Quick Reactions from Kansas' 37-16 win over Oklahoma State
The Kansas Jayhawks are bowl eligible for the first time in over a decade thanks to a dominating win over an injury-riddled Oklahoma State Cowboys team on Saturday.
We will have a TON of coverage throughout the week. Make sure to check out the full recap, but here are some quick thoughts from watching this team pick up this huge win.
Cobee Bryant is the soul of the defense
He may not always be the best player, and he is by far not the ONLY great player, but I think Bryant has the biggest impact on the demeanor of the defense. You could tell by the way they played up in the Oklahoma game after he left injured that they have a lot of respect for what he brings to the squad. And while the defense had its moments in the last few couple games, they didn't quite have the same fire we had seen earlier in the season.
But when Bryant was announced as one of the starters for this game, you could feel the energy that shot through the crowd. And Bryant made the first huge play for the defense, intercepting a Garrett Rangel pass to end a long first drive and set the tone for the rest of the game.
Oklahoma State made a conscious effort to avoid him during the next drive, and it ended with another interception to Ra'Mello Dotson on the other side of the field. Lonnie Phelps, Rich Miller, Craig Young, Kenny Logan, and many others might make just as many big plays, but most of the big runs by the Kansas defense include a huge play from Bryant.
The crowd was electric
I was a bit worried as we were nearing kickoff, as the stadium was barely half-full with a large contingent of orange in the stands. But the crowd filtered in shortly after kickoff, and got louder as the game went on.
The crowd made their presence known often throughout the game, with big reactions every time something happened that they could voice their opinion on. And it clearly had an effect late in the game, when the referee had to come on the mic twice to inform the crowd that they had deemed the quarterback outside the tackles when he threw the ball away.
And of course the celebration at the end of the game was reminiscent of the last time that Kansas was this good and had this kind of support.
Devin Neal is THAT GUY.
In one of the best performances of the season by a Big 12 player, Devin Neal exploded for 334 total yards. And the most impressive part of it was the variety of ways that he got those yards. He had huge runs where he just outran guys to the corner. He had elusive moves where he made guys miss (including one play with at least 5 spins). He had plays where he just ran over a guy or two on his way to a big gain.
And it wasn't just the rushing game. He converted two quick shovel passes into huge gains for the Jayhawks, adding another wrinkle to the game plan that was difficult for the Cowboys to handle. And ultimately his success opened up possibilities for lots of different players, including huge running lanes for Jason Bean and pulling defenders away from helping on guys like Luke Grimm. If he can be this much of a weapon for Kansas moving forward, it's going to be a great end of the season.
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