Monday Notebook: A road win for Kansas football!

Kansas finally won a road game! David Beaty still had some issues, but Central Michigan was worse, and now we get a week to actually enjoy KU football. The full schedule was released for KU basketball as well. 

1. They didn’t lose!!!

Kansas defeated the Central Michigan Chippewas by a score of 31-7 on Saturday, and by golly, it was actually fun to watch! It was the Jayhawks first win on the road in 46 tries, dating back to 2009. I was nine years old the last time that happened. Instagram wasn’t around. Neither was the iPad. I’m sure you’re aware it’s been a very long time.

Kansas’ defense was by and large very good. CMU had trouble running the ball, and their quarterback, Tony Poljan, threw four interceptions on the day. One of those INTs was returned for touchdown by Shakial Taylor. Also on the defense, Joe Dineen recorded 14 tackles, eight of them solo, along with an interception himself. If Dineen keeps up this pace, he should legitimately be considered for Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. KU’s +6 turnover differential on the year is among the tops in college football, one season after posting a -17 mark. It’s making a difference.

On the offensive side, it was all about freshman running back Pooka Williams. Yes, his name is Pooka. He is a lightning rod of awesomeness. Williams dashed for 125 yards on the ground, punching in a pair of touchdowns. Four-star recruits are pretty good, eh? This guy is fun to watch. He’s so fast and so dangerous in the open field. It should be fun to see him grow and hopefully have success the rest of the year.

Quarterback Peyton Bender was very average. He finished the game 17/26 passing for a pedestrian 130 yards, and one under-thrown touchdown. Bender was the definition of “meh.” Kerr Johnson was the leading receiver for Kansas, totaling four catches for 68 yards and a score.

Kansas won a road game, guys! That’s so much fun. But where does the team go from here? They have another “winnable” game in a few days against Rutgers in Lawrence. KU looked horrible against Nicholls, but then it flipped the script and looked competent against Central Michigan. The Jayhawks took advantage of CMU’s mistakes, which is something David Beaty teams don’t normally do. Will they get another win this season? Their best chances are coming in the next two weeks against Rutgers and Baylor in the week after that. For now though, Coach Beaty gets to keep his job for a few more weeks.

2. The Basketball Schedule is here

Kansas’ non-conference slate has been out for a while now, but the conference schedule was just released this past week. The Jayhawks have four Big Monday games. They will be playing Texas (in Allen Fieldhouse), Iowa State (in AFH), TCU (on road), and K-State (in AFH). They will probably receive two College Gameday games: one being Kentucky in Lexington, and the other most likely being one or both of the West Virginia games. I can’t wait for West Virginia to wet themselves on national television for a fourth consecutive year. Good times. Anyway, it looks like it’ll be a tough road to win a 15th consecutive Big 12 title.

3. Heads up for stuff

My Big 12 basketball preview will be up in the next few weeks. My national preview might be the week after that or in the same article as the Big 12 preview, so keep your eyes open for those. Spoiler alert: KU is going to have an excellent team. They are probably going to win the Big 12 again.

Also, in some awesome news, Rock Chalk Blog’s articles are now being posted on Bleacher Report’s Team Stream. That’s exciting for us as we hope to see RCB continue to grow. Keep a look out for a new Inside the Paint soon (ish?) in the next few weeks as well. Late Night is on September 28th, so we should have a show up fairly soon after that. As always, Rock Chalk!