KU football is 1-0 after one game of play this season, knocking off the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks by a score of 38-16 in their opening game. The Jayhawks looked nice in their first game of the year.
Rock Chalk!
The Kansas Jayhawks have now won two straight season openers, which is a huge deal for fans, as before… Not even that was guaranteed. This year’s KU football, however, appears to be ready fr the challenge of putting up more than a handful of wins.
The Jayhawks, while playing an under matched opponent in the SEMO Redhawks, looked like a good team in their home opener. Quarterback Peyton Bender had a tremendous debut for Kansas, going 23 of 37 for 364 yards and four touchdown passes. Bender did get picked off twice, but for the most part, looked the part of a reliable quarterback.
Bender had some nice weapons in his first game with KU, as Steven Sims Jr. and Ben Johnson both had good games in the crimson and blue. Sims hauled in four receptions for 142 yards and two touchdowns while Johnson caught three passes for 90 yards and found the end zone once.
The rushing game was nonexistent, which will likely be problematic for the Jayhawks. Dom Williams only had ten carries for 41 yards on the evening, but he did score a touchdown, so there’s that.
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KU’s defense stepped up, only allowing the Redhawks to put up 16 points. SEMO quarterback Jesse Hosket went 25 of 44 for 170 yards and two touchdowns. Hosket did not throw an interception.
SEMO had more rushing yards than KU, but the defense still did a nice job of containing them. The Redhawks rushed for 94 total yards on the evening, with their leading rusher putting up 87 of those yards.
Overall, it was a nice opening game for the Kansas Jayhawks and while it was just one game, the fans have to be feeling pretty good about this victory. Sure it was against a weaker opponent in the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks, but a win is a win and those have been hard to come by for KU football over the last few years.
Next up the Jayhawks will face the Central Michigan Chippewas, who will roll into Lawrence next Saturday. The Chippewas will pose a tougher task for Kansas, but the Jayhawks should be able to rattle out their second win of the season and give fans hope that things really are turning around for this program.