FRISCO, Texas - Kansas’ quarterback race is heading into the fall with a clear expectation from Lance Leipold: both Cole Ballard and Isaiah Marshall are going to see the field.
Leipold said Wednesday at Big 12 Media Days that the Jayhawks plan to use both quarterbacks this season, regardless of who ultimately wins the starting job. With Jalon Daniels no longer an option under center for the first time since 2019, KU is sorting through the two young passers who have been waiting for their chance.
Ballard enters the battle with two starts from his true freshman season in 2023. He has played in 11 games since then, completing 15 passes for 159 yards and adding more than 200 rushing yards in his career. Marshall, now in his second year at Kansas, has appeared in nine games, rushed 15 times for 160 yards and completed three passes for 28 yards.
Leipold said the staff is still waiting to decide who will be the starter, but the answer will come down to consistency.
"How we're going to determine who the starter will be, the one who's the most consistent," Leipold said. "I think we have two quarterbacks that we can win football games with, without a doubt. We have two young men that are excellent people, they're good football players, they're well respected in the locker room, they're excellent leaders."
He also made it clear that the winning quarterback won’t be the only one involved. Leipold said Ballard and Marshall will both play "on a weekly basis." Kansas has leaned on multiple-quarterback packages before, especially in 2022 and 2023 when Jason Bean and Daniels were both available.
A big part of where KU is now comes from the spring work the two quarterbacks logged when Daniels was injured. Those reps forced Ballard and Marshall into bigger roles, and this spring the staff split the work evenly between them.
"Both guys had, I think, 320 reps this spring," Leipold said. "That's a lot of reps… When Jalon wasn't practicing, Cole Ballard and Isaiah Marshall were getting reps.
So they have a lot of bank reps of time. Now it's time for them to go out and execute and play."
The two were also battling for the backup job behind Daniels last fall, which Leipold said gave them a chance to develop without quite as much pressure. Over time, he said, both quarterbacks have taken steps forward.
That growth has shown up in the leadership side as much as anything else, something teammates have praised Ballard for before. Leipold said the next step is simple: command the huddle, make the right decisions and deliver the ball.
"Just confidence, maturity, command of the huddle," Leipold said. "They have natural leadership.
They have an it to them about a confidence of flushing a play and moving on and doing things like that. But executing and putting the ball where it needs to be, making great decisions, all those things."
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