No. 22 Kansas, filled with optimism, opens in opposition to Lindenwood

No. 22 Kansas begins its nomadic schedule against Lindenwood on Thursday in Kansas City, Kan.

The Jayhawks are rebuilding their stadium from scratch, so they won’t play on campus all season.

Their opponent is facing an FBS program for the first time in its history. Lindenwood is entering its third season as an FCS team.

The Thursday game marks one of only two home games the Jayhawks will play in the state of Kansas, at the home of Major League Soccer’s Sporting Kansas City. They moved their entire Big 12 home slate to Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs in Missouri.

Despite the season-long road trip, the Jayhawks arrive in 2024 with high expectations, which speaks to the job coach Lance Leipold is doing at Kansas. The Jayhawks failed to win more than three games in any season from 2010 through Leipold’s first year in charge, 2021. Kansas then went 6-7 with a bowl loss in 2022 and 9-4 with a bowl victory in 2023.

Earning a bowl berth is now the expectation.

“This group understands that you’ve got to go out and play,” Leipold said. “If you watched some of these games over the weekend, there’s some strange stuff that happened. There’s things about discipline, composure and not beating yourself.

“But it’s a different mindset because so many guys went through that. As we’ve had scouts come through, they’ve talked about how our team looks different. We might have been 2-10 that first year, but we might have been 0-12 on the eyeball test, and that included South Dakota. We look different, we move different and we play differently, and that’s what a process should be about.”

Lindenwood sits in its own process. The Lions were a solid Division II team when they made the move, having made the playoffs in their final two seasons at that level. Since moving up, they have seen that it’s not going to be easy at the FCS level.

Lindenwood went a combined 10-10 over the past two seasons, but four of those wins came against non-Division I competition.

“We’re that underdog story and everybody knows that,” Lindenwood coach Jed Stugart said. “But just the enthusiasm and the excitement of playing a game like that against a really good opponent should be a fun opportunity.”

The Lions will attempt to slow Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels. Last year, the Jayhawks rode Daniels to a 4-0 start, but he injured his back in a loss to Texas and missed the remainder of the season. Without him, Kansas wasn’t quite the same team.

Last year, Daniels went 3-0 as a starter, completing 74.7 percent of his passes for 705 yards and five touchdowns with one interception. Through parts of four seasons at Kansas, he has 31 touchdown passes, 12 interceptions and 13 rushing TDs.

Kansas returns all three of its top pass-catchers from a season ago: Lawrence Arnold (44 catches, 782 yards, six touchdowns), Quentin Skinner (29-587-2) and Luke Grimm (33-555-6).

Running back Devin Neal is also back after rushing for 1,280 yards and 16 scores last year. Despite his numbers, Neal wasn’t selected to the preseason All-Big 12 team.

“I’ve always felt like at certain points I’ve been doubted,” Neal said. “I don’t take personal offense to it. I don’t take it over the edge but obviously, it’s motivation.

“I feel like I’m one of the best, if not the best, running back in the country, and that’s just personal thoughts. But if random voters don’t feel that way, it’s OK, but I still view it as motivation for the next season for sure.”

Lindenwood also brings back its top running back (Robert Giaimo, 81 carries for 440 yards and three touchdowns in 2023) and wide receiver (Jeff Caldwell, 32 catches for 599 yards and eight TDs in 2023). Caldwell was chosen to the All-Big South-OVC preseason first team, while Giaimo made the second team.

–Field Level Media