Notes & Numbers: KU-WVU

Notes and numbers from KU's 41-10 Saturday evening win over West Virginia at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

The win moved Kansas to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in Big 12 play.

Series History: West Virginia leads the all-time series 11-3

Kansas Captains: Jalon Daniels, Bryce Foster, Justice Finkley, Trey Lathan

Coin Toss: Kansas won the opening toss and elected to defer to the second half. West Virginia elected to receive the opening kickoff. It was Kansas’ first time winning the coin toss since Oct. 19, 2024 vs. Houston.

Team Notes

• Kansas improved to 614-687-58 all-time, including 25-29 in the Lance Leipold era. Leipold’s career record improved to 171-68 overall.

• With Kansas’ win, the all-time series between Kansas and West Virginia goes to 11-3 between, in favor of the Mountaineers. Saturday’s win was Kansas’ first win over West Virginia since 2023 and its second win in Lawrence vs. West Virginia and first since 2013. The win ended a two-game WVU winning streak against KU.

• Kansas improves to 45-69-4 in conference season openers all-time, including 2-3 against West Virginia in Big 12 Conference openers. The Jayhawks improved to 9-21 in Big 12 Conference openers all-time.

• KU’s 31-point margin of victory is the program’s largest ever in a Big 12 Conference opener, surpassing the previous best of 28 points in a 52-24 victory over Oklahoma in the 1996, the league’s inaugural season.

• The 31-point margin of victory is Kansas’ fifth-largest all-time in a conference opener

48 vs. Washington (Mo.) in 1913, 55-7
41 at Kansas State in 1960, 41-0
36 at Iowa State in 1964, 42-6
33 at Colorado in 1948, 40-7
31 vs. West Virginia in 2025, 41-10

• Kansas now has three wins in its first four games for the third time in the last four seasons. Prior to Lance Leipold’s arrival in 2021, you would have to go back to 2009 to find three wins in Kansas’ first four games.

• Kansas is 3-0 at home to start the season for the first time since 2023. Kansas improves to 16-6 at home under head coach Lance Leipold since 2022 and 16-11 overall.

Offensive Notes

• On Kansas’ first offensive possession, Kansas scored on a 41-yard touchdown strike from Jalon Daniels, marking Wentz’s first-career touchdown as a Jayhawk and third of his career. Wentz’s last touchdown came at Idaho on Sept. 14, 2024.

• Kansas scored its second touchdown on a 39-yard touchdown pass from Daniels to running back Leshon Williams, marking Williams’ second touchdown as a Jayhawk and his first through the air.

• Daniels’s three passing touchdowns give him 12 for the season and 57 over his career. Daniels ranks second in KU career passing touchdowns trailing only Todd Reesing (90).

• Daniels finished the game 12-of-24 passing for 138 yards and three touchdowns. Daniels improves to 67-of-110 passing for 790 yards and eight touchdowns
against West Virginia all-time.

• Daniels’ three touchdown performance marked his 10th career game with 3+ passing touchdowns, including his third this season.

• Senior Daniel Hishaw moved into 19th place on the all-time rushing list with 1,671 career rushing yards. He passed Nolan Cromwell who had 1,664 career
rushing yards.

• In the third quarter, redshirt senior Boden Groen caught his first-career touchdown as a Jayhawk on a 7-yard passing touchdown from Daniels. The touchdown was Groen’s fourth of his career and first since Nov. 25, 2023 vs. Florida Atlantic while at Rice.

• Henderson tied a season and career high for single game receptions against West Virginia with six for 38 yards.

• Williams finished with 19 carries for 129 yards while recording both a rushing and receiving touchdown. This marked Williams’ fourth-career 100+ yard rushing game and his first at Kansas. The 100-yard rushing performance was the first of the season for a Kansas player.

Defensive Notes

• The Jayhawks held West Virginia to three points in the first half, marking the first time this season they haven’t allowed a touchdown in the first half of the game. The last time Kansas accomplished this was against Lindenwood on August 29, 2024.

• Senior Dean Miller recorded his first sack of the season on third down of West Virginia’s opening drive, giving him a career total of seven sacks while at KU. Miller’s sack on the first drive was the first sack Kansas has recorded on an opponent’s opening drive of the game this season.

• Miller recorded a career-high seven tackles, including three solo stops. His previous high was five tackles set last week at Missouri (9/6/25). Miller has 12
tackles in his last two games.

• Taylor Davis’ six tackles marked the third time in his career he has posted six or more tackles. Davis had four solo stops tonight.

• Trey Lathan recorded his first unassisted sack of the season on the first drive of the third quarter. Lathan now has 1.5 sacks on the season and 3.5 sacks in his career. Lathan also recorded his first career interception later in the quarter, and returned it for 32-yards.

• Blake Herold recorded a career-high seven tackles. His previous high was four tackles set three times, including four at Missouri (9/6).

• Syeed Gibbs had a career-high five tackles, all solo. His previous high was four stops twice last season while playing at Georgia Tech.

• Kansas forced and recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter. This is the second game in a row that the Jayhawks have forced and recovered a fumble.

Special Teams Notes

• Freshman Tate Nagy recorded his longest punt return of the season with a 30-yard return on his first punt return of the game. Nagy finished the game with four punt returns for 30 yards.

• Kansas’ three punts in the first quarter were its most punts in a quarter this season.

• Senior Emmanuel Henderson opened the second half with a 94-yard kick return for a touchdown, marking Kansas’ first kick return for a touchdown since 2020, when Kenny Logan Jr., went 100 yards for a touchdown vs. Iowa State. Henderson finished the game with two kick returns for 137 yards and the score.

• The last time Kansas took a game/half-opening kick back for a touchdown was Greg Heaggans on September 14, 2002 against Southwest Missouri State. He did so on the game-opening kickoff. It was Kansas’ first kickoff return for a touchdown to open the second half since at least 1996.

• Kicker Laith Marjan connected on 2-of-2 field goals on Saturday, improving to 5-of-5 this season and 20-of-21 over his career.

• Finn Lappin punted six times, averaging 46.2 yards per punt with a long of 51 and four that pinned WVU inside its own 20-yard line.

• Kansas forced West Virginia to punt eight times in the game, which is the most punts forced against a Big 12 opponent since Iowa State punted nine times against the Jayhawks on Oct. 14, 2017.