Kansas opens the 2026 season on Friday night at 7 p.m. CT inside David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, and the first opponent on the schedule is a familiar kind of early test: a team the Jayhawks have never faced before, but one that already has a game under its belt.
That team is Long Island University, better known as LIU, and the Sharks arrive in Lawrence after dropping their season opener to North Dakota, 42-21, in Grand Forks, North Dakota, last weekend. Kansas, meanwhile, is trying to get the new year moving in the right direction after back-to-back 5-7 finishes in 2025 and 2024.
There’s plenty of turnover on the KU side as well. More than 30 seniors from last season’s roster are gone, and the Jayhawks have brought in 32 transfers to help fill the void. Those newcomers combined for more than 10,000 snaps at their previous schools, and head coach Lance Leipold and his staff will be counting on them to make an immediate impact.
LIU comes into the matchup as an FCS program, having moved its athletics to NCAA Division I in 2019. The Sharks are one of eight football teams in the Northeast Conference, and they were picked to finish third in the league this season after going 4-3 in conference play and 6-6 overall in 2025.
There are some recognizable names on the LIU roster. Five players were named Preseason All-NEC this offseason: quarterback Ethan Greenwood, safety Trey Watkins, linebacker Rafael Fasolino, offensive lineman Sean Broderick, and defensive tackle Kezni Brown. Watkins also earned FCS Preseason All-American honors.
Fasolino was active all over the field in the opener, finishing with 10 solo tackles, one tackle for loss, and one interception. Brown added three solo tackles. Watkins, despite the preseason recognition, did not record a defensive play against North Dakota.
The quarterback situation turned quickly in that game. Greenwood went just 3-of-9 for 11 yards while LIU fell behind 42-0 by halftime, and he was replaced by Luca Stanzani. Stanzani gave the Sharks a lift in the second half, completing 12 of 16 passes for 173 yards and a touchdown while also running for a score as LIU scored 21 unanswered points.
LIU is led by head coach Ron Cooper, now in his fifth season with the program after arriving in 2022. Before that, he spent a year as a senior analyst under Nick Saban at Alabama in 2021.
Cooper has coached at three FBS programs and has worked alongside some of the biggest names in college football, including Saban, Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, Lou Holtz at Notre Dame, and Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin. Across his five seasons at LIU, Cooper is 18-29.
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For all three, the move matters because practice-squad spots are more than just placeholders this time of year. They keep players in the building, in the weekly grind and close enough to be elevated when a team needs help, which is exactly the kind of break every undrafted or recently waived player is chasing. For Kansas, it is another reminder that the program continues to send talent into the league, even if the next step still has to be earned. [Read more 🡒]
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Green is scheduled to be on campus from Sept. 18-20, a visit that gives Kansas another chance to sell its pitch in person to one of the more sought-after young forwards in the country. The Jayhawks will not be alone in that chase, either, with Oklahoma and Alabama also in the mix, which adds another layer to a recruiting battle Kansas will want to keep pushing forward. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Is Pushing For An Early Edge In A Big 12 Battle
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For the Jayhawks, the visit is another chance to get in front of a player who already carries national attention and fits the kind of perimeter target they tend to monitor closely. McDaniel is ranked No. 96 overall and No. 15 among shooting guards in the 2027 class by 247Sports, and Kansas will not be alone in trying to make an impression as the Big 12 programs circle. [Read more 🡒]