Kansas looking to respond to adversity after first loss of the season
Kansas has the opportunity to take time to learn lessons and go through adversity from its first loss of the season after the Jayhawks fell 42-31 to Missouri in Columbia on Saturday. The Jayhawks will have their first of three bye weeks next week before opening Big 12 play against West Virginia on September 20th.
There are positives to take away from Kansas’ performance against Missouri. Lance Leipold said they played a good football team and was pleased with the effort, but understands that the team has work to do.
“I told our guys I’m proud of our effort but they have to understand that we have to show up on Monday and get ready to get back to work because we have some work to do to get ready for Big 12 play,” Leipold said.
Leipold confident Kansas will approach bye week well
Kansas battled throughout the game, taking a lead with 4 minutes to play in the fourth quarter. Leipold said he likes his team and is confident they’ll be able to respond.
“I really like this team. I’ve told them that for a long time,” Leipold said. “I’m confident, just looking in their eyes afterwards, that they’re going to come to work on Monday ready to get after it and get coached and find a way to take another step.”
Kansas showcased that it can respond to adversity over the course of the game Saturday. The Jayhawks quickly found themselves down 6-0 after going 3-and-out and giving up an easy score, but answered with 21 straight points. Jalon Daniels said that gives them something to build on as they go into the bye week.
“Today we ran into a lot of adverse situations, and coming from this game, we’re going to have to go back into the lab, come in Monday and, you know, work on [it],” Daniels said. “We believe in having a one and O mentality. So we’re going to go ahead and put our heads down and go back to work and get ready for Big 12 play.”
‘Look in the mirror week’
The bye week also affords Kansas the opportunity to learn from its first three games. Tight end DeShawn Hanika said it’s a “a look in the mirror week” where the Jayhawks can figure out things they can do better if they choose to accept coaching.
“It’s—as I like to call it—a look in the mirror week,” Hanika said. “Three games we played, two great games on offense and one kind of lackluster game, where we’re kind of up and down. So we need to be more consistent as a unit. But we need to look in the mirror and we need to come in on Monday morning and accept every coaching there is, whether it’s good or bad.”
Hanika said the coaching staff is incredible at what they do. As players, it’s their job to come into the week ready to learn.
“It’s on us at the end of the day. It’s not on anyone else,” Hanika said. “We got to come in ready to learn and get better and have that type of mindset instead of being defensive.”
Daniels said he thinks this loss is going to be on the team’s mind a lot as they start to prepare for West Virginia. He wants to see how the Jayhawks handle adversity for the first time this season.
“Adversity is going to strike in your life at some point. It’s not about what happened. It’s about how you respond to it,” Daniels said. “So how are we going to handle adversity? Are we going to look at ourselves in the mirror and be able to try to get better? Are we going to look at ourselves in the mirror and keep beating ourselves down? And at the end of the day, beating yourself down is not going to bring out anything positive. So as a leader and captain on this team, I’m going to make sure that we stay together, stay close, stay tight.”
