Series History: Kansas leads 2-1 all-time, including 1-0 at neutral site. The Jayhawks and Rebels will play again next year as part KU's 2024 regular season schedule
Bowl History: Kansas improves to 7-7 all-time in bowl games and 2-0 at the Guaranteed Rate Bowl.
Kansas Captains: Jalon Daniels, Mason Fairchild, Rich Miller, Mike Novitsky | Coin Toss: Kansas won the toss and deferred. UNLV received the opening kickoff. Guaranteed Rate Offensive MVP: QB Jason Bean | Guaranteed Rate Defensive MVP: S Kenny Logan Jr.
More from Tuesday's Guaranteed Rate Bowl victory:
Team Notes
• Kansas moved to 606-679-58 all-time, including 18-20 in the Lance Leipold era. Leipold’s career record is now 164-59 overall and 3-2 in bowl games, 1-1 at KU.
• Kansas finishes the 2023 season with a final record of 9-4, for the seventh 9-win season in program history and first since 2007.
• The victory is KU’s first bowl victory since 2008 and improves the Jayhawks to 7-7 all-time in bowl games.
• Kansas is now 2-0 all-time in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl and 2-1 all-time against UNLV.
• Lawrence Arnold and Luke Grimm both had three touchdown receptions, marking the first time in Kansas football history that two players have had three receiving touchdowns in the same game.
• Kansas had two scoring drives of 90+ yards in the game after having just one such drive during the regular season. The first was a 98-yard touchdown drive, capped off with a 6-yard touchdown reception from Luke Grimm in the first quarter. The second was a 99-yard touchdown drive that started in the third quarter and ended with a 40-yard touchdown reception from Lawrence Arnold on the first play of the fourth. The 99-yard touchdown drive was the longest drive of the season and the longest since a 98-yard touchdown drive against Oklahoma in 2019.
Offensive Notes
• Kansas QB Jason Bean finished 19-of-28 for 449 yards and six touchdowns, tying the single-game school record set by Todd Reesing. Bean also eclipsed KU’s bowl record for touchdown passes and set a new Guaranteed Rate Bowl record with his six touchdown passes. Bean concludes his Kansas career ranked No. 7 with 4,662 career passing yards and No. 2 with 38 career touchdown passes.
• Both Lawrence Arnold and Luke Grimm recorded 100+ receiving yards in the contest. This is the first time two players had 100 or more receiving yards since Arnold and Grimm did it last year in the Autozone Liberty Bowl.
• Arnold and Grimm tied Dezmon Briscoe for the Kansas bowl game record with three touchdown receptions each.
• With his third touchdown catch, Arnold tied Marcus Henry for 10th on the Kansas all-time touchdown receptions list with 113. Arnold also recorded 132 receiving yards, which puts him at No. 7 on the all-time receiving yards list with 1,859 yards. He passed Bob Johnson (1,779) and Emmett Edwards (1,808).
• Grimm scored a touchdown on each of his first two receptions and added a third in the fourth quarter of the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. His first came on a 6-yard pass from Jason Bean in the first quarter, before adding a 60-yard reception from Bean in the second quarter and a 43-yard reception in the fourth quarter. Grimm passed Dexton Fields and Mark Simmons and now has 17 career touchdown receptions, which is tied with Willie Vaughn and Bruce Adams for fifth in school history.
• This was the third time in Kansas bowl history a player had two or more touchdown receptions, with Grimm and Arnold joining Jon Cornish (2 vs. Houston, 2005 Fort Worth Bowl) and Dezmon Briscoe (3 vs. Minnesota, 2008 Insight Bowl).
• After his sixth completion of the game, Jason Bean moved up to No. 8 on the Kansas all-time career passing yards list with 4,308 passing yards.
• Devin Neal reached the end zone late in the first half on a one-yard touchdown run. This was his 16th rushing touchdown of the season, which tied Brandon McAnderson for the second-highest single season total in program history. This gave Neal 36 career total touchdowns which ties him for third on the all-time list with James Sims.
Defensive Notes
• Defensive MVP Kenny Logan Jr. had a team-high nine tackles (eight solo, one assist), including 1.0 tackle for loss and one pass breakup. The senior safety concludes his Kansas career tied for fourth in career tackles with 386 with Joe Dineen Jr. and Logan is KU’s school record holder for career tackles by a defensive back.
• Cobee Bryant recorded his fourth interception of the season in the second quarter and is now tied with John Kooney and Charles Gordon for eighth on the Kansas all-time career interceptions list with nine. Bryant also recorded his first career sack for a loss of 11 yards during the third quarter.
• Craig Young recorded his first interception of the 2023 campaign and second of his career midway through the second quarter. Young also recorded his 100th-career tackle as a Jayhawk with his second tackle in the third quarter. He joins Taiwan Berryhill, Mello Dotson, O.J. Burroughs, Rich Miller, Kenny Logan Jr. and Marvin Grant as Jayhawks to have this achievement.
• With three tackles in the first quarter Marvin Grant eclipsed 100 career tackles as a Jayhawk. He finished the game with six tackles to give him 104 career tackles.
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