After losing at Baylor, Kansas football heads toward a bye week it needs

WACO, Texas – There was a moment Saturday when Caleb Sampson felt Kansas football had the Baylor Bears on their heels.

After trailing 28-3 in the first half, the Jayhawks had battled back. They’d driven the length of the field after stopping a Bears drive in the red zone on fourth down and scored again. With 6:29 remaining in the fourth quarter, Kansas trailed 28-23 and could put itself in position to take the lead for the first time if it could get another stop defensively.

But as Sampson recalled that moment postgame, the super-senior defensive lineman also noted what happened next in this Big 12 Conference contest. Baylor made the right plays to go on and score another touchdown with 2:37 remaining. The Bears went on to win 35-23 against a Jayhawks squad that had multiple key players either out due to injury or at least limited. Kansas is limping into its bye week.

And it’s in that bye week that the Jayhawks (5-3, 2-3 in Big 12) can regroup both physically and mentally as they stare down the four-game stretch that will close out their regular season. They need this time to heal up. Kansas head coach Lance Leipold knows it.

RELATED:KU football vs. Baylor: Bears top Jayhawks 35-23 in Big 12 Conference matchup

“There’s a lot of guys that didn’t play today,” said Leipold, whose team has lost three straight games. “You look at where we were at the beginning of the year, and guys we used to talk about in these and other places, whether it be (junior quarterback) Jalon Daniels or (redshirt sophomore running back) Daniel Hishaw (Jr.) or (junior wide receiver) Luke Grimm or (sophomore cornerback) Cobee Bryant, making huge plays. … But it is what it is, and that’s the way it is across the country.”

Grimm came into Saturday as the team’s leader in receptions but Leipold said he wasn’t available. Hishaw, Daniels and Bryant were knocked out of games in successive weeks, from Iowa State to TCU to Oklahoma, respectively. That’s four starting-caliber players unavailable, and Kansas’ injury concerns don’t stop there.

Redshirt junior defensive end Lonnie Phelps Jr.’s health has been a topic of conversation recently, especially after last week’s game against Oklahoma. It looked as if senior linebacker Rich Miller exited the game late to get something evaluated. Two offensive linemen, redshirt sophomore Michael Ford Jr. and super-senior Earl Bostick Jr., needed assistance at times as well.

RELATED:Here are 3 takeaways from Kansas football’s 35-23 loss against Baylor in Big 12 play

As Leipold explained, there’s work for the Jayhawks to do and the week ahead can’t be an off week. There are areas where they need to improve, such as execution on third down on both sides of the ball. The game against Baylor might have gone differently if Kansas had its full complement of players, and allowing certain guys more time to recuperate puts the Jayhawks in better position ahead of the Nov. 5 game at home against Oklahoma State.

Daniels was in uniform Saturday and went through warmups before the game for the first time since suffering his injury two weeks ago. Bryant didn’t go through warmups, but he wasn’t wearing a boot anymore. Leipold said he didn’t know if either would be available for the Oklahoma State game, but said they are moving in a good direction.

“It’s definitely going to be beneficial for us, an extra week of film, extra week of treatment,” redshirt senior offensive lineman Mike Novitsky said. “Not really banging and hitting every day, so that’ll be good for us. And, really, just get our team kind of reset a little bit. Get our feet back on the ground. And get ready to compete and win games.”

Redshirt senior quarterback Jason Bean added: “I think this bye week’s going to be helpful for us just to get healthy, get some guys back. I think we’ve got a last little stretch here of the season, looking to just finish out the season strong. We started off very strong. We’ve gotten kind of low here. But I think this bye week will get us back into good shape and I’m excited for these last couple games of the season.”

When Bostick went down, Kansas moved its right tackle to left tackle to replace him, moved its right guard to right tackle and brought in a new right guard. Maybe the next week or so of practice will allow the Jayhawks to practice different combinations.

In Sampson’s mind, junior defensive lineman Jereme Robinson is an example of players stepping in and doing the job. Robinson’s sack and forced fumble in the third quarter killed a Baylor drive that was nearing Kansas’ red zone. He picked up that fumble and ran it back 49 yards to set up the Jayhawks’ offense at the Bears’ 9 yard line, and a few plays later Kansas scored its first touchdown of the game.

“I’ve seen him step up,” Sampson said about Robinson. “I saw him make a couple plays today, made a big play with the strip-sack and the fumble recovery. So he definitely stepped up and picked up some of the slack.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas football gets needed bye week after loss at Baylor