Three takeaways from Kansas football’s win over UNLV in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl
Kansas football has a knack for playing in high-scoring, entertaining bowl games.
This time around, the Jayhawks emerged as the victors.
Kansas survived UNLV’s comeback bid, winning 49-36 in a high-scoring Guaranteed Rate Bowl clash at Chase Field. It was KU’s first bowl victory since 2008. The Jayhawks (9-4, 5-4 Big 12) finish with their best record since 2007.
A dominant first half set the stage.
After UNLV (9-5, 6-2 Mountain West) took a 7-0 lead, the Jayhawks outscored the Rebels 28-3 the rest of the half, including a Devin Neal touchdown run with less than two minutes left. The Rebels bounced back in the second half, scoring 14 unanswered points to cut KU’s lead to four (28-24). But UNLV wouldn’t get closer the rest of the way, and the Jayhawks eventually ran out the clock, leading by two scores.
Kansas quarterback Jason Bean completed 19 of 28 pass attempts for 449 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions. He tied Todd Reesing’s Jayhawk record of six passing TDs in a game. Meanwhile, Neal had 71 rushing yards on 20 carries with one score.
Here are three takeaways from Tuesday night’s action against UNLV:
Jason Bean’s monster game
In his last game in a crimson and blue uniform, Bean left Kansas fans with a game to remember.
Bean was nearly flawless in the first half, completing 12 of 17 passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns. He let plays develop, threw some jump balls to his big-play receivers and had pinpoint accuracy ... for the most part.
His only mistake came when he threw a heat-check ball into double-coverage that UNLV picked off.
The second half wasn’t quite as pretty for Bean. He threw two interceptions within the first eight minutes of the period.
However, he did convert a fourth-and-one by rolling out and connecting with Lawrence Arnold for a 40-yard touchdown pass. He’d later add two more touchdowns that helped put the game out of reach.
It was a completely different scene from last year’s bowl game, when Bean was the target of plenty of criticism after sailing an attempted two-point-conversion throw on the final play of the game.
Jayhawk wide receivers show off their skills
Kansas’ wide receivers quite easily had their best game of the season against UNLV.
First, Luke Grimm put together another spectacular bowl showing. Last season, he had 10 catches for 167 yards against Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl.
He had three catches for 117 yards … in the first half alone. His stat line included a wide-open pass that he turned into a 60-yard touchdown.
Also, in the first half, two Kansas players (Lawrence Arnold and Quentin Skinner) had jaw-dropping catches.
First, Arnold reached up and took the ball out of a UNLV defender’s grasp for a Kansas touchdown. Later, Quentin Skinner did nearly the same thing to complete a 44-yard reception.
You rarely see two different college wide receivers “Moss” defenders in a single half.
Arnold and Grimm finished with three touchdowns apiece. It was the first time in KU history that two Jayhawks had three receiving touchdowns in the same game.
Penalties plague Kansas
Boy, the Jayhawks struggled with their discipline on Tuesday. Kansas came into the game having committed just 55 penalties, the second-fewest in the Big 12 and No. 14 nationally.
Midway through the third quarter, KU had 15 penalties for 180 yards. Those 15 penalties made up nearly 30% of Kansas’ penalties coming into the game.
At halftime, the Jayhawk Radio Network crew asked KU coach Lance Leipold about fixing the penalty issues.
“I don’t know if we can get a new crew or not in time,” Leipold said. “I tell you what, we have no rhythm in this thing, no (rhythm) whatsoever. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t even know what to tell my team right now.”
KU finished with 18 penalties for 210 yards. There was pushing and shoving that followed the final Bean kneel-down, though no additional flags were thrown on either team.
This story was originally published December 26, 2023 at 11:57 PM.
