Kansas had a special teams swing that should have helped tilt the game its way, but the Jayhawks ended up getting burned by it in the biggest moments of a 24-17 loss to Arizona State on Saturday in London.
Tate Nagy gave KU the first jolt of the afternoon with a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown. He got vertical, exactly the kind of thing he had pointed to as an area he wanted to clean up, and once he broke through the first wave of ASU coverage, there was room to run.
That play fit KU’s recent profile. The Jayhawks came into the game with one of the better special teams groups in the country, backed by a top-10 unit last season and an eighth-place ranking in SP+ entering the matchup. They had already shown what that phase could do, including a special teams touchdown against Missouri and multiple blocked field goals.
Arizona State, by contrast, has had plenty of trouble there under Kenny Dillingham. The Sun Devils were 127th in special teams SP+ last season and sat 129th through two games this year.
But Saturday’s game flipped the script.
KU’s issues started with a 17-yard punt from Matt Gill, a short kick that set up a five-second touchdown drive for Arizona State with 30 seconds left in the half. Then the Sun Devils opened the second half with a kickoff return touchdown. Martin Connington also missed a 44-yard field goal for the Jayhawks.
So even though both teams landed a special teams score, the damage didn’t cancel out cleanly. KU’s rough punt at the end of the half and the missed field goal loomed large, and those mistakes ended up mattering in the final margin.
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