LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas Jayhawks will see one of the top offenses in the country this week when they make the trek to Morgantown, West Virginia to take on the Mountaineers in a Saturday clash.
The Jayhawks and Mountaineers will meet Saturday afternoon with kick scheduled for 4:30 p.m., CT, on ESPNU. The game will mark the second-to-last road contest for the Jayhawks this season.
West Virginia (5-4, 2-4 Big 12) enters Saturday ranked sixth in the country in rushing offense, 10th in in total offense and 17th in scoring offense. Coach Rich Rodriguez’s team leads the Big 12 Conference in rushing offense, is second in total offense and fourth in scoring offense.
On the flip side, however, West Virginia ranks last in the league in rushing defense, passing defense, total defense and scoring defense. The Mountaineers are 131st in the country in scoring defense and 138th in passing defense.
Kansas (3-6, 1-5 Big 12) will offer the West Virginia a stiff test, ranking fifth in the conference in total defense and second in passing defense. The Jayhawks are top half of the conference in both total offense (eighth) and total defense (fifth).
Linebacker Trey Lathan and defensive end Leroy Harris III continue to lead the way defensively for Kansas. Lathan leads the team with 62 total tackles and is the only Jayhawk with multiple interceptions with two. He also has four tackles-for-loss and 1.5 sacks. Harris had three sacks last time out against UCF and is second in the conference with 6.5 sacks on the season. He has 14 tackles-for-loss, which ranks third in the conference and seventh in the country.
Lathan, Harris and the Kansas defense will try to limit an explosive attack from West Virginia, which focuses mostly on the run. Quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr., leads all Power Four quarterbacks nationally with 924 rushing yards and ranks 14th overall in the country. The only quarterback nationally with more rushing yards than Hawkins is Navy’s Jackson Guiterrez.
Hawkins, however, doesn’t lead his own team in rushing. Running back Cam Cook has already gone over the 1,000-yard mark and has 1,072 yards on the season and ranks third in the conference and eighth nationally with that total. Both Hawkins and Cook are averaging more than five yards per carry.
The Jayhawks also have a strong rushing attack and rank 24th nationally and sixth in the Big 12 in rushing offense at 201.2 yards per game. Dylan Edwards leads the team with 595 yards on the season, while quarterback Isaiah Marshall has also been productive on the ground, rushing for 528 yards and four touchdowns. Marshall was especially productive on the ground last time out, rushing for 125 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. He also passed for 210 yards through the air on 21 of 32 passing. Edwards also found the end zone for his team-leading fifth rushing score of the season.