photo by: Carter Gaskins

Kansas running back Khalil Herbert (10) gets ready for a drill during practice on Saturday, August 4, 2018.

In the past two weeks, Kansas did what good teams do to weak competition, dominating Central Michigan and Rutgers by a combined score of 86-21.

In so doing, KU worked its way high up the national rankings in several statistical categories. KU leads with a turnover margin of plus 12 and no other team has higher than eight.

KU is tied for the national lead with — brace yourself — Alabama with three interceptions returned for a touchdown. The Jayhawks are tied for second with four others in interceptions (seven), ranking behind only North Texas (nine). KU had four interceptions for the entire 2017 season.

Even though Pooka Williams missed the opener, he ranks 27th in the nation with 283 rushing yards, most of anyone in the Big 12.

Williams has not played in 75 percent of his team’s games so he’s not eligible for rushing yards per game, but only five players in the nation who are eligible have rushed for more than his 141.5-yard average. Just 14 backs eligible to be ranked have averaged more than his 8.84 yards per carry. Khalil Herbert ranks 56th with 6.7 yards per rush.

Those are impressive numbers for Pooka and Herbert, but no running back in the nation comes even close to Memphis junior Darrell Henderson. He leads the nation with 521 rushing yards, and 14.47 yards per attempt, and is tied for second (trailing Florida Atlantic’s Devin Singletary by one) with six touchdowns.

KU is tied for second with three rushing plays of 50 yards or greater, all on TD runs vs. Rutgers: Herbert (59), Deron Thompson (55), Pooka (52). Memphis leads with six 50-plus rushes, three of them in the 70-plus category. KU also ranks tied for second, behind Georgia Tech, with 11 rushing plays of 20 yards or longer and tied for second, behind Memphis, with four rushing plays of 40 yards or longer.