The 2025 season is a big one for the Kansas Jayhawks. After a disappointing 2024, this year could really shift the tides of the program’s future. If they return to bowl eligibility, they will prove that they’re serious about football in Lawrence. If they have another down year and miss a bowl game for a second straight season, questions may start to surface. The first test for this all-important season comes this weekend, as Kansas opens their season against the Fresno State Bulldogs in Week 0.
Kansas Jayhawks vs. Fresno State Bulldogs: History and Excerpts
This is the first ever meeting between Kansas and Fresno State on the football field. Therefore, there isn’t any historical data to give that could shed even the slightest bit of light on this matchup. How about some team historical stats instead?
Fresno State leads Kansas as a program in all-time wins, win percentage, conference championships, bowl games, and bowl game record. The Jayhawks, however, lead in Consensus All-Americans, NFL Draft picks, and first round picks. They have also nearly doubled the Bulldogs in time spent in the AP Poll.
Like I said, all of that means absolutely nothing in terms of how this weekend’s game will go. However, at least now you have a leg up if you happen to find yourself in a Kansas and Fresno State based trivia competition. You’re welcome.
Key Players For Kansas
The Jayhawk offense is led by fifth-year senior Jalon Daniels. Daniels is hoping to finally put together a healthy season at the level of play Kansas fans have seen from him on multiple occasions. He is joined in the backfield by Daniel Hishaw Jr., who did his time as Devin Neal‘s backup and is finally ready to take over the reins as the lead back.
The receiving corps took a big hit with the departing seniors last year. However, there are some players to be excited about that joined in the offseason. Be on the lookout for Emmanuel Henderson, Cam Pickett, and Levi Wentz, all of whom transferred in for this season. Up front, the Jayhawks are led by preseason First Team All-Big 12 selection Bryce Foster, as well as two other seniors on the offensive line.
Defensively, Dean Miller is the biggest returning name. He led the team in sacks in 2024 and is looking to build on that in 2025.
The linebacker group is absolutely loaded with talent behind him. According to the Jayhawks’ first official depth chart, Joseph Sipp Jr. is projected to be a backup linebacker. To get an idea of how crazy that is, Sipp had 152 tackles and seven sacks over the past two seasons, and was a First Team All-MAC selection in 2024.
The secondary, however, is full of young players with less experience and older players who are new to the program. It appears as if the young guys will get the first crack, as sophomore Jalen Todd and redshirt freshman Austin Alexander were listed as the starters on the depth chart.
Key Players For Fresno State
The Bulldog offense will be spearheaded by the son of one of the most proficient quarterbacks in the history of the sport. E.J. Warner, son of NFL Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, transferred in after two seasons at Temple and one season at Rice. While he doesn’t have eye-popping numbers (8800 passing yards and 58 passing touchdowns across 32 games), he does bring plenty of experience to a team that is severely lacking it.
The running back room is in tact from last year, but that isn’t necessarily a huge boost. Their top two backs combined to rush for less than 1000 yards and didn’t provide much in the passing game. Speaking of which, their pass-catchers are completely depleted from last year.
Fresno State’s top two returning pass game threats (aside from the running backs) had a combined 26 catches for 242 yards. They brought in a handful of options in the transfer portal and freshman class, but they bring virtually nothing in terms of production at the Division I level.
On the other side of the ball, eight of their top 10 tacklers from 2024 are no longer on the roster. On top of that, they return just one of their starting defensive backs. The Bulldogs did bring in some solid transfer portal players, but none of them appear to be immediate difference makers.
Outside of Warner, their top two transfer additions are defensive players, but they are just three star athletes. Not that they can’t be solid players, but they just don’t jump off the page as game-wrecking talents.
Keys For A Jayhawk Win
The biggest thing for Kansas in the season opener, as well as the entire season, is taking care of the football. They lost the turnover battle in four of their seven losses last season, and three of those games were decided by a total of 11 points. If they take care of the ball a little better in 2025, Kansas should be in an even better position to win games.
The Jayhawks also need to focus on taking this season one game at a time. Not that this is necessarily a trap game with FCS Wagner next on the schedule. However, the schedule as a whole has a lot of important games that they shouldn’t look ahead to.
Kansas plays Missouri, their most hated rival, for the first time in over a decade in Week 2. That could mean the team may try to coast until then, to make sure they’re at 100-percent for that game. While that would likely work against Wagner, I’m not sure they can do that with Fresno State (at least, not without surviving an unnecessary scare).
If Kansas takes care of the ball and takes Fresno State seriously, they should be able to take care of business and roll to a fairly easy win in Week 0.
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Kyle Jones
Kyle joined The League Winners in May of 2024 and is currently covering the Kansas Jayhawks, while also dabbling in the Kansas City Chiefs. He is a born and raised Chiefs and Jayhawks fan, as well as the Royals. When he's not watching and writing about sports, Kyle enjoys reading, playing video games, and spending time with his wife and dog.