Kansas Football can’t overcome mistakes in loss to Coastal Carolina

Kansas football had their work cut out for them against Coastal Carolina, but they couldn’t overcome their first half mistakes in their first game of the season.

I’ll give the Kansas Jayhawks some credit, as they battled hard in the second half and made a game of it late. The problem, however, was that they didn’t play well in the first half at all and the mistakes they made in those first 2 quarters proved costly and ultimately was why Coastal Carolina won the game.

It was 28-3 in favor of the Chanticleers at the half, but Kansas didn’t throw in the towel like past KU teams would have. Instead, they were able to get things within 12 points and make Coastal Carolina sweat a bit.

Kansas football threw two interceptions and lost a fumble in the first half, leading to three touchdowns for the Chanticleers.

Things started off promising for the Jayhawks, as the offense was driving down the field, but Thomas MacVittie threw an interception, killing any momentum the team might have had. Coastal Carolina then scored a touchdown to go up 7-0 just like that.

It was all Coastal Carolina for the duration of the first half and they had the KU turnovers and mistakes to thank for it. Nothing was going the Jayhawks’ way, but it was nice to see them fight back in the second half and not just wave the white flag.

Kansas was experimenting with 2 different quarterbacks and Miles Kendrick was the better option on Saturday. He threw for 156 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception while MacVittie only had 20 yards passing and 2 interceptions on the night. It’s safe to say that Kendrick will be the guy moving forward.

The Jayhawks’ rushing attack was outstanding, totaling 185 yards on the ground while Velton Gardner found the end zone once. He and Pooka Williams are a deadly duo in the backfield and if KU had been able to get their run game going earlier on in this game, maybe the result would have been different.

A few things that really impressed me:

• MacVittie had a big run on second and long that was what jumpstarted the comeback. It was much needed, as the Jayhawks couldn’t get anything going at that point in time.
• That touchdown pass from Kendrick to Andrew Parchment was mesmerizing.
• The touchdown run by Gardner was HUGE when it happened and started to give the team some hope that they could win.
• The defense struggled in the first half, but were able to get stops in the second half. They seemed to really feed off of what the offense was doing and that’s a good sign!

The Kansas Jayhawks gave it their all in the second half, but they couldn’t overcome the mistakes made in the first 2 quarters. Without those turnovers by the KU offense, this is a completely different game and maybe Kansas avenges last season’s loss to the Chanticleers.

Instead, they went 0-2 against the Sun Belt squad dating back to last year and it was a pretty rough day for the Big 12 when it came to facing Sun Belt teams. Kansas was yet another program that fell into that category.

Next up for Kansas football is a road game against the Baylor Bears in 2 weeks. The schedule is subject to change due to COVID-19, but for now, that’s what the Jayhawks are looking at. There’s a lot to work on between now and then.