LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas football opened the 2017 season with a bang as junior quarterback Peyton Bender connected with junior wide receiver Steven Sims Jr. for a 77-yard touchdown on his third attempt in a Jayhawk uniform. Taking a 7-0 lead just 2:19 seconds into the game, Kansas never looked back, going on to beat Southeast Missouri State 38-16 in front of 32,134 fans inside Memorial Stadium.
Bender went 23-37 on the night and connected on three more touchdown passes throughout the night, including a highlight-reel one handed grab from sophomore wide receiver Chase Harrell with 8:57 remaining in the opening quarter, a 16-yard completion for Sims’ second score of the night with 13 seconds remaining in the first half, and a 57-yard catch and run from senior tight end Ben Johnson in the third.
The 2007 Kansas football team was in attendance for its Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame induction, and among those that made it back to Memorial Stadium for the halftime ceremony was Jayhawk legend Todd Reesing. Bender’s four-touchdown night was the first since Reesing’s four-touchdown performance against Missouri in 2009. In that same game, he threw for a Kansas record 498 yards, and while Bender’s night didn’t quite match that, his 364 yards was the most since the Border Showdown performance from Reesing eight years ago.
Aside from Bender’s four passing touchdowns, the Jayhawks scored on a 10-yard rush from freshman running back Dom Williams with 10:17 remaining in the third quarter to take a 28-10 lead, before Bender’s final touchdown of the night to Johnson. Senior kicker Gabriel Rui made his debut in the Crimson and Blue and went a perfect 5-5 on PATs and recorded his first-career field goal, a 25-yarder with 14:14 remaining in the game to cap the KU scoring.
With all of the excitement of the Jayhawk offense, the Kansas defense impressed by holding the Redhawks to just 264 total yards, which was the lowest opponent total since last season’s opener against Rhode Island. Redshirt junior Joe Dineen Jr. led all players with 15 total tackles (11 solo) to match a career-high set against West Virginia in 2015.
The Jayhawk defense forced SEMO to two three-and-outs to start the game and prevented the Redhawks from scoring on their first five drives of the contest, but a fumble from junior Tyler Patrick on a punt return gave the visitors the ball at the 24 yard line. SEMO got on the board with a five-play drive that was capped with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Jesse Hosket to Trevon Billington.
A 45-yard field goal from SEMO’s Nicholas Litang brought the score to 21-10 with 11:26 remaining in the third, but three-straight scores from the Jayhawks stretched the lead to 28.
Hosket connected on another touchdown for the Redhawks, this time to Kristian Wilkerson with 12:17 remaining in the game, but it was too little, too late for SEMO as the Jayhawk defense ended the visitors’ next two drives without a score and KU was able to run out the clock for the victory.
The Jayhawks will continue their non-conference slate on September 9 by welcoming Central Michigan to Memorial Stadium for a 3 p.m. kickoff. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Network, but single-game tickets and multi-game flex packs are available. For more information on tickets, visit KUTickets.com.