Kansas football: Jayhawks suffer Sunflower Showdown blowout in Les Miles’ return

Despite a slow start for Kansas State, Kansas football was handed a tough beating at Bill Snyder Family Stadium for this year’s Sunflower Showdown.

Kansas football cemented their 12th straight loss to the Wildcats on the road this afternoon. Coach Miles gave true freshman Jalon Daniels the start today, and I think it’s obvious that Miles is putting his efforts into getting him as many reps as possible going forward. While the Jayhawks struggled to find the end zone, we did see more action in the air coupled with rushing efforts from sophomore Velton Gardner.

These offensive changes didn’t necessarily improve the Jayhawks’ ability to compete consistently, as they only posted 320 total yards on the day. We saw strong moments early on from senior receiver Andrew Parchment. Another key senior, Kwamie Lassiter II, saw an excellent receiving day with 58 total yards. Kansas however was plagued by inefficient showings on special teams and the failure to stop the Wildcat’s Deuce Vaughn, who led the Cats in both rushing and receiving yards. Despite relatively comparable numbers, the Jayhawks couldn’t produce on offense, stalling on the offensive side of the ball.

In nearly all of the first half, Kansas State was plagued with penalty troubles. This could’ve been a much worse deficit for Kansas heading into the second quarter. Daniels opened the game to an overruled interception, giving his offense another opportunity to start the front. The mistakes piled up for Kansas however, when trailing 20-7 in the second quarter.

The Jayhawk defense showed up and made a huge stop on 3rd down, setting up a scenario where Kansas was supposed to have the ball with around 1:50 left in the half. Simply put, a muffed punt return led to back-to-back scoring drives for the Wildcats all before the half, sending us down 34-7 into halftime.

From this point the Jayhawks could not get the wheels turning again on offense. Daniels showed a tremendous amount of grit today on the field, scoring both of Kansas football’s touchdowns. His numbers weren’t too bad either, he threw for 207 yards which comes just 36 yards shy of Kansas State’s Will Howard. The offense is doing what it can to help angle Daniels in the right direction, and for the most part, this is true. We also have to realize a lot of the guys we see making plays on offense won’t be here next year.

Kansas continues to struggle in Big 12 play, and this year’s Sunflower Showdown is no exception. We’re glad to see Daniels back in the swing of things, but there was little to be happy about this weekend on the field. Each week seems to bring new ideas to the table, but it’s really hard to get behind any of these when the consistency just isn’t there.