When Kansas quarterback Isaiah Marshall makes a mistake in a game, he says, he takes a look at his tablet on the sideline to try to understand what he did wrong and how he can correct it next time.
Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, Marshall had to undergo that particular routine several times on Friday night, as he endured a pair of interceptions and a fumble in the first high-level action of his career, a 38-21 loss to rival Missouri at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
“I think he was really excited for this game … I just felt he wasn’t himself with some of the throws,” head coach Lance Leipold said. “He was uncharacteristically off in some of his throws, behind guys, a little bit all over the place.”
Now he’ll have to bounce back on a grander scale in preparation for KU’s upcoming conference test against Arizona State in London: “I know he’ll learn a lot from this game and he’ll be a lot better from it,” Leipold said.
“I think it starts with me just getting out the huddle faster, making better plays and making better reads, and just keep going,” Marshall said.
In numerous ways, Friday night was an awkward introduction to power-conference football for the Jayhawks’ new starter, a redshirt sophomore from Southfield, Michigan, experiencing the first significant action of his career. It came against a team with a potent, experienced pass rush, which didn’t get to him for sacks until four in rapid succession late in the game, but generally made him clearly uncomfortable.
Perhaps more saliently, that defensive line made KU’s run game a nonfactor, increasing the pressure on Marshall to deliver. Even before that quartet of sacks cost the Jayhawks 32 rushing yards, KU was averaging 3.5 yards per carry. Neither Dylan Edwards nor Yasin Willis was significantly involved for much of the night.
So there was a lot of responsibility on Marshall’s shoulders, and he might not have been in the best position to harness it because, Leipold said, he hit his arm early in the game. Specifically, Marshall said, it was when he was throwing a wheel route on the opening drive.
“It started to hurt just a little bit,” Marshall said. “It kind of got worse throughout the game. But I tried to fight through it. I did fight through it. So just get treatment on it and we’ll be all good.”
He admitted it was still sore afterward, but added, “That’s not no excuse at all because I was still able to throw the ball.”
Indeed, the struggles he endured at times on Friday were mental as well as physical. Having already committed his various turnovers, at one point in the second half, escaping pressure while rolling to his left, he halted his momentum right before reaching the sideline, spun in a circle and lobbed the ball up back toward the middle of the field, an ill-advised decision that somehow resulted in a 16-yard catch by tight end Carson Bruhn. As Leipold put it postgame, “It’s probably a ‘SportsCenter’ highlight of some sort, but at the same time it’s not what we’re really looking for.”
“I’m going to be honest, it was a bad play by me,” Marshall said. “You know, it was great that he caught it, great that we got the first down, but that’s something I can’t do no more.”
To Marshall’s credit, not long afterward he led KU to a scoring drive, culminating in a touchdown to Nahzae Cox, that brought the Jayhawks within a touchdown and gave them a chance midway through the second half.
“Coach (Jim Zebrowski) did great during the game just trying to calm me down, just talk about the game plan, just going over things and seeing what I can do better,” Marshall said. “He also was proud of me and how I bounced back and how we had the long drives and scored … The whole game, he never lost faith in me. He always believed in me.”
Indeed, Leipold also said that KU didn’t consider making a change at quarterback when things got rough.
So now Marshall — who finished 13-for-30 for 168 yards with two touchdowns and two picks — and his teammates alike must move past the adverse early result and on to the rest of their schedule.
“The biggest thing is move on, keep our heads up, and now it’s time to watch film and see what we can do better and just keep going,” Marshall said.
