West Virginia coaches and players have a lot to do during the week. They have to correct the past and then quickly prepare for the future. There are only a couple of days to do so. This is similar for journalists. Sunday and Monday are for looking at what happened in the past, and then you quickly have to move on to the game ahead.

You can look at stats, box scores and watch some highlights, but you don’t get the nitty-gritty details that a full-time beat writer would. So, we reached out to the Kansas football beat writer for the Lawrence Journal-World to get the finer details on the Jayhawks before their matchup with WVU.

Here is what beat writer Henry Greenstein had to say about Kansas.

Strengths and weaknesses

The Kansas football team features something almost unthinkable in modern college football: a sixth-year senior quarterback who has spent his entire career with one team. It’s been a tumultuous few seasons for Jalon Daniels, whose memorable 2022 campaign got disrupted by a shoulder injury before he missed nearly all of 2023 due to recurring back tightness. Daniels played a full schedule as a starter for the first time in 2024, but struggled early and took half the year to settle in. Now, through three games of his final season, he looks confident and dynamic again and has completed 72% of his passes for nine touchdowns with two interceptions.

On defense, the Jayhawks have looked as potent as expected upon the defensive line. New coordinator D.K. McDonald has deployed some tricky fronts that feature three defensive tackles, which is a good way of highlighting the Jayhawks’ strength on the interior, led by players like Tommy Dunn Jr., D.J. Withers, Blake Herold and Kenean Caldwell. Chattanooga transfer end Leroy Harris III has impressed in his first high-level action, and veteran leaders at end like Dean Miller and Justice Finkley haven’t even really gotten going yet this year.

KU does have a young and untested secondary led by corners Jalen Todd, a true sophomore, and Austin Alexander, a redshirt freshman. Sixth-year Utah State transfer DJ Graham II is back in the mix after battling nerve damage that limited him during training camp, but it’s not clear yet how this group will match up with the Big 12’s more experienced wide receivers. Certainly, it lacks the pedigree of last year’s starting duo of Cobee Bryant and Mello Dotson.

Takeaways from last game

The Jayhawks are coming off an open date, a position in which they have been excellent under head coach Lance Leipold. KU has won its last four games following bye weeks, including three victories over ranked teams. But prior to its week off, KU got its first taste of high-level competition on Sept. 6 when it renewed the Border War rivalry on the road at Missouri.

Facing a high-level SEC defense, the Jayhawks struggled to run the ball in a way they really never have under Leipold (of course, they previously had four years of Devin Neal, who became KU’s all-time leading rusher). Top running backs Daniel Hishaw Jr. and Leshon Williams combined to carry the ball nine times for 11 yards. KU also missed a whopping 25 tackles and therefore allowed Missouri’s Ahmad Hardy to run for 102 yards after contact in what went down as a 42-31 loss for the Jayhawks.

On the other hand, KU did a better job getting its tight ends involved — DeShawn Hanika had a career-best six catches for 74 yards and two touchdowns — and moved the ball quite effectively at times.

Players to watch

Trey Lathan has exceeded expectations for KU since transferring from WVU during the offseason. He’s been extremely successful as the Jayhawks’ starting middle linebacker, as he leads the team with 25 tackles through three games and is KU’s highest-graded defensive starter on Pro Football Focus with a score of 76.8. He’s managed to produce consistently, even as KU’s depth at linebacker has suffered due to injuries to several key players. This will be a significant game for Lathan not only because he’ll be facing his former team, but also because he’ll play a key role in communication and likely have to stay on the field for long stretches against the Mountaineers’ high-tempo offense.

Wide receiver Cam Pickett will be worth keeping an eye on to see if his role increases after he only played 24 combined snaps across KU’s last two games. He caught six passes for 77 yards and two touchdowns in his first half as a Jayhawk, against Fresno State on Aug. 23, but has been extremely limited since due to injury. When healthy, he might be Daniels’ most reliable target.

Key matchup

Hishaw and Williams have been around the block; they’re each sixth-year seniors, with Hishaw a longtime Jayhawk and Williams a recent transfer from Iowa. This week’s game against WVU, and their matchup against the Mountaineers’ defensive front (including the Big 12’s reigning defensive line of the week, even before it added Jimmori Robinson to the mix), will be a mental test of how well they can respond to adversity.

Hishaw and Williams are powerful runners who can battle for extra yards, but WVU has been stingy with its 93.7 rushing yards allowed per game in the early stages of the season. KU will need a balanced offense if it wants to control the clock and the pace of the game, something it failed to do against Missouri, when it effectively had to abandon the run in the second half.

Injuries of note

The Jayhawks are getting healthier after they were missing an uncomfortably high number of players to open the year. For example, weak-side linebacker Bangally Kamara, one of their best athletes, only missed one game as a result of a non-contact injury in practice that could potentially have kept him out for an extended stretch.

That said, they are still lacking a few key depth pieces. Most prominent for this game are Gage Keys, a veteran reserve defensive tackle who is a potent pass rusher, and Joseph Sipp Jr., a middle linebacker who transferred in from Bowling Green and would be rotating in for Lathan if healthy. Neither has played yet this season, and Leipold said Keys is closer to returning than Sipp.

This is the first week KU and WVU have been compelled to submit player availability reports to the Big 12, so there will be more injury information available than usual in the lead-up to Saturday’s kickoff.

Game prediction

Leipold remarked on Monday that his team has been in a variety of close battles with the Mountaineers over the years. It may be a new era of WVU football with a fresh roster and coaching staff, but I don’t see this game being any different, even if sportsbooks are convinced KU should be a nearly two-touchdown favorite.

That said, I still see the Jayhawks winning this one. I think KU’s defense does a much better job getting off the field in front of its home fans than it did at Missouri and manages to make Nicco Marchiol consistently uncomfortable with its high-level pass rush. At the other end, I see the Jayhawks’ offensive line giving Daniels enough time to make some big throws. I’ll take KU by a score of 27-20.