Kansas football fans should be grateful for Carter Stanley

Yes, Carter Stanley had a bad game yesterday, but he’s the best quarterback Kansas football has had in a decade.

Carter Stanley struggled yesterday against Kansas State. He finished 13 of 23 with 115 passing yards, two interceptions, and no touchdowns. It was an especially surprising performance, considering the offensive roll Kansas football has been on.

Coming into this week, Stanley had thrown for 10 touchdowns in the past three weeks. Offensive coordinator Brent Dearmon had the Jayhawk offense looking like an 18-wheeler rolling downhill, but all that momentum came to a screeching halt yesterday.

Kansas football could only muster 241 yards of offense against Kansas State, including a 20% conversion rate on third down. Instead of the exciting and explosive Dearmon offense, it seemed like the Jayhawks regressed straight back to their old ways.

Despite the bad game, Kansas football fans have to realize just how much Carter Stanley has done for the program.

First of all, Stanley has led Kansas to two of its most important wins in program history. The first was a road victory over Boston College earlier this season. It was the Jayhawks’ first road win over a power-five team in over a decade, not to mention the Jayhawks were 20 point underdogs.

The other win was Kansas’ 24-27 win over Texas in 2016 when Stanley was just a redshirt freshman. It was the Jayhawks’ first time beating Texas since before World War II, and it’s a game that will live forever through the memes that were generated.

If those two wins aren’t enough, the numbers don’t lie. Despite being the full-time starter for only one year, Stanley ranks seventh in career passing yards and has a chance to move into fifth by the end of the season.

Yesterday against Kansas State, Stanley passed the 2,000-yard mark for this season, which moves him into tenth in terms of passing yards in a season. With three games left, Stanley could feasibly move into fifth or sixth all-time by the end of the year.

Finally, Carter Stanley is right on the heels of Heisman finalist David Jaynes in career passing touchdowns. Stanley is currently third and he only needs three more touchdowns to tie Jaynes for second at 35. Todd Reesing holds the record with 90, which probably isn’t going to be broken anytime soon.

Carter Stanley has given five years to Kansas football, and he’s becoming by far the best quarterback since Todd Reesing. Yes, he makes mistakes, but Stanley really is a fighter, and he’s going to be back and better than ever after the bye week.