photo by: AP Photo/Annie Rice

Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels (6) throws the ball during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against Texas Tech, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Lubbock, Texas.

Lubbock, Texas — Since taking an excessive number of hits as a 17-year-old freshman, Jalon Daniels has been kept quite clean at the helm of the Kansas offense.

The veteran quarterback, now a sixth-year senior, has been remarkably well protected in recent years, to the point that entering Saturday night’s game against Texas Tech, KU had allowed the third-fewest sacks in the nation since 2022, with just 43 in total. During that period, the Jayhawks developed a series of NFL-caliber linemen who served as reliable pass protectors.

Well, even though it was his first time ever facing the Red Raiders, Daniels may have gotten a bit of a trip down memory lane during KU’s 42-17 loss in Lubbock, because he found himself under near-constant pressure, as Tech’s vaunted defensive line was worth every penny against the Jayhawks.

“They’re a really good defense, and we had troubles protecting all day long,” KU coach Lance Leipold said. “They’ve got some pretty highly touted players there, and you can see why, and we struggled. There was no doubt, unfortunately.”

The Red Raiders’ nine sacks on the day, eight of Daniels and one of backup Cole Ballard, were the highest total allowed by the Jayhawks under Leipold, and matched the amount KU conceded in a 62-9 loss to Oklahoma under Les Miles on Nov. 7, 2020, as part of Daniels’ true freshman season.

These, of course, were not the Jayhawks of 2020 playing at Jones AT&T Stadium on Saturday night. They remained competitive against Tech, as they cut their deficit to four points at halftime and even had the ball with a chance to take the lead in the third quarter before fading down the stretch. And Daniels handled the onslaught quite well, all things considered: According to Pro Football Focus, he went 6-for-10 for 72 yards while under pressure.

But even so, the nine sacks spoke for themselves, as did David Bailey’s 11 pressures and Romello Height’s eight, as did KU’s teamwide pass-blocking PFF grade of 10.1, which is the lowest team score KU has achieved in any single grading category since, yes, its pass blocking in the 2020 OU game.

“I think we kind of knew what type of front seven that they had,” Daniels said. “Hats off to Texas Tech and everything they did defensively to be able to create a lot of pressure, but at the end of the day I think there’s still some plays out there that I left on the field, that I think I have to do to be able to put our team in a better position.”

He cited a particular sack on which he had his first read open and wasn’t able to get a throw off. Daniels also acknowledged generally that he was holding the ball too long in some instances, which aligned with a remark from Leipold about how his quarterback was attempting to extend plays when he could have gotten the ball away more quickly.

Quarterback play aside, it was a challenging day for KU’s offensive line, apparently still meshing past the halfway point of the season. Center Bryce Foster, who ended up grading out by far the best of the Jayhawks’ linemen, had said earlier in the week that he felt he and his teammates had taken a “huge step” in terms of chemistry. That did not necessarily result in improved play against the Red Raiders. Tackles Calvin Clements, who had shown improvement in recent weeks after a bumpy start to his first year on the blindside, and Enrique Cruz Jr., who had quietly emerged as one of PFF’s highest-graded right tackles in the nation, had each received pass-blocking grades of 0.0 for their performances against Tech as of Sunday morning.

Clements was held responsible for nine pressures, Amir Herring for five, and Cruz and Kobe Baynes for four each. Rotational pieces Nolan Gorczyca and Tavake Tuikolovatu conceded two pressures each in minimal snaps. Foster and Leyton Cure gave up one apiece.

The KU offensive line has rarely struggled in recent years, but Saturday’s game gave the linemen plenty to learn from before they return to the field for the Sunflower Showdown on Oct. 25.

“You got to trust technique at times,” Leipold said. “There’s ways we’re getting beat. We tried to help at certain times with chipping and things. There’s a lot of things we got to look at, from the player-technique-wise, but also schematically, what else we’re calling, what else we can do to try to do it.”

Tight end Boden Groen said the efforts to chip Tech’s defensive lineman were largely rendered moot by the Red Raiders’ “free rein to dive inside if they wanted to.”

“That’s one of the things where if they’re flying into the B gap at the jump, that chip isn’t going to do a whole lot,” he said.

Groen was otherwise the beneficiary of an inordinate amount of quick passes. He had 13 catches, a record for a KU tight end, and 11 of them were for six yards or fewer. Daniels said the frequency of targets was largely a result of Texas Tech playing more zone than expected. Leipold had also mentioned an emphasis on the short passing game as a result of the Red Raiders’ pressure.

“But they’re just really short gains, and we got to do more and be able to get the ball down the field more,” he said.

It wasn’t a particularly explosive game for KU. Beating out completions of 24 yards to Groen and 20 yards to Bryson Canty as the Jayhawks’ longest play was Daniels’ 38-yard scramble in the third quarter.

But of course, because the game was what it was, Daniels ended up with 15 carries for minus-13 yards. After all, sacks count as quarterback rushing yards.