By Michael Swain, 247Sports.com
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels did not practice on Monday as KU began its on-field preparations for its Week 6 home game against UCF. Daniels was unable to practice due to what Lance Leipold is still referring to as back tightness. The back ailment is what kept the junior signal caller out of KU’s 40-14 loss to Texas this past week. Leipold Daniels is day to day and it would appear his status for this weekend is still up in the air.
According to Leipold, Daniels tweaked his back on Saturday morning at the team hotel. In Austin, Daniels was seen walking into the stadium with the team pregame and he took the field for an early portion of warmups. But once the team came out for the padded portion of warmups Daniels was not on the field. He received treatment during the duration of the first half but at halftime he was ruled out of the game.
As of Monday morning — when KU hosted its first practice of the week — Daniels was still working his way back to being available.
“He’s still working with the training staff and doctors right now,” Leipold said.
In three games — all starts – this season, Daniels had been competing 74.7 percent of his passes for 705 yards, with five touchdowns and one interception. His completion percentage and yards per attempt (10.1) are both career high marks.
Leipold was then asked what his concern level is with the situation.
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“Of course, when your starting quarterback wasn’t available it’s concerning and he’s not practicing on the first day of prep,” Leipold said. “But I view it as a day-to-day situation right now, according to our training staff. And we’ll see where that goes. And I know he’s working at it. He and I had multiple conversations yesterday and today already. And we’ll see where it takes us.”
Against Texas, Bean learned he was starting the game about 30 minutes ahead of kickoff. Bean looked understandably rusty after a week of minimal reps. The senior quarterback finished the game throwing 9-for-21 for 136 yards and one touchdown.
“Jason was not happy with the way he played,” Leipold aid. “So he gets a chance to get more reps and get him some work and prepare for whatever happens.”
KU faces two more games before the Jayhawks have their sole bye week of the season. KU takes on UCF this week and will travel to Stillwater, Okla. next week to take on Oklahoma State. When asked if he had discussed potentially shutting Daniels down for a short period, Leipold gave a firm answer.
“That’s never been brought up,” Leipold said.
