Kansas football opened Big 12 Conference play on Saturday with a resounding victory against West Virginia. Here’s how it happened, and what it means.
LAWRENCE — It’s too early to tell how West Virginia’s season is going to unfold.
The early weeks of coach Rich Rodriguez’s return to lead the program have seen their fair share of ups and downs for the Mountaineers. A disappointing loss at Ohio followed a win in the season opener against Robert Morris, and a lopsided loss at Kansas followed a win in a rivalry game against Pittsburgh. With as much of a new-look program as WVU is this fall, West Virginia fans could be in for a roller-coaster rest of a year.
But even if the Mountaineers (2-2, 0-1 in Big 12) finish toward the bottom of the Big 12 Conference, that Kansas football thrashed WVU for a 41-10 victory on Saturday, Sept. 20, in Lawrence is still a statement win for KU (3-1, 1-0). If the Jayhawks are going to be viewed as a contender in the Big 12 this year, especially given they didn’t enter the year widely viewed to be one, they have to dispatch certain teams with ease. And that’s what coach Lance Leipold and company did.
“We still left some things out there, the fourth down, there’s some other things that are not as clean as we’d completely like, but I do like the makeup of this football team,” Leipold said. “I like how they go about it daily. Though we’re never perfect, I like the attitude in which they’ve been extremely coachable. They own up to where we’ve got to get better. And hopefully today is one that we continue for them to have the hunger to keep going, be coached, be pushed, and again get ready for another challenging game next week.”
As Leipold mentioned, even with a commanding win there are still areas to improve upon. Opportunities were missed early on that allowed West Virginia to remain closer to Kansas on the scoreboard than WVU should have been able to, and while KU enjoyed its fair share of explosive plays offensively, the consistency in the passing game didn’t reach the mark quarterback Jalon Daniels and his teammates have shown themselves capable of. And yet, considering that and more the Jayhawks still never trailed on the way to winning by 31 points.
Leshon Williams stepped up at running back for Kansas with Daniel Hishaw Jr. not at 100%, and finished with 19 carries for 129 yards and a touchdown — in addition to a 39-yard receiving touchdown. Wide receiver Emmanuel Henderson Jr. delivered a blow to the Mountaineers to open the second half with his 94-yard kick return for a touchdown. As the fourth quarter progressed, backup quarterback Cole Ballard and more were able to gain valuable experience for KU because their team had already put the game out of reach.
Beating West Virginia like this doesn’t guarantee a win next weekend at home against Cincinnati, or that the Jayhawks are going to challenge the likes of Texas Tech for the Big 12 title this year. There are still a number of difficult games left on the schedule, including a trip in October to Lubbock, Texas. But sustain this momentum and Kansas can start to change some minds.
“I feel like we made a statement,” Williams said. “I feel like a lot of people underestimate us. The main thing for us, I feel like — it’s just going to come down to finishing games. We’re talented. I feel like we’re explosive, as you all have seen today. And once again, I think it’s just going to come down to us finishing games. I feel like we can compete with anybody in the nation.”
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He was the 2022 National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas football score win vs West Virginia in Big 12 Conference play
Category: General Sports
