It doesn’t take a college football efficinado to figure out that next year’s quarterback for the Kansas Jayhawks will have to be an elite runner.
Prior to the battle between Cole Ballard and Isaiah Marshall, the Jayhawks had Jalon Daniels, one of the game’s steadiest quarterbacks. While Daniels was decent in the air, his ability to make plays on the ground made him stand out, leaving KU with over 1,400 yards on the ground and a stellar 23 rushing touchdowns.
The Jayhawks would like to continue that trend with either Ballard or Marshall. Ballard has rushed for 209 yards across 40 attempts in his 15 games. Marshall, meanwhile, brings 160 yards on 15 carries over just nine games.
While Ballard and Marshall appear to be duking it out for the top spot, transfer quarterback Chase Jenkins is quietly settling himself in with the program after three seasons with Rice. The 3-star transfer joins the Jayhawks with 615 yards on the ground, including 531 last season with 5 touchdowns as well.
While the quarterback-turned-wideout-turned-back-to-quarterback isn’t exactly competing for the starting role, according to passing game coordinator Jim Zebrowski, Jenkins will still have a role with Kansas next season.
“What happened the first couple years we were here? Multi-quarterbacks. Like Cole, played as a true freshman,” opened Zebrowski to the media earlier this month.
Zebrowski’s first three years with the program saw Daniels and former quarterback Jason Bean split first-team snaps. In 2021, Bean finished with 182 passes and Daniels with 117. One year later, Daniels led with 230, and Bean ended with 136; finally, in 2023, Bean closed the season with 199 attempts, and Daniels, meanwhile, with 75. In that same year, Ballard notched 36 passes himself.
“So I think one of my strengths is that I have to make sure, when you have quarterbacks who are dynamic and will run, as part of your offense, you have to have depth, or you can't do it. A lot of programs have faltered because they run a quarterback and have no depth. The next guy becomes a non-runner, the whole offense changes, and they go backwards.”
Jenkins should be able to fit this role perfectly. Having transitioned to receiver often means you have great speed and his 531 yards from last season means there will be no drop-off from either Ballard or Marshall to Jenkins.
Alongside the rushing, Jenkins joins Kansas with 1,125 passing yards, 9 touchdowns and 3 interceptions, to go with a 69.1% completion rate. Last season, Rice went 5-8 after transitioning to a spread option offense.
Last season, KU finished with the 60th-overall rushing attack in the nation, averaging 157.8 rushing yards per game, and Daniels finished as the team’s leading rusher in two games, against Missouri and Arizona, both losses that helped shape the Jayhawks’ 5-7 record.
More Kansas Football News
Add us as a preferred source on Google