On a day when the Kansas running game struggled to gain traction, Oct. 31 at TCU, wide receiver Keaton Kubecka emerged as an unlikely leading rusher.
The redshirt junior wideout from Austin, Texas, playing back in his home state, showed off the skills that have made him an occasional return man for the Jayhawks on a series of high-speed jet sweeps, including one 40-yard run that still stands as the longest by any KU player this season.
In all, he has carried the ball six times for 71 yards, when he hadn’t recorded a rush at any point prior in his career.
“It’s cool,” Kubecka said on Tuesday. “It’s definitely a different thing I’m getting to be used at this year, and just something I’m trying to adapt to. And I’m liking it. It’s a fun part of the offense, and they trust me to do it, just making the most out of it.”
He’s made the most of his more typical opportunities, too. UCF sniffed out Kubecka’s lone rush on Saturday as part of KU’s opening drive, but he ended up with five catches for 71 yards, all but 65 of which came in the fourth quarter.
His 30-yard reception from quarterback Isaiah Marshall early on helped the Jayhawks draw within a score, his 25-yarder set up a late field goal and, if not for an even more clutch series of performances later on by the Knights’ pass catchers, his sliding 5-yard reception on a fourth-and-4 slant route deep in KU territory with less than two minutes remaining would have been one of the most important plays of the game.
“Yeah, just something we worked all week,” Kubecka said. “Not the same look that we did all week, but we kind of just both adapted to it, and just hit it. He was confident in it, he was confident in his throw, and we went out there and executed it.”
In all, it’s been a solid return to action for a player who hasn’t always been one of the most highly touted targets in KU’s offense.
When Kubecka first arrived on campus, he played sparingly behind a veteran group of wideouts headlined by Lawrence Arnold, Luke Grimm and Quentin Skinner. He missed his second season due to injury, then each of the last two years has had to find his place among groups of well-regarded transfers — last year Bryson Canty, Emmanuel Henderson Jr., Cam Pickett and Levi Wentz, this year Pickett again with Nahzae Cox and Nik McMillan.
The UCF game was the first time Kubecka has ever led the Jayhawks in receiving.
“He showed up a lot quite a bit in spring and fall this way, got dinged up a little bit, missed a little time but came back,” associate head coach Andy Kotelnicki said. “He’s done a really nice job, had a nice little role for us for sure.”
As Kotelnicki referenced, Kubecka missed a pair of games due to an injury suffered in the road game at Utah: “Unfortunately got some hits to the head, but all back now clear to go and just ready to attack it,” Kubecka said. “Kind of what happened my sophomore year, when it’s taken away, you really realize how much you love the game.”
“Really proud of how he’s responded,” Kotelnicki added. “Very much a gentleman, yes-sir, no-sir kind of guy, asks questions a lot, wants to be a pro, wants to make an impact, and I think when you’re dealing with players, that’s what you want.”
All of KU’s weapons, not just Kubecka, will benefit if the Jayhawks can execute as successfully as they did in the second half against UCF. As Kotelnicki put it on Tuesday, it was “literally the worst half of football followed by maybe the best half of football that we’ve played all year” (hence why all of Kubecka’s production came after the break).
“We just need to get going a little faster,” Kubecka said. “We showed ourselves what we can be, and how good of an offense we can be when we get going, and we just got to play with that confidence.”
One key piece in that change was Kubecka, but a lot of it came down to some of Marshall’s finest play since he became the starting quarterback. In the second half, he went 17-for-21 for 190 yards and ran the ball nine times for 95 yards and a touchdown.
“He’s balling,” Kubecka said. “His confidence is very high now. Just the same when anybody starts in college football. The speed’s definitely different, so once you kind of get comfortable and just realize it’s the same game, just maybe a little faster, then you start playing how you can play, and you can see him grow throughout the season. Now he’s going out there, doing exactly what he can do, and it’s just really fun to watch.”
The Jayhawks will next face West Virginia at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Central time.
— Sports reporter David Rodish contributed to this story.
Kansas receiver Keaton Kubecka charges downfield after a catch during the Jayhawks’ game against Middle Tennessee on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, at David Booth Memorial Stadium in Lawrence.
Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World