AMES, Iowa — Maybe everyone was wrong.

Mark Mangino was. The Kansas coach didn’t think junior running back Jake Sharp was ready to be his team’s primary running back this season, nor did anyone else.

Sharp proved otherwise in a 35-33 victory against Iowa State at Jack Trice Stadium Saturday. He rushed for 81 yards — the most of any Jayhawk running back this season. He scored two touchdowns and recorded 107 receiving yards.

More importantly, Sharp had a career-high 19 carries. He ran angry. He ran hard.

“I like the way he ran the ball today. I like the way he caught the ball. I liked the way he blocked,” Mangino said. “He played his tail off.”

Maybe the search was unnecessary. Mangino tried to make a junior college transfer heavy on hype but light on production — junior Jocques Crawford — and a career bottom-of-the-depth chart dweller — junior Angus Quigley — into featured running backs.

All the while, Sharp waited. Sharp, the Kansas high school legend who averaged nearly six yards per carry on 168 carries during his first two years as a Jayhawk, almost felt like an afterthought.

He didn’t touch the ball until the final possession in the Jayhawks’ last game. He only received one carry in the Jayhawks’ disastrous first half Saturday, where the Cyclones jumped out to a 20-0 lead.

Then, it happened. The forgotten Sharp broke out and made sure Kansas didn’t leave the Hawkeye State without a victory.

He snuck out of the Kansas backfield and ran a route down the sideline on the Jayhawks’ second offensive play of the third quarter. Junior quarterback Todd Reesing saw him and delivered the ball. Not even an actual cyclone could have caught Sharp. He used a jolt of speed to go 67 yards for a touchdown to make the score 20-7.

The Jayhawk offense found its way back onto the field less than two minutes later for more of the same. Reesing dumped Sharp a shovel pass and he exploded through a collapsing hole near the line of scrimmage, broke an arm tackle and went 42 yards downfield — setting up Kansas’ next touchdown. 20-14.

Sharp, however, showed more than quickness in the game. He used pure power to thrust himself into the end zone from the two yard line to make the score 28-20 with nine minutes remaining.

He flexed both of his arms and yelled after the touchdown. Sharp was only green skin and dirty teeth away from becoming the Incredible Hulk.

And this guy supposedly wasn’t capable of running the ball enough to be Kansas’ starting running back? Sharp said he never thought that way.

“I never shy away from carrying the football as many times as I can get it,” Sharp said. “I don’t think any running back would. I don’t think my teammates or my coaches really doubted my toughness.”

But they did. Sharp has to truly know they did. From moments after the spring football game in April when Crawford declared he “liked his chances” to get carries at Kansas to a few weeks ago when Mangino said Sharp couldn’t carry the load — he had internal doubters.

Sharp denied it, but perhaps he should have listened to Mangino’s post-game press conference when he detailed his thoughts.

“We never, ever intended him to be a guy to carry the load here,” Mangino said. “He’s a guy that’s supposed to get 10 carries a game, throw him a couple of passes — he’s a changeup guy.”

Mangino said he has since changed his mind. How could he not after Sharp’s performance against Iowa State? He kept the Jayhawks from getting off to a disastrous start in conference play.

Maybe Sharp was the right guy all along.

“He wants to prove he can do the job,” Mangino said, “and everything he did today leads me to believe he can.”

— — Edited by Rachel Burchfield