Jayhawks not concerned one bit about Dylan Edwards' workload

Kansas football coach Lance Leipold believes that the Jayhawks’ offense might have reached a bit of a turning point during last weekend’s home win over Baylor. 

And at the center of it was veteran running back Dylan Edwards.

Edwards, the Derby, Kan., native who was one of the top players in the state coming out of high school before stops or pseudo-stops at Kansas State, Colorado and Notre Dame, recorded a career-best 30 carries during the Jayhawks’ 25-24 Homecoming win. 

He turned those touches into 156 yards, for an average of 5.2 yards per carry, had a highlight-reel touchdown called back because of penalty and also caught three passes for an additional 15 yards. 

“I thought he, by far, had his best all-around game as a Jayhawk,” Leipold said of Edwards, who topped his previous best carries mark in a single game by 10 totes. 

Added KU Offensive Coordinator Andy Kotelnicki: “He touched the ball a lot and he was productive. He had a pretty quiet (5 yards per carry), but I’m really pleased. He came in on Sunday, he was a little sore, but he bounced around and he was like, ‘I’m ready to go,’ and he had a really good practice (on Tuesday).” 

To put that total number of carries against Baylor in a little better perspective, it’s worth noting that in 35 career college football games to date, Edwards tallied fewer than 10 carries in an entire game 28 separate times. 

So, yeah, him getting that kind of workload at this point in the season — with the Jayhawks at 3-4 overall with 5 games still to play — is definitely worthy of attention. Especially for a team that has a mid-season addition (Chase Belcher) and former defensive back (Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman) listed as the next two running backs behind Edwards on the team’s most recent depth chart, which was released Monday. 

But don’t expect Leipold or Kotelnicki to spend too much time worrying about how much is too much for Edwards to touch the ball or whether they should try to preserve him a little.

“You know, right now whatever we’ve gotta do to win a football game is going to be the game plan,” Leipold said on Monday. “Whatever we gotta do, whoever’s out there, how long they’re out there, whatever needs to get done will be first and foremost. … I guess that’s probably common sense. It’s not a point of, ‘Hey we gotta watch the load right now.’” 

If that were the case, they might’ve communicated to Edwards that he should try to protect himself a little when he’s out there. It did not appear that they did that. And his coaches loved it. 

“I really liked the way he ran with physicality,” Leipold said this week. “He went into contact and drove his feet after contact.” 

Perhaps more important than that was the fact that Saturday’s win featured Edwards reminding people just how capable he is of bringing a little more to the KU offense. And not just in the way of handling a whole bunch of carries. 

Known throughout his playing career as an electric and elusive back, Edwards displayed a little of that game-breaking ability against the Bears, even if the biggest example of it didn’t stand. 

“Even the touchdown that was called back, that was a play that I think we were all kind of waiting for,” Leipold said. “When he got around the corner, the quick plant to cut it inside and score was something different and it’s different than we’ve had here before. It can be another addition to our offense.” 

Because of that, and because Edwards has said repeatedly from the minute he committed to KU through the offseason, into camp and now seven games into his first season as a Jayhawk, that he wanted to do anything and everything he can to help the team win, the Jayhawks are going to take him at his word. 

And whether that means he touches it 30+ times a game or 13 times a game, the goal from everyone involved will be to do whatever they have to do with Edwards to help Kansas rack up a few more wins. 

“We’ll keep trying to find ways to put the ball in his hands,” Leipold said matter-of-factly. 

Kansas will head back out on the road this week to look to build off of its win over Baylor, with a 2:30 p.m. kickoff at TCU on Saturday afternoon from Fort Worth, Texas. 

Like KU, the Horned Frogs enter this one at 3-4 overall and 1-3 in Big 12 play, with wins over Grambling, Arkansas State and, go figure, Baylor. 

TCU lost at home last week, 24-20 to West Virginia. 

Saturday’s game will be televised on FS1.

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