AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Kansas head coach Lance Leipold stands with his players before running onto the field for an NCAA college football game against Houston, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Kansas head coach Lance Leipold continues to stand by what he has said throughout his tenure: “To create rivalries in games, you have to make them close and competitive.”

The Jayhawks suffered a mistake-filled loss to rival Kansas State last year by four points after failing to score in the final 28 minutes. To hear Leipold’s K-State counterpart Chris Klieman say, “It’s turning into a great rivalry.” The last few years have been really competitive games and we found a way.”

The fact remains that KU hasn’t found a way yet.

“It’s definitely a rough thought to think back to that game (last year),” defensive tackle DJ Withers said. “We were so close, but this year we had to get over that hump. It is mandatory.”

Since Jake Sharp and company created a 52-21 blowout in Lawrence in 2008, the Jayhawks have not won a Sunflower Showdown. This matchup has off-court impacts every year, such as in local recruiting — where the Wildcats continue to excel with 55 Kansans on their roster — and Leipold acknowledged that KU “has to find a way to get more of that, in this game.” , on our side of the ledger.”

As difficult as it’s been for the Jayhawks to do that over the last 15 years — and as close as they came last year with a freshman quarterback making his first career start and a backup wide receiver optioned — this year will there is no easier. It’s a game in Manhattan on Saturday at 7pm and K-State looks as formidable as ever. So far, a 38-9 loss at BYU has proven to be a blip on the radar for the 6-1 Wildcats, whose rushing defense is extremely stingy and whose rushing offense ranks second in the conference, thanks to the trio of mobile quarterbacks Avery Johnson and running backs DJ Giddens and Dylan Edwards.

“Giddens is a great defender who only gets better every year in his career,” Leipold said. “He has very good vision, a powerful runner and deceptive speed. And Dylan Edwards is a great addition to them. Everyone knows what an outstanding athlete he was coming out of high school. He showed some of that in Colorado last year. In the return match he is explosive, they can use him in different ways, get the ball in his hands.”

The Wildcats may not be as strong on offense in the trenches after losing the veteran starters who paved the way for Giddens last season, but they are still solid.

“These guys don’t have a lot of past experience,” defensive coordinator Brian Borland said, “but you can tell they’re well-coached and they work well together… I don’t know if that’s a weakness for them in any way. ” .”

On the other side of the ball, defenseman Brendan Mott leads the league with seven sacks. KU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes praised Mott’s inside pass-rush move and recalled the difficulty of protecting against him when Grimes was at Baylor.

“You look at your tackle and you think, ‘Look, I’ve been telling you all week this is going to happen,’” Grimes said. “But sometimes things happen in a game and it happens faster than you expected or what it felt like when a scout team guy looked at you like that.”

Grimes is doing everything he can to prepare for the K-State defense, which has mostly made opposing rushing offenses difficult this year, even if it hasn’t been particularly good against the pass.

“I’ve played against them the last three years and they’re tough,” he said. “They play extremely hard, as hard as any group I’ve played against. Their commitment and toughness are exceptional, 10 out of 10.”

He said he has seen games with KU, his Baylor teams and others facing K-State.

“I’ve watched as many movies as I can in the last 48 hours without any sleep at all — and I’ve been close,” Grimes said Wednesday.

Kansas State Wildcats (6-1, 3-1 Big 12) vs. Kansas Jayhawks (2-5, 1-3 Big 12)

• Bill Snyder Family Stadium, Manhattan, 7 p.m

• Broadcast: ESPN2

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9)

• Betting line: K status -9.5; above/below 55.5

• Series history: KU leads 65-51-5

What to pay attention to

1. Jalon’s rhythm: Part of the reason KU had to dig itself out of a hole this season was a series of ill-timed interceptions by quarterback Jalon Daniels. In the Jayhawks’ first three games, he threw more picks than in the previous twelve. These issues appear to be a thing of the past, as Daniels – and indeed KU as a whole – has only turned the ball over once. the past three weeks, on a meaningless pick as the Jayhawks trailed by two scores with less than a minute left against TCU. Leipold said Daniels has gotten more comfortable since then and they “probably thought he was further along in knocking off the rust than he probably actually was” during the 11-on-11 practice at the beginning of the year.

2. Will Avery run?: Johnson didn’t attempt a single rush in the Wildcats’ win over West Virginia, the first time in his career he went an entire game without one and certainly a departure for a player with 602 yards and 10 rushing scores in his previous 14 games. Johnson was coming off an injury suffered in Colorado, but Klieman said that wasn’t a factor; instead, KSU aired the ball after WVU prevented Giddens from being set up in the usual manner. KU, for its part, has been very vulnerable to quarterback runs, designed or otherwise, over the past two seasons. Johnson is one of the biggest threats of any quarterback he faced during that time.

3. Negative energy: Of all the road environments in the Big 12, Bill Snyder Family Stadium is almost certainly the most hostile to the Jayhawks. KU has faced large crowds at Illinois, West Virginia and Arizona State this year, but a rivalry game against the Sunflower Showdown will bring a new level of intensity, especially considering KSU will have gone four weeks without a home game on Saturday .

In the spotlight…

Devin Neal: The spotlight has always been on Neal to some extent, as a Lawrence native, and he has been KU’s most consistent player during a disappointing season, as well as what Grimes called “one of the real stabilizing factors on our team.” But the senior running back acknowledged after KU defeated Houston that the Sunflower Showdown could be “the perfect story.” Neal is now just 70 yards away from fulfilling a longtime dream of becoming the Jayhawks’ all-time leading rusher, a record currently held by June Henley, and is also within striking distance of several other rushers and scoring records from Henley, among others. and Tony Sands. He is averaging 99 rushing yards per game this year. Of course, he’ll have to work hard to get there against the best defense in the Big 12, and even if he does, it could spoil the moment somewhat if the Wildcats win.

Within the numbers

222.13: Daniels’ best passing efficiency in the country against Houston.

135: K-State’s total number of non-offensive touchdowns since 1999, the most in the nation, including four this year on a Marques Sigle interception return against WVU.

.500: KU’s winning percentage in games against K-State played in Manhattan; the series is equal 28-28-3.

Prediction

K-State wins 42-28. The Jayhawks’ Daniels offense is functioning well enough now to pose problems for the inconsistent KSU pass defense, and they’ve been able to find ways to run the ball quite consistently, so they should be able to gain some ground even against the opposition . Wild cats.

KU’s defense, meanwhile, will likely have to try to slow down the run game — which it is quite well equipped to do, especially with Cornell Wheeler back — and force Johnson to throw the ball downfield. The problem is that even if KU succeeds, Johnson may deliver the best aerial game of his career and the Jayhawks are thin in the secondary. It should be close all the time, but especially with the game coming up, this doesn’t feel like the year the Jayhawks will break the streak.

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Written by Hendrik Groenstein

Henry is sports editor at Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as KU beat writer while managing daily sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (BA, Linguistics) and Arizona State University (MA, Sports Journalism). Even though he’s from Los Angeles, he’s often told he doesn’t exude a “California vibe,” whatever that means.

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