The Kansas Jayhawks entered Saturday's road game at West Virginia needing three wins in three weeks to become bowl eligible.
But you can't get all three without getting No. 1. And boy did the Jayhawks play like they understood that fact on Saturday, dominating the Mountaineers all afternoon in a 37-14 victory in Morgantown, W.Va.
KU clobbered WVU in just about every way imaginable in this one, racking up ungodly yardage totals and a ton of points in the program's first road win of the season.
Kansas is now 4-6 overall and 2-5 in Big 12 play and the Jayhawks' most recent win, especially on the road, likely went a long way toward helping KU and its fans put the recent crushing defeats suffered in back-to-back weeks to TCU and UCF in the rearview mirror.
There's little doubt that those two losses — both of which came at the very end of the 4th quarter — will continue to haunt this team and KU fans, along with a couple of others from earlier in the season. But, at least for one day, none of that mattered.
KU out-gained WVU 448-262 and held a time-of-possession advantage of 36:44 to 23:16. Both of those totals came back toward West Virginia in the 4th quarter after KU had dominated even more through the first 45 minutes.
Perhaps more impressive was the fact that the Jayhawks held WVU's rushing attack, which entered the week ranked 6th in the nation, to just 35 yards on 37 attempts.
This was a performance worth celebrating, in large part because KU responded to a must-win situation in resounding fashion, with an absolute beatdown of a team that just put up 48 points on the road at Texas Tech last week.
KU coach Lance Leipold has talked for weeks, years even, about how ridiculous the Big 12 is in that teams can look overmatched one week and then compete with teams they're not supposed to the next. And this was merely the latest example of how wild and wacky things can get in this conference.
The Jayhawks will return home next week for the season finale at The Booth against No. 10 BYU, needing another win in that one to make the following week's road game at No. 25 Oklahoma State truly matter.
Kickoff time for KU-BYU will be revealed later tonight or early tomorrow.
Here's a look back and some of Saturday's action.
LIKES
• QB run game – KU QB Isaiah Marshall went over 100 yards rushing in last week's loss to UCF, making him the first Kansas quarterback to have three 100-yard rushing games in the same season since Nolan Cromwell did it in 1975. He followed that up on Saturday by adding No. 4, this one with him topping 160 yards rushing on 19 carries. It wasn't just the fact that Marshall put up good numbers on the ground on Saturday as it was how heavily Andy Kotelnicki leaned into it. Although he's grown as a passer and continues to do so week by week, Marshall's biggest weapon, by far, is his legs. KU was hit or miss with using that earlier in the season, but has really capitalized on it in recent weeks and will need to do so the rest of the way.
• First 3 drives – Kansas opened this game with a purpose and it showed up on the scoreboard, with the Jayhawks scoring on three straight drives to put up 17 points in the first quarter. That set the tone for the rest of the day and the Jayhawks never looked back. At one point, KU had outgained WVU 357 yards to 82 midway through the third quarter. And it's not like this was on some insanely lopsided opportunity advantage. Those totals came off of 50 plays for Kansas and 35 for the Mountaineers. The difference was, KU made its plays count. It also speaks to how effective the KU defense was in this one, as well. Even though there were times when the Kansas offense stalled, the defense almost always got the ball right back.
• 4th-down decision mid-2Q – KU faced a 4th-and-short midway through the 2nd quarter from the WVU 2-yard line and did not hesitate to go for it. That probably would've been the decision in most weeks and against most opponents, but it was notable in this one because the Jayhawks are in the position of needing three wins in three games to become bowl eligible and decisions like these are exactly the mindset that it takes to achieve something like that. Not only did the Jayhawks convert on the play, but mid-season addition Chase Belcher scored his first touchdown as a Jayhawk on the conversion to put KU up 23-7 with 6:07 to play in the first half. The Jayhawks had another 4th-and-short decision before halftime and the decision to go for it was equally as quick. Marshall was stuffed on that one, but the Mountaineers were flagged for being offsides. A few plays later, Marshall trotted into the end zone to push the KU lead to 30-7 at halftime.
• D-Line stays insanely active – You really can't say enough good things about what this unit has done this season, and it continued early in the game on Saturday, when a tipped pass by Leroy Harris III and pressure from Marcus Calvin led to an interception by Trey Lathan on the Mountaineers' first offensive possession of the day. Two plays later, Kansas capitalized on the early turnover with a short touchdown run by Khi Cummings-Coleman that put the Jayhawks up 10-0 just 6 minutes into the game. Later in the first quarter, with WVU facing a 3rd and short, the D-Line stuffed the Mountaineers rushing attempt to force an early 4th down. WVU picked up the first down on the next play, but that was another instance where KU's D-Line created problems for the opponent.
• Punting positivity – Even Matt Gill had a good day for the Jayhawks, pinning WVU deep on more than one occasion and looking a lot more comfortable while punting the ball throughout the game. Gill, a true freshman, has taken a beating for some bad days and rough kicks this season. But it was cool to see him join the party and contribute to a complete team win. He finished the day with an average of 40.2 yards per punt and pinned WVU inside the 20 on all four of his punts.
DISLIKES
• Edwards injured – You hate to see anyone go down with an injury, but the Jayhawks took a big blow in that department early in the game when starting running back Dylan Edwards left the game and did not return after injury. With Yasin Willis and Jalen Dupree both out — not to mention a couple of other KU running backs on the depth chart — that left the Jayhawks' run game in the hands of Marshall, who shined, and running backs Khijonn Cummings-Coleman, who started the season as a defensive back, and Chase Belcher, who wasn't even on the roster when the season began. KU survived without Edwards in this one, but playing without him during the next couple of weeks is probably not something they want to try to do, needing a pair of wins to extend their season.
• Marshall INT 2Q – KU was dominating on the ground — and continued to do so even after this — and the decision by Marshall to throw into triple coverage when it just wasn't necessary was a head-scratcher at best and frustrating at most. Not only did it risk giving the Mountaineers some momentum, but it also kept KU from adding points to its total. Marshall was great in this one — as both a runner and a passer — and this was really his only blemish. But it was a bit of a reminder that he is still young and inexperienced and still learning on the job. Luckily, this lesson didn't hurt Marshall or the Jayhawks really at all.
WHAT THE?
• Belcher's big day – As we discussed above, Dylan Edwards went out with an injury in the first quarter of this one, taking away one of KU's biggest and best offensive weapons early in the game. No worries. Not only did Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman do his part to pick up the slack, but so, too, did midseason addition Chase Belcher, who finished with 2 touchdowns in this win — his first two as a Jayhawk. So why the What The? Well, Belcher's story is pretty incredible. Not only did he become eligible to join the Jayhawks with a temporary injunction granting him a fifth year of eligibility, but he also almost never got to the point of playing college football to begin with, after a serious injury in high school almost ended his career. Here's that story in case you missed it earlier this month.
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