Tag: Daniel Hishaw

Report Card: Poor grades all around as Oklahoma loses to Kansas

Oklahoma struggles nearly across the board areas but how did each position group grade out in the loss to Kansas?

Oklahoma took their first loss of the season on Saturday, falling to the [autotag]Kansas Jayhawks[/autotag] on a rainy and disgusting day in Lawrence. From the first play from scrimmage, it appeared Oklahoma would be in for a fight. And sure enough, that’s precisely what happened.

Oklahoma fell victim to another slow start on both sides of the ball. The Sooners were never able to get their passing game going. Due to the weather conditions, they relied heavily on their offensive line and running backs to generate offense.

The sooners will try and figure things out as they get set to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys in what will be the last Bedlam for quite some time.

OU played a rough game on all fronts. Some things were encouraging, but a lot of the performance put forth was not good enough. We broke it down by position group below.

5 keys to an Oklahoma Sooners victory over Kansas

Can the Oklahoma Sooners extend their winning streak over Kansas on Saturday? Here are our five keys to the game.

On Saturday, No. 6 Oklahoma (7-0, 4-0) will take on Lance Leipold’s [autotag]Kansas Jayhawks[/autotag] (5-2, 2-2) for the final time as Big 12 foes.

Oklahoma needs to play a much better game on Saturday than they did against the UCF Knights. They looked to be sleepwalking through the game at times and could have been more crisp on offense. The offensive line had its worst game of the season in pass protection, and until the fourth quarter, the Sooners couldn’t expose a lousy run defense.

Defensively, two busted plays defined the day, as both led to UCF touchdowns. Those plays aside, it was an excellent day for an Oklahoma defense that continues to show improvement.

Kansas will present another challenge for this revitalized Oklahoma defense. The Sooners D continues to make opposing offenses look outmatched at times. Aside from the occasional busts in coverages, this unit is much better than the one that Kansas saw in Norman last year when Kansas quarterback Jason Bean threw four touchdowns.

The Jayhawks have two solid running backs, Devin Neal and Daniel Hishaw Jr. They are as explosive as teams get and will provide Oklahoma with a challenge.

Ultimately, the Sooners still hold advantages at multiple spots. With their lackluster performance from UCF behind them, the Sooners should come out on fire.

The Jayhawks surely won’t go down without a fight, and Brent Venables will make sure the team knows that.

Kansas hasn’t beaten OU since 1997. The Sooners have won the last 18 matchups between the two sides. But what are the keys to Oklahoma closing out the 100-year series with a win? Here are this week’s keys to the game.

‘Physical makeup of the team’: Kansas sports reporter on why Leipold’s Jayhawks are different

To get ready for the Oklahoma Sooners matchup with the Kansas Jayhawks we talked with The Topeka Capital-Journal sports reporter @JordanGuskey.

A decade and a half ago, Mark Mangino and Todd Reesing helped elevate the [autotag]Kansas Jayhawks[/autotag] to the national conversation. They became Big 12 title contenders behind an offense that was able to keep pace with just about everyone.

But that was a long time ago. In the aftermath, Kansas became one of the worst programs in the country, cycling through Turner Gill, Charlie Weis, David Beaty, and Les Miles. They couldn’t replicate the success of the Mangino-Weiss era, failing to reach bowl eligibility for 13 consecutive seasons.

Then the Miles era abruptly ended and the Jayhawks went all the way up to Buffalo to bring Lance Leipold to the Power Five and to a program in desperate need of resuscitation. Coming in late in the spring, Leipold didn’t have much of a chance to find success that first year, but they were a team that was far more competitive than they had been in a long time despite the two-win season. One of those two wins came on the road against Texas.

Then last year, the Jayhawks started strong, earning their first bowl bid since 2008, and in 2023, they are 5-2 and on the verge of reaching a bowl game for the second straight season.

And while they head into their matchup with the Oklahoma Sooners as a double-digit home underdog, there’s a sense this Jayhawks team could cause some problems for the Sooners.

To get ready for the 114th meeting between the Oklahoma Sooners and Kansas Jayhawks, Sooners Wire had the pleasure of discussing the matchup with Jordan Guskey, a Sports Reporter covering the Kansas Jayhawks for The Topeka Capital-Journal.