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KANSAN.COM
SPORTS
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CHRISTIAN HARDY
@ByHardy
Gradecard: Kansas vs. Texas Tech
Ryan Willis
He gave Kansas "hope," sophomore linebacker Joe Dineen said. He was called a "little Peyton Manning" by sophomore wide receiver Darious Crawley. He was the reason the Jayhawks were in the game late. But in the end, the freshman quarterback was also the reason for the team's demise. He finished 35-of-50 and threw for 330 yards, but it was his pick-six on the drive where the Jayhawks could take the lead, which hurt his good-standing in this game. That said, Willis proved that his arm is easily the best Jayhawks have had under-center since Todd Reesing, he just has some growing to do. Overall, it was an extremely encouraging game from the freshman; this was the type of performance that makes you believe he can be a four-year starter for Kansas.
De'Andre Mann
Mann started at running back with junior Ke'aun Kinner (hamstring) not at 100 percent. Mann started his day with a 41-yard run off the right end, and didn't slow down much. The team's gameplan was to pass the ball, but when they decided to run it, Mann did well, as did senior Taylor Cox, who came into the game here and there. Mann got 15 of the 31 carries that were handed off to the running backs, and he took those carries for 107 yards - a 7.1 yards per carry average. Beaty pointed him out in the post-game as a player he was really impressed with. When Kinner is fully healthy, there will be three fully capable running backs who can lead the Jayhawks back field.
Like junior kicker Matthew Wyman said after the game, the team was good in two aspects, punts and kick-offs, but not in what puts points on the board — field-goal kicking. Kansas missed three field goals and an extra-point in the 30-20 loss. If you didn't add that up in your head, that's 10 points. Those special teams points are the difference between overtime and another Kansas loss. Wyman missed two kicks (one was from 52 yards) and sophomore Nick Bartolotta missed another from 23 yards. All three cost Kansas severely. If one was made, Kansas would have still been one possession away after Willis threw a late pick-six.
Special teams
Beaty did decide to go with Wyman at punter, as the team was in the bottom half of the Big 12 in yards per punt before Saturday. Senior Eric Kahn had the punter before this game - he punted once on Saturday for only 23 yards. Meanwhile, Wyman punted three times for an average of 42.3 yards after picking up his punting game during the week. The punting improvements with Wyman were the only thing that kept this section from being an F.
Offensive line
The struggles, again from the offensive line, are what made Willis' performance so impressive. The interior line wasn't completely awful, but both tackles really struggled to hold their blocks, and the pocket quickly collapsed on Willis on a regular basis. One of those collapses came near the goal line late in the game when Willis lost awareness and was blind-sided after the left tackle lost his block. Luckily, offensive coordinator Rob Likens made up for the O-Line struggles in the second half by getting the ball out of Willis's hands quicker. It meant the freshman made some not-so-great decisions, but at least he wasn't getting sacked. All in all, Willis only hit the turf twice in this game, but the offensive line made his job a whole lot harder.
Defensive line
Easily the biggest surprise of this game; even bigger than Ryan Willis, personally. Whether it was defensive coordinator Clint Bowen drawing up a better gameplan, or whether it was just better executed (linebacker Joe Dineen said it was execution), this line looked amazing in this game. After tabbing only seven sacks all year long as a team, the Jayhawks came up with five sacks against the dual-threat Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes. On top of that, the team reeled in nine tackles for loss. Half of those came from the defensive line, which was missing sophomore defensive tackle Jacky Dezir. That pressure made the cornerback's jobs easier, taking pressure off of them versus the high-powered Texas Tech offense. The front's success may not be something that can be sustained, but for this week, it was maybe the most impressive aspect of the game for Kansas.
Coaching
Beaty finally started taking chances on fourth down late in the game. But for the first half of this game, when it appeared Texas Tech would run away with it, Beaty made some questionable fourth-down decisions. On fourth-and-12 from the Texas Tech 34 yard-line, Beaty decided to let Matthew Wyman try a 52-yard field goal. It was short and wide right. On the next drive, still tied 0-0, Beaty punted on fourth-and-4 from the Tech 42. That punt netted 23 yards. The Jayhawks were within 10 yards of midfield on fourth down two other times in the first three quarters and Beaty opted not to go for it both times. Down 14-0 in the second quarter, Beaty opted to kick the field goal from the Tech 4 yard-line rather than go for it. Bartolotta shanked the kick.
However, as I noted in early sections, Likens and Bowens made great in-game adjustments to get the job done on both sides of the ball, which gives this rating a big bump.