Kansas City, Missouri — Throughout each season, there are interesting notes and nuggets of information that come out of every game, win or lose.
Here’s a quick look at some of the more interesting and noteworthy facts and stats from Saturday's 37-21 KU win over No. 16 Colorado.
Series History: Colorado leads the all-time series 42-26-3, yet Kansas has won five of the last six meetings.
Kansas Captains: Jalon Daniels, Luke Grimm, Devin Neal, Cornell Wheeler
Coin Toss: Colorado won the toss, deferred to the second half.
Team Notes
• The win marked Kansas’ third straight victory against a ranked opponent and marked the first time KU has defeated three ranked foes in program history.
• Kansas became the first team in FBS History with a losing record to win three straight games vs. ranked opponents.
• With the win, Kansas also becomes the third team since 1980 who defeated three-straight AP Top-25 opponents while unranked. Kansas joins 2006 Georgia and 2023 Arizona as the only three schools to accomplish such a feat.
• Kansas is now 611-685-58 all-time, including 22-27 in the Lance Leipold era. Leipold improved to 168-66 for his career.
• Kansas moved to 4-4 in Big 12 play. The Jayhawks are 9-8 since the start of the 2023 season. Prior to Lance Leipold’s arrival, Kansas was 8-98 in Big 12 contests from 2009-2020.
• Kansas improved to 31-185-2 against Associated Press ranked opponents all-time, including 3-1 this season.
• Kansas finishes with a 4-2 home record this season, including 3-1 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Kansas is now 13-6 at home over the last three seasons. From 2013-2020, pre-Lance Leipold era, Kansas was 13-37 at home.
• Head coach Lance Leipold became the second KU coach in school history with at least five wins over ranked opponents, joining Bud Moore who had a 5-15-1 record against ranked opponents from 1975-78. Leipold is 5-7 against ranked opponents at KU.
• Dating back to 2011, and since then, today was the first time that Kansas scored on its first seven drives of a game.
• Kansas’ 520 yards total offense was a season high. Kansas surpassed 520 yards total offense four times last season, including 591 against UNLV in its bowl victory.
• Kansas held Colorado to 308 yards total offense, KU’s second lowest of the season (271 yards at Illinois (9/7/2024). It was Colorado’s second-lowest total offense game of the season (260 yards at Nebraska (9/7/2024).
Offensive Notes
• Senior RB Devin Neal carried the ball a career-high 37 times for 207 yards and three touchdowns against Colorado, while adding 80 yards and a touchdown on four receptions. For Neal, this is the second time in his career with four total touchdowns (at Texas, 11/13/21) and the fourth time in his career with three rushing touchdowns (last vs. Kansas State on 11/18/23).
• Neal’s 207 yards is the second-highest rushing total of his career, topped only by a 224-yard performance in KU’s 37-16 win over No. 18 Oklahoma State on 11/5/2022.
• In the game, Neal surpassed the 1,000-yard milestone for the 2024 season, becoming the first player in Kansas Football history to rush for more than 1,000 yards three times in his career. Neal has now rushed for 1,133 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. His yardage total is good for the sixth-highest single-season total in program history and his touchdown totals is No. 4 in school history for a single season.
• With three rushing touchdowns and four total touchdowns, Neal added to his school records with career totals of 48 rushing touchdowns and 52 total touchdowns.
• Saturday’s game marked the fourth career game in which Neal recorded both a receiving and rushing touchdown - one in each season while at Kansas (2024: vs. Colorado; 2023: vs. Missouri State; 2022: at West Virginia; 2021: at Texas).
• Neal extended his school record for 100-yard rushing games, recording the 19th of his career and his seventh of the season.
• After entering Saturday in ninth place on the Big 12 career rushing list, Neal’s 4,210 yards rushing currently rank as the sixth most in conference history. He is three yards from fifth place (Shock Linwood, Baylor, 2013-16) and 79 yards from fourth (Brad Smith, Missouri, 2002-05). Neal surpassed Oklahoma’s Adrian Peterson (4,045, 2004-06) and Samaje Perine (4,122, 2014-16) on Saturday.
• Neal’s 52 career touchdowns ranks second on the NCAA active career list, trailing only Ashton Jeanty of Boise State, who entered the day with 53.
• With his four receptions, Neal moves into No. 3 in school history for career receptions by a running back with 76.
• Redshirt-junior QB Jalon Daniels completed 14-of-21 passes against Colorado for 189 yards and a touchdown. In the game, he moved to No. 2 in all-time passing yards at Kansas as he surpassed Frank Seurer (1980-83), who threw for 6,410 yards as a Jayhawk. Daniels 6,471 career passing yards and 45 touchdown passes, both marks rank second in school history.
• For the year, Daniels has thrown for 2,174 yards and 14 touchdowns, marks which rank No. 9 and tied for No. 10 in school history for a single season.
• Daniels added a season-high 72 rushing yards in the game on six attempts, including a long of 31 yards. That mark is the fourth-highest single game rushing total of his career.
• Redshirt junior RB Sevion Morrison set a career-high in rushing attempts with 11 and rushed for a season-high 47 yards in the game.
• Kansas tied its season-high with 331 yards rushing in the game, while topping the 500-yard mark for the third time this season and second time in the past three games. The Jayhawks finished with 520 yards of total offense, the third-highest of the season behind 532 yards vs. Iowa State and 530 vs. Lindenwood.
Defensive Notes
• Senior LB Cornell Wheeler tied his career high while leading Kansas with nine tackles (previously set vs. Iowa State, 11/9/24) including a tackle for loss. It’s the fourth time this season he’s led the team in tackles.
• Redshirt freshman DT Blake Herold tied his career high in tackles previously set against Iowa State this season, finishing with four.
• Redshirt junior DT Kenean Caldwell recorded his first career sack after teaming up with redshirt junior Dean Miller for a 5-yard sack in the third quarter.
• The Kansas defense held Colorado to just six yards on its opening drive, matching the season-low for opponent opening drive yardage, previously set against Lindenwood.
• Kansas freshman CB Jalen Todd made his first career start on Saturday and came up with his first-career pass breakup in the fourth quarter.
• Kansas senior CB Cobee Bryant recorded a season-high 1.5 tackles-for-loss on Saturday, marking his most since recording 2.0 at Iowa State in 2023. Bryant’s tackle-for-loss total on Saturday doubled his total for the season to 3.0, while he has 9.5 career tackles-for-loss.
Special Teams Notes
• Kansas did not punt once on Saturday, marking the first time in Big 12 history that Kansas did not punt in a conference game. Kansas has not been forced to punt in four games over the last three seasons under Leipold after only doing so twice in the previous 25 years.
• Senior kicker Tabor Allen made and attempted a career high in field goals, going 3-3 and 4-4 on extra points to contribute 13 of KU’s 37 points. It’s the third game this season Allen has had multiple field goals (previous UNLV and TCU) as he nailed a 24-yard, 23-yard and 25-yard field goal all during the first half.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
