Kansas topped by Baylor, 38-9
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas football fell to Baylor, 38-9 on Saturday at Memorial Stadium, as the Jayhawks were unable to get things going on offense and struggled to find an answer to the Bears’ passing game, surrendering 335 yards in the air.
Baylor (1-8, 1-5 Big 12) outgained Kansas (1-8, 0-6 Big 12) 455-289, led by freshman quarterback Charlie Brewer, who connected on 23-of-29 passes for 315 yards and three touchdowns in his first-career start.
The Jayhawks scored first in the game on a 38-yard field goal by senior kicker Gabriel Rui. The score was set up by fake punt that resulted in an 11-yard run for a first down on fourth-and-6 by senior punter Cole Moos.
The Kansas lead lasted just 1:09, as Brewer led the Bears down the field in three plays, connecting with sophomore wide receiver Denzel Mims for a 56-yard completion on the drive’s first play. A sack by redshirt junior linebacker Joe Dineen Jr., moved the Bears back seven yards on the next play, but the third play resulted in Brewer’s first touchdown pass of the game, a 26-yard completion to freshman wide receiver Gavin Holmes, giving Baylor a 7-3 lead.
Baylor went up 14-3, after a nine-play, 74-yard drive, capped by a 25-yard pass from Brewer to senior tight end Jordan Feuerbacher. Following KU’s second field goal of the game, a 40-yard make by Rui with 4:18 remaining in the half, the Bears added another touchdown on a four-yard run by Holmes to lead 21-6 at the break.
KU opened the second half with Rui connecting on his third field goal of the game, a career-long 43-yard make with 10:39 remaining in the third quarter, but the Jayhawks were unable to score again in the game.
Following the Jayhawks’ final field goal, Baylor scored 17 unanswered points, with a one-yard rushing touchdown by junior running back Terrence Williams, a 38-yard field goal from sophomore kicker Connor Martin and Brewer’s third touchdown pass to senior tight end Ishmail Wainwright.
Sophomore quarterback Carter Stanley completed 17-of-33 passes for 155 yards, throwing one interception. Junior wide receiver Steven Sims Jr., gained 210 all-purpose yards, including 157 on kickoff returns, 11 rushing and 42 receiving on seven catches. Sophomore running back Khalil Herbert led the Kansas ground game with 10 rushes for 71 yards, including a 43-yard run in the third quarter.
Dineen led the Jayhawks on defense once again, picking up 11 total tackles, including 10 solo stops and four tackles for loss. Sophomore safety Mike Lee and sophomore cornerback Kyle Mayberry each tallied seven stops, while four other Jayhawks notched five tackles.
Kansas will travel to Austin, Texas to face Texas for its next contest on November 11. The Jayhawks and Longhorns will kick off at 5 p.m. CST and the game will be broadcast on both the Longhorn Network and Jayhawk Television Network. Following the contest against Texas, Kansas will return home for its final home game of 2017 on November 18 against Oklahoma, before concluding the season at Oklahoma State on November 25.
QUOTES
Kansas head coach David Beaty
Q. You seemed to have made progress against K-State. Things seemed to regressed today; is that kind of the most disappointing part of what happened today?
DAVID BEATY: You take those two weeks back-to-back, and obviously you want to be able to build on it, and we didn’t do that today, and that’s more than frustrating. But like I said just a second ago on the radio, there’s going to be three more games here, and we’d better be ready to go because I know those guys are going to be ready to go. We’d better be ready.
Q. Were you surprised by anything Baylor did today?
DAVID BEATY: You know, I thought — I take my hat off to Matt. Like I said, I think he does a great job. He had his team ready to play. I thought they schematically exposed us a couple times on some things that helped them. Their play action pass, being able to hit Mims. We knew he was a great player. I didn’t think we defended him well at all today. We’ve got to do a much better job there. There’s times where our defense actually did some good things, man. They battled back and got off the field a couple times, one time on a turnover that was almost for sure points, and they were able to get off. That was outstanding. They kept battling until the very end. If there’s anything that I do think is a nice part about it, it was that those guys kept fighting out there.
But I think they executed well offensively. They threw the ball well. That kid threw the ball really, really well. We knew he was a good runner. He threw the ball really well today. No. 15 made some great catches. He got open. The other guys made plays. They hit us on a couple of tight end down the middle that we’re in position, all we’ve got to do is knock it down, not even be able to pick it, and we just didn’t make the play. And then there’s another one where they slipped the running back out and he gets behind one of our guys, and those are things that you don’t see very often, but you’ve got to be able to stop them when they show up.
We’ve got to be better execution wise at those points of attack, and then we’ve got to score touchdowns. We just can’t keep — where we really have to become better is we have to — once we get inside that plus 30, that 1st down after that plus 30 has got to be good, because if you just go back and look at it, 1st down after plus 30 has been — it’s been going backwards or it’s been a stalemate and almost without exception we’re in a 3rd-and-long situation. You give them an advantage when you do that.
We’ve got to be able to get in better 3rd and medium to 3rd and short, more manageable 3rd down situations than 3rd and 8, 3rd and 9, 3rd and 10.
Q. You mentioned 1st downs once you’re inside the 30; seems like it’s always a hurry, you try to get a hurry-up and it never works.
DAVID BEATY: Yeah, you know, we talked about that at halftime. We talked a little bit about learning from the first half, about going fast. There was one occasion where we did go fast. Taylor Martin got outside and got us down inside the 15, I believe it was down there, or inside the 20 I know.
But we have to continue to look at ourselves and say, when we’re going speed ball there, are we getting what we need to get out of it, or is it becoming counterproductive, and we talked about it at halftime to be able to slow it down and get good calls on that 1st down, try to get positive yardage so we’re not in 3rd-and-long situations. That hurts you.
Q. You said Tuesday Baylor kind of reminded you where you guys were at the first year. To lose to that team by this margin, what do you say to fans that are saying that can’t see signs of progress?
DAVID BEATY: Well, I’ll say this: They’re nowhere near where we were. We were down 30 plus scholarships. They’re not even remotely close to that. I said that there’s some things that they’re facing. So they’re not even close to where we were. We’re still not there. But that’s no excuse. Like I said, Matt is a good coach. He did a good job.
Q. How do you feel about the way your defense fit the gap and held their assignments?
DAVID BEATY: Man, you know, some things out there were encouraging, particularly when we were backed up in situations a couple of times watching — just watching Clint (Bowen) continue to work over there. I mean, we’ve got to really do a good job of getting that secondary up to speed. I thought for the first time in a few weeks they kind of regressed a little bit, and we’ve got to get them back to where they’re making that upward trend.
Q. Probably the most disappointing loss so far; how do you get your players back and get them ready?
DAVID BEATY: Man, we’ve got a great locker room. We don’t have to get them back. They’ve just got to let this one go. The reason we don’t have to get them back is because they believe. But we’ve got to let this one go. We have no choice. We’re going to have to let it go. We’ve got to learn from it and move on to the next one because like I said, we’ve got three really, really tough opponents that we’re facing down the road. We’ve just got to learn from it. I know those boys in there are disappointed. I know our coaches are disappointed. I know our fans are disappointed. They’ve got every right to be.
Q. What was the situation with the timeout before the field goal attempt in the first quarter, did you talk to the officials about that?
DAVID BEATY: Yeah, you know, honestly as you communicate with the official, they made the right call. They did a good job. One of their wing officials came crashing in, and the only thing that would make them hold up something like that is if the ball went out of bounds on your sideline or their sideline where they had to reset, or they had to reset. He had to allow Stacy I think was the guy that was holding us up, and he had to allow the wing official to get set. Sometimes as a coach you don’t see all that.
Q. Joe Dineen with 11 tackles; how important is it that he do that each and every week?
DAVID BEATY: I mean, I can’t — I don’t really even have any words. He’s a tough dude. He’s hurt, and to play that consistent, he’s a stud. He’s good.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Kansas Junior DT Daniel Wise
On how frustrating this game was:
“It is a game we should have had. It is frustrating how it turned out.”
On Baylor getting in a rhythm and what allowed the Bears to start moving the ball offensively:
“We will go look back on the game film to look at try to fix that.”
On his personal tackles-for-loss that being something to build off of:
“Yes it is, (but) we still need to try and get the quarterback out of the pocket more to make him throw more difficult passes.”
On being an emotional leader for this team:
“I would not say it is my job, we have the other captains who have stepped up to keep the guys motivated.”
Kansas Redshirt-Junior LB Joe Dineen Jr.
On leading the team in tackles today, including the tackles-for-loss:
“I try and go out to make as many plays for the team as I can.”
On what allowed Baylor to get more comfortable in the second quarter:
“It is a combination of things (that) we need to get cleaned up. (There were) Lots of missed assignments. We go over that stuff, but it just did not happen for us in the game today.”
On the mood of the team after this loss:
“It is not great, we felt that it was a game we had an opportunity to win. This loss today hurt for us.”
Baylor head coach Matt Rhule
Opening Statement:
“Number one, I’m very happy for our players. They’re special, special young men. I know that they’ve worked hard. As I’ve told them, I’m not proud of them because they won. I’m proud of them because they’ve picked themselves up each and every week. When things looked bleak, they recommitted themselves. They’ve taught me a thing or two about process and just continuing to move forward. This isn’t just a win, this is a culmination of a lot of efforts and hopefully the beginning of the fourth quarter of our season. I’m just really happy for them. I’ve always been proud of them, but I’m just really happy for them that they had a chance to do that.
“It’s a great time when you’re going through the valleys to see the people who are there with you, the people that have your back. Our bus pulls up and there are families out there wishing us on and they’ve been a tremendous source of strength. That’s also all of the people who email us and call us and write us. I didn’t know what I was getting into when I came to Baylor – just how special the people are and how they believe in something greater than just the scoreboard. I’m just happy that we could return all of their support with a win today. I was proud of that.
“From a football perspective, it took us a while to get going out there on offense, but I thought our defense was really, really good today. That was a quarterback (Carter Stanley) who threw for 400 or 500 yards last week. I thought we did a good job of getting pressure and I thought (Defensive Coordinator) Phil (Snow) called a great game. We were able to get the ball in front of us and get a couple turnovers and were really good on third downs. I think Doug told me that this was the first time that we didn’t allow a touchdown (in a Big 12 road game). To go on the road and keep the other team out of the end zone, I thought that was special. To come off of all of the injuries we had last week and to have Taylor Young move to MIKE linebacker and to have Jalen Pitre move to WILL, just to see those guys and the work they put in this week and be ready versus a complicated offense – my hat was off to all of our players. Offensively, I thought we were able to get some run game going late in the game, but the offensive line did a great job keeping Charlie (Brewer) protected. I thought our receivers played their best game. If you’re looking for a story, I thought what Blake Lynch did this week of learning how to play receiver in two or three personnel groups and he played corner in the game. Not many kids can do what Blake Lynch did today. He made a big catch, Gavin (Holmes) made some big catches, (Denzel) Mims made some big catches, Jared Atkinson made a big catch on third down. I thought Charlie really had a lot of help and that, obviously, Charlie was a little bit daring – a great throw to (Jordan) Feuerbacher, a great catch by Feuerbacher – I don’t think we’ve ever thrown that ball, it’s never been there. Charlie saw it and made a play. I thought our coaches did a great job, I’m happy for our coaches. I’m happy for our coaches’ wives and families. People don’t understand the impact that these times can have on them so I’m happy that they can celebrate and smile and laugh.
“Now we’ll go to what’s next. We’ll get ready for a good Texas Tech team and continue to try to build off the process. I’m just really grateful to our administration – to Mack Rhodes, Jeremiah Dickey and Chad Jackson, Doug Machmey and all the guys who are here each and every week and have a note of encouragement and understand that we’re trying to do this the right way and I couldn’t be more grateful to Dr. Livingstone. She’s been on the road with us, she’s supported us – not just what we’re doing, but the way that we’re doing it. There are so many people at the University who I hope are proud today. I said to the TV (reporter), ‘We haven’t always won, but I think we’ve brought honor to our University and brought glory and honor to God. That’s what you’re supposed to do so I think our kids have done that.'”
On the win being a relief or not:
“I hate to use that word. I’m just happy for the players – to see the weight lifted off of their shoulders. I’ve worked them so hard and just to see Taylor Young and those guys out there playing such good football. So is it a relief? I think you could maybe say that, but you get into this (field of work) to watch young people be their best and have fun and to see our young guys go out there and have fun and have a result. If we hadn’t had won this game, I believe that they would have shown up and worked on Monday anyway at a high, high level. So now for them to have this, hopefully they can go out and continue to build on it.”
On freshman QB Charlie Brewer’s first start coming on the road:
“I thought he was really, really good. I thought they had a good plan to keep it simple for him, but he threw the ball down the field a good bit and he had the chance at a couple other ones, so we were aggressive. He was impressive. We know Charlie is a good player and he could go down and make some plays. Even that fourth down play where he went down and made a play with his feet – I thought those were excellent plays by him.”
On getting things going in the second quarter:
“The first drive we threw a skinny post touchdown and we just kind of dropped it a little bit behind us so we could see things were there.”
Baylor Senior TE Jordan Feuerbacher
On both himself and Ishmail Wainright having touchdowns:
“It was nice, we’ve had some plays to the tight ends in the past weeks that either didn’t get called or didn’t come our way and to have both of us go out and make a play it was really fun and good for our team and good for us of course.”
On atmosphere in the locker room compared to last week:
“We’re really close as a team, losing sucks, so yeah, it’s a lot more fun in there, that’s for sure, but it’s not like we had a broken locker room or anything last week. It’s just a lot of singing, dancing, having fun instead of sitting there and thinking ‘I should have done this and should have done this a little better.’ We’re going to enjoy it for the rest of the night and come and watch film and do whatever it takes to beat (Texas) Tech next week.”
On if the win is a relief:
“I don’t think it’s really a relief, I think it’s nice to see all the hard work we’ve been putting in. We’ve come back every week and we’ve practiced hard and we’ve studied hard, so to finally get a win and to go out there and earn it, it feels good, really good.”
On Charlie Brewer’s first start:
“I mean, Charlie is going to go out there and play as hard as he can for you. When you have that from anyone on your team, especially a quarterback, he’s out there trying to run people over and make plays on his feet and with his arm, it gives you a little something extra.”
Baylor Senior TE Ishmail Wainright
On feeling of first win:
“It was exciting, especially being at KU, it’s always good, it’s my first time winning, so it’s exciting.”
On his touchdown and play of Charlie Brewer:
“He’s an awesome quarterback. Zach (Smith) is an awesome quarterback too. We practiced that after practice a couple times this week and in the spring game, he threw the exact same pass. Before the game he told me he felt another one coming, we both did, we didn’t know when.”
On Jordan Feuerbacher’s touchdown:
“I wanted him (Feuerbacher) to score one last game, so when Jordan scored, I love watching him succeed and that was his first touchdown of the year. I ran to him in the end zone. There’s no better feeling than being on the field. I think everyone who came today, actually played today, and that’s another good feeling, seeing them smile, that’s all you can ask for.”
Baylor Freshman QB Charlie Brewer
On the team’s performance today:
“We started off a little slow, especially the first quarter. We picked it up in the second quarter and carried it on throughout the game.”
On the team’s first win:
“It definitely feels good, it’s not fun to lose, so everyone’s pretty excited and we just need to find a way to carry it to next week.”
On his accuracy:
“The receivers were making plays and the O-line was blocking good, which is probably the main reason, those guys looked good today.”
On help of receivers and other players:
“Yeah, I mean I think everyone helped each other out today and everyone had each other’s backs and helped each other make plays today.”
On nerves of first college start:
“I felt ready to go, I felt prepared, I think all the other guys did too, and I think that it showed.”
Baylor Freshman WR Gavin Holmes
On Charlie Brewer’s first college start:
“Charlie (Brewer) was great, he’s always been great in practice, we knew he’d come out here and put his heart on the line and help us get a win and that’s what he did.”
On feeling of getting the win:
“It’s great. We’ve worked so hard for it, but we know we’ve got to get back to work and get ready for (Texas) Tech.”
On the need for a win:
“I feel like we’ve worked really hard and this has been our ultimate goal all season and we finally got it and I think this is going to propel us forward in the future.”
On last fourth of the season:
“I feel like this gives everyone an extra boost of confidence, knowing we can come out here and play to the best of our ability and come out here and get wins like this. I think that is going to help us in the future.”
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