Players to Watch: Kansas

Sep 29, 2022 - 6:00 PM

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Iowa State

Offense There has been some griping about play calling in the time since the Baylor game. I’m from the school of mind, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Tom Manning and Matt Campbell have won, relatively, a shit load of games for Iowa State.

However, if we are going to, ahem, take the top off the defense, I feel like a clear WR2 and WR3 have risen among the rest. Jaylin Noel and Demetrius Stanley Jr. have combined for nearly 300 yards receiving, Noel responsible for ²⁄₃ of those yards, but Stanely has missed playing time early.

Hutchinson is an elite route runner and might be as complete of a wide receiver that Iowa State has ever had. If we want to get funky though, these two guys are going to be key.

Defense Beau Freyler. After getting screwed er, disqualified out of the Baylor game.

I am fully expecting a statement from the safety. Freyler has had a bit of a rocky start to the 2022 campaign between injury and targeting, so this would be one hell of a game to make his debut.

The Iowa State secondary has been solid all year, but when Freyler is playing his best, this defense can really shine.

Kansas

Offense I need one of those math nerds to compare which teams have played the worst QB and best QB in the span of three weeks. Spencer Petras and Jalon Daniels are basically the same position by name only. In fact, if you added Petras’ QBR when Iowa State played him to Daniels’ current QBR, you’d get about a perfect score.

Daniels has a terrifyingly high 98 QBR rating and is the epitome of a dual threat. He leads the Jayhawks in rushing and passing yards, not to mention the first 4-0 start Kansas has had in over a decade.

Iowa State has had problems containing mobile QB’s in the past, so let’s hope the defense is up to the task. I expect lots of QB spies to varying degrees of success.

Photo by Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images

Defense Perry Ellis is entering his redshirt covid year super senior season- oh we’re playing football, right.

Lonnie Phelps leads the team in sacks, and it helps that he had 3 in the season opener against football powerhouse, Tennessee Tech. The other sack coming in their most recent game against Duke.

He’s also in the top 5 on the team for total tackles. If we take Tennessee Tech out of the equation, the Kansas defense is giving up 33 points on average in their last three games. If Kansas is going to win, they better put up a lot of points.