Johnny Beck was wide left on his conversion kick after the Jayhawks’ first TD early in the second quarter. It was Beck’s second PAT misfire of the season.

Kansas settled for a Beck field goal with 6:32 remaining before halftime after an illegal motion penalty negated Bill Whittemore’s one-yard TD sneak. The three-pointer gave KU its last lead at 9-7.

Cornerback Remuise Johnson filched his team-leading third interception of the season when he camped under BG quarterback Josh Harris’ “Hail Mary” pass in the end zone on the last play of the first half. No other Jayhawk has an interception.

Further evidence time of possession is a meaningless stat: KU had the ball for nearly five minutes more than the Falcons in the first half, but trailed 22-9.

KU senior guard David Hurst was wearing his third uniform numeral in as many weeks. Two weeks ago, he had No. 88. Then Hurst switched from tight end to offensive guard and donned No. 57 last week. On Saturday, the 6-foot-3, 280-pounder from Austin, Texas, was in No. 52. Back-up linebacker Greg Tyree also wears No. 52. Under NCAA rules, duplicate numbers are legal if the players are on different platoons.

Junior running back Dan Coke’s two-yard plunge into the end zone at 2:25 of the third quarter came on his first carry of the season. It was also his first career TD.

BG tailback Joe Alls’ 161 yards rushing were the most by a KU foe this season. Iowa State’s Hiawatha Rutland and UNLV’s Joe Haro also gained over 100 yards against the Jayhawks.

Although Bowling Green amassed 503 yards and KU about half of that (277), each team had 21 first downs. How could that be? Eight of KU’s first downs were via penalty. BG was penalized a dozen times for 118 yards. Four of the flags were for pass interference and another was for defensive holding in the secondary.

Veteran KU players not suited, without explanation, were wide receiver Leo Bookman, offensive tackle Gabe Rosalis and fullback Austine Nwabuisi.

Jon Bible of Austin, Texas, was the referee in charge of the Big 12 Conference officiating crew. Bible is a business professor at Southwest Texas State.

Kickoff temperature was 79 degrees under clear skies with a 10 mph wind out of the northwest. A front came through at halftime plunging the temperature to 66 degrees while the wind picked up to more than 30 mph.

KU officials liberally estimated the crowd at 37,000.

In the final minutes of Bowling Green’s victory, some of the Falcon fans began to chant, “Big 12 champs! Big 12 champs!”

A few of the players even joined in as they received congratulations from their fans on the way the locker room.