We don’t know if this is a compliment towards No. 14 BYU or a dig towards KU, but heading it is hard seeing many routes where the Jayhawks exit the Booth as winners against a team like the Cougars.
Heading into this matchup, BYU will be one week removed from a matchup against the Baylor Bears, which we truly can’t expect anything from that matchup other than a BYU win, while the Jayhawks would have had one of their few toss-up games this season against the West Virginia Mountaineers.
Surprisingly, this has been a KU-dominated series
These two squads have met just three times in their history; we are going to forget their 1992 clash and instead focus a bit on the 2023 and 2024 matchups. When these sides met in 2023 KU was hot off a 3-0 start and was ready to welcome BYU to the Big 12 with a strong 38-27 win. Things weren’t perfect but it gave fans plenty of reason to be excited and KU finished the season with a stellar 9-4 record.
One year later and things looked completely different. All of a sudden it looked like the Jayhawks were stumbling into their first season of Big 12 football. Kansas was 3-6 and trying to pull together a last-ditch effort to push themselves into a bowl game, while the Cougars were 9-0 and on top of the world. But somehow, KU persevered as they ground out a brutal 17-13 win away from home, which started a two-game slide for BYU.
Last season, Kalani Sitake’s squad continued to establish itself as one of the nation’s outside contenders for the College Football Playoff and if it wasn’t for two big losses to Texas Tech, there was every chance they would have slid their way into the picture. However, losing two games in a conference like the Big 12 is a death knell for programs, and BYU was no exception to that rule.
BYU added depth where needed via the NCAA Transfer Portal
Unlike several schools that have overrelied on the portal as of late, Sitake is keeping things in-house, adding only nine transfers this season, three of them being 4-stars in tight ends Walker Lyons and Roger Saleapaga II, along with linebacker Cade Uluave.
But probably the biggest piece on the 2026 Cougars is quarterback Bear Bachmeier. Bachmeier has used just one year of eligibility, and in his freshman season, he notched 3,033 passing yards on a 64.9% completion rate, to go with 15 touchdowns and 7 interceptions, while only throwing a 1.8% interception rate. Bachmeier also muscled his way into the end zone a commanding 11 times on the ground. While he isn’t necessarily your typical dual-threat QB, he is a threat every time he touches the ball.
As previously mentioned, this game feels like a long shot for the Jayhawks, who will likely be striving for just six wins next season. But at the same time, is that not exactly what happened in 2024?
More Kansas Football News
Add us as a preferred source on Google