Whatever was going on between the Jayhawk football and basketball programs this week didn’t carry over to today’s game against Southern Mississippi as 19th ranked Kansas won a hard fought battle with the Golden Eagles 35-28.
KU wasted little time jumping on top of Southern Miss. The Jayhawks scored on the 4th play of the game, a perfectly placed 62 yard pass from Todd Reesing to Kerry Meier.
The Golden Eagles tied it at 7-7 when Austin Davis hit tight end Jonathan Massey from one yard out to cap a 7 play drive.
Kansas made it 14-7 on their next possession when wide out Dezmon Briscoe capped a 12 play, 84 yard drive with a 20 yard reverse around the left side for a 14-7 Jayhawk lead.
Southern Miss knotted the game back up with Davis hitting 6 foot 6 inch DeAndre Brown for a 22 yard score. It was Brown’s first catch of the day.
In the second quarter, the Golden Eagles were threatening inside the KU 20 when the Jayhawks forced a Davis fumble and Justin Springer recovered on the Kansas 21.
KU then marched 79 yards with Reesing finding Toben Opurum wide open out of the backfield for a 12 yard score and 21-14 lead. Filling in again for the injured Jake Sharp, the true freshman had a season high 108 yards yards rushing and delivered some tough blows to potential tacklers.
Southern Miss blundered before the half when they tried to catch KU off guard going on a quick count on fourth down but the Jayhawks stuffed Davis on a sneak to halt the drive at the KU 16.
On Ku's first drive of the second half, Kansas stretched the lead to 14 with a Opurum TD dive in from the 2 to cap a 12 play, 70 yard drive. For Opurum it was his 7th TD of the season.
But the Golden Eagles responded with 14 straight points. First, with a 4 play, 80 yard drive as Davis ran in from the 16 on a QB draw up the middle, cutting the lead to 28-21.
Then Eddie Hicks picked off Reesing on the Southern Miss 37 and the Golden Eagles scored again with a 63 yard drive as Davis hit Massey on a 4 yard pass on a crossing pattern and it was 28 all.
The Jayhawks Darryl Stuckey returned the kickoff 50 yards to the Golden Eagle 40 and KU retook the lead with Reesing hitting Meier for 12 yard pass. Meier’s 10th catch of the game and a 35-28 Kansas lead. For the contest Meier had 142 yards receiving.
KU’s Ryan Murphy intercepted Davis on the next series as Stephen Foster forced him to throw under pressure. It was Davis’ first pick in 160 passing attempts. A fumble by Opurum with just over four minutes to go didn’t prove costly when the Jayhawk defense held. The Golden Eagles final chance to tie was thwarted 1:12 to play when Jake Laptad sacked Davis for the first time in the game and KU recorded their 4th win of the season 35-28.
The win by the Jayhawks snapped the Golden Eagles 8 game win streak, second longest in the nation. It also marked the 8th time in school history the KU has started 4-0. Kansas has the week off next week before opening the conference season at home against Iowa State on Oct. 10th.
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