Quick Reaction: Kansas destroyed by Texas on Senior Day
The Kansas Jayhawks got demolished on Senior Day by the visiting Texas Longhorns, as Jalon Daniels made his return to the lineup and Bijan Robinson had a stellar day.
But even though the score was ugly, there were a few things that really jumped out about this team, especially as we think about next week and the bowl season.
The run defense is still awful
This should come as a surprise to no one, especially those that watched the game. Not only did Bijan Robinson run for 243 yards and 4 scores, but Jonathon Brooks got 108 yards and 2 touchdowns, and the Longhorns totaled 427 yards on the day.
There have been warning signs all year long about how much this team could struggle in the run game, but they had yet to consistently play teams as good at running the ball as in the last few weeks.
I'm not sure what the answer is to fix it. It doesn't seem like there is an easy scheme fix. But when the opponent can win by 41 points while only throwing 21 passes and gaining 112 yards through the air, then you obviously need to figure SOMETHING out.
Quarterback injuries are still a problem
It was pretty clear in this one that the Jayhawks were struggling on offense. Jalon Daniels started in this one, but his throwing motion seemed different and his wasn't nearly as willing to run the ball as we are used to seeing.
Jason Bean was reported as a limited participant in practice this week, and Ethan Vasko is a true freshman with only 8 snaps on the season, so there doesn't really seem to be a good option if Daniels wasn't 100% coming into the game.
Not to mention, there was some expectation that Daniels would be rusty after getting back into the lineup this season. He had more than a half of the Kansas State game last season to get into form before breaking out against Texas, so there is still hope that he can improve over the week to be competitive against the Wildcats next week.
This was still a great season
Don't let this game deter you from enjoying the season so far. Coming into the year, it was pretty evident that this was an extremely backloaded schedule, so if Kansas was going to have ANY sort of success this year, it was going to come early in the season.
No matter how you look at it, this team overperformed expectations coming into the year. The Vegas over/under was 2.5 wins. There was talk about a 4 win season putting Leipold in contention for Big 12 Coach of the Year. I was called crazy for predicting Kansas to go to a bowl game, and even my prediction required them winning some games that I thought were long shots.
So enjoy the fantastic season. Enjoy what you have seen from all of these players. And remember that the vast majority of the skill position players can return next year, and Leipold and staff will have another season to find some fantastic additions through the transfer portal.
And of course, we still have a bowl game to enjoy.
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