David McComb’s path away from Kansas has already taken a sharp turn in his favor.
While the quarterback battle in Lawrence between Cole Ballard and Isaiah Marshall is still unresolved, McComb has landed the No. 1 job at Miami (OH). The RedHawks announced Monday that the former Kansas signal-caller had beaten out returning sophomore Thomas Gotkowski and will open the season as the starter.
That means McComb is set for the first collegiate action of his career when Miami takes on Pittsburgh two weeks from now.
A redshirt freshman from Oklahoma, McComb arrived at Kansas with plenty of buzz. He came in as an ESPN 300 prospect and was viewed as one of the most highly regarded quarterbacks ever to commit to KU.
At 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, he brought the kind of frame coaches covet, and his high school film showed off the arm strength that helped make him such a sought-after recruit. The jump to college football was always going to take some adjustment, but the move to a MAC program gives him a runway that would have been much harder to find in Big 12 play.
McComb entered the transfer portal last December and committed to Miami less than a month later. Now he gets the chance to prove himself as a first-time starter and, if things go well in 2026, maybe put himself back on the radar for a return to the Power 4 level.
Even without any college game experience, McComb has done enough to win an FBS starting job. And that alone raises a fair question: if he’s already earned the starting role somewhere else, what might he have meant for Kansas’ current quarterback competition?
In Other News...
Kansas Still Has One Big Lineup Puzzle Around Tyran Stokes
Kansas is headed into the 2026-27 season with the kind of roster turnover that usually keeps Bill Self busy well into the summer, but the biggest reason for optimism is also the biggest reason the rotation is still far from settled. Tyran Stokes is expected to anchor the next wave, and around him the Jayhawks will lean on a mix of transfers and holdovers while the staff sorts through a group that still has some moving parts.
Even with pieces starting to come into focus, the backcourt picture is not clean yet. Melvin Council Jr. and Mihailo Muiki remain ineligible, the team is still pursuing more transfer help, and the point guard job has not been clearly claimed. Up front, Paul Mbiya appears to have the edge at center over Christian Reeves, whose offseason surgery leaves his status uncertain, so Kansas may not know its true starting five for a while longer. [Read more 🡒]
Bill Self Has Kansas Fans One Big Reason To Push Back
CBS Sports analyst Gary Parrish left Kansas out of his preseason Top 25+1 for the 2026-27 season, a reminder that the Jayhawks are no longer being viewed through the same automatic-contender lens they carried for so long under Bill Self. It is the kind of omission that stands out for a program with Kansas history, even with the backdrop of recent March frustration and some uneven roster-building in the portal era.
Bill Self still has one obvious counterpoint for anyone ready to write the Jayhawks off: the incoming freshman class looks promising, and there is at least a path back toward national relevance if those pieces come together quickly. Kansas fans have every reason to push back on a preseason snub like this, even if the recent record says the skepticism is not coming out of nowhere. [Read more 🡒]
Tyran Stokes Arrives At Kansas With A Massive Question To Answer
Tyran Stokes is arriving in Lawrence with a level of anticipation that usually comes only after a player has already done something in college, not before he has taken a single game-day dribble. The five-star freshman and the No. 1 recruit in the 2026 class has already drawn preseason attention well beyond the usual freshman buzz, including a fifth-place spot in a CBS Sports coaches poll projecting the best college basketball players for 2026-27. For Kansas, that kind of early respect is a reminder of why Bill Self brought him in, and why expectations around him are already so heavy.
The real test now is less about the recruiting ranking and more about how quickly Stokes can translate it into production against the kind of schedule Kansas always faces. The Jayhawks have several high-profile games on deck, and those matchups should offer an early read on how he handles top-level competition, pressure, and the nightly grind that comes with being a centerpiece in Selfs program. The attention is already here. What Kansas still needs to find out is how much of it Stokes can justify once the season starts. [Read more 🡒]