LONDON — Kansas quarterback Isaiah Marshall said there was a point in Saturday’s loss to Arizona State, as the Jayhawks were attempting to rally, that he didn’t even realize KU was lacking some of its top talent on the offensive side of the ball.
“I just was out there playing because I trusted my teammates,” Marshall said.
That shows a high level of focus on the redshirt sophomore’s part, because by the time the game drew to a close the Jayhawks had been forced to cross players off the list at essentially every skill position.
“I feel like it’s still next man up,” he said. “It sucks to lose those guys, but you know, I feel like the guys that stepped in played great.”
With KU already missing its backup quarterback Cole Ballard due to a shoulder injury, the Jayhawks lost their co-headliner at running back, Yasin Willis, midway through the contest: “I just know he’s out for the day and I don’t know how long he’s going to be out,” head coach Lance Leipold said afterward.
That’s at a position where they have already been missing promising freshman Kory Amachree for extended time after a late-camp injury and where Colorado State transfer Jalen Dupree got hurt in practice earlier in the week. Dupree was never listed as worse than probable on KU’s availability reports, but apparently his only appearance on Saturday was as a secondary kick returner.
The result was that walk-on reserve Micah Johnson played nine snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, including a fourth-down carry in the third quarter on which he was stuffed for a turnover on downs. Dylan Edwards acquitted himself admirably with 18 carries for 89 yards — although a fumble marred his performance — which was a workload that matched the second-most carries of his career across stints at Colorado, Kansas State and KU.
“Unfortunately he’s a pretty down guy because of the fumble, but I thought Dylan competed extremely well and had his best day for us so far,” Leipold said. “… You can see he’s got a chance to be pretty electric at times. We were able to try to do that.”
Beyond Edwards, Leipold deadpanned that he could “look at the waiver wire” to deal with the issue, but his concern about the position group was quite serious.
“We’re down guys there right now,” he said. “Can’t do much about it. You have to be creative and see where it takes us, but yeah, I would be misleading you if I didn’t say it was a concern right now.”
Elsewhere, at wide receiver KU didn’t play Cam Pickett, who was a game-time decision due to an ongoing injury and has garnered just six offensive snaps so far this year after tying for the team lead in catches in 2025. That was part of the reason Bryson Hayes played the most meaningful action of his young career.
At tight end, the Jayhawks were already down starter Carson Bruhn; Leipold said they lost third-stringer Carter Moses, an Albany transfer, during the loss to ASU. (He at one point had to make a touchdown-saving tackle on a fumble return.) Second-stringer Jailen Butler’s 71 snaps, per PFF, were his most since Oct. 29, 2023, for Old Dominion against James Madison.
All that is to say that KU’s depth, a popular offseason topic of conversation as Leipold frequently emphasized that the gap between his starters and reserves was narrower than ever, is getting tested quite early.
“We’re a little banged up right now and hopefully we can get healthy with this open week,” he said.
Indeed, the layoff between Saturday and KU’s next game, Oct. 3 against Middle Tennessee at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, might give the Jayhawks time to heal up — even if it won’t necessarily be clear to the public just how much they do so because they won’t have to publish availability reports for a nonconference game.
The next challenge will be maintaining whatever health they are able to muster through the nine consecutive games that follow.
