Kansas is at an awkward crossroads, and the football questions are getting louder. Ericka Brockish of Through the Phog raised the possibility that Lance Leipold could be the next Big 12 coach on the hot seat, pointing to a program that has slipped year by year since its 9-4 season in 2023.
Since then, the Jayhawks have gone 5-7 in back-to-back seasons, missed bowl games, and now sit at 3-4 with only one Big 12 win. Brockish noted that Leipold’s seat was already warming before the season even began.
There is at least one reason for cautious optimism after Kansas beat Baylor. Jimmy Adeniran of Roundtable Sports hosted by Yahoo suggested the win could be the spark the Jayhawks needed, especially after a season full of adversity. He wrote that Kansas showed it could answer when the game was on the line, and that the result gives the team something positive to carry into this weekend’s matchup with TCU.
That trip to TCU comes with a clear defensive problem hanging over Kansas. The Fort Worth Star Telegram laid out four observations about the Jayhawks before the game, including a blunt one about the run defense. Kansas is middle of the pack or slightly below average in most defensive categories in the Big 12, but it is dead last in rush defense, allowing 166.9 rushing yards per game.
On the basketball side, there’s been plenty of noise around the early-season exhibition results, but Joel Wagler of Through the Phog says it’s too soon to panic after losses to Louisville and Duke. His point was simple: those games were competitive, they happened in the Phog, and they do not count in the standings. Still, he acknowledged that it was tough to watch Kansas lose to two prominent programs on its own floor.
Jason Glassberg of the Daily Kansan dug into the Duke game and focused on Bill Self’s decision to go small for most of the night. Centers Christian Reeves and Paul Mbiya barely played, with Reeves logging 6:18 and Mbiya less than four minutes.
That left Dawes, at 6-foot-9, as Kansas’ tallest player for much of the second half, and the Jayhawks even used an even smaller look with Dawes on the bench and Stokes as the primary post defender. Self said, “I thought if our guards rebounded it would have gone really well,” and added that the limited minutes for Reeves and Mbiya came down to Kansas’ trouble guarding Duke’s ball screens, not those two players specifically.
The positive buzz around the roster is coming from elsewhere, too. Through the Phog wrote that Tyran Stokes and Taylen Kinney have been the best freshman duo Kansas has had in quite a while. Even though Kinney and Stokes did not match Duke’s top statistical output, the piece argued that the pair has given fans plenty of reason to be encouraged about what they can bring this season.
Joel Wagler also offered a reminder that Kansas fans shouldn’t let the exhibition losses rewrite the bigger picture. He pointed out that the Jayhawks lost to Louisville and Duke in games that do not count, and while that’s not easy to watch, it is not cause for real alarm.
One longtime Kansas name also got a fresh look. Wagler wrote about Todd Reesing’s career at Kansas, calling him an incredible college quarterback whose size kept him from a professional career.
He was listed at five-foot-eleven, and Wagler joked that it was probably measured with his cleats on. Even so, he described Reesing as a rare quarterback for KU - one who was as tough as he was fun to watch, and one fans have never really seen duplicated in Crimson and Blue.
Around the rest of the sports world, ESPN has a lengthy breakdown of how the Lakers sale came together, including reporting that more than a dozen insiders described a furious 72-hour process that interrupted an already major offseason. ESPN also profiled the Oregon fan experience through the eyes of Ron McCullough, who has been making the two-hour trip from Portland to Eugene for 29 seasons and said at halftime of last week’s Nebraska game, “This,” McCullough said at halftime of last week’s game against Nebraska, “is the first time.”
Defector also had some fun with Pat McAfee after Utah didn’t exactly roll out the red carpet for his act during College GameDay. The piece said McAfee spent Monday’s show complaining about the experience, including a now-deleted school video in which students mocked him. Utah still beat Houston 21-13, even though McAfee had picked the Cougars.
As for the mood among college football fans with November approaching, the question hangs out there: are they actually excited for the playoff stretch, or just waiting for the whole thing to expand again?
In Other News...
Bill Selfs Latest Trey Kaufman-Renn Update Raises A KU Opener Question
Trey Kaufman-Renns path to Kansas has already been unusual, and now the focus shifts from eligibility to whether hell be ready when the games start to count. After obtaining a preliminary injunction that gave him an additional year, hes been working through conditioning while also dealing with an ankle injury, which has kept him out of exhibition action and left a little uncertainty hanging over the season opener.
Bill Selfs latest update was more encouraging than alarming, with the Kansas coach saying Kaufman-Renns availability is still expected even if it is not fully settled yet. Self also noted that Kohl Rosario is working through a concussion and described the rest of the roster as generally in good shape, which puts the Jayhawks in a decent place overall, even if one of the more important early-season questions remains unresolved for now. [Read more 🡒]
TCU Faces A Big 12 Problem Kansas Could Exploit Again
Kansas heads into another Big 12 matchup with a little more confidence after finally getting its first conference win of the season against Baylor. Isaiah Marshall and Dylan Edwards have helped give the Jayhawks a more balanced look on offense, and the rushing attack has become a real part of what makes this group difficult to defend. Against TCU, that ground game figures to be at the center of the plan again.
The Horned Frogs are expected to key on slowing Kansas on the ground, which puts even more importance on how the Jayhawks handle their running opportunities and open things up elsewhere. Nik McMillan adds another layer to the offense as a receiver to watch, and the matchup now looks like a test of whether Kansas can keep forcing defenses to choose between respecting the run and dealing with the rest of its playmakers. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Fans Have A Real Reason To Watch Darryn Peterson Closely
Darryn Peterson has already given Kansas fans plenty to follow since leaving campus, and not just because he went No. 2 overall in the NBA draft. Through his first four regular-season games, he has averaged 11.5 points, a start that has naturally drawn attention as he adjusts to the pace and demands of the league.
What stands out most is the way his coach has framed the early learning curve, pointing more to shot selection than to any concern about Petersons ability to score. His limited college playing time because of injuries and health issues is part of the backdrop here, and it helps explain why the development curve may be taking a little longer than some expected. There is also the simple fact that other top picks around the NBA are off to stronger starts, which only sharpens the spotlight on Peterson as he tries to settle in. [Read more 🡒]