Kansas wakes up and beats Duke 44-16

The Kansas Jayhawks looked like they must have hit the snooze button a few times before finally getting up for their 11AM kickoff with Duke on Saturday. Kansas moved to 3-0 on the season with a 44-16 win over the Blue Devils, but not without struggling for a quarter and a half.

Coming off a come from behind win over Army, Duke needed just two plays to get on the board in the contest. Senior QB Thaddeus Lewis raced in from 21 yards out after connecting on a 66 yard pass play to Austin Kelly on the Blue Devils first play from scrimmage.

Kansas answered with a seven play, 60 yard drive, with Todd Reesing connecting for a 14 yard strike to Dezmon Briscoe and a 7-7 tie. For the next 17 minutes, Kansas couldn’t do much offensively against an inspired Duke squad. The running game, which had been so solid the first two games, struggled with running back Jake Sharp unable to play for most of the contest due to a leg injury sustained earlier in the week at practice.

Kansas finally broke on top on a quick four play drive, highlighted by a 45 yard pass from Reesing to Briscoe. Reesing hit Sharp for a 7 yard score, but the PAT was blocked.

The Jayhawks marched 75 yards on 9 plays with Reesing finding Kerry Meier over the middle for a six yard score and it was 20-7 at the half. Despite their first half struggles, Kansas had piled up over 270 yards in the first half of play.

The defense turned in the big play to start off the second half of action as Max Onyegbule stepped back into coverage from his defensive end spot and picked off a Lewis pass and returned it 48 yards for a TD and a 27-7 lead.

After a Duke field goal, freshman Toben Opurum plunged in from four yards out to finish off a 70 yard drive and give KU a 34-10 lead. Opurum filled in for Sharp and gained 70 yards on 17 carries on the day and had 3 receptions for 50 yards including a nifty one handed grab, but in the first half he failed to hit the holes with the quickness you’d like to see.

Defensively, Kansas recorded five sacks from five different players, but gave up 299 yards through the air to Lewis and redshirt freshman QB Sean Renfree. In fact, the Blue Devils ran off 83 offensive plays in the loss, including 32 in the fourth quarter.

Reesing was 28 of 41 for 338 yards and three TD’s. KU had 490 yards in total offense, but there were at least two dropped passes that would have been huge gainers, one a sure score dropped by Briscoe.

Most impressive for the Jayhawks may have been the fact they didn’t turn the ball over once. Do that and you’ll win most of the time. Next up is Southern Mississippi, who rallied from 13 points down to win 37-34 over Virginia. It’s another 11AM kickoff. Hopefully the Jayhawks won’t sleepwalk through the start.