Kansas will be back on the field at 11 a.m. on Oct. 3 when Middle Tennessee comes to David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, and the Big 12 made that kickoff official Monday. The game will air on ESPNU.
That meeting comes after KU’s open date and kicks off the stretch run of a season that will close with nine straight games without another bye. It also lands during family weekend and gives the Jayhawks their third of six home games on campus. Baylor, UCF and BYU are still scheduled to visit later in the year.
For Kansas, the timing arrives with some urgency. The Jayhawks are coming off Saturday’s 24-17 loss to Arizona State, a result that left them 1-2 heading into the break. The matchup with Middle Tennessee will be the first between the two programs and KU’s final nonconference game of the season.
Middle Tennessee brings a 2-1 record into its own Saturday road game at Jacksonville State, where the Blue Raiders will have a shot to equal last season’s win total. They already own victories over FCS Murray State and Nevada, and their only defeat so far came by two points to Marshall. Last year, they finished 3-9.
The Blue Raiders’ offense has been driven by quarterback Roman Gagliano, who has thrown for 616 yards with six touchdowns and one interception. Three of those scores have gone to veteran receiver Cam’ron Lacy. On the ground, Kansas State transfer Antonio Martin Jr. has already posted two 100-yard rushing games.
There will also be a familiar face on the Kansas side. Wideout Nahzae Cox will face his former team after opening the season with four catches for 125 yards and a touchdown for the Jayhawks.
In Other News...
Kansas Fans Have A New Reason To Worry About Quarterback
Isaiah Marshalls first season guiding Kansas has been steady enough on the surface, but not quite smooth enough to quiet the questions that tend to follow a young quarterback. Through three games, he has put up decent production and shown flashes of the talent the Jayhawks need from him, but the early stretch has also included enough rough edges to keep the conversation going around the position.
The unease only grows when another former Kansas quarterback starts making noise elsewhere, especially one who is off to a fast start at Miami (OH). Marshall has already dealt with some shaky moments in the operation around him, including mishandled snaps, and those kinds of plays can make a quarterbacks job harder than the box score suggests. For a Kansas team looking for stability, the biggest concern is not just the numbers, but whether the position can settle down before the season gets any longer. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Bye Week Suddenly Carries More Weight Than Fans Realized
The calendar is starting to tilt toward Kansas final nonconference date, and the Big 12 has now locked in a detail that changes the feel of that stretch run. The Jayhawks home game against Middle Tennessee on Oct. 3 will arrive as their first Saturday morning kickoff of the season, a spot on the schedule that tends to reshape everything from pregame routines to the atmosphere in the stadium.
It also gives Kansas one more unfamiliar wrinkle before league play takes center stage, because the Blue Raiders are a first-time opponent for the program. With the matchup landing on national television and coming at the end of the nonconference slate, it now has the look of a game the Jayhawks will want to handle cleanly before the real grind begins. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Bye Week Brings A Harsh Reality For Bowl Hopes
Kansas enters its bye week at 1-2, and the pause arrives with a clear reminder that the path to six wins is getting narrower by the day. ESPNs Football Power Index has the Jayhawks down at 67th among FBS teams, and the models updated game-by-game projections paint a season that still has opportunities left, but not much room for error if Kansas wants to stay in the bowl conversation.
The most immediate pressure point comes when the Jayhawks return to action, because the schedule offers little chance to ease back in. Kansas will spend the week sorting through the rest of its forecast, including the updated win probabilities and implied betting spreads that now frame each remaining matchup, with the trip to Utah looming as the kind of game that can quickly tilt the entire outlook one way or the other. [Read more 🡒]