photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Kansas quarterback Jason Bean celebrates after an NCAA college football game against Iowa State, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023, in Ames, Iowa. Kansas won 28-21.

Ames, Iowa — Kansas was struggling to run the ball to a greater degree than it had all season, but if there was any time the Jayhawks would have wanted to grind it out and kill the clock, it would be after back-to-back Iowa State touchdowns, with the lead looking more precarious than ever before and just eight minutes left in the game.

Instead, KU put the pedal to the metal.

“We figured that they think we’re going to run the ball, try to milk some clock and do some things,” head coach Lance Leipold said, “and (decided) to stay aggressive. And our mentality was going to be important.”

The Jayhawks faked like they were running a slow-developing option play out to the right, with Jared Casey blocking for Devin Neal. But quarterback Jason Bean stopped short after going through the initial motions of such a play, took a purposeful step back and hurled the ball downfield to a streaking Lawrence Arnold, just past the outstretched left arm of Iowa State defensive back Malik Verdon.

“It was just a play that we worked on all week,” Bean said postgame. “I feel like all game we kind of had been baiting them to come down low enough for us to get past them on that play. And we did, LJ got behind them, I delivered him the ball and he did the rest.”

Arnold, who had dropped a pass one quarter earlier, snagged this one and took it the rest of the way for a game-changing 80-yard touchdown that squashed the Cyclones’ momentum and helped KU wrap up a 28-21 win.

Arnold concurred with his teammate that he had seen ISU’s defensive backs creeping toward the line of scrimmage — even on straight-up pass plays with no play-action element.

“The whole defense flowed down,” Arnold said. “So I knew that was going to be open.”

Added Bean: “(Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki) trusts in us and we trust in him,” Bean said. “We got each other’s back and we prepare each week like that, and I feel like it was just meant to be for us to make that play.”

It also boosted the morale of the defense, which had all ISU’s momentum, not to mention a steadily more excited crowd, going against it prior to that touchdown.

“Want to know what that’s called?” linebacker Rich Miller said. “Complementary football. You know what I’m saying? We gave up a little something, they came right back.”

The move to go over the top was especially bold because just one drive earlier, Bean had taken a hit to his lower leg and had to miss a play due to injury. With injured starting quarterback Jalon Daniels (back) not an option — he didn’t travel to Ames, Leipold said, “through the advice of our medical people” — freshman walk-on Cole Ballard had to come in and hand off for a play before Bean returned and threw a single incompletion. (Leipold reiterated after the game that he does not plan to redshirt Daniels.)

Bean said later that the hit “just kind of scared me” and that he knew he would be OK after he put some weight on his leg. Even so, the coaching staff felt confident enough to have him air it out the very next time he saw the field, and it was one of a number of times that aggressive decision-making paid off for Leipold, Kotelnicki and the Jayhawks.

On their first drive of the game, they found themselves in no man’s land with fourth-and-10 on Iowa State’s 34-yard line. Rather than attempting a punt with a very low ceiling in terms of net yardage, KU set the tone with a 21-yard connection to Arnold, boosted further by a roughing the passer penalty on Zachary Lovett. The Jayhawks went on to punch it in with a direct-snap rushing touchdown for Devin Neal and, per the ESPN broadcast, became the first opponent to score on an opening drive at Jack Trice Stadium all season.

They went back to the air on the final drive of the game. By then they knew it was mostly out of necessity; at that point they had run for just 86 yards on 32 mostly fruitless carries. So when it came time for an all-or-nothing third-and-3 that could either end the game or give ISU a chance at a game-tying drive, they put the ball in the hands of Bean again.

And it ended up in the sure hands of Casey, who has made his fair share of memorable catches for the Jayhawks over the years, after a decisive lob over the middle.

“It was just put in as a dump play that was going to happen, that we were going to sell run,” Leipold said. “There was a couple choices there, but it wasn’t like ‘let’s get the ball to Jared.’ Let’s call the play that’s going to work.”

It wasn’t all rosy for KU in the decision-making department, as it rarely truly can be. After Seth Keller missed a 41-yard field goal early, the Jayhawks trotted out backup lefty kicker Owen Piepergerdes for a 50-yard attempt with 43 seconds left. They were in an almost identical situation to when Bean had hit Arnold before — this time facing fourth-and-9 on the ISU 33 — and chose a strange middle-ground option. Piepergerdes missed, the Cyclones started in positive field position, and ISU went down and got a field goal of its own to break the shutout.

The overall aggression, though, was emblematic of a greater confidence that — to hear players and coaches tell it — pervaded the KU team on its first trip to Ames since a 59-7 loss in 2021. It manifested itself on both sides of the ball and in the final result.

“A lot of these guys are the same guys that were here,” Leipold said. “And they’ve been through it now.”