The Kansas Jayhawks are beginning to gain a lot of momentum, with recent news of an overseas matchup in 2026 against Arizona State. Head coach Lance Leipold was able to keep his team’s head down and dominate a West Virginia team, thanks to a 41-10 win that pushed Leipold’s team to an undefeated start in Big 12 play. While there may be some question marks over the latest performance of quarterback Jalon Daniels. It will always be hard to criticize a team that has a season low of 31 points. Those numbers will push nearly any team to a positive record.
On Monday, head football coach Lance Leipold spoke with the media extensively over a number of topics, but a portion of the media availability was set on the tight end core.
Kansas’ tight end group is one that has been properly labeled with a number of “or” tags. Earlier in the season, Leipold said the group had so many of those tags just because all the tight ends listed were useful in certain sets, emphasizing that he wanted improvements from all tight ends so as not to give defense a tell of what play may be incoming based on what tight end is on the field.
On Monday, the former Buffalo coach spoke about one tight end who has made tremendous improvement
“I kept saying, probably the biggest surprise the group has been Boden [Groen], and he’s really kind of coming off surgery when he was at Rice. He just continues to get better each and every day.”
Groen has seen receptions in all four games this season with a total of five catches for 87 yards and one touchdown, which came in that aforementioned blowout win over the Mountaineers.
Groen spent his last three seasons at Rice in the American Athletic Conference, where he accumulated 60 catches for 556 yards and three touchdowns before transferring to the Jayhawks this past offseason.
Groen’s first touchdown as a Jayhawk came on a play-action seven-yard pass in the third quarter of, where Daniels faked a handoff to running back Leshon Williams, and Williams sprinted up the middle, meanwhile, Groen who was lined up just in front of the Kansas quarterback, sprinted to the right and made it look as if he was going to block, before ghosting himself to just outside the goalline leaving nothing but green grass and the endzone for Groen to waltz into.
The next chance to see Groen and Kansas continue its efficient start is against the Cincinnati Bearcats next Saturday at an early 11 AM CT kickoff. If Kansas is able to reel off a second-straight Big 12 win, then they may subtly become a Big 12 contender.