The Kansas Jayhawks opened their Big 12 campaign with a 41-10 win under the lights in Lawrence, KS against the West Virginia Mountaineers.
Jalon Daniels threw for 138 yards with three touchdowns and led Kansas (3-1, 1-0) to 24 straight points over the second and third quarters to blow the game open. His first completion of the game was a 41-yard scoring strike to Levi Wentz to give the Jayhawks a lead they would not give up. The quarterback also added 69 yards of rushing on five carries in the victory.
Emmanuel Henderson Jr. excelled on kickoff duties with 137 yards on two returns, including the first play of the second half when the wide receiver ran the kick back 94 yards to give Kansas a 24-point lead. Henderson also had 38 receiving yards.
On the ground, Leshon Williams led the Jayhawks rushing attack with 129 yards on 19 rushes with a touchdown. That score came on Williams’ final rush of the game with 12:52 left in the fourth quarter on a 62-yard touchdown run.
Defensively, Kansas stifled Rich Rodriguez’s West Virginia (2-2, 0-1) offense for six consecutive punts to start the game, four ending in three-and-outs. The Jayhawks held Nicco Marchiol to 126 passing yards on 15-of-27 passing with one interception to former West Virginia Mountaineer Trey Lathan, who read a Marchiol pass and turned it into a 32-yard interception return in the third quarter.
With the game firmly in Kansas’ hands in the third quarter, Rodriguez brought in Jaylen Henderson for Marchiol, and the dual-threat quarterback propelled the Mountaineers to their lone touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter on a 13-yard quarterback draw. In the third, Henderson broke away for a 32-yard rush, and he led West Virginia with 79 rushing yards in the defeat.
Although it was a lopsided result, each team also ran into problems on defense with each team losing a player due to targeting. Mountaineers safety Fred Perry was the first when he went in for a tackle head first on Daniels who was sliding on the end of a 12-yard run. The hit on the defenseless quarterback turned into a brief scuffle between the sides, resulting in a late hit call on the Jayhawks. Devin Dye was also ejected for targeting with 6:23 remaining in the third quarter.
