Football

Notebook: KU sends out two quarterbacks to open Friday’s game

Kansas somehow found a way to have both Jason Bean and Jalon Daniels start Friday night, an unusual but fitting development following the last month of speculation about Daniels’ back injury. In an extremely on-brand wrinkle from offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, Daniels came out in ...

KU starts hot, coasts to 34-23 win over Illinois

With starting quarterback Jalon Daniels back in the fold, the Kansas football team cruised to a 34-23 victory over Illinois on Friday night at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. The Jayhawks have now started 2-0 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2008-09. Daniels earned the ...

Week 2 preview: Illinois result could alter trajectory of KU’s season

Illinois coach Bret Bielema knows how much Friday's game means to his opponent. As he put it in a press conference Tuesday, "Kansas has targeted this game for a long time." "You know, when we agreed to move this game to Friday, they moved their (Missouri State) game to Friday so it's not as ...

KU offensive line, quarterback will need to wear down vaunted Illinois front

Last season, the leaderboard for any given defensive statistical metric had a pretty good chance of reading "Illinois" at the top. The Fighting Illini allowed just 12.8 points per game — the fewest in the nation — and led the country in categories like interceptions (24), overall takeaways ...

KU comes in fifth, Texas No. 1 in inaugural Big 12 power rankings

The Texas Longhorns, set to leave for the Southeastern Conference after this season, received 11 of a possible 14 first-place votes in a new Big 12 Conference football power ranking from a panel of 14 beat writers that regularly cover the conference. Oklahoma, Kansas State and UCF each received ...

Borland returns to lead KU defense immediately following medical procedure

Lance Leipold said Monday night on his weekly "Hawk Talk" radio show that Friday was the first time in his 17 years as a head coach that he had ever led a team without Brian Borland on the sidelines. Borland was already in place as the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin-Whitewater beginning in ...

Leipold and Bielema’s shared history informs KU’s approach to Week 2

With Lance Leipold in charge at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater, his alma mater, the Warhawks played in the national championship seven of his eight seasons. Five of those years, Bret Bielema was the head coach just up the road in Madison at Division I Wisconsin, the biggest college program ...

KU to wear new black uniform Friday as part of player-led effort

One month after unveiling entirely new football jerseys, Kansas has added another wrinkle to its game-day wardrobe. The Jayhawks will wear all-new all-black "Blackhawk" uniforms when they take the field Friday night in prime time against Illinois, the team announced Sunday, as a result of what ...