Three takeaways from Kansas football’s season-opening win against Missouri State

The Kansas football team won’t win any style points for its play against Missouri State on Friday.

Still, KU walked out of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium with a 48-17 season-opening victory over the Bears.

After back tightness kept starting quarterback Jalon Daniels from playing, backup Jason Bean started in his place. He finished 22-of-28 passing for 276 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. KU running back Devin Neal added two total touchdowns while running for 94 yards.

Bean praised KU’s offensive execution.

“I feel like (my start) went pretty well,” Bean said. “I felt like we had a good week of preparation. I feel like offensively we took it on all levels. The offensive line played really good, the running backs ran the ball really good and the receivers ran their routes well. I think it was an overall good game by the whole offense.”

The Jayhawks didn’t take long to get on the board, as Neal had a 48-yard touchdown run with 11:11 left in the first quarter. But the game remained close for some time.

Kansas running back Daniel Hishaw fumbled the ball at the KU 45-yard line, and the Bears recovered. Missouri State then marched down the field with a 10-play, 46-yard touchdown drive to even the score at 7-all. On their next drive, Missouri State took a 10-7 lead with a field goal.

KU answered with ten straight points to go into the half with a 17-10 lead. The Jayhawks outscored Missouri State 31-7 in the second half to put the game out of reach.

The Jayhawks (1-0) will play host to Illinois at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium next Friday.

Here are some instant reactions from the game:

Kansas backup QB Jason Bean steps up

Jason Bean wasn’t perfect, but he played well in pivotal moments.

After two straight drives without a score in the first half, Bean connected on a 52-yard strike with wide receiver Lawrence Arnold that led to a Kansas touchdown one play later. The Jayhawks went up 14-10.

Then, to begin the second half, Bean led a nine-play, 69-yard drive to put Kansas up 24-10.

Still, Bean could have been even better. He nearly threw a pick in the first quarter, throwing the ball toward four Missouri State defenders. He appeared to miss a read in the option and almost threw another pick late in the half.

Bean returned this year for a sixth and final season — a luxury for Kansas to have a quarterback of his caliber backing up Daniels.

“He continues to get better,” Leipold said. “He’s done everything we’ve asked.”

Seth Keller keys KU special teams improvement

The Jayhawks’ special teams unit ranked No. 128 in ESPN’s SP+ last season. SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency.

Not to mention, KU was dead last in field goal percentage (53.8%) in the Big 12 last year.

Well, Kansas looked much improved in both aspects. Kansas kick returner Trevor Wilson averaged 31 yards in his two returns. And KU’s kicking game didn’t disappoint either.

Texas State transfer Seth Keller was a perfect 2 for 2 on field goals, with a long of 35 yards. He made all his extra-point tries as well.

“That’s why we brought him in,” Leipold said. “We thought he was extremely accurate. ... Fine young man, very mature. He’s the only guy on our team (that’s) married, but it’s good to see in guys like that.

Questions on the defensive line remain

The biggest question coming into the season was how KU’s defensive line would generate pressure against the quarterback.

Things looked promising when KU defensive lineman Jereme Robinson sacked Missouri State QB Jacob Clark on the first drive.

But from there, the Jayhawks struggled to get pressure. KU finished with just one sack and two QB hurries. Clark forced two passes trying to come back from down big — leading to two interceptions — but he appeared comfortable for most of the game.

Missouri State is an FCS team with a brand-new coach and QB and reshuffled offensive line, so expectations were Kansas would dominate in the trenches. That wasn’t quite the case in Game 1.