Jayhawks survive overtime shootout with Mountaineers
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The Kansas Jayhawks turned heads with a blowout win to start the 2022 season last week.
One week later, on a rainy night in Morgantown, West Virginia, they grabbed even more attention with a high-scoring, high-stress win in their Big 12 opener, outlasting WVU 55-42 in overtime.
That's the first win for KU in its Big 12 opener since defeating Iowa State on Oct. 10, 2009. This also marks the first time the Jayhawks have started a season 2-0 since 2011. Additionally, Kansas hasn't beaten a conference foe by multiple scores since another win over Iowa State in Nov. 2014.
If those qualifiers weren't painful enough for West Virginia, Saturday's win was also KU's first ever in Morgantown.
The early portion of the game belonged to West Virginia, with the Mountaineers opening up an early 14-0 lead and meeting little resistance from the Kansas defense. KU's offense woke up late in the first quarter and into the second, however, scoring their first touchdown on the back of a Devin Neal run.
It was the first of three scores on the day for Neal, and it propelled a Jayhawks run that seemingly put them in firm control into the fourth quarter. After the hot start by WVU, KU scored 42 of the next 62 points in the high-flying battle.
While the Lawrence-native running back racked up several scores, quarterback Jalon Daniels was doing his fair share of shredding the West Virginia defense. Whether it was on scrambles, triple-option runs or through the air, Daniels played one of the best and most complete games of his career.
The Jayhawks kept their offense humming until late the in game, leading 42-34. Following a punt that gave the Mountaineers the ball with 2:17 to play, West Virginia and quarterback J.T. Daniels marched through the Kansas defense and scored with 35 seconds to go, getting both the necessary touchdown and two-point conversion.
KU knelt the clock out to end regulation, sending the game to overtime. While that brought out an undeniably nervy situation for Kansas (or at least its fans), overtime has been something of a friend to the Jayhawks in spite of the last decade-plus of struggles. Kansas entered Saturday night having won each of its last two overtime bouts.
Thanks in part to a roughing the passer penalty on West Virginia, Kansas was able to score on its overtime possession, with Daniels hitting Quentin Skinner in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.
The defense responded with a massive play of its own to seal the game just a few moments later. On a third down, WVU's Daniels aimed for the left sideline and was picked off by Cobee Bryant, who jumped the throw and took it all the way back for an emphatic exclamation point, finishing off Jayhawks victory.
Jalon Daniels' final line in the win included 18-of-29 passing for 219 yards and three touchdowns, plus a team-high 85 yards on the ground. Neal tallied 59 yards from scrimmage along with his three scores, two of which came via the run and one through the air. KU's leading receiver on Saturday was Luke Grimm, who hauled in six passes for 66 yards.
The nonconference portion of the schedule resumes next Saturday for the Jayhawks, who will go on the road to face the 25th-ranked Houston Cougars. Dana Holgorsen's team lost in overtime on Saturday to Texas Tech.
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