photo by: AP Photo/Tyler Tate

Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson, right, hands the ball off to running back Joe Jackson, left, during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Utah, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Salt Lake City.

About four hours after Kansas concluded its disappointing 38-14 loss at Iowa State on Saturday, another scoreline undoubtedly caught the attention of the KU faithful.

The rival Kansas State Wildcats, on the strength of a whopping 471 rushing yards and counting, had as a result of a touchdown run by Joe Jackson with seven minutes to go taken a 47-35 lead on the road at then-No. 12 Utah, a College Football Playoff hopeful and one of the top teams in the Big 12 Conference.

K-State’s upset bid collapsed from that moment on — a defensive conversion gave way to a pair of quick touchdowns by Utah and a late interception thrown by KSU quarterback Avery Johnson — but the Wildcats’ showing, featuring the most rushing yards in their history and the most ever conceded by Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium, certainly left an impression. Not to mention that K-State, albeit in a loss, put up 47 on a defense previously giving up 15.6 points per game, the 10th-best mark nationwide.

The Jayhawks were watching that game, too, knowing they would see the Utes in just six short days. Once they finished combing through their own film on the bus back from Ames, Iowa, they had flipped over to K-State.

“We haven’t played this team since they’ve joined the league, so to have a chance to line up against them will be the challenge that we anticipated,” KU coach Lance Leipold said. “But at the same time you watch Kansas State (have) a lot of success against them offensively, and it was a heck of a football game.”

KU will try, Leipold said, to “replicate” the success that his friend and colleague Chris Klieman and the Wildcats had against Utah.

“Obviously some of that will be the way they ran the football,” he added, “and I’m sure they’re going to make adjustments needed as well.”

It’s not so much that Utah’s run defense had been previously unsolvable — the Utes have a physical front, but they ranked in the middle of the pack in the Big 12 before the highly influential outlier of Saturday’s performance. The Jayhawks, though, could certainly use some insights to fuel their run game.

“I think they pride themselves on being physical and playing fast,” KU center Bryce Foster said of Utah. “We’re watching a lot of film of the K-State game wondering what K-State did that was different than what anyone else did … What was their plan that really set them over the top compared to all the other teams that they’ve gone against?”

KU has been better on the ground since it got both Daniel Hishaw Jr. and Leshon Williams back healthy — and Hishaw still managed to play against the Cyclones after he was questionable midway through the week — but its run game still ranks 11th of 16 teams in the Big 12, averaging just 150.8 yards per game since the start of league play. That has frequently placed a lot of pressure on quarterback Jalon Daniels to propel the Jayhawks down the field.

Hishaw and Williams combined to carry the ball 12 times for an efficient 92 yards against the Cyclones as part of a game in which KU was playing from behind and didn’t exactly have the chance to grind out a win with its rushing attack. Hishaw now has 102 carries for 480 yards and four touchdowns on the year, while Williams has 82 rushes for 456 yards and seven scores. Each redshirt senior back will play his final game at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Friday.

Hishaw saw Joe Jackson run for 293 yards and three scores against the team he’s slated to face that day. Antonio Martin had 89 more and a touchdown of his own for K-State.

“I loved how their running backs ran hard,” Hishaw said. “They ran hard and that’s what I got to do, continue to run hard, keep my knees up, no falling, none of that stuff, and just keep going.”

That would be par for the course for the sixth-year man from Moore, Oklahoma. According to Pro Football Focus, 57% of his yardage this year has come after contact.

The more KU can establish the run against the Utes, the more balanced it’ll become and the more time it can take away from Utah’s high-flying offense. That would go a long way toward allowing the Jayhawks to put up a fight, with bowl eligibility once again on the line Friday at 11 a.m.

“They did a lot of things well and I think it allowed them to be able to play a four-quarter game,” Daniels said of K-State. “And I think that with a team like Utah, they’re a four-quarter team. They’re not going to give up at any point, no matter if you’re up 25 in the first half or down 25 in the first half. They’re going to keep their foot on the pedal, and it’s showing all over film the whole entire year.”

• Sports reporter David Rodish contributed to this story.