WRITER: Zac Boyer

Jalon Daniels' injury overshadows Kansas' loss to TCU, its first of season

The Kansas football team didn't just lose for the first time this season. It lost junior quarterback Jalon Daniels as well. Daniels left the game with a right shoulder injury shortly before halftime, and No. 19 Kansas was defeated 38-31 by No. 17 TCU on Saturday at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. The quarterback, whose strong performances were a large reason why the Jayhawks were looking to start 6-0 for ...

Notebook: ESPN's 'College GameDay' takes over Kansas before TCU game

ESPN broadcast its flagship college football show, "College GameDay," from the south end of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Saturday morning before No. 19 Kansas' 38-31 loss to No. 17 TCU, bringing together students, members of the community and fans of the sport from across the country. Kansas became the 78th university to host the three-hour program and was chosen hours after the Jayhawks defeated Iowa ...

Week 6 preview: Kansas, TCU under national spotlight in battle of unbeatens

As Kansas was scuffling through the season a year ago and enduring one lopsided beating after another, coach Lance Leipold never stopped to consider what things would be like in 52 weeks' time. If he did, what he would have projected likely would not have resembled reality: The Jayhawks, undefeated through five weeks, No. 19 in the Associated Press poll, with the national spotlight illuminating the ...

Staying alive: Kansas survives late scare, hangs on to beat Iowa State 14-11

It was hard to tell in the moments immediately after Kansas' 14-11 win against Iowa State on Saturday what the prevailing emotion was among the players flooding the field. There was plenty of jubilation — and plenty of relief. "That was just a grinder of a win," junior wide receiver Luke Grimm said. "It's good to be on the good side of it." In a game that featured all manner of bizarre outcomes, some big ...

Week 5 preview: Kansas has chance to measure progress, growth vs. Iowa State

It was just shy of a year ago when Kansas coach Lance Leipold fully recognized the significant undertaking that lay before him. The Jayhawks had taken their lumps earlier in Leipold's first season and headed north to Iowa State hoping to demonstrate some level of progress. Instead, they found themselves down 38 points at halftime and limped to a woeful 59-7 defeat, their latest drubbing in a decade full of ...

Career-best performance by Jalon Daniels spurs Kansas to home win against Duke

Jalon Daniels stood near the end zone staring at his right hand. The pinky unfurled first, then the ring finger, the middle and the index. One. Two. Three. Four. He was counting touchdown passes, but he might as well have been counting victories. Kansas' junior quarterback threw for career highs of 324 yards and four touchdowns on Saturday in a 35-27 win against Duke in front of a sellout crowd at David Booth ...

Notebook: Kansas' Daniel Hishaw Jr. rumbles for touchdown; Jalon Daniels sacked

Daniel Hishaw Jr. is certain he's scored more dazzling touchdowns while in high school or in youth leagues. But the redshirt sophomore running back's 73-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter of Kansas' 35-27 win over Duke on Saturday at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium ranks among his best while with the Jayhawks. Hishaw caught a pass from junior quarterback Jalon Daniels in the left flat and turned ...

Week 4 preview: Kansas' expectations, excitement growing entering game vs. Duke

The excitement surrounding the Kansas football team is unlike anything Taiwan Berryhill Jr. has experienced. Berryhill, a junior linebacker from New Orleans, was a freshman in 2020 when the Jayhawks went 0-9. There wasn't much to celebrate last season, either, when they went 2-10 under first-year coach Lance Leipold. But amid their first 3-0 start in 13 years, Berryhill and the Jayhawks will return to David ...

Jalon Daniels' masterful performance leads Kansas to emphatic win at Houston

HOUSTON — The jubilation and exhilaration wafting through the visitors' locker room reverberated 40 yards down a cinder block hallway and could not be contained. Amid the shouts of "we did it!" and a wave of excitement and congratulations, an unlatched door flew open as Earl Bostick Jr. banged on it, forcing Kansas sixth-year senior left tackle to pause his celebration long enough to say he was sorry and ...

Notebook: Lengthy lightning delay no problem for Kansas in victory at Houston

HOUSTON — A 69-minute lightning delay postponed, but did not prevent, Kansas' 48-30 win at Houston on Saturday. With the score tied at 14 and 9:21 remaining in the second quarter, the Jayhawks had advanced 79 yards on nine plays and were preparing to run a play on second-and-goal from the Cougars' 5-yard line when officials paused the game because of a nearby lightning strike. The delay was initially for 30 ...

Week 3 preview: Kansas aims to keep perfect start intact at Houston

In past years, a 14-0 deficit after 10 minutes would have likely been enough to cause the Kansas football team to capitulate. Instead, the Jayhawks mustered the toughness, resilience and points needed to bounce back from that early hole — and then hold on again late — to win 55-42 at West Virginia a week ago. "A year ago, some of those would have gotten away from us at halftime — by halftime," coach ...

Notebook: Kansas football unveils new-look option rushing attack in OT win at WVU

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Kansas relied on its rushing attack often in Saturday's 55-42 overtime win at West Virginia, but it looked a bit different than it did in its season opener. Quarterback Jalon Daniels carried the ball a team-high 12 times for a career-high 85 yards to lead the Jayhawks in rushing for the first time. Kansas gained 297 yards on the ground in the season-opening win against Football ...

Mountain magic: Overtime interception gives Kansas 55-42 win at West Virginia

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Cobee Bryant didn't care that nearly everyone on Kansas' sideline was yelling at him to down the football and end the game. The sophomore cornerback saw the end zone and couldn't stop. "I wanted to score, to be honest," Bryant said after his interception in overtime, which he returned 86 yards for a touchdown, gave the Jayhawks a 55-42 win at West Virginia. "I wanted the pick six. Next ...

Week 2 preview: Kansas hits road for Big 12 clash with West Virginia

Much has been made about the way the Kansas football team overhauled its roster during the offseason by adding 21 players via the transfer portal. West Virginia doesn't have nearly as many, but between the addition of one of the country's most experienced quarterbacks in JT Daniels and the incorporation of several starters on defense, the Mountaineers look different than they did when the Jayhawks closed their ...

Kansas' Ioanna Chatzileonti returns from European championships ready for season

Despite all that Ioanna Chatzileonti experienced during the summer — time back home in Athens, success representing Greece internationally — she was often thinking about being back in Kansas. "I missed being here," Chatzileonti said. "Everybody's so excited for the next season." Chatzileonti, now a junior, believes the Jayhawks have much more to prove in the coming months. After they went 21-10 and reached ...

Week 1 preview: Kansas to begin Year 2 under Lance Leipold vs. FCS foe Tennessee Tech

Late last week, with the start of the new season rapidly approaching, Kansas coach Lance Leipold began speaking to his players about what happened in January. That, Leipold reminded them, is when they began working toward the success that they hope to achieve come this fall. "Everybody's excited, and they put in all those long hours all the time in the weight room, all the things we ask," Leipold said. "First ...

As Kansas' running backs draw 'a lot of buzz,' coaches will try to keep them productive

Devin Neal is aware of what Kansas' coaching staff has been able to achieve over the years with a strong rushing attack. So, as he considers the situation the Jayhawks find themselves in this season, with five running backs whom they believe have the ability to be significant contributors, Neal can't wait to get back out on the field. "I just think everybody's on the same page about what needs to be done for ...

Kansas signs football coach Lance Leipold to 1-year contract extension through 2027 season

Kansas has signed football coach Lance Leipold to a one-year contract extension that will keep him in charge of the program through the 2027 season. Leipold, whose second season will begin Friday when the Jayhawks face Football Championship Subdivision opponent Tennessee Tech at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, went just 2-10 in his first year. But athletic director Travis Goff found it worthwhile to ...

Long considered 'the answer,' Kansas' transfers still must prove themselves worthy

Lorenzo McCaskill was a two-year starting linebacker at Louisiana who led a conference champion in tackles and claimed second-team All-Sun Belt honors last season. Yet as he settles in for his first game after his transfer to Kansas, McCaskill is being confronted with a reality that shows just how much change is swirling around the Jayhawks. Accomplishments elsewhere don't mean much if a player hasn't proven ...

Greater uncertainty hits Kansas' passing offense days before start of season

The Kansas football team will open its season Friday with its leading receiver from a year ago pursuing an NFL career and another top target suspended indefinitely following an assault charge. Their absences mean the Jayhawks' passing game will not only look different against Tennessee Tech than it did during coach Lance Leipold's first season, it will be unlike what those within the program conceptualized even ...