The Kansas football team played a strong game Saturday, beating West Virginia comfortably, 41-10. The Jayhawks looked much better than they did two weeks ago, when the Missouri Tigers manhandled them.
It was encouraging to see KU play so well overall despite some struggles by the Jayhawks’ star quarterback, Jalon Daniels. While the scoreboard indicated an easy victory for KU, and it was, keep in mind the Jayhawks got one touchdown from a long kickoff return from Emmanuel Henderson Jr. and another when LeShon Williams scored on a 62-yard run.
How did Jalon Daniel struggle in the Kansas win vs. West Virginia?
Daniels wasn’t horrible against West Virginia. He threw for 138, with three touchdowns and no interceptions. On the surface, those are pretty good numbers for a quarterback who also added 69 yards rushing on just five carries.
Daniels struggled, however, with his accuracy. He completed just 12 of his 24 passing attempts. He overthrew receivers on several passes, and he delivered the ball low on a couple of others. The overthrown balls mainly came when he was moving outside the pocket. He showed great awareness of when the pocket was collapsing around him, and his athletic ability to avoid pressure was on full display.
When on the move, though, he wasn’t very accurate. This game might have been out of hand much earlier if he had delivered an accurate throw to wide-open receivers when he was on the move.
This is a fixable issue. Daniels certainly knows he missed those throws, and he and the coaching staff will work to improve this area of his game. It is fortuitous that he had this problem against West Virginia and not later against teams like Texas Tech or K-State.
Overall, Daniels had a fine game. He just needs to tighten up a couple of things. This year, he’s connected on 66.7 percent of his throws, and he has 12 touchdowns and just two interceptions. It’s nothing to be overly worried about right now, just something to watch going forward.