Saturday marked yet another loss for the Kansas Jayhawks; however, instead of inside the confines of David Booth Kansas Memorial, it was showcased at one of the world’s elite grounds, Wembley Stadium.
There is a lot to pick over in this 24-17 Union Jack Classic loss to Arizona State that will drive Kansas fans up a wall, but despite all the doom and gloom that is expected after a 1-2 start, especially when that sole win came over an FCS side in LIU. It wasn’t all bad, as Saturday did get to see the breakout of sophomore Tate Nagy.
Coming out of Blue Valley West High School, Nagy was a 3-star prospect with offers from Kentucky, Ball State and the Jayhawks, after being ranked as the 297th-best wideout and 18th-best prospect in the state of Kansas.
Nagy showed potential last season, but fully broke out on Saturday
Last season, Nagy finished with 2 receptions and 20 yards; however, his ability in the return game was where fans got to see the best of him.
Nagy returned 17 punts for 116 yards and three kicks for 57 yards. While Nagy didn’t return any touchdowns, he consistently got out into open space and came up a missed tackle short of breaking through for a big return.
While the Jayhawks dropped the overseas game, Nagy showed out, and it started with a 72-yard receiving touchdown that was kickstarted thanks to poor punt coverage that Nagy took advantage of and raced up the sideline to give the Jayhawks a 7-3 lead.
What ensued was anything but continuing the KU momentum. The Sun Devils scored 21 straight points that came from a 25-yard pass to end the first half. The third quarter couldn’t have started any worse as Jaren Hamilton opened the half with a 100-yard kickoff return to open up a 10-point 17-7 lead.
Following a fumble recovery taken back 77 yards to the KU two-yard line, a touchdown run pushed it up to a 24-7 lead with 12:30 left to play in the game.
With the Jayhawks running out of ideas, it was now or never to flip the script.
Running back Dylan Edwards kickstarted the drive with an 18-yard rush, which was followed by an Isaiah Marshall incompletion, before Kansas snatched 11 more rushing yards over the course of two plays, pushing themselves to the Sun Devil 38, leaving 6:52 remaining in the game and KU still down by 17 points.
This is where Marshall made one of the more impressive throws of his career thus far, throwing a ball over a linebacker but on time to Nagy, who was darting across the middle of the field. Instead of looking too far ahead of what was in front of him, Nagy reeled in the target and immediately cut to the right and darted upfield, taking advantage of busted coverage before weaving into the paydirt.
While there will ultimately be more bad than good taken from Saturday, Nagy helped provide a bit of respite in his stellar performance. Nagy finished the day with three receptions for 61 yards and 77 yards via punt returns.
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