(AP) – The steel beams towering around the Anderson Family Football Complex, which houses Kansas City’s No. 22 affiliate, and the hum of construction workers in hard hats have made the start of the season anything but normal for the Jayhawks.
That will be underscored Thursday night when they travel down Interstate 70 to Children’s Mercy Park to play Lindenwood, the first of two non-conference games the Jayhawks will play at the home of Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City.
Still, it makes sense that Kansas is in the process of rebuilding its stadium from the ground up, because that’s exactly what Lance Leipold has done with the program since he was hired as coach three seasons ago. What was once a downtrodden laughingstock has become a force in the revamped Big 12 with legitimate ambitions to play in the College Football Playoff.
With quarterback Jalon Daniels healthy again, running back Devin Neal aiming for the school’s rushing record and all of their top wideout backs available, the Jayhawks have plenty of reasons to believe they can build on a nine-win season that ended with a bowl victory over UNLV.
“I really like this football team. I like their maturity. I like the way they approach camp,” Leipold said. “They handled all the things we had to ask of them on the (construction) project well. I think it gave them a workmanlike attitude, a professional way of doing things on a day-to-day basis.”
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They have only recently been able to use their football complex again. Their daily training routine has been interrupted. And in addition to the games at Children’s Mercy Park, the Jayhawks will play four home conference games at Arrowhead Stadium.
Yes, for just four days, Kansas will call Missouri home.
But first up is Lindenwood, a Championship Subdivision team from – coincidentally – Missouri that only recently made the jump to this level. The Lions have never played a Bowl Subdivision opponent.
“You can’t spend the whole summer and the whole fall camp just giving hooray speeches and telling David versus Goliath stories,” Lindenwood coach Jed Stugart said. “You have to know that those are irrelevant. You have to play.”
Daniels is back
A back injury limited Daniels to only three games for the Jayhawks last season. But the dual-threat star made it through fall training camp without any issues and will be ready for the opening game. In the games he played last year, Daniels completed nearly 75% of his throws for 705 yards, with five touchdown passes and just one interception.
Catch me if you can
Kansas returns its top four wide receivers in Lawrence Arnold, Luke Grimm, Quentin Skinner and Trevor Wilson, a rarity in the transfer portal era. The quartet combined to catch 117 passes for 2,119 yards and 16 touchdowns. That includes their bowl game, where Arnold caught six passes for 132 yards and Grimm caught four for 160 yards.
Record clock
Neal has deferred the NFL Draft for another season with the Jayhawks, and now the local hero has his sights set on the school’s career rushing record. Neal has 3,077 yards and needs just 765 yards to reach the mark set by June Henley in 1996.
Have the say
After losing offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki to Penn State, the Jayhawks hired Jeff Grimes as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. He has coached at several prestigious schools, including Auburn, LSU and Baylor.
Look at the lions
Stugart built Sioux Falls into an NAIA power before taking it to Division II and making the playoffs, so he has plenty of experience taking programs to new levels. But the jump to Division I was rough for Lindenwood, which won just three games and finished last in the Big South–OVC Football Association last season.
“I think this year we feel like we’re a stronger team,” Stugart said. “They’re more mindful of their own business, where last year we felt like we had to kind of guide them.”
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