The Pulse of Today, The Insight for Tomorrow

Quick recap: KU surprises previously undefeated BYU in road thriller

Quick recap: KU surprises previously undefeated BYU in road thriller

On November 17, 2024By Littum

Photo by AP/Rick Egan

Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels throws a pass during the first half of an NCAA college football game against BYU, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Provo, Utah.

Provo, Utah – The best game of the year for the Kansas football team was a point.

Facing an unenviable fourth-and-14 at BYU’s 36-yard line, down 13-10 with quarterback Jalon Daniels having just taken a sack to push the Jayhawks out of field-goal range, KU lined up as whether it would try for a highly unlikely conversion.

Instead, Daniels took the snap and punted. The ball improbably bounced off the head of BYU’s Evan Johnson, teammate Jakob Robinson failed to recover, and wide receiver Quentin Skinner dove on it to set up a go-ahead pass from Devin Neal.

Marvin Grant stopped BYU’s Chase Roberts just short of the first-down marker on a key fourth-and-11 near the goal line in the final minute, and the Jayhawks held on to end the No. 6 BYU’s undefeated season with a 17-13 victory Saturday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

KU’s offense was inconsistent, but Neal ran for a pair of scores to add to his school record. Luke Grimm caught four passes for 77 yards in an on-and-off night for Daniels. With the win, KU moves to 4-6 and could still reach the postseason by winning its last two games.

Kansas’ opening drive got a big boost when Daniels sent a snap off the bounce and threw a jump ball to Skinner for 29 yards, a play that stood despite both objections from BYU fans calling for offensive pass interference and a review by the officials to ensuring that Skinner got a foot inside. It was the most significant play of a 10-play, 84-yard drive that ended, like so many, with a rushing touchdown by Neal.

The teams traded punts before BYU, despite missing a potential deep-shot touchdown on the opening play of their drive, got within scoring range on a series of hard runs by LJ Martin.

After the start of the second quarter, however, OJ Burroughs dragged quarterback Jake Retzlaff out of bounds on a quarterback keeper and then was in coverage on an incompletion by Retzlaff as BYU settled for a short field goal by Will Ferrin.

The Jayhawks went three-and-out for the second straight time, and Martin took the Cougars into KU territory again. Mello Dotson missed an opportunity to tackle Parker Kingston in the backfield on a jet sweep on third down, and instead, on the very next play, Retzlaff threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Hinckley Ropati.

KU finally got some momentum on offense thanks to an option keeper by Daniels for a first down, followed by 23- and 27-yard receptions by Grimm, the latter on fourth-and-6. But after a delay-of-game penalty pushed the Jayhawks from third-and-goal at the 2-yard line back to the 7, Daniels threw incomplete and the Jayhawks tied the game with a field goal by Tabor Allen.

In response, the Cougars’ two-minute offense needed just two plays to cross midfield and made it to the KU 5-yard line with 50 seconds left. Retzlaff threw an unhesitating fade route to tight end Mata’ava Ta’ase that was easily intercepted by Dotson, and the Jayhawks took a knee to the head at halftime tied 10-10.

BYU relied heavily on its ground game out of halftime, to the point of running a third-and-9 option from midfield. Taylor Davis beat Martin a yard short of the marker, but Martin still ended up converting the fourth down.

After spending nearly 10 minutes on the field, the Jayhawks finally earned a third-down stop by holding Retzlaff to three yards on a third-and-6 quarterback keeper. The Cougars initially considered another attempt on fourth down, but instead Ferrin kicked another field goal to put BYU ahead.

After its long absence from the field, the KU offense showed some promise and came out of a second and long situation on a swing pass from Daniels to Grimm. The Jayhawks faced third-and-8 at BYU’s 46-yard line, but Daniels withstood the blitz and found Jared Casey for a conversion on the final play of the third quarter.

From there, the drive got significantly worse for KU. After a short gain by Neal, Daniels nearly threw an interception, then took a sack while trying to elude an army of BYU defenders to push the Jayhawks back to fourth-and-14 at the Cougars’ 36-yard line.

That’s when Daniels’ special-teams wizardry changed the game and helped KU take the lead.

BYU punted, and with a chance to run out the clock, Daniels forced a punt into coverage and was intercepted by Marque Collins — only for the Cougars to punt again.

The Jayhawks again couldn’t get very far down the field, giving the Cougars a chance for another go-ahead run with five minutes left.

This time BYU capitalized. Retzlaff found Roberts for gains of 12 and 24 yards, and Ropati took the Cougars down to the KU 15-yard line at the two-minute warning. That’s when the Jayhawks made their last stand to keep BYU out of the end zone, doing what they couldn’t do in multiple losses earlier in the season.

The Jayhawks host another ranked team, Colorado, at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium for the final home game of the year on Saturday at 7 p.m. 2:30 p.m

How they scored

First quarter

9:07 – Devin Neal 8-yard run. Tabor Allen PAT good. Ten plays, 84 yards, 5:49 TOP. KU 7, BYU 0.

Second quarter

14:11 – Will Ferrin 33-yard field goal. Eleven plays, 42 yards, 5:30 TOP. KU 7, BYU 3.

8:48 – Hinckley Ropati 30-yard pass from Jake Retzlaff. Eight plays, 69 yards, 4:31 TOP. BYU 10, KU 7.

1:46 — Allen 25-yard field goal. Eleven plays, 68 yards, 7:02 TOP. BYU 10, KU 10.

Third quarter

4:30 — Ferrin 35-yard field goal. Seventeen plays, 66 yards, 10:26 TOP. BYU 13, KU 10.

Fourth quarter

13:19 – Neal 3-yard run. Allen PAT good. One play, three yards, 0:04 TOP. KU 17, BYU 13.

Box score