LAWRENCE — The Kansas football team says it’s had enough. Enough of the losing. Enough of the penalties. Enough of the miscues that have plagued the Jayhawks in the early portion of the season.
Now they hope to turn their season around and get back on the right track when they face TCU on Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium. The Jayhawks (1-3) enter having lost their last three games while TCU (2-2) enters having lost two in a row.
KU looked like it was in control last week at West Virginia as the Jayhawks led by 11 with five minutes to go. But the Jayhawks couldn’t finish it off, and the Mountaineers rallied to win. The Horned Frogs, meanwhile, blew a lead against Central Florida and were blown out last week by rival SMU. Still, TCU is only about a year and a half removed from playing for the national championship, and Kansas coach Lance Leipold expects the Jayhawks to get TCU’s best effort.
“They’re a good football team that’s going to look to bounce back,” Leipold said. “They had a big win at Stanford and they’re in a spot like we are in this conference. And as you can see from last week’s results that it’s tough to win on the road and there’s a lot of close games.”
TCU quarterback Josh Hoover has completed 68 percent of his passes, thrown for 1,418 yards and 11 touchdowns with two picks. Receiver Jack Bech — a former LSU transfer — leads the team with 43 catches for 489 yards and three touchdowns.
“This is a team that’s got an outstanding group of receivers, a good quarterback,” Leipold said. “This will be the best total receiving core/quarterback that we’ve gone against. About 40 of their players were on the national championship roster. So it’s a good football team.”
Meanwhile, Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels and his receivers have struggled a little getting in synch offensively. Daniels, who missed all but three games last season has been trying to work his way back to his 2022 form, but he’s already thrown seven interceptions and has just four touchdown passes.
Daniels threw a first-half interception last week and has done so in each of KU’s string of losses. Still, Leipold said he saw improvement from Daniels against the Mountaineers as a couple notable changes were made. Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes called the plays from the booth while quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski returned to the sideline to work with Daniels.
“I think maybe it was more comfortable for Jalon and Jim to be together in the game,” Leipold said. “Both the guys have done it either way. Unfortunately, we didn’t win the game.”
Daniels completed 15 of 25 passes for 184 yards and a touchdown and an interception last week against WVU, but the Jayhawks fell short as the offense slowed late.
“I thought he had a very solid game,” Leipold said. “He made some plays for us, but we didn’t make enough when we needed to. I look at it as an offense and as a team we’ve got to be better in the four-minute offense. You go to be able to get first downs and run the clock out.”
