Kansas had UCF on the ropes, then had the game ripped away at the finish.
The Jayhawks erased a 19-point third-quarter hole and briefly looked ready to complete the comeback, only to watch the Knights march 73 yards in 10 plays and win 33-32 on a last-second touchdown Saturday at Kansas Memorial Stadium.
The ending came with replay drama. UCF’s Waden Charles caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Alonza Barnett with 7 seconds left, a play that initially appeared to tie the game at 32-32 with an extra point looming.
Replay ruled Charles out of bounds. Then, on first down from the 6-yard line with 4 ticks left, Barnett found Caden Piening near the sideline for the score.
That one was reviewed too, and after further review it stood. The extra point sealed the one-point win.
For Kansas, the loss was crushing on multiple levels. The home defeat dropped the Jayhawks to 3-6 overall and 1-5 in the Big 12, leaving them needing to win their final three games - at West Virginia, home against BYU, and at Oklahoma State - to get to the six victories required for bowl eligibility.
That path is a steep one. West Virginia enters its Saturday night game against Texas Tech at 5-3.
No. 9 BYU is 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the league.
Oklahoma State is 6-3 overall and 4-2 in conference play after Saturday’s 66-28 win over Kansas State. Five-win teams can still get into the postseason if the NCAA needs to fill all 35 traditional bowl games.
UCF, meanwhile, improved to 5-4 overall and 3-3 in the Big 12, and snapped its 12-game road losing streak. The Knights had not won away from home since Sept. 14, 2024, when they beat TCU 35-34 in a comeback that also saw them trail by 21 points. Scott Frost inherited that skid when he returned to coach UCF for the 2025 season after previously leading the program in 2016 and 2017.
Barnett finished 18 of 31 for 251 yards and two touchdowns, while also rushing for 36 yards on 12 carries. Josh Derry caught eight passes for 143 yards and a touchdown. UCF won for the first time in three meetings with Kansas.
Kansas had plenty of fight left after falling behind 26-7 early in the third quarter. Isaiah Marshall scored on a 30-yard run, then Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman punched in a 1-yard touchdown to cut the margin to five. Martin Connington added a 34-yard field goal with 5:29 remaining to make it 26-24.
The Jayhawks then got the ball back at their own 5-yard line with 2:27 left and somehow turned that into a chance to win. They converted a fourth down deep in their own end and pushed into scoring position. Edwards finished the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run, and Kansas added the two-point conversion to go ahead.
But UCF answered one last time.
Isaiah Marshall was central to the Kansas effort all day. The sophomore, back in the lineup after missing last week’s loss at TCU with a lower leg injury, showed he was healthy immediately with a 12-yard run on the first play from scrimmage. He finished 21 of 32 passing for 210 yards and added 125 rushing yards on 13 carries with two rushing touchdowns.
Kansas’ defense set the tone early and kept the game within reach. On UCF’s first play from scrimmage, Barnett was hit by end David Santiago on first-and-10 at the UCF 22.
The ball popped into the hands of linebacker Trey Lathan for an interception at the 27, but Lathan fumbled and defensive tackle Marcus Calvin recovered at the 15. Calvin returned it to the 3, and Kansas needed just four plays to score on Marshall’s 1-yard run with 12:20 left in the first quarter.
The Jayhawks also forced UCF into field goals instead of touchdowns on a pair of first-half drives. One stopped at the 18 ended with a 37-yard Will Stone field goal.
Another stalled at the 5 and produced a 23-yard Stone kick. David Santiago later recovered a fumble at the 36 to shut down another possible scoring chance.
UCF’s final first-half drive ended at the Kansas 36 when Stone missed a 54-yard attempt, leaving the Knights up only 12-7 at the break.
Kansas controlled the ball for 11:25 of the first half, compared with 18:35 for UCF.
Then came the third-quarter surge from the Knights, the Jayhawks’ rally, and the final punch that sent the home crowd into boos. Kansas now heads to Morgantown for a Saturday, Nov. 14 matchup with West Virginia.
In Other News...
UCF Finally Ended Its Road Misery In A Wild Kansas Finish
UCF walked out of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium with a 33-32 win over Kansas, finally snapping a 12-game road losing streak in a game that swung back and forth until the final seconds. Alonza Barnett III delivered the decisive touchdown pass to Caden Piening with three seconds left, and Will Stone added the extra point to complete a finish that left the Jayhawks on the wrong end of a wild one.
For Kansas, the loss only added to the frustration of a game that featured multiple lead changes and plenty of momentum shifts before UCF seized it at the end. Josh Derry and Taevion Swint were among the Knights who made their presence felt, and the result gave UCF a badly needed breakthrough away from home while leaving plenty for Kansas to sort through after another tight finish slipped away. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Fans Have Seen This Late-Game Collapse Far Too Often
Kansas had clawed back into the game and put itself in position to escape with a road win, only to watch it slip away in the final seconds against UCF. The finish was as chaotic as it was painful, with multiple reviewed plays shaping the closing stretch before the Knights cashed in on a walk-off touchdown catch and the extra point that sent the Jayhawks home with a 33-32 loss.
For Lance Leipolds team, the result fit an all-too-familiar script. Kansas has now lived through too many late-game defeats under Leipold, and this one stung because the comeback was real, the margin was there, and the decisive play came after a sequence that already had the game teetering on the edge. Caden Piening delivered the touchdown that ended it, leaving Kansas with another reminder of how quickly a promising finish can unravel. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Football Is Drifting Toward A Reset It Can Barely Afford
Kansas footballs slide this fall has put Lance Leipold in an uncomfortable spotlight, with the Jayhawks sitting at 3-6 and the path back to bowl eligibility growing narrower by the week. For a program that had finally started to feel stable under Leipold, the current drift is jarring, especially as the losses pile up and the questions around the direction of the team get louder.
Leipolds overall mark at Kansas now sits at 30-40, and the financial reality around any coaching change only adds another layer of hesitation. His buyout would be $17.9 million if he is fired after December 1, 2026, and with a major stadium construction project already stretching the programs resources, the Jayhawks are staring at a reset that would be expensive to make and even harder to justify. [Read more 🡒]