Kansas heads to Morgantown this weekend with no margin for error, and Lance Leipold knows exactly what his defense is walking into.
After last week’s crushing loss to UCF, the Jayhawks sit at 3-6 and are trying to steady themselves before facing a West Virginia offense that Leipold described in blunt terms. Kansas handled the Knights’ ground game well, holding them to 2.9 yards per carry on 37 attempts, but UCF still piled up 251 passing yards. The Jayhawks even outscored UCF 18-7 in the fourth quarter and still came away empty.
Now they get another team coming off a painful defeat, with Saturday evening’s matchup setting up as a test of which side can recover first.
Leipold made it clear he views West Virginia as a major problem on that side of the ball.
“They’re dangerous offensively now. They’re explosive in so many different areas.
I think his quarterback’s playing outstanding. He might lead the country in rushing touchdowns.
He operates Coach Rodriguez’s offense; he’s got his system going now. A year ago, you could see it was kind of starting to put it together like Scott Frost and what he wants to do.
He’s got the weapons now to implement what he wants to do, and they’re dangerous. They got in a shootout down at (Texas) Tech last week, and it’s going to be challenging.
They don’t turn the ball over. They haven’t beaten themselves that way.
They’ve got speed and explosiveness in the backfield. (Cam) Cook’s an excellent player.
They’ve got the weapons on the outside when they are throwing the ball. It’s a difficult offense to stop, and it’s going to be a big challenge for our defense.”
Kansas has only seen a unit like this once before, when it ran into Utah and surrendered 545 total yards and 41 points. That’s the kind of benchmark the Jayhawks are staring at again with Mike Hawkins Jr. and Cam Cook in the picture.
West Virginia and Kansas are set for a 5:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ESPNU.
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