The hype around Kansas football is reaching its peak, for the Jayhawks they sit just hours away from taking on Fresno State from the Mountain West in what will be a week zero matchup for Lance Leipold's team.
Speaking of Leipold, the Kansas head coach is set for his fifth full year at the helm. Thus far, Leipold has posed a 22-28 record, don't let that fool you though, barring his first season when Kansas finished 2-10, Leipold then led Kansas to a 6-7 record, followed by a 9-4 and 5-7 season. Each showing bright moments, each with its own pitfalls.
Yet, now with what looks to be a fully healthy Jalon Daniels along with a revamped roster filled with transfers and freshman, analysts are getting in their last second picks for Big 12 schools, Kansas among the crop.
CBS Sports Shehan Jeyarajah listed a Big 12 expert picks preview covering a number of different topics. Kansas wasn't found anywhere, except when Jeyarajah and nine other CBS Sports staff projected their Big 12 conference rankings.
The highest Kansas was ranked? 7th, from both Chip Patterson and Richard Johnson. Chris Hummer, David Cobb, Tom Fornelli, and Brandon Marcello, placed Leipold's team in 8th. Jeyarajah and John Talty pushed Kansas down to ninth, with Brad Crawford sending Kansas to the lowly 10th.
How fair is this?
When you remove the blue-tinted glasses, the reason for Kansas' mid-level ranking does become a little more clear. After all, Kansas was touted with high expectations last season and instead found themselves tripping over their own feet with a poor record in one-score games.
Kansas is also seeing two new coordinators with offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski along with co-offensive coordinator Matt Lubick, and new defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald who was the co-defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach last season but was hired as defensive coordinator after Kansas' 2024 season.
Kansas is set to take the field on August 23rd at 5:30 PM CT against the Bulldogs.