Why the Kansas Jayhawks are ‘not going to complain’ about ‘an ugly win’ vs. Nevada
Kansas football accomplished something on Saturday that the program hadn’t done in more than 30 years.
The Jayhawks defeated Nevada 31-24 to cement their second consecutive 3-0 start for the first time since the 1991 and 1992 seasons.
KU’s play against Nevada wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring considering the Jayhawks entered Reno as 28-point favorites.
Still, a win is a win — a fact not lost on Kansas running back Devin Neal, who had 89 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
“It (wasn’t) a long time (ago) that people were dreaming of a 3-0 start,” he said. “For us, it’s really important to get great confidence.”
The Jayhawks can, as Neal suggested, draw confidence from the win, even as they put in their least convincing effort of the season to date.
Kansas’ first two wins came against Missouri State (48-17) and Illinois (34-23).
The Jayhawks committed seven penalties (53 yards) and fumbled the ball twice. They didn’t recover any of Nevada’s five fumbles — including one opportunity where KU defensive end Hayden Hatcher touched the ball while he was out of bounds, keeping a teammate from recovering.
The offense, meanwhile, looked out of sync until the second half.
“It was an ugly win,” quarterback Jalon Daniels said. “At the end of the day, we were able to grab that win. ... We’re not going to complain about another win in the win column.”
Kansas coach Lance Leipold shared a similar sentiment.
“This group found a way,” Leipold said. “Maybe not to expectations, but it sure feels a lot better than talking about what got away from us.”
Leipold said he’s proud of how his team responded when the Jayhawks found themselves in a grueling matchup with the Wolf Pack.
“This program hasn’t won a lot of football games in the last decade, so we better be darn proud of that,” Leipold said. “Then we go back to work and clean it up, just like we would if we won (big). They didn’t panic. There wasn’t a lot of that. They stuck together. There wasn’t any bunch of yelling or anything at either side of the ball. ... They were very calm and mature about it.”
The competition, meanwhile, is about to get tougher.
Kansas begins Big 12 play next week against BYU. The Cougars are 3-0 after winning at Arkansas on Saturday.
Kansas safety Kenny Logan believes a game like the Nevada contest was perfect preparation for Big 12 play. After Texas, which earned a marquee win over Alabama last week, the conference appears to be more open than normal, especially as Kansas State fell to Missouri on Saturday.
“Just confidence that you can win a dogfight,” Logan said. “You can go into a tough place, a hostile environment and come out of it and win a dogfight. So we’ve got to make sure to continue to pull out the good in this because it was a hard-fought win. We have to make sure we get back to the drawing board (and) look at the things we did wrong.”
