Via Kansas Athletics
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Junior quarterback Jalon Daniels accounted for all five touchdowns to lead Kansas to a 35-27 win against Duke Saturday in front of a crowd of 47,233 fans at a sold out David Booth Memorial Stadium. Kansas improved to 4-0 for the first time since the 2009 season.
Daniels passed for four touchdowns and rushed for another, amassing 407 yards of total offense to lead KU. The Lawndale, California, native was 19-for-23 for 324 yards passing and rushed for 83 yards on 11 carries.
For the game, KU posted a season-high 528 yards with 324 yards in the air and 204 on the ground. The Jayhawks improved to 2-0 at home for the first time since the 2013 season. KU also improved to 3-0 in non-conference play for the first time since 2009.
Kansas took the opening drive 74 yards before stalling at the Duke one yard line. The Jayhawks then forced their seventh three-and-out of the season on the next possession.
On its second drive of the game Kansas went up 7-0 on a seven-play, 57-yard drive with Daniels connecting to redshirt-sophomore tight end Trevor Kardell on a six-yard touchdown pass. It was Kardell’s first career TD catch and Daniels’ eighth TD toss of the 2022 season. Duke would tie the contest at 7-7 on the game’s next drive.
Early in the second quarter, Daniels connected on a 73-yard touchdown pass to running back Daniel Hishaw Jr. Hishaw broke three tackles powering his way to the end zone to put the home team up 14-7 with 12:35 before halftime.
Later in the quarter, Luke Grimm’s fourth catch of the first half was a 19-yard fade from Daniels in the left corner of the end zone to put KU up 21-10 with 1:04 before half. Earlier in the drive Daniels connected with Grimm on third down for 19 yards to keep the drive going. Duke would answer with a field goal to end the half making it 21-13 in favor of KU at intermission.
Kansas outgained Duke 329-216 in total yards in the first half with Daniels responsible for 262 of those yards going 11-for-12 passing for 200 yards and rushing for 62 yards on seven carries. He threw for two scores in the opening half.
Daniels continued his hot hand in the third quarter. On KU’s first drive after half, the junior signal caller connected on his fourth touchdown pass of the contest with a 36-yard strike to redshirt-sophomore Lawrence Arnold. The score gave Kansas a 28-13 lead.
Kansas later answered a Duke touchdown with an eight-play, 75-yard scoring drive capped off with a Daniels three-yard touchdown to make the score 35-20 with 4:42 to play.
Duke would not go away, cutting the score to 35-27 with 2:40 to play. Kansas would later be forced to punt and KU’s defense would stop a Duke threat at the KU 31 yard line before ending the game with two kneel downs.
Kansas will play its second of three-straight home games when it plays host to Iowa State on Saturday, Oct. 1 at 2:30 p.m. The Homecoming contest will be televised on ESPN2 or ESPNU.
