Here’s the significance of KU Jayhawks football’s close loss to TCU Horned Frogs
Receiver Kwamie Lassiter didn’t wait for a question.
This was minutes after Kansas football’s 31-28 road loss to TCU — and just around the corner from KU’s locker room — when the senior sat down at a table with teammate Jalon Daniels and began the conversation with reporters and a television camera.
“First of all, if y’all not entertained by Jalon Daniels and the rest of this Jayhawk squad,” Lassiter said, “I don’t know what to tell you.”
His first comments were raw, honest — and also likely refreshing to hear for those KU fans watching along at home.
The Jayhawks, as 21 1/2-point underdogs, in fact were entertaining. And while they couldn’t pull off the victory following a furious comeback late, they showed the type of competitiveness and competence long missing from a program that’s scraped against college football’s seafloor for more than a decade.
KU, through its play, also proved something else on a mild fall night at Amon G. Carter Stadium: that it wasn’t just a flash in a pan, or a cute college football moment that popped up never to be heard from again.
Following a program-trajectory-changing 57-56 road victory over Texas a week ago, KU fired back Saturday, rallying from a two-touchdown deficit against TCU to tie it with less than five minutes to go.
“It says a lot about where we’re at,” KU coach Lance Leipold said. “It’s a dejected locker room and one that is not just ready to play out the season, and you could see that again. So those things I think are really important for the direction of where we’re heading.”
There might be a bit more to it as well.
The main story of last week was KU’s Jared Casey. It had to be.
A walk-on from Plainville, Kansas, Casey caught the game-winning two-point conversion after never playing offense for KU before that contest. ESPN’s College GameDay took note, as did Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff. Meanwhile, Casey shot a commercial for Applebee’s to make some money off his newfound fame.
It was the feel-good of all feel-good stories ... but might’ve also had the potential to leave some KU players feeling like they’d been left out of the spotlight following such a momentous win.
So this encore? Well, it definitely seemed to show that some Jayhawks have legitimate staying power.
Start with the player Lassiter mentioned by name: Daniels.
A week ago against Texas, he posted the highest-ever single-game grade by a KU quarterback since Pro Football Focus began tracking in 2010. He also decided to pull a potential redshirt to play the Jayhawks’ last two games this season.
Midweek, however, he became ill with a stomach bug. Daniels missed some practice, and Leipold said he seemed to sense his QB was experiencing some lingering effects in the first quarter against TCU.
Those didn’t last. Daniels completed 22 of 30 passes for a career-high 255 yards while engineering two fourth-quarter touchdown drives that helped tie it at 28-28.
Just as impressive, though, was Casey following his national TV tour.
The 6-foot tight end cleared the way for KU’s first two touchdown runs with punishing blocks. In the second quarter, he added a one-handed catch, then he snuck behind the TCU secondary late to pull down a 10-yard game-tying touchdown.
To put it simply: Casey, over the last two weeks, has been one of KU’s best players.
“Really proud of him and that whole story,” Leipold said, “but I think the good thing about that, it shows it’s just not a one-play story, in that the young man’s a good football player.”
Perhaps most encouraging was that KU appeared to take another program step by responding to early adversity.
Leipold had made clear that he’s often been worried about his team’s collective psyche, especially on the road. Once things have gone bad for KU early, they’ve had a tendency to snowball quickly, with Leipold even electing to receive when he wins the opening coin toss in hopes of helping his team to a good start.
This game was different. KU’s offense punted twice early. TCU scored on its first offensive possession. The Jayhawks were down 7-0, and staring down the barrel of a situation they’d handled poorly so many past instances.
No collapse followed; the opposite, in fact. KU’s defense picked up a one-handed interception from Jacobee Bryant, and later a fourth-and-1 stand with help from a Caleb Sampson stuff.
Meanwhile, the offense recovered, putting in a pair of first-half touchdowns as KU took a 14-7 halftime lead. It was the third time in the Jayhawks’ last five contests that they went into the break ahead.
“When we’re down (emotionally), we try not to stay down,” KU safety Kenny Logan said. “We try to find a way to get out of the hole and just get some energy going for our team.”
What might be most impressive is that KU and Leipold are accomplishing this with severe roster restrictions.
KU running back Devin Neal — the reigning Big 12 offensive player of the week — left in the second quarter with a shoulder injury and didn’t return; Leipold didn’t have an update afterward on Neal’s potential availability for the season finale either.
The Jayhawks also lost tight end Trevor Kardell to injury, which forced Casey into more playing time. If things stand like this next week, KU potentially will only have one scholarship player available at running back (Amauri Pesek-Hickson), and none left at the fullback and tight-end positions.
That reality rarely showed itself Saturday, though, as Leipold’s program rebuild seemed for a second straight week to be trending far ahead of schedule.
“I love the amount of fight that we showed,” Daniels said. “There’s times in the KU program in the past where if we go down 14, it’s usually lights out from there. But I’m just happy and so proud of my team for fighting.”
The other sideline certainly took note.
TCU interim coach Jerry Kill was effusive in his praise for Leipold and KU earlier in the week, and he didn’t back off that after seeing the Jayhawks in person.
“They finally got it right. No disrespect to anybody, but they finally got it right,” Kill said of KU hiring Leipold. “They’re going to be something to be reckoned with as the next three to four years go.”
It was progress from a month ago, no doubt. After an encouraging close loss to Oklahoma, KU no-showed the next week against Oklahoma State, bringing into question the team’s actual growth.
This was a change. The Jayhawks stunned Texas last week, then performed over expectations against TCU while refusing to succumb to a natural letdown.
No, it wasn’t a win. But for the fans that have stuck with KU football this long, it qualified as improvement — a refreshing result based on the recent past.
“I’d say that we’re coming along,” Logan said. “We’re starting to finally put the puzzle pieces together.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2021 at 11:02 PM.
