The Kansas football team is six weeks and five games into its season and still hasn’t had to play more than a few hours’ drive away from Lawrence.
KU’s 2025 schedule oriented itself in such a way that the Jayhawks have already hosted four games — two nonconference against Fresno State and Wagner, two in Big 12 play against West Virginia and Cincinnati — and gone through a bye week, and a short trip to Columbia, Missouri, has provided the Jayhawks’ only taste of a road environment.
From a game-day perspective, that was certainly a raucous, hostile one, but this Saturday’s game against UCF, set for 6:30 p.m. Central time at the Acrisure Bounce House, will be the first contest that takes KU on a flight a long way from home.
Head coach Lance Leipold said on Monday that once the Jayhawks reach their destination in Orlando, Florida, on Friday evening, they’ll be able to assume something resembling their usual pregame routine, with the possible exception of starting a little later Saturday morning ahead of the 7:30 p.m. local-time kickoff.
But the lead-up to KU’s arrival at the team hotel will be slightly different.
“We talked a little bit about it to our leadership group, talked about it as a staff, obviously,” Leipold said. “Our Friday will be different. It’ll be a little bit earlier to get them in the building than we have all the rest of the year.”
The longtime head coach, who is in his 19th year helming a program and 39th as a coach of any kind, said he likes to set off around midday on Fridays, especially ahead of a longer trip like this one to Orlando, to mitigate any potential logistical obstacles.
“I’ve been part of a disaster, a couple of them, where your plane has issues and you don’t roll in until after midnight, you got to get up and play, and all those things,” Leipold said. “So (we) want to try to make sure we give ourselves time if there is anything and then still stay in routine.”
Establishing and maintaining a routine will be key for the Jayhawks as they enter a less friendly segment of their schedule with four road trips in the next six games, beginning at UCF on Saturday and continuing at Texas Tech on Oct. 11 (on Monday, that game was also announced as a 6:30 p.m. kickoff).
Leipold said after KU’s 37-34 home loss to Cincinnati on Saturday that the opportunity to perform on the road can help foster an “us-against-the-world mentality” among the Jayhawks.
“I feel like we’re ready to get back to it and get ready for the next opponent,” said wide receiver Emmanuel Henderson Jr., who racked up 214 receiving yards in the loss.
“One thing about when you go on the road, many times it’s really the guys in that locker room (are) all you got,” Leipold added. “… You really got to bond together, and sometimes going on the road in these situations, especially a night game, you got a chance that you’re going to be around each other for a long time in there. You got a chance to bond as a team and do some things.”
UCF, meanwhile, will enjoy the benefits of a return home to Orlando after a 34-20 loss at Kansas State on Saturday, and the opportunity to experience its first Saturday night game this year at the Bounce House — so named because it physically shakes when fans jump in sync.
“I’m just looking forward to everybody coming here, back home after the loss, and just getting together and just bringing that energy,” UCF linebacker Lewis Carter told reporters on Monday. “Even though we lost the game, it’s a new week, new team, and we’re back here at home (for) Big 12 Conference play, so I’m looking for us to go out there and play a strong game, good game.”
