Kansas Jayhawks football coach Lance Leipold shares Daniels, Grimm, Neal injury updates

As the Kansas Jayhawks prepare to face Nevada on Saturday, several Jayhawks are nursing injuries.

That led to a limited practice for several pivotal KU players on Sunday.

“Yesterday we’re out there and Jalon (Daniels) did very little, Luke (Grimm) did very little, and Devin (Neal) did very little,” coach Lance Leipold said. “Today will be a good day for those guys and hopefully we can get some guys back and that’s probably what you expect ...”

Linebacker Taiwan Berryhill did not play against Illinois but is improving, according to Leipold.

After two straight weeks of playing on Friday, the Jayhawks will play on Saturday, giving injuries an extra day to heal.

“Hopefully, this extra day is going to pay off what we hoped it would do, but Taiwan did a little bit more,” Leipold said. “I hope we can get him back, but Luke and Devin are probably maybe the ones more in question. I hope Jalon’s able to do more. Jason took all the reps — all the team reps at quarterback yesterday.”

Not to mention, two Jayhawks — defensive lineman Austin Booker and cornerback Cobee Bryant — will miss the first half due to targeting penalties in the Illinois game.

“We appealed both of those and both appeals were denied,” head coach Lance Leipold said. “So, both young men will have to sit out the first half, unfortunately.”

Jayhawks’ travel issues

The kickoff for KU vs. Nevada is set for 9:30 p.m. Central Time, so it’ll be an adjustment for KU. The Jayhawks’ first two games started at 7 p.m. or earlier.

“It’s something we haven’t had to do here,” Leipold said. “We’re working through some different thoughts. Our players will adjust well. I just hope I can stay awake long enough for the end. But, yeah, we’re going to look at how we’re going to shift our day a little bit as we start to travel.”

KU has decided to stay Saturday night in Reno because they’d still arrive home early on Sunday morning, even if they left after the game.

“Playing these night games (Illinois-Missouri State) will help us some but pushes our meetings back a little bit when we get there and then how we wrap up the evening,” Leipold said. “Let them sleep a little bit longer in the morning.

“We’re going to stay in Reno after the game. It’d be pretty tough with no sleep, so we’re going to let them get some sleep, eat breakfast there and then get back here.”

This puts Kansas in a challenging position because KU will have to practice on Sunday, due to NCAA rules. Leipold isn’t exactly thrilled about that.

“We’ll have to practice Sunday evening because we’re trying to get that changed as well through the NCAA,” he said. “But if by staying, they’re making it count as our day, which is really tough because it’s going to change in college football. Why we don’t change the rule right now? We say we do all these things for the players, but we don’t.

“All we want to do is get them up, get them a good night’s sleep in a bed, get them back, give them the rest of the day off. But right now, the rule and the autonomy five doesn’t allow us to do that.