Program Temperature Check: Kansas Is A Football School

Kansas has a football team.

Yes, they’ve technically always fielded a football team.

But now they have a football team.

Last season, Lance Leipold’s terrific coaching and the emergence of multiple offensive threats enabled by a creative RPO driven offense propelled Kansas to a 6-6 regular season record and a heartbreaking 55-53 bowl loss to Arkansas.

That 6 game win total eclipsed the total program wins for the Jayhawks over the prior three years combined. From 2010-2021, the Jayhawks have been 23-118 (a 16.3% winning percentage) and had two winless seasons. Averaging less than two wins per year will tend to deflate a fan base that already prefers bouncy round balls to prolate spheroids, but the apathy and defeatism in Lawrence was at Communist Bloc levels, the sort of spirit-crushing despair one only experiences dealing with a HOA or reading a 38 year old New York woman’s Twitter.

A journey is measured in the distance traveled and no college football program progressed more than the Jayhawks. Credit Leipold’s vision, credit the players, but credit the Kansas administration for finally learning the hard lesson to hire a hungry competent football coach who clawed his way up the ranks at Wisconsin-Whitewater and Buffalo rather than hiring another media and agent driven PR candidate like Turner Gill, Charlie Weis or Les Miles.

Can they duplicate or exceed their achievements in 2023?

Yup.

The Jayhawks return the most starters in the entire league (17) including ten starters on offense, every one of their consequential skill players, the most proven quarterback room in the league (fight me) and an extraordinary 91% of their offensive production.

Defensively, the Jayhawks will…field 11 men on defense. Alright, alright. Calm down. Jabs at the Kansas defense are well-deserved, but they can’t get worse. And they could actually field one of the better secondaries in the league if a couple of transfers pan out to complement a few returning quality starters. Their linebackers are also now league average.

Quarterback Jalon Daniels is the conduit for the Jayhawk offense and his mind is as quick as his release and feet. Daniels is an excellent run threat, but he does his primary damage through the air on a variety of downfield vertical play action reads that require deft ball handling as much as accuracy and recognition. When Daniels went down for several games last year, backup signal caller Jason Bean stepped up and showed nearly approximate passing skills to Daniels to go along with his 10.36 100 meter speed. Somehow, Kansas convinced Bean to return again for a sixth season despite multiple starting offers from other major conference schools.

They also return starting receiver trio Grimm, Skinner and Arnold – who combined for 15 receiving touchdowns – and further complement them with giant TE Mason Fairchild (6 touchdown catches) who has a surprising knack for getting loose downfield despite weighing 260+ pounds.

Running back Devin Neal is a stud and run maximizer who quietly amassed over 1,000 rushing yards at a healthy 6.1 yards per clip with a physical running style that evokes Roschon Johnson. They even bring back backup scat back Daniel Hinshaw.

The Jayhawk skill players are easily in the league’s top quartile and are likely the second best bunch overall behind Texas. That’s heretical to casual fans, but an offense doesn’t average 7.0 yards per play last year without some real dudes. Those dudes are all back and now even dude-ier with more development and continuity under offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who must feel like he’s manning a video game controller…Call of Dudey!

The Jayhawk offensive line is seasoned and boasts four returning starters with between 4-6 years of college tenure. They’re not physically elite and Kansas schemes them up to advantage with deception while not asking too much, but few defensive lines in the league – perhaps only one – will have the potential to manhandle them.

On defense, Kansas has work to do. The primary culprit last year was the absence of quality defensive linemen and depth up front and Kansas linebackers that couldn’t escape blocking attention. They stopped runs like laxative-laced chili and dropping an extra man in the box to stop the run allowed big plays over the top in the passing game. As the season progressed, they were injured and plain worn out in addition to being bad.

Offenses like Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Kansas State brutally manhandled them in the running game, but Kansas worked in the offseason to bring in some bodies to clog up running lanes. How that proves out will determine whether Kansas is just a fun shootout every Saturday minor bowl team or an honest-to-God dark horse contender that might find itself playing in Dallas in early December.

Stranger things have happened.

Kansas safety Kenny Logan returns again as their leading tackler, his 5th year as as starter. Logan is a NFL level player who supports the run enthusiastically with above average cover skills. Cornerback Cobee Bryant will be one of the elite corners in the conference and while he’s not The Black Mamba, he’s at least a moderately angry coral snake. Kansas worked the portal hard for additional secondary pieces and we’ll see how that shakes out.

Finally, as this Lance Leipold Love Letter concludes and the reader wonders why if I love Kansas so much, why don’t I marry them – it’s also important to point out that Leipold’s culture didn’t allow big program poachers to swoop in and rob a promising nucleus of athletes who could start or contribute significantly at several elite or contender programs.

How did they pull that off?

Maybe Bill Self diverted some slush funds their way, but the more likely answer is that the Kansas players are invested. A team with good individual players willing to pass up greener pastures to continue an unfinished team slog out from the mud should gain your attention. I enjoy mocking fans and their emphasis on wish casting intangibles, but this isn’t that. Because it translates to something tangible: everyone came back.

I won’t oversell the Jayhawks as their structural weaknesses are apparent and bad injury luck would expose them completely, but middling teams – which will be most of the 2023 Big 12 – would be ill-advised to pencil in a W next to Kansas on the schedule.

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