Kansas’ quarterback picture is under the microscope, and it only looks messier when you line up Isaiah Marshall’s start against what former Jayhawk David McComb is doing elsewhere.
Marshall won the job just two weeks before the season opener against LIU, after an offseason spent watching the battle with redshirt junior Cole Ballard play out in public. That decision brought some relief to a fan base that had spent months waiting for clarity.
But it also came with an important reminder: this is Marshall’s first real run as a quarterback. Most of his snaps last season came in running packages or late in blowouts.
So far, the results have been uneven.
Through three games, Marshall has thrown for 649 yards while completing 53.7% of his passes. He has five touchdown passes and three interceptions, along with 124 rushing yards. His game log tells the story of a quarterback still finding his footing: 14 of 19 for 246 yards and two touchdowns in a 51-6 win over LIU, then 13 of 30 for 168 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in a 38-21 loss to Missouri, and 17 of 33 for 235 yards with a touchdown and an interception in a 24-18 loss to Arizona State.
Not disastrous. Not electric, either.
And then there’s McComb, whose early success at Miami (OH) adds another layer to Kansas’ quarterback conversation.
McComb was a 3-star quarterback in the class of 2025, ranked as the country’s 42nd-best quarterback and the No. 15 prospect from Oklahoma. A product of Edmond Memorial High School, he had offers from UAB, Tulsa, Tulane, Toledo, North Texas, Akron, Memphis, Virginia Tech and Kansas. He spent his lone season with the Jayhawks buried on the depth chart, with Jalon Daniels finishing out his final year and Ballard and Marshall handling the rest of the available snaps.
After Kansas’ second straight 5-7 season, McComb entered the NCAA Transfer Portal and landed at Miami (OH) less than a month later. He was named the RedHawks’ starting quarterback and has opened his college career against Pitt, Holy Cross and Cincinnati, helping Miami to a 1-2 start.
McComb’s numbers have been sharp: 809 passing yards, five touchdowns and one interception on 62.2% completions. He has also scored twice on the ground, though he isn’t a true rushing threat, with just 12 yards on 15 attempts. In college football, sacks count against a quarterback’s rushing totals, which is worth keeping in mind.
His game-by-game line has been strong as well: 16 of 33 for 241 yards and a touchdown in a 59-14 loss to Pitt, a perfect 13 of 13 for 234 yards and three touchdowns in a 45-7 win over Holy Cross, and 17 of 28 for 334 yards with a touchdown and an interception in a 35-31 loss to Cincinnati.
Marshall also dealt with issues against Arizona State when center Kasen Carpenter launched multiple snaps over his head, forcing the former Michigan state champ to down the play before it even truly began. That didn’t do Marshall’s numbers any favors.
In Other News...
Kansas Bye Week Suddenly Carries More Weight Than Fans Realized
The calendar is starting to tilt toward Kansas final nonconference date, and the Big 12 has now locked in a detail that changes the feel of that stretch run. The Jayhawks home game against Middle Tennessee on Oct. 3 will arrive as their first Saturday morning kickoff of the season, a spot on the schedule that tends to reshape everything from pregame routines to the atmosphere in the stadium.
It also gives Kansas one more unfamiliar wrinkle before league play takes center stage, because the Blue Raiders are a first-time opponent for the program. With the matchup landing on national television and coming at the end of the nonconference slate, it now has the look of a game the Jayhawks will want to handle cleanly before the real grind begins. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Bye Week Brings A Harsh Reality For Bowl Hopes
Kansas enters its bye week at 1-2, and the pause arrives with a clear reminder that the path to six wins is getting narrower by the day. ESPNs Football Power Index has the Jayhawks down at 67th among FBS teams, and the models updated game-by-game projections paint a season that still has opportunities left, but not much room for error if Kansas wants to stay in the bowl conversation.
The most immediate pressure point comes when the Jayhawks return to action, because the schedule offers little chance to ease back in. Kansas will spend the week sorting through the rest of its forecast, including the updated win probabilities and implied betting spreads that now frame each remaining matchup, with the trip to Utah looming as the kind of game that can quickly tilt the entire outlook one way or the other. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Showed Promise In London But One Problem Still Looms
Kansas came back from London with plenty to sort through after a 24-17 loss to Arizona State in its Big 12 opener, but not everything in the performance was discouraging. Lance Leipold pointed to a defense that kept the Jayhawks in the game, and sophomore wide receiver Tate Nagy provided the offensive spark, scoring both Kansas touchdowns in a matchup that had its share of momentum swings.
Still, the issues that tripped Kansas up were hard to ignore. The Jayhawks struggled to protect the ball on offense and also ran into trouble on special teams, two areas that can quickly erase the value of a solid defensive effort. For a team that showed flashes of promise on a big stage, the next question is how quickly it can clean up the mistakes that left it on the wrong end of a close one. [Read more 🡒]