If you’ve followed the Kansas Jayhawks football team this season, you would know how disappointing it is to see a “6” in the loss column. You would also know that they have been playing as good as anyone in the conference over the past month. After a 2-6 start to the season, Kansas finds themselves just one win away from making their third straight bowl game. Standing in their way is another formidable foe, the Baylor Bears.
Kansas Jayhawks vs. Baylor Bears football preview
What may be working in the Jayhawks’ favor is what’s at stake for these two teams. Obviously, Kansas is playing for bowl eligibility. While it’s far short of their preseason hopes, a third straight bowl appearance (coupled with four straight wins to end the season) could go a long way with recruiting. While no expert, I would guess that a 6-6 record with a bowl appearance looks better than 5-7 with no bowl appearance.
On the other hand, Baylor doesn’t have nearly as much on the line. With seven wins, they have already secured a bowl game appearance. However, due to tiebreakers, they have no way of making the Big 12 Championship. I do still think they will have some fire, given it is their senior day.
This group of seniors for the Bears were freshmen on the Big 12 winning team back in 2021, so I’m sure they will want to go out on a high note. Plus, an 8-4 record will likely yield a significantly better bowl game than a 7-5 record, especially if they get some help and rise in the conference standings in the final week.
Key Players for Baylor
Offensively, the Bears are pretty well balanced. Sawyer Robertson has been a steady passer, racking up five games with three or more touchdown passes. However, he is coming off of his worst performance of the season, a three interception game against Houston.
Meanwhile on the ground, Baylor is led by Bryson Washington. Washington has surpassed 100 rushing yards in four of his last five games, including a 196 yard, three touchdown outburst against TCU.
The Bears don’t have a dominant receiver, but they do have six players with more than 200 yards and eight different players with a receiving touchdown. They are just about middle of the pack in the conference in passing and rushing yards, but third in points per game. They find a way put points on the board despite an average offense.
Their defensive is more of the same, having no dominant players but a bunch of impact players. Six different Bears have multiple sacks on the season, while nine have at least one interception. Just like their offense, they are near the middle of the conference in passing and rushing yards allowed. They don’t have an exploitable hole on either side of the ball, so it will take a balanced effort from the Jayhawks to pull out a win.
Key Players for Kansas
For the Jayhawks offense, they are coming off of their best performance of the season. Of their eight drives, seven of them ended in points. The one drive that didn’t was a 10-play, 53-yard drive that ended the game.
The star of the show was Devin Neal, who put up 287 total yards and four touchdowns in his final home game as a Jayhawk. Jalon Daniels wasn’t asked to do too much (thanks to the dominant rushing performance), but still put up 261 total yards and added another score.
Defensively, it was the usual suspects as well. Cornell Wheeler led the team with nine tackles. Meanwhile, Cobee Bryant led the secondary with two passes defensed.
There weren’t a ton of standout performances by the defense because Kansas had the ball for over 40 minutes of gametime. It’s tough to put up stats when your offense only allows you to be on the field for a third of the game, but I’m sure they don’t mind.
To say this game is for all the marbles is a bit of a stretch. Baylor doesn’t have anything major to play for. However, there are a significant amount of marbles in play for the Jayhawks. Making a bowl game is virtually a given for some teams, but it is a major milestone for the Kansas Jayhawks football program.
