Notebook: Lance Leipold breaks down 48-30 win at Houston
Kansas finished up its two-game road slate with a 48-30 win at Houston on Saturday, opening the season 3-0 for the first time since 2009. The win over the Cougars makes Lance Leipold the first Kansas coach to pick up back-to-back road wins since Mark Mangino in 2007.
Down 14-0 from the start, the Jayhawks rallied back with 28 unanswered points to outpace the Cougars after an hour-and-15 minute rain delay placed the game on hold with 9:01 to play in the first half. Leipold said during postgame that he’d never gone through a weather delay in his entire coaching career.
“We tried to break it down,” Leipold said of the delay. “When it’s a 30-minute delay, put it into 10-minute segments. And once we hit this 10 minutes, then we’re going to start something else. After a couple of those, we just kind of sat in the locker room for a while and tried not to make too much of it. I was really proud, again, of the way we handled it.”
Returning from the break on first-and-goal, Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels hit receiver Luke Grimm for a 5-yard touchdown and the Jayhawks were back on the move after stirring up the Houston defense in the first half.
Asserting authority after a poor start, Daniels finished the game completing 14-of-23 passes for 158 yards, including three touchdowns. Daniels also had a big day on the ground, rushing for a game-high 123 yards and two touchdowns against the Cougars.
“I thought Jalon was excellent today,” Leipold said. “He made some big plays on scrambling, keeping drives alive, saw some things and didn’t hesitate. Statistically, probably didn’t get off to a great start but I think (Daniels had) a very solid day.”
Late trickery shows growth of the offensive install
With just 2:39 to go in the third quarter, Kansas extended its lead, 42-21, on a creative draw-up from offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. A switch-up saw running back Devin Neal feeding the ball to Daniels, who zipped a 8-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jared Casey.
Leipold said that kind of playmaking goes back to the face-to-face time being spent between assistants and players during practice.
“Most people are talking about our formations, personnel groupings, our motion shifts and the amount of guys that’re on the field,” Leipold said. “And that’s all because of the time we’ve been able to have with our players. They’re understanding.”
“I want to make sure I credit Andy and the offensive staff and how they go about teaching and installing - not just at the beginning of the year, but on a regular basis.”
Rotating several names into the mix, including transfers Sevion Morrison and Ky Thomas, who combined for just 96 yards heading into Houston, Leipold’s seeing more possibilities within lying within the playbook.
“You can see where our participation charged pretty high,” Leipold said. “We get a lot of guys on the field. We got a lot of work to clean up and, as we said, we’ve got to stay hungry when they walk in the building on Monday morning.”
Stopping Houston on the ground
Kansas entered Saturday afternoon well-aware of stopping the Houston rushing attack, as the Jayhawks held Cougars quarterback Clayton Tune to a game-high 63 yards on 16 attempts on the ground. Next in line was Ta’Zhawn Henry, who logged just 56 yards on 15 touches.
Last week at West Virginia, the Jayhawks gave up 146 yards of rushing offense. The KU defense rose to the occasion this week, according to Leipold.
“It was a huge challenge, statistically,” Leipold said of the Houston backfield.
“I thought they had a good day throwing the ball. Especially after those first couple drives, I think we settled in, found a little niche. We struggled last week and a little bit at the beginning of the game getting pass rush without pressure. But then, as the game went on, I think after the delay, even, we started to get some pressure around the corner and our tackles started to create some things.”
Week Four matchup with Duke becomes all the sweeter
The third consecutive win for Kansas generates even more buzz for next week’s matchup between the undefeated Jayhawks and Duke Blue Devils (3-0, 0-0 ACC) in Lawrence.
After taking down future Big 12 foe Houston on its own turf, Kansas will be taking a hardwood rivalry to the gridiron next week at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. The Blue Devils won at home on Saturday, defeating North Carolina A&T 49-20.
Leipold said the matchup will be heated and encouraged the Kansas faithful to show up in large numbers on Sept. 24.
“It’s a couple of teams that have been fighting a long time for success,” Leipold said of Week 4. “It’s going to be two good teams that are probably going to have a lot of confidence. And that’s pretty neat for us to be able to go through that, from where we’ve been, is truly exciting.”
WATCH: Lance Leipold post-game press conference
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