Kansas opened the season with a start that looked a little ordinary on the surface, then turned Long Island into a runaway. The Jayhawks only managed six points in the first quarter and settled for a field goal early in the second, but they never punted, settled in quickly and rolled to a 51-6 win Friday night.
That last detail mattered to Lance Leipold, even if the beginning of the night did not exactly sparkle.
“I told the team this: Games like this that you’re heavily favored, I think everybody wants you to score one touchdown right away that’s worth like 30 points,” Leipold said. “OK, everybody’s expecting everything to happen right away, and when it doesn’t, then you’re underperforming or something.”
KU answered soon enough. Isaiah Marshall, making his first full-time start at quarterback, started stretching the field with a pair of sharp deep throws to Nik McMillan and Nahzae Cox. The Jayhawks added two more touchdowns after that, then tacked on another before halftime and never looked back.
For a season opener against an FCS opponent, there was still plenty to sort through - and plenty that KU can carry forward into Friday’s Border War against Missouri.
One of the first adjustments came before kickoff, when the Jayhawks altered their usual routine because of the late-summer heat. A chunk of their early warmups took place inside the indoor practice facility.
“Never done anything like that,” Leipold said. “Modified the heat, tried to keep ourselves as fresh as possible.”
Leipold said that change is not expected to become a regular habit. Leroy Harris III said the group adapted, even if it felt different.
“We adjusted to it, but I mean, it was a necessary thing,” Harris said. “They said it was going to be hot in there … but it was definitely different, I would say, for sure, not being on the game field.”
Injuries also became part of the story almost immediately. Boston College transfer Bam Crouch went down with a shoulder injury on KU’s fourth defensive play, and Leipold did not have an update afterward.
Quincy Davis, the New Mexico State transfer listed as the backup middle linebacker, moved into the weak side spot without issue. If Crouch is sidelined for any length of time, redshirt freshman Malachi Curvey and Marshall transfer Jibreel Al-Amin could be in the mix as well.
The Jayhawks also lost Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman to a targeting call in the second half, a play Leipold clearly disagreed with.
“That would be in a demo tape for us, probably, and it probably still will be,” Leipold said.
The good news for Kansas is that Cummings-Coleman can still play in the first half against Missouri on Friday, since new NCAA rules do not bring a suspension for a player’s first targeting penalty of the year.
Marshall’s debut gave KU a different kind of evidence. He is athletic enough to draw attention with his legs, but Friday showed he is much more than a runner. He threw with touch on the deep balls to McMillan and Cox, and he also hit McMillan for a 19-yard touchdown before halftime.
There were freshman moments mixed in, too. Marshall survived his first extended action without a major mistake, but he had a couple of passes tipped by linebackers that could have gone the other way.
One fell incomplete. The other wound up in the hands of Tate Nagy.
Nagy was busy being Nagy again. He was the receiver on the tip-drill touchdown, and he kept creating trouble for Long Island in other ways, too.
He caught a third-and-19 pass from Cole Ballard and, as Leipold put it, “he makes about five guys miss to convert a first down.” He also returned five punts for 48 yards after saying before the season that he wanted to get more vertical in the return game.
There was still plenty of horizontal movement in there, but KU will take the production.
Defensively, the Jayhawks’ edge players made a strong opening statement. Harris finished with four tackles for losses, all in the backfield. David Santiago, one of camp’s standouts, was just as disruptive and forced and recovered a fumble by stripping the ball from an LIU running back.
“Wish he could have got maybe a touchdown,” Harris said. “That lineman got him. I was excited for him, excited that he got that.”
Leipold praised both players after the game.
“They play hard and they played pretty well,” Leipold said. “I’ve said Leroy’s kind of picking up a little bit where he left off last year and becoming even more of a force at times, and we’ve talked about David Santiago a long time through camp, and how steady, and he’s a physical player.”
The one thing Kansas did not show much of was the full shape of its offense. Outside of a strange swinging-gate two-point try that failed, the Jayhawks kept things relatively plain by Andy Kotelnicki’s standards. The pre-snap movement that once made his offenses so hard to pin down was mostly absent, and KU leaned on straightforward runs between the tackles out of basic looks.
That does not mean the Tigers should expect a carbon copy of Friday night. Kansas will almost certainly bring much more misdirection next week. The bigger question is how well Marshall and the rest of the offense handle it.
In Other News...
Lance Leipold Had One Big Issue With Kansas' Blowout Win
Kansas had little trouble putting away Long Island in a 51-6 win, and for most of the afternoon the only real question was how lopsided it would get. The Jayhawks rolled up 613 yards on offense, got strong work from backs Yasin Willis, Micah Johnson and Jalen Dupree, and saw Isaiah Marshall settle in by completing 14 of 19 passes for 246 yards and two touchdowns. On the other side, the defense smothered the Sharks, holding them to 146 yards and just 11 first downs in a game that looked over early and only grew more one-sided.
The lone sour note came late in the fourth quarter, when redshirt-sophomore safety Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman was sent off after a targeting ruling on a hit that Lance Leipold clearly believed merited a closer look. For a team that otherwise checked just about every box in a runaway nonconference win, the call stood out enough to leave the Kansas coach frustrated as the Jayhawks turned their attention to the next week. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Offense Just Created A New Question Before Missouri
Kansas handled Long Island University exactly the way a heavily favored team should, rolling to a 51-6 win and getting the kind of low-stress September result that lets a staff sort through depth and rhythm. The bigger offensive note was the return of coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, and Kansas had enough moving parts to leave with a better feel for its backfield rotation, steady production from several running backs and a more complete picture of how the passing game might look as the season moves forward.
Isaiah Marshall also got his first-ever start and immediately gave the offense something to think about heading into Missouri week, including an early connection with Nik McMillan that stood out in a game with plenty of scoring. On the other side of the ball, Leroy Harris III was disruptive throughout the afternoon with multiple tackles for loss, giving Kansas a defensive edge to match the offensive depth it uncovered, even if the bigger questions now are how all of it carries into a far more demanding rivalry test. [Read more 🡒]
Isaiah Marshall Gave Kansas Fans Exactly What They Needed Early
The season opener gave Kansas exactly the kind of calm start it was hoping for at quarterback, and Isaiah "Zeke" Marshall delivered it. Named the starter heading into the year, Marshall looked settled from the jump in a 51-6 win over Long Island, helping the Jayhawks set the tone early while showing the poise Lance Leipold and teammate Nik McMillan both pointed to afterward.
Marshalls performance mattered not just because of the score, but because it answered one of the first questions of the fall with a clean, efficient outing. Kansas has been searching for stability at the position, and Marshall gave the offense a confident opening act before handing things off to Cole Ballard, leaving the bigger test for another day. [Read more 🡒]