Kansas is only days from kicking off the season against Long Island on Friday night, and that first look at this revamped KU football team comes with plenty to monitor. The Jayhawks list 28 new faces on the two-deep, so the opener should bring a healthy batch of debuts. Even if Kansas handles business and the starters only see about half the snaps, there’s still real intrigue here - especially with a few new faces and first-year starters getting their first live action in the spotlight.
At the top of the list is quarterback Isaiah Marshall, and that makes sense. Kansas coach Lance Leipold told KSNT on Monday that Marshall is a "gamer," and then put it this way: "When the lights go on, Isaiah is a true competitor and he has a history of making things happen," Leipold said.
That’s the part worth watching now: what does that actually look like when Marshall is running the offense as the full-time starter? KU doesn’t need to show its full hand against Long Island, and probably won’t.
Still, this will be the best chance yet to see Marshall operate the attack and throw the ball in a way we haven’t seen before at Kansas. The only other time he served as a non-change-of-pace quarterback was against Wagner last season, when he attempted just three passes.
There’s also plenty to learn about the new linebacking picture, starting with Bam Crouch. He won the starting job after a strong camp, and Kansas is clearly counting on better play at that spot this season.
D.K. McDonald said Crouch has a strong feel for where he needs to be and tends to end up around the football.
That kind of instinct matters. When healthy at Boston College, Crouch played at a high level and was respected in that program.
If he can bring back his 2024 form, he and Trey Lathan could give KU a steady tandem. I’m also curious to see how Kansas deploys him - whether he stays more at the second level the way KU used its linebackers before 2025, or whether he gets moved around like Bangally Kamara did last season.
The running back spot should be worth a close look too, especially with Syracuse transfer Yasin Willis. He brings a big, physical style and could wind up looking like the kind of back that helps define the offense’s identity.
Willis had a strong camp and sits near the top of the depth chart with Dylan Edwards, though Edwards is getting saved for next week in this conversation. Willis was roughly compared to Daniel Hishaw Jr. as a runner, and the key question is how that style shows up in KU’s offense.
How explosive does he look? Kansas has usually kept its top backs in season openers on a pretty tight leash, with the starters typically getting somewhere in the 8-13 carry range.
Those reps should tell us a lot.
On defense, the buzz around David Santiago has been hard to miss, and D.K. McDonald doubled down on that during Hawk Talk on Wednesday night.
That makes Santiago one of the more interesting players to watch in the opener. Kansas has had defensive ends flash in recent season openers, with Lonnie Phelps doing it in 2022 and Austin Booker and Leroy Harris III showing flashes in 2023 and 2025, respectively.
Santiago’s pass rush has been talked up as a major step forward, and Friday will be the first chance to see how that translates when the game counts.
Another camp riser to keep an eye on is Elijah Cannon, who earned the starting job at the Hawk spot. At 6-foot, 190 pounds, he looks the part of a physical defensive back, and he may be a little heavier than that listed weight.
The real question is how Kansas uses him and how he looks when he’s working inside. Last season, Mason Ellis and Syeed Gibbs got those early reps there in slightly different roles.
McDonald has praised Cannon for his ability to play physically in the box, and that makes his first-game usage especially interesting. How often does KU rotate at the Hawk spot in the first half?
And what does Cannon look like once the pads are really popping?
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For Jayhawks fans, the bigger picture is simple: this is the kind of game that changes the feel of a season, especially when it comes at home and carries the weight of history. The ticket market is already reflecting that demand, and with both teams' schedules now laid out, the only thing left is the long lead-up to a fall night that figures to have no shortage of interest on either side of the border. [Read more 🡒]