Nothing can try to convince you that Isaiah Marshall has had a stellar start to the season; let's be honest, he hasn’t. Overall, there have been moments, and probably more good than bad, but by no means is he taking the Big 12 by storm; it was unfair to expect him to in the first place.
What Marshall’s last two starts do show you is a quarterback who has shown the ability to flush away last week in preparation for this one.
Against Missouri, Marshall totaled 168 yards through the air on a 43.3% completion rate, to go along with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions in Kansas’ brutal 38-21 Border Showdown loss to the Missouri Tigers.
One week later, against Arizona State in the Union Jack Classic, Marshall compiled235 yards on a 51.5% competition rate, along with 1 touchdown and 1 interception.
Despite both games being losses, there was a lot more blame placed on Marshall against Missouri than Arizona State.
When speaking with the media earlier this week, head coach Lance Leipold spoke on the difference between weeks two and three for the redshirt sophomore quarterback.
“…I think he continues to make progress…You know, as much as you put on the quarterback, it's a lot, okay? And we took some things off his plate, and we did some things to help protect him a little bit better, than we probably did in the second game of the year. And I thought he handled those things well.”
Against the Tigers, Marshall was clearly overly excited. He was often over/underthrowing open targets. A problem that started on Kansas’ first drive of the game against the SEC side, overthrowing an open third-down pass.
“I thought we gave him better time in London for him to throw the ball. At the same time, we talk about Cam [Pickett], Yasin [Willis], Carson Bruhn didn’t play. That's a lot of deficiencies on guys that when I stood in front of you in mid-August, talking about guys that were really gonna count on to be key parts, and it's what it is.”
The Jayhawks have a mind-boggling injury list that has seen several key players go down, including Pickett. It was safe to assume this season that Pickett was going to be Marshall’s favored wideout, as Pickett was set to have some of the safest hands on the team. A key for a young quarterback to have.
An honest assessment that is hard to disagree with
“I like where he's developing, because, again, even the things that haven't gone well, he's responded to it. He responded to the coaching. He sees it, the growth, and all those things. Do I want to sit up here every week and talk about our first-year starting quarterbacks, growing pains? No, I don't. And neither does he. Neither does Andy. So we want to continue to work and progress in a way that this offense could be highly productive.”
The biggest thing anyone wants for Marshall’s first season is to see moments to build off of. For the first time in six seasons, Jalon Daniels is not at least in consideration for a starting job, a massive change for KU as Daniels was the hero of this Leipold rebuild.
So while it will take time for Marshall to become all that he can, there has been enough for fans to buy into. It is just up to him and the staff to get the best of him more consistently.
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