Kansas Jayhawks remain unbeaten as Jalon Daniels accounts for 5 TDs in rout at Houston

Kansas’ football team is off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2009.

The Jayhawks — with an over-under of 2.5 victories for the season, according to oddsmakers following last year’s 2-10 campaign — upended Houston 48-30 on Saturday at TDECU Stadium in Houston.

Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels threw for 158 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 123 yards on 12 carries with two more scores for the Jayhawks, who, after enduring a 70-minute second-quarter weather delay, secured their second straight road victory for the first time since 2007.

The Jayhawks, who return home to face (3-0) Duke next Saturday in an 11 a.m. kickoff, won at West Virginia a week ago, 55-42 in overtime, after having beaten Tennessee Tech 56-10 in their opener.

“It’s crazy in there,” Daniels said after the game, referring to the winners’ locker room. “We’ve got a lot of people excited we are 3-0.

“The most exciting part about this is being able to see the amount of smiles and excitement my teammates have. To see the excitement with the guys I came in with (in 2020) and the guys here before that … we love it.”

The 6-foot junior from Lawndale, California on Saturday became the first KU quarterback to rush for multiple touchdowns and pass for multiple TDs in the same game since 2009, when Todd Reesing rushed for two and passed for two against Northern Colorado.

Daniels has helped KU score 159 points in three games, tying the 2007 Orange Bowl team for most points by a Jayhawks team through the initial three games of a season.

KU is averaging 53 points through three contests.

“It feels good. I’m telling everybody on the team we deserve it,” said super-senior defensive lineman Caleb Sampson, who had one of KU’s four sacks. “I know for me I’ve been here so long. Just to see it all come together this year … it feels good to finally come through for my last year.”

The Jayhawks for the second straight week rallied after falling behind 14-0 early.

“It shows how far this team has come. I feel in the past we’d have folded. It would have been over with,” Sampson said. “This team … we kept chopping, kept fighting, and it finished the way it’s supposed to finish.”

Houston (1-2), which gained 446 yards to KU’s 438, suffered its first loss in a home opener in eight tries. The Cougars fell in two overtimes at Texas Tech last week after beating UTSA in triple-overtime on the road Sept. 3.

Daniels, who hit 14 of 23 passes, threw touchdowns to Luke Grimm (5 yards), Torry Locklin (60) and Jared Casey (8). Daniels’ rushing touchdowns covered 12 and 9 yards, respectively.

Daniel Hishaw also had an 8-yard TD run, and Jacob Borcila 22- and 33-yard field goals for the undefeated Jayhawks.

“I thought Jalen was excellent today. He made some big plays scrambling, keeping drives alive,” said KU coach Lance Leipold. “Three touchdown passes … it’s not eye popping 158 yards or something, but you look at the big picture, what he did for this team today was really remarkable.

“Some of those gritty scrambles, getting first downs (24 to Houston’s 26), those are key plays for us to extend drives and make some things happen. It’s another gritty, excellent performance by No. 6.”

Perhaps the only negative Saturday was the Jayhawks starting slowly for the second straight week.

“I am concerned, (but) I’m too fired up now about coming back (to be overly upset about it),” Leipold said. “You can’t sit there and dig a hole every time and expect to survive. We know that.”

The second-year KU coach was happy to see so many smiling faces in the locker room after KU improved to 3-0.

“You can see how proud they are, how happy they are,” Leipold said. “We see resiliency in this group. I’m proud of them.

“The biggest thing is how are we going to handle this? We we are 25% through the season with another nonconference game next week. I am excited we have some games at home (next three weeks). I sure hope people and our fans come check these guys out, because they are out there playing with some inspiration and they are playing well. We need to create a great homefield advantage.”

Sampson says there will be no complacency on the part of the players.

“(The challenge is) not to get comfortable, not let anybody think we are there yet,” he said. “We’ve only won three games. We are chopping for five, six, seven, eight. We want it all. We need to understand we’ve got to keep going.”