Notebook: Brian Borland hoping for improved stamina vs. Iowa State

Last week’s takeaway for Kansas was stamina. And Brian Borland knows that’s what he’ll need to have a prayer against Iowa State.

The Jayhawks created a few impressive stops last week, despite struggling to profit off them offensively. Borland wants to balance out his coverage this week, something his group’s been working on these past four games.

“It's always better if you can get pressure with just the standard rush and be able to play coverage,” he said. “We haven't always been able to do that, we did a couple of times last week. I'm not afraid to bring pressure, but you’ve got to get there because you can only hold up in coverage for so long.”

Borland has emphasized pressuring the quarterback, a tactic that set up a couple of major momentum shifts last week for Kansas.

He talked about how Kyron Johnson leads that defensive category and has been one of the more decisive players on his side of the ball.

“His ability stands out for sure,” Borland said. “He doesn't take long to watch play on film and you can see, he's kind of the total package of what you're looking for.”

He continued: “He's got decent size and great speed. He can run with power, he breaks tackles. He finishes runs and can be elusive. And it doesn't really matter who he's been playing against in all the games that I've watched, he's kind of made everybody look bad at times.”

Iowa State’s Breece Hall currently reigns as the top rusher in the Big 12. His quick cuts can open dangerous holes for defenses.

Hall is averaging 5.4 yards per carry coming into Week 5.

“Our plan always starts with we have to be able to defend the run well,” Borland said. “And I think that's probably where they start as well, I'm sure they think of themselves as a multiple team, but they run the ball. We got to kind of put our eggs in that basket because if we can't slow them down in the run game, we're not going to slow them down, period.”

Slipping up on tackles has been an issue for Kansas the past couple of weeks, forfeiting opportunities for must-have stops.

Borland wants to see his defense wake up and understand what’s expected defensively.

“Commit ourselves to we line up, and how we fit and cover,” he said. “What we've not done the best is tackle. We are certainly working on that on a daily basis and trying to improve our tackling ability and limit the yards that come after a miss or even after contact sometimes. It's too many yards, and we're working as we can to get those things to come around.”

Borland is keeping quarterback control central to his defensive plan against the Cyclones. Squaring up with a veteran like Brock Purdy is a fairly tall order, but that doesn’t change Borland’s approach this Saturday.

“I kind of liken him in some regards to a point guard on a basketball team,” he said. “He's a really good distributor of the ball. He can make things happen when things break down. He's not a guy that's just going to give up.”

Purdy moves around the pocket well and can make space when needed. Borland wants to limit those special situations where he can scramble to his advantage.

“He kind of wiggles his way out of trouble where a lot of other guys wouldn't,” he said. “We obviously got to try to contain him and not let him get into those situations. And when he does, we got to continue to press and keep the pressure on him so that he just doesn't have all the time and space and opportunity to make plays he’s really good at.”

Kansas hasn’t been able to shift gears into the second half so far and it arguably cost this team a legitimate shot at knocking off Duke last week.

Heading into Ames, Borland is looking for his group to show more effort in those last two-quarters of the game.

“We need to strive for a lot more consistency overall on defense on what we're doing,” he said. “And consistency in terms of how we're executing, what we're trying to execute, and then consistency from the first quarter to the fourth quarter. We start games pretty strong, but we're not finishing the game strong and that's been kind of a consistent thing over the last few weeks.”