There is no cleaner start in sports than an undefeated one, Kansas has the opportunity to make that start today in what has been a highly-anticipated matchup for the Jayhawks as they are set to take on Fresno State from the Mountain West Conference.
While there has been a lot of chatter around the outside of the program with the recent $300 million gift from benefactor David Booth, combined with the renovations of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, the hype for Kansas football has reached it's high.
We have decided to create our three keys to the game.
1. Don't get rattled if things don't go your way
Fresno State will come to this game with something to prove, under new head coach Matt Entz who hails from the dominant North Dakota State from the FCS. With the Bison, Entz posted a 60-11 overall record in his 5 years (2019-23) for an impressive .857 winning percentage. He led the Bison to two NCAA Division I FCS National Championships, including in his first season as the head coach.
Last season, Entz was the assistant head coach and the linebacker corps for the University of Southern California as the Trojans went 7-6.
Entz will look at Kansas to be the first of what he hopes are many landmark wins. So watch for Fresno State to be flying early.
2. Don't let the day get ahead of you
As we mentioned earlier, there is a lot of hype building around this season, we have seen it from other programs all too often if you let the occasion get ahead of you it could cause problems, coach Lance Leipold spoke on this earlier this week.
"You know, my wife and I were just walking over, and as we're talking, just, you know, there's still a lot of people around here, you know, doing little things yet, and there's a lot of things that can be distracting. And then our jobs get ready to play. And, we've had a chance to practice in there, you know, and it'll be exciting. I've said the word exciting a lot today. It's gonna be exciting. Hopefully the energy is something that we can, you know, thrive off of and things like that but. You know, our job is to get ready to play a football game, and sometimes I don't want to downgrade all the great excitement about this game, the energy, the efforts that have gone in by the athletic department, by our donors and our fans. But in many ways, I sometimes equate this to a homecoming game. Our job and like I always say, like a home game, just play our best football and find a way to win the game. Everything else around it, the pageantry and all the other ceremonial things, are outside of what our responsibility is at the moment. Our job is to go out and play our best game for our fans."
3. Keep the ball in check
By most if not all facets on the field, the Jayhawks have the better team than the Bulldogs, but if Kansas is too sloppy with the ball, they will play Fresno State right into the game. Mistakes are bound to happen for any squad, but Kansas must keep it to a minimum to keep themselves ahead of the chains.
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