed to convert a fourth-and-2 on a short pass from Smith to Sneed, but back-to-back sacks by D.J. Withers put UH in such unfavorable position that it had to punt in KU territory.
The Jayhawks used some quarterback runs to gain ground and chew up the clock late in the third quarter. A holding penalty threatened to derail their drive, but Daniels found Trevor Kardell for 32 yards and then took it himself for a touchdown.
Miller then tipped a pass by Smith at the line to yield an interception by linebacker Cornell Wheeler — who had been doubtful to play earlier in the week — but Tabor Allen missed a 47-yard field goal that would have been his career long. That drive served as the primary blemish on the day for the KU offense.
Smith hurled a deep pass to Joseph Manjack IV along the sideline, but a disastrous series of passing plays allowed KU to reclaim possession with a turnover on downs. The first play of the Jayhawks’ drive saw Neal break free for a 54-yard run, and he finished the series off with a 5-yard run.
The Cougars brought in a third quarterback, Ui Ale, for a final drive that made it to KU’s 6-yard line before a fourth-down sack by JB Brown to conclude the threat.
“It’s a pretty excited group in (the locker room) right now, and again, I’ve said this before, this group has stuck together, this staff has stuck together,” Leipold said. “I’m really proud of them, and again they’re enjoying the victory and they should.”
Bryant said it was like “old times,” and Neal called it “a familiar feeling that we got away from.” It’s one KU will try to replicate in even grander fashion as it travels to Manhattan for the Sunflower Showdown next Saturday.
“At the end of the day, too, we understand that we have to flush this game as much as we had to flush all the others too,” Neal said, “because we have an important week ahead of us.”
How they scored
First quarter
5:56 — Jared Casey 2-yard pass from Jalon Daniels. Tabor Allen PAT good. Fifteen plays, 71 yards, 8:59 TOP. KU 7, UH 0.
2:37 — Quentin Skinner 48-yard pass from Daniels. Allen PAT good. One play, 48 yards, 0:09 TOP. KU 14, UH 0.
Second quarter
10:59 — Devin Neal 2-yard run. Allen PAT good. Six plays, 84 yards, 3:19 TOP. KU 21, UH 0.
6:18 — Stacy Sneed 23-yard pass from Donovan Smith. Jack Martin PAT good. Nine plays, 66 yards, 4:34 TOP. KU 21, UH 7.
3:33 — Casey 3-yard pass from Daniels. Allen PAT good. Seven plays, 75 yards, 2:45 TOP. KU 28, UH 7.
1:35 — Mekhi Mews 52-yard pass from Smith. Martin PAT good. Five plays, 75 yards, 1:58 TOP. KU 28, UH 14.
Fourth quarter
14:21 — Daniels 8-yard run. Allen PAT good. Eight plays, 87 yards, 4:56 TOP. KU 35, UH 14.
6:50 — Neal 5-yard run. Allen PAT good. Three plays, 70 yards, 1:36 TOP. KU 42, UH 14.
Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World
