DeShawn Hanika called for the ball before the play had even begun.
Kansas’ seventh-year senior tight end found himself uncovered by any Wagner player as the Seahawks’ defense struggled to keep up with the Jayhawks’ high-tempo opening drive on Friday night. Quarterback Jalon Daniels swiftly hit Hanika for the tight end’s first touchdown reception since 2022, and KU was off and rolling against its lower-division foe.
“I tried to snap the ball as fast as possible,” Daniels said, “and he literally didn’t even run a route, he just went into the end zone, I just tossed him the ball.”
Outside of an ugly pre-halftime stretch in which KU allowed a long touchdown on fourth down and then Daniels threw a red-zone interception, Wagner accomplished little on either side of the ball as the Jayhawks improved to 2-0 with a 46-7 victory at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
“I thought we could control the line of scrimmage and we did,” head coach Lance Leipold said. “I thought defensively we played really well, other than the fourth-down play, (which) was probably the one that we’d like to have back, but again to limit them to 48 plays or something like that, 140 yards of offense, I thought was a really outstanding day.”
Daniels continued his polished start to the season with an 18-for-25, 280-yard, four-touchdown showing, marred only by the one pick, in just over two quarters of action. Alabama transfer wide receiver Emmanuel Henderson Jr. led the way with six catches for 130 yards and a pair of scores, while Hishaw added 89 yards and a rushing touchdown.
KU’s reserves accomplished little to stretch the Jayhawks’ lead in the second half, as their first three drives yielded a field goal, punt and red-zone fumble before Harry Stewart III punched in a 1-yard touchdown run with 3:40 remaining.
Wagner’s offense managed just 143 total yards, 45 of which came on a lone touchdown by Jeremiah Colclough.
“I feel like that’s just a stat, you know, you feel me?” middle linebacker Trey Lathan said. “That’s just something that we just went out there and did. We just played our game and that’s just how it happened.”
After Wagner received the opening kickoff, KU forced an immediate three-and-out and benefited from a 20-yard return by freshman Tate Nagy. A 21-yard catch by Henderson got the Jayhawks in position for their opening score, the short touchdown pass from Daniels to Hanika.
“When you go out there and run a lot of tempo and you’re doing a lot of things offensively, it’s kind of hard for a defense to continue to adjust to it,” Daniels said.
Following a series of punts, KU had its third drive temporarily stalled by a holding penalty on Carson Bruhn before his fellow tight end Boden Groen snagged a ball from Daniels and went 27 yards to set up Daniels’ second touchdown pass, this time to Henderson to make it 14-0 late in the first quarter.
Wagner made a bit more progress down the field thanks to a targeting penalty on linebacker Jon Jon Kamara, but had to punt again. The Jayhawks then leaned on Daniel Hishaw Jr. for five consecutive carries, setting up play-action from Daniels to Henderson for 27 yards. Two plays later, Daniels faked a screen pass to the right to Keaton Kubecka and hit Cam Pickett up the seam for a third touchdown. The Jayhawks used a trick play to add a two-point conversion on a direct snap to Bruhn.
Groen had another key catch off misdirection just past the midpoint of the second quarter, this time for 26 yards, and Hishaw followed it up with his first score of the year to extend the Jayhawks’ lead to 29-0.
With less than four minutes to go in the first half, Wagner reached KU’s territory for the first time on a pair of runs by Sekou Kamau. The Seahawks faced a fourth-and-3 on KU’s 45-yard line after a six-yard completion from Jack Stevens to Matt Morad, and Stevens found Colclough wide open before he sprinted up the right sideline for a touchdown.
KU ran a two-minute drill that received a significant boost from a pair of penalties by Wagner, and the Jayhawks made it all the way to the Seahawks’ 9-yard line before Daniels hung a ball up in the end zone that Jayden Brown snagged for a leaping interception.
“First of all, I got to give hats off to him for making a play,” Daniels said. “I got the chance to be able to talk to him afterwards. I thought it was going to be a great pass, and he came off of his (man) that had a hitch, and he made a one-handed interception, and it was hats off to him. That’s definitely a mistake that I can’t afford to make down the line, so that’s something I’m going to be able to continue to correct down the line.”
With the benefit of receiving the second-half kickoff, the Jayhawks needed just two plays to reassert their advantage on an elegant deep shot from Daniels to Henderson that made it 36-7.
KU inserted some backups for its next offensive drive, which stalled in the red zone after consecutive 1-yard runs by Cole Ballard and Johnny Thompson Jr., leading to a short field goal by Laith Marjan. Wagner also replaced its quarterback late in the third quarter.
Ballard connected with Bryson Canty for 28 yards to kick-start a drive that stretched into the final quarter, but after Thompson was held to a rush for no gain on third-and-goal from the 3-yard line, he fumbled while trying to stretch into the end zone for a potential touchdown, resulting in a touchback for Wagner.
When KU got the ball back, redshirt freshman quarterback Isaiah Marshall received his first extended run, completing passes to Mack Moeller and Nagy before keeping the ball for an 18-yard rush. Marshall rolled to his right and hit Nagy for a fourth-down conversion to set up Stewart’s first career touchdown.
“It was surreal, man,” Stewart said. “Real special moment for me.”
KU’s freshman running back Justin Thurman had a 58-yard run wiped out by holding on reserve tight end Quinton Conley.
“I think Justin Thurman got everybody’s attention at the very end that he’s going to be a very good running back someday in this program,” Leipold said.
The Jayhawks will travel to Columbia, Missouri, to face the Missouri Tigers at 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 5. Missouri is 1-0 after beating Central Arkansas 61-6 on Thursday.
Notes and observations
Safety Lyrik Rawls was KU’s rotational fourth captain on Friday, alongside the permanent captains Jalon Daniels, Justice Finkley and Bryce Foster.
With linebackers Jayson Gilliom and Joseph Sipp Jr. already having missed KU’s first game of the season, Bangally Kamara was also absent on Friday after he had a strip-sack against Fresno State. That left KU unexpectedly thin at the position, with Lathan and redshirt freshman Jon Jon Kamara as its top two linebackers and walk-on Ezra Vedral and redshirt sophomore Logan Brantley behind them. Then Jon Jon Kamara got disqualified for targeting late in the first quarter, thrusting Brantley into extended action.
Reigning second-team all-conference defensive end Dean Miller made his season debut after missing the opener due to injury.
Redshirt senior Grayden Addison appeared as KU’s starting punter in place of Finn Lappin. He punted for the first time since the 2022 Liberty Bowl.
Canty made his first catch as a Jayhawk, a 14-yard grab in the second quarter, after playing minimal snaps in his KU debut last week. After arriving in the summer, he missed most of fall camp due to a leg injury.
How they scored
First quarter
11:14 — DeShawn Hanika 4-yard pass from Jalon Daniels. Laith Marjan PAT good. Six plays, 50 yards, 1:45 TOP. KU 7, Wagner 0.
3:12 — Emmanuel Henderson Jr. 9-yard pass from Daniels. Marjan PAT good. Eight plays, 63 yards, 3:32 TOP. KU 14, Wagner 0.
Second quarter
13:06 — Cam Pickett 20-yard pass from Daniels. Conversion good (Carson Bruhn rush). Eight plays, 78 yards, 2:43 TOP. KU 22, Wagner 0.
5:19 — Daniel Hishaw Jr. 20-yard run. Marjan PAT good. Five plays, 68 yards, 2:07 TOP. KU 29, Wagner 0.
1:52 — Jeremiah Colclough 45-yard pass from Jack Stevens. Nicholas Romero PAT good. Eight plays, 75 yards, 3:29 TOP. KU 29, Wagner 7.
Third quarter
14:11 — Henderson 62-yard pass from Daniels. Marjan PAT good. Two plays, 75 yards, 0:49 TOP. KU 36, Wagner 7.
6:50 — Marjan 27-yard field goal good. Ten plays, 60 yards, 4:53 TOP. KU 39, Wagner 7.
Fourth quarter
3:40 — Harry Stewart III 1-yard run. Dane Efird PAT good. Nine plays, 50 yards, 5:56 TOP. KU 46, Wagner 7.
