18
KANSAS
SHANE JACKSON
@jacksonshane3
SPORTS
KANSAN.COM
+
FOOTBALL GAMEDAY
TCU
BRIAN MINI
@daftpunkpop
KEY CONTRIBUTORS
RYAN WILLIS
RYAN WILLE
FRESHMAN, QUARTERBACK
HORNED FROGS
Willis continues to make strides every week. Against Texas, he completed 17 of 34 passes for 214 yards and one touchdown. He is now 112-of-203 for 1,174 yards and six touchdowns on the year. With junior quarterback Montell Cozart out for the season due to a shoulder injury, Willis should hold the reins for the rest of the year to lead the Jayhawks.
KE'AUN KINNER
KEAUN KINNER
JUNIOR, RUNNING BACK ★★★☆☆
Kinner eclipsed the 50-yard mark on the ground for the first time since week two. The first-year Kansas running back has struggled with injuries for much of the season, but against Texas he was the workhorse with 13 carries for 67 yards. Saturday's performance was short of his back-to-back 100-yard games he had to begin the season. Still, it was a positive to see the leading rusher look completely healthy.
TRE PARMALEE
SENIOR, WIDE RECEIVER ★★★★☆
Parmalee did not make the trip to Austin with the team. He and freshman receiver Steven Sims Jr, were absent because they violated team rules. As a result, the Jayhawks receiving unit was rather thin. Ten different players caught a pass for Kansas, but no one hauled in more than three catches. Parmalee is the Jayhawks' leading receiver with 29 receptions for 464 yards and two touchdowns, and he should be back in action this week.
BEN GOODMAN JR.
SENIOR, DEFENSIVE END
Goodman continues to be a force up front for the layhawks, as he, with five sacks, leads the team. However, he has not brought down the opposing quarterback for a sack in the last three games. Before the season, Goodman made it his goal to break the single-season sack record and noted that he plans to get to the conference Heisman hopeful Trevone Boykin. This week is his chance to back it up and get to Boykin, the TCU quarterback, in Fort Worth.
FISH SMITHSON JUNIOR, SAFETY
The team's leading tackler has been a defensive cornerstone for the Jayhawks all season. Smithson leads the team in tackles with 88—68 of which are solo.The next closest Jayhawk is freshman Tyrone Miller with 53 stops----40 of them unassisted. Smithson currently leads the Big 12 in tackles. He has recorded double-digit stops in three of the last four contests.
KEY CONTRIBUTORS
TREVONE BOYKIN
SENIOR QUARTERBACK
Aside from his four interceptions against Oklahoma State, Heisman candidate Trevone Boykin has been electric. Even with that decision-making, he still ended up with 445 yards and three total touchdowns in the loss. His 3,372 yards passing is fifth in the country, and he has ran for almost 600 yards.
AARON GREEN
AARON GREEN
SENIOR, RUNNING BACK ★★★★☆
TCU's passing game is its main highlight, but the running game is not to be overlooked. Green is averaging more than five yards a carry and has nine touchdowns in a pass-central offense, which makes him a tough matchup. He's a typical Big 12 running back behind a great offensive line.
JOSH DOCTSON
JOSH DOCTSON
SENIOR, WIDE RECEIVER ★★★★★★
College football's leader in receiving yards will be a tough matchup for Kansas cornerbacks. At 6-foot-3, Docton is a real threat and can catch anything thrown in his area. He'll most likely be seeing a lot of playing time in the NFL next year. He hurt his hand last Saturday, but it looks like he'll be back in action against Kansas.
KOLBY LISTENBEE
KOLBY LISTENBEE
SENIOR, WIDE RECEIVER ★★★☆☆
Listenbee is yet another impressive senior playmaker for TCU. Statistically, his 447 yards aren't amazing, but Listenbee could have an impact against Kansas. Listenbee has speed that any secondary would struggle with. He was a track All-American last year and averages over 20 yards a catch.
JOSH CARRAWAY JUNIOR, DEFENSIVE END
Carraway is TCU's version of Ben Goodman. He's a reliable defensive end with five sacks and 28 tackles. TCU's defense isn't as good as it has been in the past, but don't look past this defensive line. Kansas' banged-up offensive line will need to match the size of this TCU defense.
PREDICTION: TCU 56, KANSAS 14
KU's tall task: Contain TCU's Trevone Boykin
CHRISTIAN HARDY
@ByHardy
It was over two years ago when Kansas traveled to TCU's Amon G. Carter Stadium for the first time.
SUE OGROCKI/AP
The Horned Frogs were 2-3 without a win in the Big 12 on the season. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Trevone Boykin was hanging onto the starting job by a thread; two games after Kansas, he would make a switch to wide receiver that would last for the rest of the season.
TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin avoids a tackle by Oklahoma State defensive end Trace Clark, right, in the second quarter of a game in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015.
Kansas hung around in the game — it was 10-10 at half. Boykin threw two interceptions, and TCU fumbled it three times.
The Horned Frogs finished the year with four wins, including over the Jayhawks, and
wasn't eligible for a bowl game they were part of the underbelly of the NCAA.
TCU is 8-1 on the season and was a favorite to make the college football playoffs before dropping a game to Oklahoma State last week. TCU is a 45-point favorite, so seeing Kansas hang around at halftime would be a shock.
This time, when Kansas travels to Fort Worth, Texas, nothing will be the same, save for that 45,000-seat venue.
Kansas coach David Beaty and defensive coordinator Clint Bowen agree: Boykin has evolved into a top talent not only in the Big 12, but in the NCAA.
sive end Ben Goodman said of Boykin, who rushed 12 times for 71 yards against Kansas in that game. "Now he's one of the best college football passers in the country."
Most notably, Boykin — now a senior — is a Heisman candidate and is expected to be selected in the NFL Draft next spring.
"When we played him two years ago at TCU, he wasn't really a thrower — he was a runner ... Two years ago he was just an athlete," senior defen-
In his first season under center, Boykin was averaging 189.5 yards per game, with a 6.5 adjusted yards per attempt, or AY/A; he rushed 14.2 times per game for 48.8 yards.
Two years later, he's averaging 374.7 passing yards per game with 10 AY/A and 66.3 rush yards per game. If the season ended today, Boykin's AY/A would be third best among quarterbacks in the Big 12
since 1996.
"He continues to gain more confidence in the passing game. He's making quicker decisions, throwing a lot more routes," Bowen said. "Earlier in his career he wouldn't throw a lot of outside breaking routes, and now he can complete that deep comeback. He's improved his ability to read defenses and make quicker decisions, and he's throwing a lot more routes than he's throwing when he was younger."
Though Boykin can step up in the pocket and make deep throws, he's still as good on the ground as he was in years past, if not better.
"He's slippery. He's like a running back throwing the ball," said sophomore linebacker Joe Dineen. "[We have to] try to contain him. Obviously, that's the goal for some defense, and it's tough, but it's doable."
This year, though, the task is even tougher for a Kansas defense that is much more inexperienced.
Last year, Kansas did some of that under Bowen, coming only four points and a late interception shy of a major upset. Boykin threw for 330 yards, threw an interception and made no progress on the ground.
While the Jayhawks could focus on and attempt to shut down senior wide receiver Josh Doctson, who has already had 1,315 yards and 14 touchdowns this year and is dealing with a wrist injury, it will be all for nothing if Boykin can find targets across the middle of the field.
"We're going to look at what Oklahoma State did and try to,
Now, freshman targets such as KaVontae Turpin in the slot and Shaun Nixon, who can line up anywhere on the field, are in the mix, which has made the offense more multifaceted than it was in the past.
Oklahoma State did that, limiting Doctson to only six catches for 60 yards. However, Boykin still threw for 445 yards in a game where the Horned Frogs had to claw their way to 29 points, but he was sacked three times and pressured into four interceptions.
"The emergence of [Nixon] and [Turpin] on the inside as legitimate danger threats has increased their ability to move the ball," Bowen said. "They're making it a lot more difficult to single out one guy."
in a way, copy what they did to contain him." Dineen said. "We've got to try to do something similar to what Oklahoma State did."
Oklahoma State, of course, has better personnel than Kansas. Defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah is tied for sixth in the NCAA in sacks with nine, and the team as a whole is third in the NCAA with 33 sacks. The Cowboys' mixed up three-down and four-down sets to get the best of their defensive line.
For Kansas, the task will be harder. While the scheme won't change much, the team will stay true mostly to what it does and try to implement what the Cowboys did in their way.
"We have the things in our arsenal to be able to do the things we want to do to play against these guys," Beaty said. "It's just going to come down to us executing better than they execute. We're going to have to make some plays at key points. That's going to be big."
— Edited by Amber Vandegrift
+