Kansas football: Pooka Williams must get more touches

Kansas football was defeated on the road last night by the Baylor Bears, and the Jayhawks’ best player didn’t get nearly enough touches.

Very rarely does Kansas football get a player like running back Pooka Williams, who’s easily one of the best backs in the Big 12. He’s arguably the best player the Jayhawks have had since quarterback Todd Reesing, and it feels like he hasn’t been used enough in Kansas’ most recent game.

Last night against Baylor, Williams got 14 carries and totaled 76 yards on the night while scoring both of the Jayhawks’ touchdowns in the 47-14 loss. Williams also spent some time split out as a receiver, making three catches for 24 yards. The bottom line is that Williams needs the ball in his hands much more often if they’re going to put points on the board.

Similar to Williams, sophomore running back Velton Gardner also totaled 14 carries on the night while racking up 70 rushing yards. Now there is nothing wrong with Gardner getting touches and because he’s proved that he’s a capable back, but there’s no question that Williams is RB1.

Williams should be getting the absolute majority of attempts at running back, and that’s really all there is to it. You don’t make a back-to-back First-Team All-Big 12 running back that has two 1,000-yard seasons go 50/50 on attempts, and it’s really hard to figure out why Williams didn’t get more chances last night.

Perhaps he’s not fully healthy or there’s some other underlying issue, but Kansas is going to need to get everything they can out of Williams for the rest of this season, or it’s going to be a long year. He’s the best player on the team without question, and he has to get more chances to rip off one of his signature runs.