Kansas looked down and out going into the fourth quarter of today's showdown against Baylor, trailing by double digits with 15 minutes to play — that is, until Blake Herold saved the day.
The redshirt junior from Iowa does most of his dirty work in the trenches as KU's top defensive tackle. However, he made his presence felt on special teams today in one of the most thrilling come-from-behind victories of Lance Leipold's six-year tenure at the university.
Herold had already come close to blocking a couple of kicks from BU kicker Rhett Armstrong earlier in the game, with two attempts bouncing off the Kansas lineman's helmet. After coming up short on both occasions, he wasn't going to let himself squander another opportunity to make an impact on the potential game-winning field goal. As Herold later explained in his postgame press conference, the third time was indeed the charm.
With the Jayhawks leading 25-24 thanks to a go-ahead touchdown run by Isaiah Marshall, Armstrong trotted back onto the field with 23 seconds remaining to try a 45-yard boot that would have all but sealed the outcome. It may have been successful had the kick gotten off the ground cleanly, but Herold didn't let that happen.
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— Kansas Football (@KU_Football) October 24, 2026
This time, Herold got enough of the kick to redirect it to KU's sidelines, sending the David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium crowd into a frenzy. A couple of kneels later, the Jayhawks officially moved to 3-4 on the season and picked up their first win in Big 12 play.
Blake Herold Saves the Day Against Baylor
Hailing from Shenandoah High School in an Iowa town with a population under 5,000, Herold arrived in Lawrence as a low-rated 3-star prospect. His rise has been anything but heralded (pun intended). He's gone from an overlooked recruit to one of the most important pieces of the program, serving as the perfect embodiment of a "program guy" who helps glue the culture Leipold has built.
Since redshirting his true freshman year, Herold hasn't missed a game for the Jayhawks. He finished with a career-high five tackles for loss, four pass deflections, and two sacks as a sophomore and was voted a team captain by his teammates before the season commenced.
After the game, Herold spoke to the TNT crew and talked about what goes into his kick-blocking prowess.
"I think our entire unit has a lot of prep [for blocking kicks]. We call it the toughest two seconds in football," Herold said. "We go out there and try to block every single kick. We've blocked a few this year, so I don't expect anything other than to block a field goal about every single time we go out there."
Like many players on the interior line, Herold's work often goes unnoticed by fans. He hasn't made much of a statistical impact through the first seven games of the 2026 campaign, going without a sack or tackle for loss. Yet today, he came away with a memory he'll hold close to his heart the rest of his life.
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