After months of waiting, wondering and analyzing how we think it might go down, we finally got our first look at the 2026 Kansas football team on Friday night, during a dominant 51-6 win over Long Island.
While the lopsided score sure looks nice if you're a Kansas fan, it's also not one you should get too excited about.
Yes, the Jayhawks (1-0) did show some explosive potential on offense. And, yeah, the defense was damn close to pitching a shutout. But the Jayhawks outmanned the Sharks at pretty much every position, making it hard to take too much from the head-to-head matchup.
That said, there were plenty of things that stood out during the opener. And here, as we begin to turn our attention to a MASSIVE showdown with Missouri in Week 2, is a list of 26 quick-hitter thoughts that stuck with me from Friday night's KU win.
They're not listed in any particular order, just the things that came to mind as I reflected back and rewatched some of the 45-point victory.
• Zeke Marshall certainly looks to be the right choice at QB. It's worth noting that Cole Ballard played and played well and would've won this game easily, too, but Marshall looks like he has the potential to reach another level. He's gotta do it against better teams for it to matter, but now that we've seen what it looks like, we'll recognize it if he does.
• It was irrelevant to the outcome and not anywhere close to the most pressure-packed moment he'll face this season, but the 32-yard field goal that Martin Connington connected on to pick Kansas up 9-0 with his first official kick as a Jayhawk sure made me think the Jayhawks have something there. The Michigan State transfer drilled the kick, with a high ball that was hit very well. Again, no pressure on that one, but confidence comes in the form of executing in the moment and he certainly did.
• Dylan Edwards only had 6 carries and Yasin Willis looked outstanding with the 11 he got. So, maybe Edwards' biggest role this year will be as a pass catcher. For one, he's good at it. For two, Andy Kotelnicki can line him up and use him all over the field, putting serious strain on the defense as a result. Beyond that, when Edwards catches the ball in space, he's got more than enough to turn it into a nice gain every time.
• It was just Week 1, so there's a lot of places you can say this about, win or lose. But KU's O-Line has to be better in the weeks ahead. It wasn't bad on Friday night, but it didn't get great push and it didn't dominate. How will that translate in games against Missouri and Arizona State the next two weeks?
• The D-Line looked legit, ends and tackles. And there's some serious depth and talent in there that should be key for Kansas all season. Those guys were physical, fast, explosive off the ball and quick to it. Great start up front.
• Speaking of the D-Line, I thought fourth-year Jayhawk Marcus Calvin had a really nice game, and you can't help but love it for him. Stayed loyal, put in the work and now looks like he's ready to reap the benefits with a big role.
• Sticking with the defense, the Jayhawks' linebacker depth showed up when Quincy Davis filled in for Bam Crouch, who was injured on KU's fourth defensive snap of the game and all he did was go on to lead the team in tackles on the night. The coaches have said that this is the best-looking group of linebackers KU's had under Lance Leipold and it was easy to see why they believe that in the opener. They need Crouch (shoulder) to be OK, though. Can't thin out a strength this early and hope to survive it.
• Back to the offense, I liked how Marshall handled himself as KU's QB1 and he obviously threw the ball great. He also only ran when he had to. I bet that's the last time this season we see that. He's too good of a runner to not have a whole bunch of designed QB run stuff in the game plan. You know they do. And I don't think it would surprise a soul if we see a lot of it next Friday night vs. Mizzou.
• Speaking of runs, we already talked about Edwards and Willis, but I thought Jalen Dupree looked darn good in his KU debut, as well. Don't sleep on him. He's more than capable of carrying the rock and KU wants to play physical and control games on the ground.
• Leipold said 86 guys got into the game on Friday night. That's doable when you're rolling toward a 51-6 final score, but still, it was awesome to see so many guys down the depth chart get their big moments.
• One of those was wideout Bryson Hayes, who made a great catch on a perfectly thrown deep ball by Cole Ballard late in the game. Kudos to Cole for what he did on Friday night. You know it hurt to not win the starting job, but he preached all offseason — and throughout his career — that all he wants to do is help this team win, and he looked good when he got into the game. That's because he stayed ready and takes it serious. Speaking of being ready, he almost came in during the first half when Marshall's helmet came off, but KU called timeout and Marshall did not have to sit out a play. If they hadn't, Ballard was ready, helmet on, 5 or 6 steps onto the field to get the next play in damn near before Marshall's helmet even hit the ground.
• College football is back and that means we're back to review season. Simply put, there are too many. They gotta do something to fix that.
• I thought the new student seating situation was pretty cool. It's a shame they're split up, but that south end zone sure looks like the place to be. The student sections emptied out pretty early in the 2nd half because of the lopsided score, but the fact that they showed up ready to go proves something — give them something worth watching and they'll be there.
• I don't know a single thing more about KU's cornerback situation than I did before the season began. And I didn't feel like a knew a ton then either. We're gonna find out in a hurry, though, as this group will be tested big time by Missouri's offense and new Tigers QB Austin Simmons, who was 17-for-19 for 252 yards and 4 TDs in Mizzou's 54-14 season-opening win this week.
• The slow start, though somewhat understandable in this one, can't become a habit for the KU offense. They won't survive it.
• You saw what KU wideout Nik McMillan did on the field, with his monster night of 6 catches for 130 yards and a touchdown on 7 targets. But you might be surprised by one thing you didn't see. After the game, while talking with reporters, McMillan was barely even willing to say he played well. Just doing his job, making plays and having fun was the way he looked at it, instead choosing to praise the play of Marshall and the rest of the offense. This dude's got it.
• Targeting sucks for everyone involved and I'm just not sure what anyone can do about it. I like that they changed the rule in the offseason so your first targeting call doesn't cost you a half the next game. So, that's something. But, man, it's such a fine line between a good hit and targeting and I don't know how you coach it, teach it or, honestly, call it. Add to that the fact that targeting always comes with a review and you're looking at a double-whammy of a bummer.
• It's a good thing he's their No. 1 punt returner because I think you gotta have Tate Nagy on the field. Not just because he can make a few plays with his shimmy and his shake. But also because the dude is fearless and he was born to play football.
• Paging KU's tight ends... Other than a nice throw to Carson Bruhn up the seam — shoutout Mason Fairchild — that group was barely targeted in this one and also biffed a couple of execution miscues on other plays. The targets can be fixed. And that very well may have been part of a vanilla game plan to save some of what Bruhn, Jailen Butler and Carter Moses can do in the offense. But it would be cool to see one of those guys emerge and be at least reasonably close to what the always-underrated Fairchild was a few years back.
• Defensive end Leroy Harris III had 4 tackles total in the limited time he was on the field and all 4 of them were for loss. No sacks, but that might be even more impressive. He's gonna get plenty of sacks this season. If he's dragging ball carries down behind the line of scrimmage, too, boy oh boy do the Jayhawks have something.
• The takeaway the Jayhawks got from D-End David Santiago just ripping the ball out of a dude's hands was nice to see because this defense is going to have to get a couple of takeaways a game to aid what the rest of the team can do, both from the standpoint of getting off the field and helping give the offense extra cracks at both controlling the clock and putting points on the board.
• I know people were scratching their heads over that 2-point try after KU's first touchdown. And I don't blame ya. But I loved it. For one, a team like this has to be willing to take some chances and that was a clear indication that they are. Beyond that, it may have been something they simply wanted to put on tape to make Missouri have to deal with it this week. Maybe both. Converting it would've been cooler, but I'm eager to see how many moments like that we'll see this season.
• KU was 8-for-8 in the red zone on Friday night. I know, I know, I know. It was against Long Island. But big things are born from confidence, consistency and production. No one on this offense is going to be thinking about how it was just LIU last week when they find themselves in the red zone for the first time against Missouri. Instead, they're going to have that familiar feeling of, 'Hey, we score when we get down here; let's go do it again.' That can be pretty powerful stuff. And that same concept can apply to all kinds of Jayhawks on an individual basis, as well.
• The Jayhawks ran some of their pregame stuff in their indoor facility where it wasn't nearly as hot as the blazing temperatures outside in the hours leading up to kickoff. That's significant because, if it's as hot again next Friday, this team will now have done that once and know the drill of how to run through it. Beyond that, Mizzou won't have anywhere to do anything like that in Lawrence, so the heat and fatigue factor could play to KU's advantage if they can take the game into the 4th quarter.
• I thought the stadium looked great. Yeah, it's still a construction zone, and, yeah, it looks a little strange with that upper deck on the east side still unfinished. But it still looked and felt like college football and the additions they made in the past year were pretty cool to see in a real game setting. Night games always make that stuff so much cooler. It's going a hell of a facility when they open the doors to the completed version to start the 2027 season. Still can't believe it's really there.
• For the most part, I think these guys treated Week 1 exactly the way they should've, from start to finish and beyond. It was a mismatch from the start and the plan to try to be a little vanilla and not show too much was certainly plenty to roll to an easy win. Be that as it may, though, wins are always tough to come by in college football and that's been incredibly true at KU over the years. So, yeah, celebrate it. Feel good about it. Understand that there's stuff to clean up. And then get back to work. Week 2 is going to feel like a Big 12 title game after playing a game like that in the opener, and it'll be a lot of fun to see how these guys rise to that challenge and try to get on that level.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
