Kansas had a long night against Missouri, and the biggest reason the Jayhawks never found their footing was simple: the offense kept giving the ball away.
Friday’s 38-21 loss was tight and messy through one half, with the teams tied 14-14 at the break. After that, Missouri took control while KU’s mistakes piled up.
The Tigers finished with a 469-255 edge in total yards and averaged 6.6 yards per play to Kansas’ 3.8. KU also turned it over three times and forced just one takeaway.
Isaiah Marshall’s night was at the center of it all. From the start, he wasn’t nearly as sharp as he had been in the opener.
On the second play from scrimmage, he tried to zip a pass to Nahzae Cox, but the throw was high and had too much on it, and Cox couldn’t secure it. That set the tone for a night filled with overthrows and missed chances.
Marshall opened by completing only one of his first six passes, with that lone connection going for 32 yards to Nik McMillan. He did settle in briefly, hitting three of his next four attempts, but the miss in that stretch was a costly one: an interception on a 50/50 ball intended for Keaton Kubecka.
The errors kept coming. Later in the first half, Marshall dropped a snap but recovered it, though the play still helped derail the drive and led to a 53-yard field-goal try that bounced off the upright and missed.
He also left two throws short of wide-open targets. The accuracy just wasn’t there.
The second half got worse. Marshall fumbled on his first snap after halftime, right after the defense had opened the half with a stop.
Then, on the first play of the next drive, he was intercepted again. By the end of the night, he had accounted for three turnovers.
Marshall finished 13 of 30 for 43% completion and 5.6 yards per attempt. There were a few flashes, but the turnover count and the missed throws were too much for Kansas to survive.
It marked KU’s worst quarterback performance since the Texas Tech game in 2023, when Kansas completed 40% of its passes for 5.5 yards per attempt. In that game, Jason Bean got hurt and Cole Ballard entered cold. Before that, the next lowest point was Week 3 against Baylor.
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The frustration is sharpened by the rivalry games, where progress has not shown up at all. Leipold is now 0-7 against Kansas biggest rivals, including five losses to Kansas State and two to Missouri, and that kind of skid is hard for fans to overlook no matter how much the rebuild improved the overall record. Still, any conversation about his future has to account for the financial reality, since firing him without cause would trigger a buyout of nearly $23 million. [Read more 🡒]