Week 4 Primer: Battling the Mountain Men After The Bye

After a late loss to Missouri and a bye week to stew on it, the Jayhawks are back in action for Week 4.

Author

Blue Wings Rising Staff
September 20, 2025

The Blue Wings Rising Newsletter will be a weekly publication that will cover the prior weekend of action and look ahead to the upcoming week. Moving forward, it will come out on Wednesday/Thursday afternoons.

Kansas kicks off the conference season this year with a familiar foe: The West Virginia Mountaineers. This will be the fourth time since the 2019 season that the Jayhawks open conference play against the Mountaineers.

The Rundown

Kansas Jayhawks (2-1) vs West Virginia Mountaineers (2-1)

Saturday, September 20th, 5:00 p.m. Central
Lawrence, KS: David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium (41,525)

TV: FS1
- Noah Reed (Play-by-play), Robert Smith (Analyst)
Radio: Jayhawk Sports Network
- Brian Hanni (Play-by-play), David Lawrence (Analyst), Brandon McAnderson (Sideline)
- SiriusXM Channel 119/198
Online: FOX Sports GO
Line: KU -13.5
O/U: 54.5
SP+: Kansas (36th Overall, 19th Offense, 59th Defense) , West Virginia (55th, 51st, 51st)
Series History: West Virginia 11-2

Missouri Wrap-Up

Spotlight: The Lack of a Running Game

Derek Noll

Sure, Kansas made some conservative choices at the end that doomed their chances, but realistically, were they doomed already?

KU came into the Missouri game with a competent running back combo of Daniel Hishaw and Leshon Williams. After the two backs ran for a total of eleven yards on nine carries, question marks will arise going forward.

Is Missouri’s defense this good against the run? Was KU’s best chance at winning putting everything on the shoulders of Jalen Daniels? Just how good was Devin Neal anyway?* And most importantly, is this an issue going forward with the Jayhawks?

*Answer: extremely good.

It was fairly obvious that Kansas couldn’t get it going on the ground from the get-go. The only diversity in the play calling was whether Jalon Daniels was going to keep it himself and try to create with his legs or stay in the pocket and pass the ball. Once it was clear that these were the only two options left for Kansas, Missouri began to salivate and the game was essentially over if not for MU settling for field goals.

Daniels broke off a few nice runs, but after the ground game was all but nixed, the Tiger D could focus on Jalon. The safety the Jayhawks conceded was early but still could be considered a result of no variety on offense. The ferociousness that the defense came after JD6 on that play meant that they knew no one was getting the ball for a handoff and run.

Later in the game, Daniels missed a few long opportunities that he normally connects on (and a few that receivers and running backs just plain dropped, and these non-plays really sealed the game) and these could be attributed to the fact that he had to do literally everything.

Jalon is not the kind of guy that will ever make an excuse, so you won’t hear it from him this week or ever, but getting a play of two off, where the running back could get a chunk of yardage and put the offense in an easier situation would’ve been a key factor in Columbia. The largest run from a KU running back was a paltry five-yarder from Hishaw (his other five carries netted one yard in total and Williams had zero yards on the afternoon).

Luckily, Kansas gets a week off before they face their first conference foe at the new David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in the West Virginia Mountaineers. Let’s hope that the lack of a running game against Missouri is an anomaly rather than a feature of the season.

Takeaways

Andy Mitts

The defense struggled across the board, but not without some real highlights. A defensive touchdown, a blocked extra point, and numerous other big plays were huge for the defense, but ultimately the Tigers were able to take advantage of the inexperience in the secondary. But there are still high hopes for this unit, and they will get plenty of other mild tests coming up in the next few weeks.

I’ve heard multiple people talk about how Jalon Daniels missed a huge opportunity to prove he is a good quarterback, but I think that is very unfair to him. He had three different passes that would have extended or capped off scoring drives that were just flat-out dropped by the receivers. The throws were perfect, and it’s impossible to blame him for the receiver taking his eyes off the ball. Those will get cleaned up, and hopefully Daniels has multiple chances to prove himself again.

Given the expectations of a lot of people going into this game, the Jayhawks played fairly well. A one-score game until a baffling clock management decision at the end of the game, the Jayhawks kept this one within striking distance against what is supposed to be a solid SEC team on the road.

Scouting the Opponent

Kyle Davis

It feels like West Virginia is always a September, early conference matchup for Kansas. This time, the Mountaineers come to Lawrence and once again there are quite a few questions. WVU is coming off an emotional overtime win against its greatest rival Pitt after it dropped a game against 1-2 Ohio (who lost to Rutgers and Ohio State). 

And where it looks like this game will be decided is in the trenches and the run game. Because the Mountaineers want to run the ball. They have on 62% of plays so far and average 213 yards on the ground per game. It’s a two-headed rushing attack with Tye Edwards and Jahiem White, but it’s actually quarterback Nicco Marchiol who leads the team in rushing attempts. 

In the win against Pitt: 174 yards rushing and three touchdowns 

In the loss to Ohio: 72 yards rushing and one touchdown

Kansas’ defense has been overall solid against the run so far this year. That will need to continue. But the other trench area is in pass protection on both sides. WVU leads the Big 12 in sacks through three games with 13, and KU is third at 11. The WVU offensive line has also been prone to giving up more sacks.

Player to Watch: Jalon Daniels

Derek Noll

When West Virginia lost to Ohio a few weeks back, the Mountaineers gave up 182 yards on the ground. Ok, you say, that sounds kind of normal. But it’s really not when you consider that 87 of those yards were to the Ohio quarterback Parker Navarro. Looking over his statistics, Navarro seems fine. But he’s no Jalon Daniels. And if the Mountaineers couldn’t contain the Bobcat QB, I’m guessing they may have a hard time containing on the most explosive quarterbacks in the country in JD6.

Add in that Kansas has had two weeks to prepare for West Virginia and are still likely stinging from the loss to Missouri where the Jayhawks had every chance to win and likely move into the rankings, I think we’ll see some razzle dazzle on Saturday night.

Jalon Daniels is KU’s second leading rusher on the season, and if you take into consideration some of the long sacks he has taken, the number where he actually moves forward would be much higher. I’m looking for some plays designed to utilize Jalon’s legs, especially early as KU wants to get off to a hot start in this one. Give me a 300 yards in the air and 100 on the ground kind of day for Kansas’s star QB. 

Check out the Rock Chalk Podcast, where Andy and Kyle previewed this week’s matchup:

Keys to the Game

Andy Mitts

Contain the Run Game
West Virginia has clearly been a better running team than passing, and they have been able to use that early to establish some rhythm. But against Ohio, they were unable to consistently get that going, and it showed how important it is to their gameplan. Kansas has been surprisingly good against the run this year, and if they can keep that going, it will make it awfully difficult for the visitors.

The Pass Rush Has To Get Home
The defensive line was a menace in the first three games. But Missouri was able to shake off an early thumping to get just enough room for their quarterback to get passes away. The Jayhawks have 10 sacks already on the year, third in the Big 12, and West Virginia has had issues protecting Nicco Marchiol. Get a few sacks early, and the Mountaineers will be extremely one-dimensional.

Get Daniels in a Rhythm
Jalon Daniels has been electric for large portions of the season so far. And it’s fair to say that the majority of the passing game issues haven’t actually been his fault. But there is truth to the idea that getting him in a rhythm helps EVERYONE in the passing game. Inconsistent opportunities for the receivers have led to some key drops, and it’s very hard to recover when those come late in a close game.

Staff Predictions

Kyle: These two teams are coming off very different scenarios. Kansas has had a bye week to recover from a disappointing loss. Meanwhile, Pitt just played a rivalry game that had to take it out of them physically and emotionally. But WVU has the momentum of a big win. I think the KU defense will have a chip on its shoulder after its last performance and while WVU is a competent offense, it’s not the level of Missouri. The rest and home field give KU the edge for me. Kansas 34, West Virginia 24

Derek: After the loss at Mizzou which was very winnable, I’m looking for Kansas to bounce back in a big way. The team and staff have had two weeks to fine tune everything and I’m looking for some fun play calling, especially early in this one. Kansas 45, West Virginia 21.

Andy: I can’t really say that the loss to Missouri was a fluke, per se, but Kansas had many uncharacteristic things happen in the rivalry game. And while these teams have been the conference opener for each other multiple times in the last few years, there isn’t any special rivalry going on to worry about. Kansas is plainly the better team, and is the much better offense. Add in the home crowd and a hungry team, and Kansas should roll in this one. Kansas 35, West Virginia 17.

Game Notes

  • Redshirt junior linebacker Trey Lathan has led the team in tackles in each of the first three games. He is set to take on his former team in the Mountaineers after setting his career-high in tackles against Missouri.

  • Kansas is 4-1 coming off a bye week under Lance Leipold, including three wins over ranked opponents.

  • Kansas is averaging 507 yards of total offense in two games at home this season.

Athletic Whiparound

Andy Mitts

Volleyball

The 17th-ranked Jayhawks are on a four match streak of sweeps, defeating Florida Gulf Coast, Green Bay and South Dakota in the South Dakota Tournament before taking down Wichita State in Wichita on Tuesday. They are now 7-4 on the season, with no matches coming at home.

They wrap up the non-conference slate at the Omaha Tournament this weekend with three matches. On Saturday, they face host Omaha at 3pm in a match that will be broadcast on Midco Sports +. On Sunday, they face South Florida at 10am on YouTube and then look to avenge a 5-set loss to #18 Creighton at 5pm on Nebraska Public Media.

Conference play starts next weekend with two matches at home.

Soccer

Kansas extended their winning streak to four straight matches as they outlasted Oklahoma State in Stillwater in a 1-0 victory. Even more impressive is that the Jayhawks were down a player after a red card in the 33rd minute, but Caroline Castans scored the game-winning goal in the 56th minute.

The Jayhawks are back in action on Thursday as they host the Baylor Bears at 6pm at Rock Chalk Park.

This season, Blue Wings Rising will be providing the same coverage as prior seasons in a condensed weekly newsletter format. Newsletters will release on Wednesday/Thursday afternoons.

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