With the regular season officially under a week away, now is your last chance to get acquainted with the Kansas football team and with that comes figuring out which positions you feel the most and the least comfortable with.
Today’s task is to rank the Jayhawks’ offense from five to one. Two main criteria go into ranking these. The first is the confidence we have that they can step up in the game's biggest moments; the second, the depth of the group if required. This is a KU team that is moving on from the likes of Jalon Daniels and Daniel Hishaw Jr. but are also trying to stay away from just 368.8 yards last season.
Just for clarification, five means the worst and 1 means the best.
5. Offensive Line
If there was one group you really don’t want to be at five, it would be the front line. Let’s make one thing clear: it's not that the Jayhawks don’t have the requisite talent to compete; of course they do, and there should be some patterns of stellar blocking. However, one of the biggest beliefs in the sport is that with the offensive line, you want continuity from year to year, as it takes more than just an offseason and a couple of games for teams to get into sync.
According to Ourlads, the Jayhawks are set to field three new offensive linemen next season, all of whom are first-year transfers.
4. Quarterback
This could easily be slotted into fifth because the lack of experience in newly named QB Isaiah Marshall is worrying, and the same would go for backup quarterback Cole Ballard as well. The reason why this gets 4th is that you can work around not-great quarterback play with limited passes, a strong run game, and good wideouts.
3. Tight End
Last season saw the end of any tight end worries come to an end for now. With Deshawn Hanika suffering a season-ending injury so early on, only for the likes of Boden Groen to end the season on such a strong note, there is no concern as long as tight ends coach Matt Lubick stays around.
2. Wide Receiver
The floor of this room is still incredibly high compared to what fans have seen over the last few seasons. Unlike last season, where the bulk of the pressure fell onto the shoulders of Emmanuel Henderson Jr. with parts going to Cam Pickett. Now it is a room filled with Nik McMillan, Nahzae Cox, Pickett and Keaton Kubecka, as it now looks like a much more balanced wideout group.
1. Running Back
This feels like the most obvious selection, as the Jayhawks have three contenders who can all make an impact on the game's most important moments in Dylan Edwards, Yasin Willis and Jalen Dupree. If an injury were to happen to Edwards, the drop-off between him and Willis won't be major, and the same goes if Willis takes a knock and Dupree's role suddenly gets increased.
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