LAWRENCE, Kan. â The Kansas Jayhawks will finish up a two-game Big 12 Conference road swing Saturday night in Lubbock as they take on undefeated and No. 9 Texas Tech at Jones AT&T Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 6:30 p.m., CT on FOX with Jason Bennetti, Robert Griffin III and Alexa Landestoy on the call.
Kansas (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) is coming off a 27-20 road win at UCF, as Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels threw for 235 yards, while senior running back Leshon Williams reached the endzone three times on 12 carries. Daniels has thrown for 1,497 yards, 16 touchdowns and just two interceptions this season. Heâs added 239 yards on the ground.
Daniels has spread out the ball throughout the first half of the season with five different receivers having double-digit catches in Emmanuel Henderson Jr. (28), Cam Pickett (18), Boden Groen (12), DeShawn Hanika (10) and Levi Wentz (10). Henderson leads the team with 488 yards and four touchdowns as well. Williams has rushed for a team-best 303 yards and five touchdowns this season in five games.
Kansas is also coming off a strong defensive performance in the second half of the UCF game, where the Jayhawks pitched a second half road shutout against a Big 12 team for the first time in program history. The Jayhawks totaled nine tackles-for-loss and a pair of sacks against UCF and got a game-changing play from safety Jalen Dye when he came through with a sack and forced a fumble, which teammate Trey Lathan recovered inside the five-yard line. Lathan leads Kansas with 46 tackles and six tackles-for-loss on the season.
The Red Raiders, who enter at 5-0 after a convincing 35-11 win at Houston last week, moved into the Top 10 after the victory and currently sit at No. 9 in the AP Top 25. With that, Kansas will now be looking for its third-straight win over an AP Top 10 team after beating No. 7 BYU last year and No. 6 Oklahoma in 2023. Prior to that, Kansas was 9-96-2 against AP Top 10 teams.
Texas Tech has looked impressive as it has worked its way inside the Top 10. The Red Raidersâ smallest margin of victory in a win so far this year has been 24 points. They have yet to give up more than 14 points in a game and have scored at least 34 in each contest, topping the 45-point mark three times. In addition, Coach Joey McGuireâs team has started league play with two-straight road wins at Utah and Houston.
McGuireâs team is led by veteran quarterback Behren Morton, who has thrown for 1,410 yards, 12 touchdowns and three interceptions so far this season. He has a pair of talented running backs behind him in Cameron Dickey and JâKoby Williams, who are both averaging more than four yards per carry and have more than 300 rushing yards on the season.
Morton also has plenty of weapons at receiver and tight end as pas catchers Coy Eakin, Reggie Virgil, Terrance Carter Jr., and Caleb Douglas have combined for 12 touchdowns and 83 catches through just five games. Defensively, Texas Tech is led by linebacker and All-American candidate Jacob Rodriguez. Rodriguez leads the team with 33 tackles and also has four tackles-for-loss, two interceptions, two forced fumbles and three pass breakups after totaling 100-plus tackles last season and earning Preseason Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year honors.