Kansas football must unlock what kept it from converting 3rd downs at Texas, ahead of UCF
LAWRENCE — Reflecting Wednesday, Andy Kotelnicki cast a wide net when discussing what hurt Kansas football on third downs this past weekend against Texas.
Kotelnicki, the Jayhawks’ offensive coordinator, said he can’t just point to poor execution by one player or position group, or the play call itself. Everything is connected, he explained. There’s some combination of the call not being so great, their execution not meeting their standard and something like a poor quick decision being made.
A simple yet complex outline all in one, Kotelnicki and company’s ability to solve those issues will go a long way to ensuring Kansas can rebound from its loss against the now-No. 4 Longhorns. The Jayhawks (4-1, 1-1 in Big 12) have another conference game looming Saturday against UCF (3-2, 0-2 in Big 12). And if Kansas continues to fail to sustain drives, it may see lopsided deficits in plays run and time of possession that resemble what transpired against Texas.
“We’re a prominent team that takes pride in converting third downs, obviously, so when we don’t convert we get the defense on the field — they’re just on the field that much longer,” junior running back Devin Neal said Wednesday. “It makes you a little sick when you see their time of possession, as well, versus ours. So, that’s something we can do better at and today was our third down day and I think we did better day.”
What Neal is referring to, is Texas’ offense enjoying close to 40 minutes of time of possession and his own barely leaving with more than 20. It shows up in the fact the Longhorns had 86 plays, compared to the Jayhawks’ 46. As Kotelnicki would note, they had fewer than 40 plays run before their final drive late in the fourth quarter — when the game was already out of reach.
Kansas finished at 0-for-8 on third downs, which led to six punts and two failed fourth-down conversion attempts. While Texas’ defense was a step up, compared to past teams Kansas had played this season, it’s an alarming stat line for an offense that came into that game with the best third-down conversion rate — 60.5% — through four weeks of college football at the FBS level. Now the Jayhawks have dropped to converting 51% of their third downs, as they prepare for a Knights defense that’s holding opponents to a 43% conversion rate on third downs.
Neal answered all of them when asked if there were any failed third down attempts that still stood out from the loss against the Longhorns. Kotelnicki said the same thing, before highlighting how Kansas was stopped on 3rd and 1 — and then 4th and 1 — in the third quarter, and that caused a significant momentum swing in the game. But even though Kotelnicki mentioned those two, he also mentioned you never know in the moment if that third down is going to be the one that is most consequential.
“That’s the thing about football, you never know which one of those plays is the actual difference,” said Kotelnicki, who’s also the team’s associate head coach. “People forget about the first one. That’s arguably the most important one because that’s the one that you’re currently a part of.”
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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas football must unlock why it didn't convert 3rd downs at Texas
