PRESEASON PREVIEW: CROSSROADS FOR JAYHAWK FOOTBALL
Ajay Allen - August 25, 2026
Kansas football enters the 2026 season at a crossroads.
The Jayhawks have already proven under Lance Leipold that winning football can return to Lawrence. They reached consecutive bowl games in 2022 and 2023, won nine games for the first time since 2007 and produced stars such as Jalon Daniels, Devin Neal and Cobee Bryant. The next challenge is proving that the program can sustain that success after the players who led its revival have moved on.
Following back to back 5-7 seasons, Kansas will look noticeably different in 2026. Daniels is gone after accounting for 2,531 passing yards and 22 touchdowns last season. The offense is searching for a new quarterback, the running back room has been rebuilt and more than 30 transfers have arrived to reshape the roster. Kansas has plenty of questions, but it also has enough talent to make the answers interesting.
The biggest addition is running back Dylan Edwards, a former Kansas State Wildcat and Colorado Buffalo who now returns to his home state for the third stop of his college career. Edwards was one of the country’s most coveted running backs coming out of Derby High School. His college career has included flashes of the speed and receiving ability that made him a national recruit, but he has yet to become a full time centerpiece. Through three seasons, he has accumulated more than 1,000 rushing yards while consistently showing that he can be dangerous in open space.
Kansas offers him an opportunity to become something more than a change of pace player.
Edwards will not have to carry the backfield alone. Syracuse transfer Yasin Willis gives Kansas a powerful 6-foot-1, 23 -pound option between the tackles, while Colorado State transfer Jalen Dupree adds another productive runner to the rotation. Edwards and Willis have both been named to the preseason Doak Walker Award watch list.
The result could be one of the deepest and most varied running back rooms in the Big 12. Edwards supplies the electricity, Willis brings the power and Dupree gives Kansas another dependable option capable of handling meaningful carries.
No position will define Kansas’ season more than quarterback.
Cole Ballard has spent the past three years developing behind Daniels. Now a redshirt junior, he enters the most important competition of his college career. Ballard is no longer the inexperienced walk on who was forced into action as a freshman in 2023. He has appeared in 15 games over the past three seasons and has thrown for 445 career yards with three touchdowns. Those numbers are modest, but his time in the program matters. He understands the personnel, the expectations and much of the offensive structure Kansas wants to restore.
His development represents a different kind of roster building. While Kansas has aggressively used the transfer portal, Ballard has remained in Lawrence and grown within the program. The 2026 season could be his coming of age moment, but the starting job will not be handed to him.
Ballard is competing with redshirt sophomore Isaiah Marshall and Rice transfer Chase Jenkins. Marshall offers athletic upside despite having attempted only three passes last season. Jenkins brings the most recent production, having completed 69.2 percent of his passes for 1,025 yards and nine touchdowns at Rice in 2025. He also rushed for 531 yards and five scores.
Kansas’ most important offseason addition may not wear a uniform. Kotelnicki is back in Lawrence as associate head coach after spending two seasons at Penn State. During his first stint with Kansas, his creativity helped turn the Jayhawks into one of the country’s most entertaining offenses. The 2023 team averaged 35.3 points and more than 440 yards per game while winning nine games.
His return gives Kansas a familiar identity at a moment when the offense is replacing its quarterback and several established contributors. Kotelnicki will work alongside passing game coordinator Jim Zebrowski and co-offensive coordinator Matt Lubick. The arrangement gives Kansas multiple experienced offensive minds, but the objective should be clear: restore the unpredictability that made the Jayhawks so difficult to defend during their rise.
Edwards appears built for that system. So does Jenkins if he wins the quarterback job. Even Ballard, who may not possess the same explosiveness, could benefit from an offense that creates defined reads and manufactures favorable matchups.
Kansas must also rebuild its receiving hierarchy. Cam Pickett and Keaton Kubecka provide some continuity, but the Jayhawks will lean heavily on new arrivals. Buffalo transfer Nik McMillan is expected to compete for the No. 1 receiver role, while Middle Tennessee transfer Nahzae Cox adds another experienced option on the outside.
Kubecka is one of the returning players positioned for a larger role after waiting behind more established receivers. Sophomore Tate Nagy could also become more involved after serving as Kansas’ primary punt returner during his freshman season.
Kansas opens the season against LIU before hosting Middle Tennessee, giving its new quarterback time to settle into the offense.
Missouri returns to Lawrence for another installment of the renewed Border War, followed by a trip to London to face Arizona State. Those two games could shape the direction of the entire season. Kansas also faces a Big 12 schedule featuring only three conference home games and five road contests.
That makes early stability critical. The Jayhawks cannot afford to spend half the season discovering their identity.
Bowl eligibility should be the minimum target. Kansas has enough offensive talent to reach six wins and potentially climb higher, but the margin is thin. The quarterback must develop quickly, the offensive line must hold together and the defense must become more disciplined against explosive plays.
Kansas does not enter 2026 with the established star power it had during the peak of the Daniels and Neal era. What it has instead is competition, depth and a coaching staff attempting to reconnect with the formula that originally changed the program.
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