While Kansas football wins might still be tough to come by, better effort, execution in opener could be a sign of better days ahead

By Matt Tait     Aug 31, 2021

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Kansas safety Kenny Logan Jr. talks with media members during interview on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021 at the Indoor Practice Facility.

It’s game week for the Kansas football program, and we’ll know soon enough whether things really do look and feel different for the Jayhawks under first-year head coach Lance Leipold.

Up to this point, they certainly have. But hearing tales about things being done differently from one coach to the next is a tired exercise for KU fans.

They want to see it. And this team, with its new coaching staff and combination of new and returning players, has an opportunity to show Jayhawk Nation what it has been longing to see for more than a decade now.

The Jayhawks are a little more than a two-touchdown favorite against visiting South Dakota on Friday night. So it’s more than just the 100 or so players inside the Kansas locker room who believe that this team will start the 2021 season on a high note.

But it has to be about more than just winning the game.

Believe it or not, the Jayhawks are actually 7-4 in their last 11 season openers. But only once (2011) did a win in the opener lead to a 2-0 start.

And let’s not even talk about what season-opening losses to Coastal Carolina (2020), Nicholls (2018), South Dakota State (2015) and North Dakota State (2010) did to the hope for those seasons.

You can’t build momentum without getting off to a good start. And even in many of the games they won in the last 11 season openers, there were enough concerns that showed on game night that left doubt and leveled confidence heading into Week 2.

So, what constitutes a good start, one that might actually make fans feel like things are different with this program?

A 31-7 victory? You bet. Scoring 50-plus points? Maybe. Playing a clean game free of self-inflicted mistakes and miscues? Absolutely.

While those are the types of things both Jayhawk fans and Leipold and his staff will be watching for on Friday night, the players themselves will be focused on one thing and one thing only — doing their jobs.

If that sounds a little too Bill Belichickian for your liking, I understand. But, boy, that sure would be a good mantra for this program to follow as it officially opens up another try at rebuilding.

The players know that. This coaching staff has lived it. And, as the Jayhawks prepare to move to 1-0 for just the fourth time since 2015, there appears to be some synergy at work that hasn’t always been there in the past.

Junior safety Kenny Logan, who has charisma for days and is right at home in his role as one of the team leaders, says he can’t wait to get back out there in front of the fans on Friday night. But it’s not because of the energy and the excitement that he hopes will fill the stands. Instead, he wants to show them that this team is worth watching.

Senior linebacker Kyron Johnson is so motivated to do things differently during his last go around in college football that he has reverted to things he hasn’t done since his high school days — more work before and after practices, with or without his teammates.

That’s how much he wants this coaching staff to succeed and to be a small part of the reason it does.

There are dozens of other stories of buy-in with this bunch, aided in no small part by the addition of former Buffalo coaches and players who already have been to battle with Leipold in the past.

The tough schedule and the fact that this version of KU’s rebuilding adventure is still just starting sounds like a 2-10 season to me. But there should be enough on display — perhaps as soon as Friday night — to make you think that better records are ahead under Leipold.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.