LONDON — Kansas coach Lance Leipold was a graduate assistant at Wisconsin in 1993 when the Badgers played in the Coca-Cola Classic in Tokyo.
They won, rather decisively in fact, which is why Leipold knows firsthand that the memories of playing in such a unique game take on an even greater value when the outcome goes your way.
“(That) is when you really get to think about what you did, and something that you talk about with your friends and teammates for a lifetime,” Leipold said. “And that’s partially what I’m hoping for.”
Leipold’s Jayhawks have a chance to be the first FBS program to win a game in the United Kingdom when they take on Arizona State at Wembley Stadium in the Union Jack Classic on Saturday.
“I think even though we have so many things going on in college athletics, that we should not take away experiences such as this if they’re afforded to you, and try to make the most of it,” Leipold said. “Like I said, I think it’s something that we’re looking forward to.”
This league opener will be the second meeting between the Jayhawks and Sun Devils, after KU lost a heartbreaker at Mountain America Stadium in 2024. The Jayhawks gave up this home game, during a year when David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium is under construction and operating at reduced capacity, in part to take advantage of the unique opportunities for exposure and cultural exchange presented by the inaugural Union Jack Classic — which will also host Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” — and to receive $2.7 million for participating, as the Journal-World has reported.
That 2024 ASU team ultimately won the Big 12 title and reached the College Football Playoff. For KU coach Lance Leipold, that season is evidence in and of itself that ASU’s Kenny Dillingham is “one of the best coaches in the country.”
His team took a step back in 2025 but still finished 8-5 on the year with a loss in the Sun Bowl. This season, the Sun Devils are 1-1 after a 48-20 loss to No. 9 Texas A&M that was substantially closer than the final score indicated.
“They’re very talented,” Leipold said. “Very similar to us, second-half turnovers, especially, for them it was in the fourth quarter. They played toe to toe with them. You look at the stat line, they outplayed them in a lot of areas and played extremely well.”
ASU at one point had the ball down 24-20 late in the third quarter. But three giveaways, including two interceptions by quarterback Cutter Boley, in the fourth allowed the Aggies to pull away.
Boley is a Kentucky transfer who won the Sun Devils’ starting job in training camp. He is a third-year player who has thrown for eight touchdowns and those two picks on the season after starting most of 2025 for the Wildcats as a redshirt freshman.
ASU has given him some potent weapons to work with: “As you watch them, they’re pretty dynamic offensively,” Leipold said. The transfer duo of receivers Reed Harris (Boston College) and Omarion Miller (Colorado, a preseason all-conference selection) currently accounts for 32 of the Sun Devils’ 47 completed passes on the year. The primary running back this season is Kyson Brown, a senior who had 13 carries for 66 yards against A&M.
The most familiar name to KU fans on the other side of the ball will be safety Lyrik Rawls, who spent a year as a starter for the Jayhawks and has become an immediate leader at ASU. He was by far the Sun Devils’ highest-graded defensive player in the loss to the Aggies, in large part because he intercepted a pass to open the second half. Rawls is no stranger to playing against former teams, as he already took on Oklahoma State when he was at KU.
Linebacker Owen Long led the NCAA in tackles at Colorado State last season, and defensive tackle C.J. Fite was a preseason all-conference selection.
KANSAS JAYHAWKS (1-1) VS. ARIZONA STATE SUN DEVILS (1-1)
• Wembley Stadium, London, 11 a.m. Central time
• Broadcast: FS1
• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9)
• Betting line: ASU -5.5; over/under 50.5
• Series history: ASU leads 1-0
KEEP AN EYE OUT
1. Meet the press: One of the most popular talking points from the second half of the 2025 KU football season has returned to the discourse. After it was all too easy for Missouri quarterback Austin Simmons to go 19-for-29 for 292 yards and three touchdowns in defeating KU, fans, coaches and players alike have returned to discussing the amount of cushion Jayhawk defensive backs are giving wide receivers on the line of scrimmage. Missouri’s offensive line did a decent job against KU’s front, but the bigger problem for the Jayhawks was how quickly Simmons was able to find his targets, which were never covered very closely. Defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald asserted that he is telling his charges that they are talented enough to press and encouraging them to do so. Safety Corey Gordon said that the defensive backs need to make opposing quarterbacks “throw shots over our head” and then adjust accordingly. Time will tell how that goes against ASU, with as much talent as it has in the passing game.
2. Two dimensions: For a variety of reasons — general concern about running against Missouri’s front, poor down-and-distance situations and then second-half game state — KU did not give the ball to running back Dylan Edwards and Yasin Willis nearly as much as it would have liked in its loss to the Tigers. Associate head coach Andy Kotelnicki said the Jayhawks didn’t do a good enough job moving them upfront. While Missouri might feature one of the best defensive lines KU will face all season, the Jayhawks will have to prove they can create more “surge” on the line, as center Kasen Carpenter put it, against a unit headlined by Fite.
3. The most special teams: Three members of the KU special teams unit have connections to the United Kingdom. Kicker Martin Connington’s father is English, and a side of his family originates from York, England; he said this week that he will carry the Union Jack out onto the field ahead of Saturday’s game. Punter Matt Gill, who is from Australia and made his American football debut in the loss to Missouri, also has an English father, while his backup Ben Shipley is from England, although comes to KU from Houston. All three have UK citizenship, according to KU’s game notes.
SPOTLIGHT ON…
Leroy Harris III: The junior defensive end followed up his four-tackle-for-loss performance in the season opener with a brilliant game against Missouri in which he forced a fumble, batted down a pass and most importantly blocked a field goal that was returned for a touchdown. The former Chattanooga transfer will undoubtedly begin to receive more attention from opposing offensive lines, but how well will they handle Harris? ASU tackles Luke Baklenko and Jalen Klemm will have their work cut out for them, and anything Harris can do to bother Boley will take some of the burden off KU’s embattled cornerbacks on the back end.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
326: Receiving yards through two games with the Sun Devils for Reed Harris, who ranks fourth in the FBS in that category; he also has already scored four touchdowns.
283: The number of people who made the trip from Topeka to London as part of KU’s travel party, including 137 staffers, 56 members of the band and cheer squad, as well as 90 players; 49 of those players had to get passports for the first time.
3.8: KU’s yards-per-play average in its loss to Missouri.
PREDICTION
ASU wins 31-28. At the risk of being repetitive, this might not be the right game for KU’s cornerbacks to start going hyper-aggressive, with Harris and Miller on the other side. Meanwhile, on offense, it’s not clear yet whether the Jayhawks will get a consistent enough level of quarterback play to win this sort of matchup. There isn’t much separating these two teams in terms of talent, but ASU feels more fully formed at this early stage of the year.
