Lance Leipold is entering a make-or-break year in Lawrence. Here’s our First Look at the Kansas Jayhawks.

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We’re on the home stretch of our look at all 12 opponents on WVU’s 2026 schedule. Here’s our First Look at Kansas.

Game Vitals

When: Saturday, November 14, 2026

Where: Milan Puskar Stadium, Morgantown, West Virginia

Series Record: WVU leads the all-time series 11-3. The Mountaineers have won eight of the last nine, but Kansas beat them in overtime in Morgantown in 2022 and won 41-10 in Lawrence last September.

2025 Record: 5-7 (3-6 Big 12)

Head Coach: Lance Leipold (6th season)

Preview

Lance Leipold led Kansas to a nine-win season and a bowl win in 2023 — the program’s best season in over a decade — and has gone 5-7 twice since. The natives are starting to get restless in Lawrence and season six could very well be his last.

The Jayhawks’ biggest move of the offseason didn’t come via the transfer portal, but Andy Kotelnicki returning to Lawrence. Kotelnicki coordinated Kansas’ offense through their nine-win season before spending two seasons at Penn State, helping the Nittany Lions reach the College Football Playoff twice, and is back in Lawrence as associate head coach. His 2023 Jayhawks offense ranked seventh nationally in yards per completion and eighth in yards per play. The roster he’s working with this season isn’t on par with that 2023 version, but Kotelnicki has a history of getting more production out of a group than the raw talent would suggest.

The backfield is where the Jayhawks offense has a chance to be something. Big 12 journeyman Dylan Edwards has never had a full season as a feature back, but his talent has never been a question. Edwards scored four touchdowns in his first college game for Colorado against TCU and had 223 yards and three scores in the 2024 Guaranteed Rate Bowl with Kansas State. Now he’s in Lawrence with Kotelnicki designing an offense around him. He’ll share the backfield with Yasin Willis, who led Syracuse in rushing last season despite only playing in nine games, and Jalen Dupree, who did the same at Colorado State.

The quarterback situation is up in the air going into fall camp. Cole Ballard, a former walk-on whose father Chris is the GM of the Indianapolis Colts, is reportedly the frontrunner. He played in eight games last season and has the most experience of the three candidates. Isaiah Marshall is the guy a lot of people want to see start. He only played in a few specialized packages last season, finishing just 3-of-3 passing for 28 yards but showed off his wheels with 15 carries for 160 yards. Chase Jenkins transferred in from Rice, where he completed 69.2 percent of his passes and ran for 513 yards and five touchdowns in 2025, but he got hurt early in spring and fell behind in the competition. Leipold has said he doesn’t plan to name a starter before the season, which means one of these guys has to separate himself in camp.

The offensive line is also a giant question mark. Calvin Clements graded out at 37.8 on Pro Football Focus at left tackle last season across 708 snaps. Amir Herring will anchor at guard and gives the left side something to build around if Clements improves. The rest of the line unresolved battles at center, right guard, and right tackle when spring ended.

Nik McMillan, a Buffalo transfer who caught 62 passes for 981 yards last season, is the primary receiver. Cam Pickett dealt with an injury in the first half of 2025 but the coaching staff thinks his best football is ahead of him. Kotelnicki likes his receiving tight ends — Tyler Warren finished with 104 catches for 1,233 yards and a Mackey Award in Kotelnicki’s first season in Happy Valley — and he has four options in Jailen Butler, Carter Moses, Carson Bruhn, and Leyton Cure to work with in Lawrence.

Defensively, Trey Lathan is the name that matters most. The former Mountaineer led Kansas with 86 tackles, playing on 87% of the Jayhawks’ defensive snaps. Lathan announced his intention to enter the transfer portal on New Year’s Day, but withdrew two weeks later without ever formally appearing in it. Up front, Leroy Harris III is back after leading the Jayhawks with 4.5 sacks and eight pass breakups on less than 400 snaps in 2025. The secondary is where the team has the most to prove after not one Jayhawks cornerback intercepted a pass last season. Jalen Todd was the most reliable piece, and he’s back alongside Austin Alexander, Syeed Gibbs and Jahlil Hurley but the unit as a whole was passive in ways that cost them last season.

Vegas has Kansas at 5.5 wins, and ESPN’s SP+ ranks them 57th nationally. The books see a team that will be battling for bowl eligibility, which probably leads to Leipold battling for his job in year six

Way Too Early Prediction

Kansas has a legitimately talented backfield, Kotelnicki’s system tends to get more out of a roster than you’d expect, and the defense has the returning experience to be better than they were in 2025. But an unresolved quarterback situation, an offensive line that has real questions, and a secondary that was unable to make plays when it counted makes me feel pretty good about this one.

West Virginia 38, Kansas 17
Projected record through Week 11: 6-4 (4-3 Big 12)

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