The 2026 Kansas football season is racing towards its start. Unlike last season, this year the Kansas Jayhawks will be missing out on a week zero game and, like most of the nation, will have to go through one more week of work before being able to take the field.
While a lot of the Jayhawks’ team has pinned its starters down, there is little time for their few remaining battles to sort themselves out as the Jayhawks will be looking towards a front-heavy schedule with the focus on one thing: getting to a bowl game.
For a football program like the Jayhawks, a bowl game will be the bar until Leipold eventually leaves. So far under the former Buffalo head coach, the Jayhawks have reached two bowl games, which marked the first time that has happened since 2008 under Mark Mangino, and if Kansas can reach another bowl, it will be the third in Leipold’s time with the Jayhawks.
In Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach’s latest edition of “2026-27 preseason College Football Playoff, bowl projections,” Bonagura landed the Jayhawks in the Frisco Football Classic against UTSA.
It should come as no surprise to find out that the Jayhawks have never played against the Roadrunners, who are led by Jeff Traylor.
In Traylor’s six seasons at the helm, UTSA has never finished below seven wins and has seen three separate seasons of nine wins.
What would it take for the Jayhawks to reach another bowl under Leipold?
While the bowl itself will likely fluctuate several times before the regular-season’s end, the most important thing is that for now, there is light at the end of what will be a challenging 12-game stretch.
The biggest thing the Jayhawks will have to do to reach whatever bowl they are handed is use their experience. Over the offseason, a common thing that has been called back to was Kansas’ lack of experience in the biggest moments. You could point to several bad calls in the clutch, missed tackles, and poor angles as reasons to back this up.
However this was something the Jayhawks heavily attacked in the portal.
KU is set to field a team with 25,508 snaps, numbers that rank 30th in the nation. Even better, Kansas is reeling in 355 starts, good for 26th-best in the country.
It isn’t only on the field where there has been a jump in on-field production, but also in the coaching staff. Just looking at the coordinator spot, you will see D.K. McDonald and Andy Kotelnicki.
McDonald is spending his second season at the helm of the defense. Last year, the Jayhawks finished with the nation’s 95th-best defense, allowing 409.5 total yards per game.
For Kotelnicki, following a two-year stint with the Penn State Nittany Lions, the fan-favorite coach is back as associate head coach, where he will be taking over play-calling duties this season. Barring the 2024 and 2025 seasons, Kotelnicki and Leipold have been on the same staff since 2013.
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