A team that has drawn the ire of its fan base for finding ways to lose far too often flipped the script and found a way to win on Saturday, against improbable odds.
Until it didn't.
The Jayhawks were this close to picking up their fourth win of the season in dramatic comeback fashion, before a last-ditch drive by UCF in the final minute of the game left the Jayhawks in an all-too-familiar position — on the losing side of the score with the clock showing 00:00.
UCF 33, Kansas 32.
Ouch.
Let’s say that again, and really mean it this time.
OUCH!
For the third straight week, Kansas played a game that went down to the wire. And while the first one went their way, thanks to a blocked field goal by Blake Herold to beat Baylor, the next two saw KU’s opponent score a late touchdown to break the Jayhawks’ hearts.
This isn’t the dating game or book club, so at least some of the emotion gets taken out of it.
You play, you win or lose and you answer for your actions.
What made this one sting so bad for Kansas, though, was that they played so poorly in the first half and dug a hole that says you deserved to lose and yet still found a way to rally in the fashion that usually leads to victory.
It didn’t. The roller coaster kept going and when the ride stopped, everyone wearing crimson and blue could feel their heart in their throat. Again.
The Jayhawks trailed 26-7 early in the third quarter after UCF (5-4 overall, 3-3 Big 12) scored back-t0-back touchdowns 2 minutes apart to turn a 12-7 lead into a margin that sent many KU fans to the exits.
The Jayhawks were on the right end of a couple of turnovers in the first half alone, including a crucial fumble recovery that negated a fumble and giveaway by Kansas just a couple of plays earlier.
That fact kept UCF from building a bigger lead and was a crucial part of keeping Kansas in the game for much longer than they otherwise would've been.
That, of course, went for naught when the Knights opened the second half with by building that 26-7 lead.
Things certainly did not look good at that point and UCF had sucked the life out of The Booth and the Jayhawks.
But KU kept fighting, scoring a key touchdown in the third quarter after a calm and composed drive, and that seemed to flip the momentum to the home team again. KU cut the UCF lead to 26-21 early in the 4th quarter after a couple of touchdown runs by QB Isaiah Marshall and back-up running back Khi Cummings-Coleman and then got another by its defense, to set up the go-ahead TD late on a drive that spanned 95 yards and needed a completion on 4th and 4 from the Jayhawks' own 11 to stay alive.
Before you could blink, and in just about a quarter's time, KU had taken complete control of the game — on both offense and defense — and owned a 6-point lead with around a minute to play.
Then? Disaster. The way it always seems to show up for Kansas.
Some of it was self-inflicted, — you should note, though, that that KU defense was absolutely gassed when it went out for that final drive after giving everything it had just to have a chance — some of the credit goes to UCF and some of it is owed to that unseeable, inexplicable, unimaginable and yet inevitable way that things just seem to go for the Lance Leipold Jayhawks.
They play hard, they can compete and they never quit. But that doesn’t always mean they win.
This loss dropped the Jayhawks to 3-6 overall and 1-5 in the Big 12, where they currently reside in the basement.
With three games to play, KU now must win ‘em all to become bowl eligible.
This will go down as one of the most memorable wins of the Leipold era and those who stayed were treated to some of the Jayhawks' best play of the season on both sides of the ball.
Maybe that’s why this hurts so much and angers so many.
The Jayhawks will head back out on the road next week to take on West Virginia in Morgantown.
Here's a look back and some of Saturday's action.
LIKES
• Run Zeke, run – He didn't have his best day throwing the ball. And he was coming back from a leg injury. But, for a long time in this game, the only thing resembling positive offense by the Jayhawks was the QB run game. And, in the second half, it looked like they started to figure that out. Marshall finished the game with 125 yards rushing and 2 TDs on the ground on 13 carries. That mark included 95 yards in the 2nd half alone. Marshall, who started out slow and sluggish with his arm, finished strong in that area, too, completing 21 of 32 passes for 210 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
• Cummings-Coleman comes up big – On a day when Dylan Edwards just didn't have it, the former defensive back turned running back played a massive role in this game and played awfully well. He did fumble, so he's not completely off the hook. But he ran hard, he picked up chunk yardage and he gave KU an edge and attitude that helped make their near-comeback possible. Cummings-Coleman finished the game with 48 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries.
• The D in D-End stands for demons – Leroy Harris III and David Santiago continue to be massive bright spots for this team. Both are all-Big 12 caliber players capable of wrecking games and they also are both able to impact the action in the backfield, at the line of scrimmage and in space thanks to their athleticism and activity level. It's a blast to watch them play and they're both among the best defensive players in the Big 12. Each had huge moments in this one, but none of them were bigger than Harris' sack of Barnett on 3rd-and-10 in the 4th quarter that got the ball back for the Jayhawks, who were trailing 26-21 at that point. Harris unloaded on Barnett from his blindside, knocking the ball loose and, more importantly, bringing major life back to the building for the home team.
DISLIKES
• Start of the 2nd half – UCF led 12-7 at halftime and got the ball to start the third quarter. At that point, it was very much still anybody's ballgame and both teams obviously knew that. Here was the issue. One of those teams came out of the locker room after halftime feeling the urgency and energy of taking control of the game. And the other merely let them. After a solid kick return that set them up at midfield, UCF marched the final 50 yards in 6 plays, facing very little resistance from the Jayhawks in doing so. Just like that, UCF led by 2 scores and KU was left still trying to transition from the locker room back to game time. About 2 minutes later, after the second KU turnover of the day, the Knights added to that with a 44-yard touchdown pass that drew boos from the home crowd and put the visitors up 26-7. At that point, a thousand or so fans immediately headed for the exits.
• Defense on the field too long early – The Jayhawks' issues on offense not only kept KU from moving the ball and putting up points, but also forced the defense to play a lot. UCF ad the ball for 18:25 in the first half, compared to just over 11 minutes for the Kansas offense. It didn't really end up spelling the difference between winning and losing, but it did contribute to KU digging a huge hole and giving UCF some confidence against the KU defense to do what it did at the start of the third quarter.
• Punting woes – It sucks to pile on Matt Gill week after week, and he wasn't actually all that bad in this one. What stood out to me this week more than other weeks, though, was what little hang time Gill gets on his punts. We're talking barely a second on some of them. While that seems less than ideal — and it is — there is one advantage that often comes with it... It all but guarantees that Gill will get the benefit of a little roll when the final yardage number is tallied for the kick. Gill has taken a beating this year and that's tough to do to a true freshman kicker. He didn't actually have that bad of a day. But the cumulative effect of his season-long issues and the mechanics of his kicks make him an easy mark for more venting.
WHAT THE?
• Uhhhh, they snapped it? – With the Jayhawks needing a field goal on their final drive to win the game, they faced a 3rd-and-4 play with around 2 minutes to play and were in an absolute gotta have it scenario at their own 11-yard line. That hole came because of a killer punt by UCF just moments earlier. But on 3rd-and-4, with the clock winding toward the 2-minute timeout, the Jayhawks elected to snap the ball and fire an incomplete pass toward the boundary. If they had completed it, it would've been a good call, right? But they didn't. And that left everyone to wonder if they should've just let another 2 or 3 seconds tick down and use the automatic stoppage to draw up their absolute best play to get the four yards they needed. Tough sledding out there in these intense moments, but that was a wild thing to watch. KU emerged from the timeout, which came after the incompletion and at 1:58, and went for it on 4th and 4, with the game on the line. They got it, on a tough throw and catch from Marshall to Keaton Kubecka and that allowed the drive and their hopes to continue.
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