Kansas didn’t play a role in Saturday’s Indiana-Nebraska game, at least not directly. But the Jayhawks helped provide the play that ultimately kept the Hoosiers undefeated. No. 5 Indiana escaped Lincoln with a 20-17 victory over Nebraska on Saturday, rallying from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit. The biggest play came with 7:22 remaining, when Indiana faced fourth-and-1 from the Nebraska 44-yard line.
Rather than simply trying to pick up the first down, quarterback Josh Hoover found Nick Marsh wide open for a 44-yard touchdown that gave Indiana the lead for good.
Jalon Daniels, Kansas and Curt Cignetti
After the game, Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti revealed where Indiana got the idea: Lance Leipold and Kansas.
Cignetti said he had noticed the play while studying red-zone film from Kansas during the Jalon Daniels era.
“Kansas made that one famous with a guy starting at quarterback for Tampa Bay,” Cignetti said, referring to Daniels. “And that guy’s a good coach.”
Indiana calls the play “Burger King,” and the Hoosiers had previously used a variation of it against Northwestern earlier this season.
But Saturday’s version couldn’t have come at a better time.
Nebraska had taken a 17-6 lead early in the fourth quarter before Indiana responded with a 75-yard Hoover-to-Marsh touchdown. After getting the ball back, the Hoosiers eventually faced the critical fourth down and dialed up the Kansas-inspired play.
Marsh broke free, Hoover found him, and Indiana suddenly had a 20-17 lead.
The Hoosiers held on from there to improve to 6-0.
Cignetti credited Kansas and Lance Leipold for the inspiration, but there’s another familiar name connected to the play: Andy Kotelnicki. Kotelnicki was Kansas’ offensive coordinator during the Jalon Daniels era when the Jayhawks became known for their creative offensive schemes. After leaving Kansas for Penn State following the 2023 season, Kotelnicki returned to Lawrence ahead of the 2026 season to rejoin Leipold’s staff. So while Cignetti credited Kansas for the play that ultimately beat Nebraska, the concept came from an offense that Leipold and Kotelnicki built together in Lawrence.
Kansas has experienced its share of ups and downs over the last few seasons, but Cignetti’s comments were another reminder of the creativity Leipold and his staff brought to Lawrence, enough that one of the nation’s top programs borrowed from the Jayhawks when it desperately needed a play Saturday.
