Two reviews, ‘Butt fumble 2’ and a freshman miscue: How KU football took down TCU

Joe Dineen’s smile grew wider. As the slow-motion video replay played on the laptop computer in front of him, he quickly shrugged his shoulders, flipping his palms up toward the ceiling.

“Hey,” he said with a chuckle. “You’ve got to get it how you get it, I guess.”

In five years with KU’s football program, Dineen has seen some of the darkest times. He’s spoken to reporters not only after blowouts, but also in close losses where unlucky breaks late sometimes made it seem as the football gods might never again smile on the Jayhawks.

It’s why — following KU’s 27-26 upset over TCU on Saturday at Booth Memorial Stadium — Dineen wasn’t about to apologize for his team, finally, getting a bit of a lucky streak at the end of a close game.

“That is crazy,” Dineen said, eyes on the screen. “ ... Butt fumble 2.”

Let’s start here, one of three separate instances that had to go right for KU to secure its second Big 12 victory under fourth-year coach David Beaty.

TCU, down 27-24 late in the fourth quarter, was driving to take the lead, moving the ball inside the Jayhawks’ 10-yard line.

That’s when running back Darius Andersron lost the football with no defender contact, putting it on the ground after running into the backside of left guard Austin Myers.

Anderson was initially ruled down, but video replay showed clear evidence of the fumble and recovery by KU’s KeyShaun Simmons.

KU had two other “what if” moments fall its way in the fourth quarter.

The first came on the Jayhawks’ go-ahead touchdown, as true freshman running back Pooka Williams took a screen pass and made two sharp cuts to the inside, extending his arm to the end zone for a 28-yard score.

Just as he was reaching across, though, he fumbled, with TCU recovering in the end zone. The crucial play was reviewed by officials.

“A stressful situation,” KU quarterback Peyton Bender said.

The call on the field was upheld, however, with KU coaches and players feeling fortunate that the original ruling was touchdown. Beaty said running backs are taught to not lunge with the football, even near the goal line.

“As unbelievable of a player as (Pooka) is, he’s human,” Beaty said. “Fortunately for us, it stood.”

It all set up a wacky final few seconds that could’ve led to disaster if one TCU player paid better attention.

With 7 seconds left, Bender was asked to run backwards to the end zone before throwing the ball backwards for a safety. When he did so, his lateral hit a sun canopy above a luxury seating section, which stopped the clock with 1 second left.

Liam Jones squibbed KU’s free kick from the 20, which reached TCU’s La’Kendrick VanZandt at the 33. He tried to run the ball back, which eliminated the final second off the clock.

TCU coach Gary Patterson said that wasn’t what VanZandt was instructed to do.

“Everybody was told ‘fall on the ball.’ Then the clock doesn’t start. And then you’ve got a chance to kick a field goal,” Patterson said. “Everybody was told to ‘fall on the ball.’ It’s what I told them in the locker room. Everybody was told ‘fall on the ball.’ If you fall on the ball you’ve got one second. On the sideline, everybody was told ‘fall on the ball.’ A redshirt freshman caught it. Everybody was told ‘fall on the ball.’ Let me repeat that again: Everybody was told ‘fall on the ball.’”

Beaty was asked if he believed TCU would have had time left to kick a potential game-winning field goal it had simply fallen on the kickoff.

“I don’t know. That’s a good question,” Beaty said. “I will say this: We were fortunate, because we weren’t trying to kick it to the front line. We were trying to get it through. It didn’t get through, and our guys reacted well. I was proud of them. We weren’t necessarily trying to onside there.”

In the end, it all worked out for the Jayhawks, who entered as two-touchdown underdogs. Beaty picked up his first Big 12 win since 2016, when KU defeated Texas, 24-21, in overtime.

KU also improved to 3-5, which is likely to help Beaty’s job security as it relates to the season’s final four weeks.

“Those guys deserve to have success,” Beaty said of his players. “I think the challenge for us moving forward is to make sure that we don’t make this something that we’re just surprised at — that we continue to move forward.”

Dineen, who’d just celebrated with KU students on the field at Booth Memorial Stadium following the victory, was happy to take the win any way it came.

“Football’s a game of breaks, man,” Dineen said. “You make your own luck, and then every once in a while, the ball will hit and flip one way.”

Jesse Newell

Jesse Newell covers University of Kansas athletics for The Star.

This story was originally published October 27, 2018 at 9:18 PM.