Week Four Jayhawk Spotlight: Cobee Bryant
Who else could it be? Yes, we’ve focused our first three spotlights on five defensive players, and yes, Luke Grimm was a strong candidate this week, but after the hit and an interception to top off his evening, we had to spotlight Cobee Bryant after KU’s week four win against BYU.
Each week at this time, we profile one Jayhawk who was prolific in the game, and I promise we’ll get around to the offense soon, but I can’t think of anyone that had as big of an impact (pun intended) as cornerback Cobee Bryant.
Prior to Saturday’s game, the Evergreen, Alabama native was probably best known to Kansas fans as the guy who intercepted the final ball against West Virginia last season and high stepped it all the way into the endzone to end the game. Now he’s known for the hit.
On BYU’s first offensive drive of the game, and after the prolific Kansas offense was held on fourth down on their first drive, Bryant made the play of the game. It certainly set the tone. BYU’s Parker Kingston was running horizontally in the backfield and Cobee sniffed it out. In a jarring shoulder to shoulder hit, Kingston went to the ground as the ball simultaneously went flying free. It took a friendly Jayhawk bounce right into Bryant’s hands, and he shuffled into the endzone. The hit was spectacular. The return, glorious. The replays? Even better.
In fact, I can’t remember a solitary hit that will go down in Kansas football lore the way this one just might. It was that powerful, right on the edge of helmet to helmet contact, but completely legal. It knocked Kingston out of the game, and that’s the only downside I can see. You never want to see injuries, even in a sport like football that is fraught with them.
Nonetheless, Bryant’s powerful hit and ensuing touchdown set the tone for the Kansas defense the rest of the game. Despite giving up some long passing plays to Kedon Slovis and the Cougars, the Jayhawks put in one of the best defensive performances we’ve seen in a long time. BYU only had nine total rushing yards in the game, and that swarming mentality can be directly traced back to Bryant’s monster hit in the backfield to start the game.
And then, late in the third quarter, Bryant struck again, this time with his more well known and signature play, the interception. With BYU down by eight and facing a fourth and seven from the Jayhawk 34 with 2:14 remaining in the quarter, the Cougars elected to go for it. Bryant intercepted the Slovis pass at the 12 and scampered 24 yards to the Kansas 36 yard line.
The Jayhawk offense marched down the field in seven plays, scored a touchdown that made the score 35-20 and never looked back.
It was Bryant’s second interception of the season, and his seventh career INT as a Jayhawk. Look for him to eclipse last season’s career high of three as the Kansas defense gets more and more confident.
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