As the final preparations for the college football season are truly underway, national outlets and analysts have begun the impossible tasks of lining up every college football team in an assigned tier. Last week ESPN took a crack at it, and they look at the Jayhawks as a team to look out for with this excerpt "Tier 7: Flying beneath the radar like Tom Cruise in 'Maverick.'"
Here is what David Hale of ESPN had to say about the Jayhawks.
"Kansas was 1-5 in games decided by a touchdown or less last year but also had wins over three straight ranked teams in November. With a more settled offensive approach and the return of Jalon Daniels, this Jayhawks squad looks like a potential sleeper."
This is nothing new for fans of Kansas. We have spoken ad nauseam of the potential of the Jayhawks but have questioned the ability to crack down on the record of one score games. Yet, when you look at the schools considered in the same tier of Kansas, that should shine a new light for Kansas fans.
Kansas was placed beside Georgia Tech, Iowa, Minnesota, and Washington. Three of the four teams mentioned finished with winning records last season, with hype building around Georgia Tech and Iowa as each received votes in the inaugural AP-Top 25.
How has Kansas improved from last season?
Lance Leipold has hit the portal hard, Kansas has rung in 28 incoming transfer which has measured out as the 39th-best transfer class in the nation according to 247Sports combined with a recruiting class which has seen four-star edge rusher Adrian Holley join a freshman class of 16 enrollees.
Kansas has also seen two in-house coaching coordinator upgrades as Jim Zebrowski was promoted to offensive coordinator and D.K. McDonald was pushed up to the defensive coordinator slot as McDonald was previously co-defensive coordinator and cornerbacks assistant, with Zebrowski formerly being the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.