Usually when a team comes off the bye week, they are looking to get players healthy. As the Jayhawks get ready for Houston there is not positive news to report on the injury front.
Head coach Lance Leipold said during his weekly press conference the status of players who missed time with an injury remains up in the air.
“Not as much as I had hoped yet,” Leipold said about the bye week helping with injuries. “Right now, to be truthful, we still got a lot of guys that are questionable working through it, but we'll have to see where it takes us.
“Few guys are getting a little better and I hoped I'd have better answers because I figured you're going to ask that today walking in that I would have some better news of definites. But we'll have a lot of guys in the questionable area right now.”
Leipold confirmed two of the players who are question marks heading into the Houston game are starting corner Cobee Bryant and linebacker Cornell Wheeler.
“He's probably more on the doubtful (side),” he said about Wheeler. “He’s (Bryant) probably highly questionable at this time, is doing a little bit, but has not taken any team reps in over a week.”
Another note, starting safety Marvin Grant was listed with an “OR” on the depth chart with freshman Taylor Davis.
Leipold says they are staying with routine, team sticking together
The Jayhawks are off to a disappointing start at 1-5, but Leipold said they are looking ahead. The last half of the season gets underway with Houston, where the Jayhawks are listed as a six-point favorite.
“We've talked about trying to flush the past, so to speak,” he said. “And we’ve got the second half of the season starting now. We're going to look at how we're going to really come out of these last six games and continue. I said many times, if were 6-0 right now or anything else, we'd be talking about the same thing.”
They are not going to change the system and things from the past that helped turn the program around the last couple years.
“Your process and your practice regime and things that you don't change based on wins and losses,” he said. “To me, that's knee jerk reactions to how you're going to go about it. And I think consistency in our approach, but attention to detail and getting better and addressing the things that we can do to try to get ourselves in a better position are key.”
The team is led by 30 seniors and has continued to be competitive in every game with fourth quarter leads in four of their five losses. Leipold said he has seen them stay together despite the adversity in the first half.
“I really admire our guys,” he said. “They're disappointed, frustrated, just like many of us are, our fans and everything. The nice thing is the maturity and leadership in this program, but also the understanding that you wouldn't lose together. And everyone's had a share in this, that we're coming up a little bit short. So, I think the approach is we got to keep attacking it and working at it. And again, next man up if someone's not available, take advantage of the opportunities and make the most of it.”
Daniels played his best game of the season
Jalon Daniels is coming off one of his best performance of the season against Arizona State throwing for 260 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Leipold said he started the game well and continued it throughout.
“I think he's continued to get more comfortable with everything,” he said. “You know, I think he got off to a good start. I think we protected him a lot better and gave him a chance to get into rhythm. I think his success again, a couple throws early, you could see that starting to get back to where he used to be and he kind of built on that. It was his best game so far.”
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