Something about losing a shutout had Jon Cornish in a vindictive mood – and that, apparently, makes him run like a cheetah.

Within a minute of the Kansas University football team’s surrendering Appalachian State’s first points in the fourth quarter Saturday, Cornish found another gear. On the ensuing drive, the junior raced 75 yards on four carries, scored a touchdown and kept ASU a safe distance away.

The Jayhawks went on to win, 36-8, at Memorial Stadium.

“Jon is a talented young guy, and slowly but surely he’s putting his game together,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “He’s pretty close to becoming a complete player.”

Once again, Cornish exploded for big gains in limited chances, rushing for 103 yards and three touchdowns on just 10 carries against the Mountaineers. Against Florida Atlantic last week, he rushed for 45 yards on just four touches.

That’s 14 rushes for 148 yards this season – a staggering 10.6 yards per carry.

“One thing he does that I like, he runs with a natural lean with his pads down,” Mangino said. “He takes very few blows from defenders in the ribs or in the chest. He has a good lean to him. His feet are extremely quick. He’s just a powerful guy.”

Cornish’s line from Saturday was good enough, but the explosion that came each time he touched the ball was what will stick with many of the 37,070 fans in attendance.

In the fourth-quarter drive Cornish dominated, he had a 12-yard sprint straight up the gut, a 58-yard run down the left side stopped only by the sideline and his lack of balance and a five-yard burst up the middle for the score.

“He’s a guy,” KU quarterback Brian Luke said, “that you just love to watch play football.”

Kansas (2-0) benefited again from a solid rushing attack, but instead of Clark Green being the go-to guy like last week, Saturday’s touches were spread around. Cornish had his chunk, Green amassed 55 yards on 15 carries, and Marcus Herford – inserted as a situational run-first quarterback in the second half – gained 42 yards on five draw plays.

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Even Luke had eight yards rushing when he was in there, including a 16-yard scamper in the second quarter.

Luke appeared to get a strong grip on the starting quarterback job, completing 17 of 26 passes for 212 yards.

He was one of three quarterbacks to get playing time – Adam Barmann was used on two drives, and Herford came in to give the position a new dimension with his legs.

As for next week, it appears Luke is set up to get the bulk of the snaps against Louisiana Tech.

“I really focused on the things I need to improve on,” Luke said. “There’s definitely some things I’m gong to go in and watch on tape, improve those and keep getting better.”

Said Mangino, “I’ll go back and look at the tape. But as I’m standing here now, unless something shocks me when I watch the tape (this morning), I suspect he is going to be the starter for the La Tech game.”

Luke threw no touchdowns and had an ill-timed interception near the ASU end zone, but for the most part the senior did his job. A 59-yard bomb to Brian Murph more than paved the way for the first score of the game, a four-yard touchdown run by Green.

From there, KU slowly put up points, holding a 13-0 lead at halftime.

It grew to 26-0 after a Luke touchdown run and a Cornish touchdown run before Appalachian State (1-1) finally scored on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The NCAA Division I-AA Mountaineers, though, did compile 311 yards of total offense, another sign that the KU defense isn’t quite where it needs to be yet.

“The defense played well,” Mangino said, “We need to develop the mental edge that we had on defense last year. The chemistry of the defense is not exactly where I would like it to be.”

The defense did, however, do its part keeping the stiff arm extended, so that ASU always was a safe distance away on the scoreboard.

The outcome, after halftime, never was in doubt.

KU has one more nonconference game before the looming monster of a Big 12 Conference schedule arrives.

Mangino views the first three weeks of the season as three stepping stones of preparation for the big dogs starting Oct. 1

So far, it’s going as planned.

“There’s no question,” Mangino said, “we made a lot of progress from week one to week two.”