Throughout each season, there are interesting notes and nuggets of information that come out of every game, win or lose.
Here’s a quick look at some of the more interesting and noteworthy facts and stats from KU's frustration-filled 38-21 loss to No. 23 Missouri on Friday night at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
The game marked the first time since 2005 that the Border War football game was back in Lawrence.
Series History: Missouri leads the all-time series, 58-55-9
Kansas Captains: Cole Ballard, Calvin Clements, Blake Herold, Trey Lathan III, Rino Monteforte
Coin Toss: Missouri won the toss and deferred to the second half. Kansas received the opening kickoff and defended the north end.
Team Notes
• Kansas falls to 617-695-58 all-time, including 28-36 under head coach Lance Leipold. Leipold’s career record goes to 174-75 overall.
• The Kansas vs. Missouri series is now at 58-55-9 in favor of Missouri. The series record in games played in Lawrence goes to 26-17-3 all-time, in favor of Kansas. The Jayhawks have won seven of the last nine meetings against the Tigers in Lawrence.
• Kansas is now 18-10 at home since the start of the 2022 season and 19-15 overall under Leipold.
Offensive Notes
• Redshirt senior wide receiver Nik McMillan hauled in his second touchdown as a Jayhawk, and seventh of his career, with a 20 yard score from Isaiah Marshall in the second quarter. McMillan finished the game with two receptions for a team-high 52 yards and a score.
• Redshirt sophomore quarterback Isaiah Marshall finished 13-30 for 168 yards and two touchdowns, marking his second straight game with multiple touchdown passes. He also rushed for 36 yards on 18 carries. Through his first two games of the season, Marshall has thrown for 414 yards and four touchdowns.
• Redshirt senior wide receiver Nahzae Cox recorded his first KU touchdown on Friday on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Marshall. It was his sixth career touchdown after having five while at Middle Tennessee in 2025.
• Kansas scored on touchdown drives of 10 and 11 plays in the second and third quarters, respectively. The Jayhawks have four scoring drives of 10+ plays in the first two games of the 2026 season.
Defensive Notes
• KU’s first turnover of the game ended Missouri’s first drive of the second quarter as junior defensive end Leroy Harris III forced a fumble of Tiger running back Jamal Roberts and redshirt junior safety Taylor Davis recorered. The play marked both the first career forced fumble for Harris and the first career fumble recovery by Davis.
• Harris finished with four tackles and two pass breakups in addition to his forced fumble.
• Redshirt senior linebacker Trey Lathan led the Jayhawks with nine tackles, five solo, and added a half tackle for loss. Lathan has 12 tackles and 1.5 TFL this season after recording 86 stops last season.
• Redshirt junior David Santiago recorded five tackles, three solo, and one tackle for loss on Friday. He now has 2.5 TFL on the season.
• Redshirt senior safety Corey Gordon finished with seven tackles, 1.0 tackle for loss and a pass breakup in his second game as a Jayhawk. The seven tackles represents a season high and was two shy of his career high.
• Kansas finished the game with 4.0 tackles for loss, getting 1.0 apiece from Gordon and Santiago along with half TFL by Lathan, Dak Brinkley, Marcus Calvin and Kevin Oatis.
Special Teams Notes
• Kansas blocked two Missouri field goal attempts in the first half, first with Gordon ending a drive in the first quarter before Harris III blocked an attempt in the second quarter. This marked the first time since 2012 that Kansas had blocked two kicks in the same game. The Jayhawks had two blocked punts against South Dakota State on Sept. 1, 2012.
• Redshirt freshman cornerback Austin Alexander returned the block by Harris 88 yards for a touchdown, marking KU’s first blocked field goal returned for a touchdown since Cobee Bryan returned a block 61 yards for a score against Tennessee Tech on Sept. 2, 2022. The touchdown marked Alexander’s second in as many games against Missouri after returning a fumble for a 28-yard touchdown in 2025.
• Kansas blocked multiple field goals in a game for the first time since at least 2003. The Jayhawks are the first team in FBS to block 2+ field goals in a game this season, and the first since Houston on Sept. 26, 2025. Kansas also became the first FBS team to block 2+ field goals in a game and also score on at least one of them since Miami (Fla.) on Oct. 10, 2020.
• Kansas has now blocked a field goal in each of the last three seasons, marking KU’s first three-year streak with a blocked field goal since 2013-15.
• Freshman punter Matt Gill recorded his first career action on Friday night, punting four times for 158 yards, an average of 39.5 yards per attempt, with one ending up inside Missouri’s 20 yard line.
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