Kansas Jayhawks Football: Three Keys to the rest of the season.

We use the bye week to look ahead to the rest of the regular season for a team hoping to go to a bowl game.

The Kansas Jayhawks enter into their much-needed bye week, but that doesn't mean that our evaluations take a break. The bye week is a nice time for the team to self-scout and try to correct areas that are underperforming. And for fans, it is nice to reflect, see how far this team has come and reevaluate our expectations and how they have moved throughout the first part of the season. 

The Jayhawks have progressed physically and are competing against every team, something that we hoped for but could exactly expect yet as fans. They have grown mentally, creating a culture and environment that players want to be a part of at Kansas. But there is still work to be done, and with that in mind we look at three keys for a successful remainder of the season.

Staying Aggressive on Offense

There is no doubt that the offense has been the most exciting aspect of this football team. This is a team that will try to control the pace of the game by methodical rushing, but at any moment, could throw the football for 20 yards or more. This makes them much harder to defend, but that aggression in looking for chances has tailed off a little bit, so they will need to get back to that aggressive play style.

The Jayhawks are averaging 37.3 points per game for a total of 3,358 yards. To break that down they have rushed the football 274 times for 1,503 yards and have found the end zone 20 times. When Kansas has thrown the football they have completed 128 passes out of 197 for 1,855 yards. Through the air, they have scored 20 times. And even though they have started two different quarterbacks, they have managed to take care of the ball in the air well, only throwing four interceptions between them.

It's fair to say that the team has struggled since Jason Bean took over after Jalon Daniels was injured against TCU. So his potential return after the bye would be a welcome sight. He provides a spark on offense, along with a dynamic that is challenging for opposing defenses. His playing style is what brought life to this offense through the first five and a half games and would help when facing some of the toughest opponents in the Big 12. The Jayhawks will square up against a very battle-tested Oklahoma State football team in Lawrence, Kansas, and they deserve to get Kansas' best shot.

Defensive Improvement

The Kansas defense plays a bend but doesn't break type of defense, but as of late, they have been getting shattered. Unfortunately, they have been dealing with a few injuries, but they have given up points and yards at an alarming rate. Here are some examples.

Against Oklahoma, the Jayhawks' defense allowed 16-out-of-21 third-down conversions and surrendered 701 total yards of offense. The Jayhawks managed to get the Sooners into third-down scenarios but failed more often than not and lost that football game 52-42. Another example of this is against the Baylor Bears. The Bears were able to convert 9-out-of-16 third downs, but also managed to convert 3-out-of-4 fourth downs. Baylor also scored 28 points before halftime and would coast to a 35-23 victory.

But it's not like the play has been ALL bad. Despite giving up big numbers against TCU, Oklahoma and Baylor, there were large stretches of each game where the defense stepped up and got big stops to allow the offense to claw their way back into the game.

I don't think a miracle cure will be found over this bye week, but one of the keys for this defense and the coaching staff is to show improvement. Continue showing progress by studying film and understanding assignments. Continue to apply pressure off the edge in the middle forcing opposing quarterbacks to make mistakes. The Jayhawks have 19 sacks on the season, and Lonnie Phelps has six of those.

As stated previously Kansas has one of the toughest if not the toughest remaining schedules in all of college football. Limiting the yards, and forcing some of the third downs into punting situations could change how this defense is viewed.

Fan Support

Since 2008 this football program has gone through seven enervating coaches, and as fans we have endured tough conversations with other fanbases. In 2022, the Kansas football team has produced a winning and competitive product . In return, that winning product brought starving fans to David Booth Memorial Stadium to see success. For three consecutive games 47,233 fans sold out football games. The winning product brought College Gameday to Lawrence, Kansas. This is the first time for football. The key is very simple, don't let that fire, that passion smolder.

The college basketball season is right around the corner. This is usually the time of the year where the fans turn away from a struggling football team to focus solely on the upcoming basketball season. This year, the football performances have been enough that they should still command plenty of attention, especially in the two last home games.

Continue to show up in support of a football team who is one win away from being bowl eligible. Continue to show support for the players who worked hard in the weight room, and in film study to get better. Continue to support and cheer on a coach and his staff who work hard to build up the program, and make it enjoyable again. This is just as an important key as the others.