There is no sugar-coating what happened on Saturday at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. In a game many Jayhawks’ fans viewed as a must-win, KU Football dropped their 17th consecutive game in the Sunflower Showdown – a game they were looked at as the favorite. With the loss, the Jayhawks fell to 4-4 and 2-3 in Big 12 play.
Losing to your rival is never fun, and it’s a feeling KU Football fans have felt every single year for over a decade and a half. Perhaps the pressure to “break the streak” from the outside was too much for the Jayhawks to handle, as they put together their worst performance of 2025 when everyone wanted it the most. On the flip side, K-State, a team who struggled in the early parts of the season, was loose, comfortable and efficient in piecing together their best performance of the season. While it all added up to a 42-17 loss – and the KU program must wait another year to finally get the ‘cats – the season is far from over for the Jayhawks.
While this streak wasn’t broken by sixth-year quarterback Jalon Daniels, who struggled for the first time all season – a season in which he’s thrown for 18 touchdowns and just three interceptions – many ugly streaks that haunted KU football for over a decade were broken by JD and company. While it isn’t the time to relive those now, it is time to focus on the path forward in 2025 – a four-game November home stretch oozing with opportunity.
First, let’s begrudgingly revisit what went wrong on Saturday. We thought it was a great omen when Kansas forced a fumble on the opening kickoff – not just because it was a takeaway, but a takeaway forced by the special teams – the phase of the game that has haunted KU in so many of these rivalry games. KU’s offense took full advantage when Daniels ran it in from six yards out, and the ‘hawks were immediately up 7-0.
It was nearly all bad from there. K-State QB Avery Johnson engineered a touchdown drive to promptly tie the game, and disaster indeed struck on special teams when KU’s ensuing punt was fumbled by Finn Lappin, resulting in a scoop and score and a 14-7 Wildcat lead. KU’s offense sputtered again, while K-State found paydirt again. After the great start for the Jayhawks, all the sudden the visitors were up 21-7.
Kansas would get just what the doctor ordered to end the half, however. An EIGHTEEN play touchdown drive that ate up nearly all of the remaining time in the second quarter put this one at 21-14, giving the Jayhawks momentum as they were also set to receive the second half kickoff. The momentum was short-lived when a three and out to start the half gave it back to K-State, and following a Wildcat punt of their own, Daniels had a pass behind his wideout Keaton Kubecka, who batted the ball into the air and saw it fall into the hands of a K-State defender.
K-State would take advantage of the short field and go up 28-14, and after a 47-yard Laith Marjan field goal for KU, a 78-yard touchdown strike from Johnson to wide receiver Jayce Brown at the end of the third quarter on the very next play made it 35-17 K-State and all but salted this one away. KU had three turnovers to just one for K-State, and the Wildcats’ defense was consistently pressuring Daniels, whereas KU’s D didn’t make Johnson uncomfortable at all. Kansas was beaten in every phase of this one – one that needs to be put on the backburner before the most important month of the season.
As frustrating as this loss was for the KU program and its fans, the Jayhawks still have a path to, at the very least, reach a bowl game this season. That wasn’t the lofty goal that the Jayhawks set for themselves before the season, but for a program who has gone to just two bowl games in the last 16 seasons, reaching another is nothing to scoff at.
Kansas gets a bad Oklahoma State team this weekend on homecoming. That needs to be a win – ideally a comfortable, feel-good one. The path after the Cowboys is certainly more difficult with road games at Arizona and Iowa State before closing with a good Utah team on Senior Day. Kansas can win all of those games – they can also lose all of them if they don’t perform better than they did on Saturday.
The bottom line is – Kansas is a way better team than they showed on Saturday. I know the guys are hungry for a bounceback effort to prove that, which will hopefully spearhead a wildly successful November. Let’s win on Saturday and go from there. Rock Chalk!
Sean Kellerman