In just under one week, the Kansas Jayhawks will be one of the few teams in the nation getting an early start to the season, as Kansas will host Fresno State in the newly revamped David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium during the rare week zero matchup. In what has been lauded as one of the easiest Big 12 schedules, combined with what analytics powerhouse Opta has listed as the Jayhawks 8.6 expected wins, which leads the Big 12.
For head coach Lance Leipold, he has stubbornly led the Jayhawks to two bowl games in just four seasons in what has been one of the most impressive turnarounds in college football.
Just days ago, benefactor and alum David Booth donated an astounding near $300 million gift to Kansas athletics, which has spread like wildfire over social media.
With all the hype building around this school, CBS Sports released their first bowl projections on Wednesday, and Kansas was projected to land against Memphis in the Armed Forces Bowl.
This comes as a bit of a possibly underwhelming first projection for Kansas. Last season, this matchup found the Oklahoma Sooners dropping a tight one-point loss to Navy in what was a 21-20 win for the Midshipmen.
In Kansas' first two bowls under Leipold, the Jayhawks pose a 1-1 record, in 2022, Kansas fell in a 55-53 heartbreaker to Arkansas. The following season, Kansas was able to march past Nevada in a 49-36 win.
What's next for the Jayhawks?
Kansas will embark on the aforementioned week zero matchup on Saturday, August 23rd, before hosting Wagner the following week, all leading up to the highly anticipated Border Showdown against the Missouri Tigers, the first since 2011. Before launching Big 12 play with back-to-back home games against West Virginia and Cincinnati prior to travels to face UCF and Texas Tech before another massive rivalry with the Sunflower Showdown against Kansas State. Following the highly anticipated Sunflower Showdown, Kansas takes on Oklahoma State, Arizona, Iowa State and Utah.