After an incredibly thrilling and satisfying win in the Backyard Brawl on Saturday, the West Virginia Mountaineers now turn their attention to a road matchup with the Kansas Jayhawks to open up Big 12 Conference play. As West Virginia gets ready to head to Lawrence, let’s take a look at the scouting report on the Kansas Jayhawks so far this season.
Kansas Jayhawks (2-1 in non-conference play)
31-7 win over Fresno State
On August 23rd, Kansas took down the Bulldogs of Fresno State behind a solid performance from starting QB Jalon Daniels, who converted on 18 of his 20 attempts and threw three touchdown passes.
46-7 win over Wagner
Against FCS opponent Wagner, the Jayhawk offense rolled, producing 631 total yards while the defense allowed just 143 yards to Wagner. Wide Receiver Emmanuel Henderson hauled in six passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns. The Jayhawk defense had three sacks and nine tackles for loss.
42-31 loss at Missouri
After jumping out to a 21-6 lead over Missouri, the Tigers' offense proved to be too much for Kansas to handle. Missouri gained 595 total yards compared to 254 for Kansas, who struggled to establish the ground game, rushing for just 31 yards on 19 carries.
Kansas Offense
On the offensive side of the ball, there are some familiar faces still in the program, none more recognizable than Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels. Daniels may very well be to KU football what Perry Ellis was to the basketball program. If it seems like Jaylon Daniels has been at Kansas for a very long time, that’s because he has. He began his career at Kansas in 2020 and has been a major contributor to Kansas rewriting the narrative surrounding its football program for well over a decade.
Joining him is running back Daniel Hilshaw, who also began his career at Kansas in 2020. Hilshaw has spent much of his career serving as the backup to the talented Devin Neal, who is now with the New Orleans Saints.
As far as the playmakers that Jalon Daniels is throwing passes to, this is an area that looks totally different from what it has in seasons past. The top nine pass catchers for the Jayhawks in 2024 are not on the team this season. Whether receivers, tight ends, or running backs, Kansas lost nearly all of its receiving production. Their leading receiver from 2024 that is back is the aforementioned Daniel Hishaw, who had just 33 yards receiving.
To deal with this loss of production, Kansas looked to the transfer portal and added several wide receivers.
Emmanuel Henderson, who had a breakout game against Wagner, transfers from Alabama, where he saw limited action. In three games as a Jayhawk, he has 183 yards and two touchdowns on 12 receptions.
Cam Pickett collected 528 yards and two touchdowns at Ball State in 2024. Through three games at KU, he has 10 catches for 124 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Levi Wentz is a Senior transfer from Albany who had 621 yards and a touchdown in 2024. Through 3 games at Kansas, Wentz has seven receptions for 103 yards.
The Kansas offensive line is made up of a combination of players who started at KU last season, players who were second string at KU, or transfers. Their inability to run the football effectively against Missouri leads us to highlight their running game squaring off with West Virginia’s front seven (who has had success stopping the run this season) as a key matchup to watch.
Kansas Defense
Defensively, Kansas lost key contributors in the secondary from 2024, and much like their wide receiver room, they added players via the transfer portal to bolster this position group. WVU transfer linebacker Trey Lathan is Kansas’ leading tackler through three games.
Kansas ranks third in the Big 12 with 10 sacks. WVU leads the conference with 12. Chattanooga transfer Leroy Harris III is a key player to keep an eye on as he has 3.5 sacks on the young season. While the defense performed exceptionally well against Fresno State and Wagner, numerous issues were exploited in the road loss to Missouri.
Despite having 4 sacks and 7 TFLs in the game, Missouri did much of what they wanted offensively. Tigers QB Beau Pribula converted on 30 of 39 pass attempts for 334 yards and 3 touchdowns. Two Missouri running backs eclipsed 100 yards, and as a team they had 47 carries for 267 yards, an average of 5.6 yards per carry.
A matchup to watch in the West Virginia matchup with Kansas will be breakout running back Tye Edwards versus the Kansas defense. Edwards is coming off a massive 141-yard, 3-touchdown performance in the Backyard Brawl.