The Kansas Jayhawks are currently staring down a 1-2 record, and to be honest, even the numbers don’t think they can pull themselves out of it.
Maybe a win in the Border Showdown was a bit too much to ask for, but a 24-17 loss to Arizona State in a game where you stacked more yards than them and limited their quarterback to under 100 passing yards, that feels unacceptable to lose, because it is.
Leading Kansas’ quarterback room this season has been redshirt sophomore Isaiah Marshall.
Following a prolonged offseason quarterback battle that was resolved just two weeks before the start of the season, Marshall was officially named quarterback one.
Marshall has had an up-and-down start to his career as a starter.
Here is how the dual-threat quarterback has stacked up through this season so far
Long Island (51-6 W) 14/19, 246 yards, 2 touchdowns, 49 yards rushing
Missouri (38-21 L) 13/30, 168 yards, 2 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, 23 yards rushing, 1 fumble
Arizona State (24-17 L) 17/33, 235, 1 touchdown, 1 interception, 52 rushing yards
As you can see, against power-conference opposition, Marshall has struggled to put up consistent results.
What has been Marshall’s best and worst game to date?
Assuming we exclude his performance against FCS opposition, his best game easily came against Arizona State. By no means was he perfect but there were several high-level zips to wideouts that pushed the chains forward. Debatably, his best throw of the season came on a 38-yard touchdown to Tate Nagy.
The Jayhawks were down 24-7 at this point to the Sun Devils and had nearly entered desperation mode in the fourth quarter. Marshall found Nagy early on a go route, but it first required Marshall to perfectly level the ball ahead of a defender who was looking for the swat. Marshall’s pass didn’t disrupt any of Nagy’s momentum as he caught it and picked up pace to the end zone.
This, of course, means his worst game came against the Tigers, and for one reason only: he was too excited. Not saying this is some major fault of his; you would always rather have to calm a player down than amp one up. But against Mizzou, he was often his own worst enemy, often slinging passes too short of an open wideout or over the head of his target.
Even against Missouri, he still compiled a few nice passes that would look great on film, but overall it looked as if he was struggling.
Where is there still room for Marshall to improve?
This is a pretty simple answer: a little bit of everywhere. But the fact that there is tangible proof of development from week two to week three is a promising sign that there is a rising star there; it just takes him consistently having goldfish memory and having more games against Arizona State than Missouri.
While the Jayhawks will be dealing with a bye week, next week will see them welcome Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders before taking on eight straight Big 12 games to end the season.
Overall Grade: C
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