Kansas suffered its second straight loss against UNLV last Friday, falling to 1-2 after a 23-20 defeat. The offense looked to return to form for most of the first half but struggled to maintain success for the entire game. Lance Leipold spoke to the media on Monday, talking about how to get the offense to click, his thoughts on defense, and a preview of the Big 12 Conference opener against West Virginia.
Offense not playing consistent, still needs to find chemistry with new staff
The biggest story of the season so far has been the struggles of the Kansas offense. After averaging 34.9 points per game last year, Kansas is scoring just 25 points per game this season and 18.5 against FBS opponents.
Part of those issues have been due to the play of Jalon Daniels. Kansas’ quarterback has completed 55% of his passes and has thrown six interceptions in three games. Leipold said the offense has struggled to respond after things go south.
“We have not responded well when something hasn’t gone right, whether it be an interception or a three-and-out,” Leipold said. “We’re not responding off of that as an offense, as a football team, and that’s the number one thing we’ve got to try to fix.”
Leipold said that despite Daniels’ inconsistent play, he’s remained “outstanding yet in attitude, effort, coachability.” Daniels had also worked with Andy Kotelnicki throughout his entire college career.
Now, he’s had to adjust to a new offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, and there have potentially been some growing pains. However, Leipold said there are things they can do to help Daniels.
“If he's not seeing something is there something that we're going to continue to look at that can help him,” Leipold said. “Maybe mechanically, we're looking at everything and we always do. It just gets highlighted when you're not successful, but, yeah. Are we probably going through a growing pain? Yeah, of some sort, obviously. But the thing is that we have to consistently work to get better every day.”
Defense playing well, has to get off the field in crunch time
The Jayhawks have pitched back-to-back impressive defensive performances. However, at the end of the game, Kansas struggled to get that final stop that could have made a difference in a win or a loss.
“I think we're playing some of the better defense we've played, but we're going to have bigger tests to come,” Leipold said. “And I know on that side of the ball there's still things that need to be cleaned up. They had a 75 yard drive that went over nine minutes, but we spend all the time talking about play calling and stuff like that.
"You win and lose together, so we can't get off the field to do it now as good as they've played, because I looked at that and I still can't believe it. They had 69 yards the second half, but had 75 in one drive. When we needed to get off the field, we've got to find a way to get off the field.”
One of the standout groups of Kansas’ defense has been the defensive line. Leipold talked about the defensive tackles, who have played some good football.
“Tommy's played some good football of late and actually, I thought DJ [Withers] played better than he had the first couple games,” Leipold said. “And we've been very pleased with Caleb [Taylor], but Tommy's been very active and that's great to see. And again, for a lot of our stuff, it's going to start up front again, and we’ve got to be able to be physical and hold the point this week.”
Defensive packages called for less Marvin Grant, more Devin Dye
Grant played just 25 snaps against UNLV following one of the better games of his Kansas career against Illinois. Leipold said it was a situational decision.
“There's a lot of situational substitutions and packages in which guys play,” Leipold said. “So, you know, there's certain things and formations and personnel groupings by the opponent dictate sometimes when guys are on the field, okay? And then holistically with guys, it's, you know, assignment, technique, effort is always part of evaluations with all our players. So some of those things come of utilizing guys and in situations that they're going to be in their best.”
Dye, who hadn’t played much in Kansas’ first two games, saw 44 snaps against UNLV. Leipold said that Devin Dye was limited throughout fall camp and has gradually gained a position to see more playing time.
“We’re playing three safeties a lot,” Leipold said. “So the guys that are some of the rotational guys in these packages many times are the safeties that are playing a little bit more at the second level, which means now sometimes they’re going to rotate with a linebacker, not just with safeties.”
West Virginia game gives both teams a chance to reset in conference opener
The Jayhawks and Mountaineers have not gotten off to a flying start with both teams holding a 1-2 record. West Virginia has lost both of its nonconference rivalries to Penn State and Pittsburgh. Leipold emphasized the importance of the season “starting over.”
“I told [the] team there if we'd be 3-0, 2-1, 0-3, other than 1-2, we'd be talking about the same thing,” Leipold said. “Everything starts over right now. So if that's easy, I guess, I don't know, but easy, it's consistent. That would be the conversation. You continue to learn about yourselves in a lot of different ways during these moments and we're learning about ourselves, but at the same time, we got a lot of football to play.”
Leipold would not go as far as to call the West Virginia game a must-win because there are a lot of football games left. However, he did say it could give the Jayhawks a chance to build some momentum.
