Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - CRITICAL YEAR: Is Beating Kansas State KEY For Lance Leipold & the Jayhawks for a Successful 2026?

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

Kansas State eyes a new era under Colin Klein as win total expectations soar—can the Wildcats reload and maintain their Big 12 contender status despite key roster changes? Kansas Jayhawks, meanwhile, face pressure as questions swirl around Lance Leipold’s future and unresolved quarterback battles shape the narrative. The stakes for both programs intensify ahead of the Sunflower Showdown, with streaks, bowl eligibility, and in-state pride on the line. Derek Johnson and Christian Rauh break down Kansas State’s offensive transition led by Avery Johnson, the impact of Jordan Peterson’s arrival as defensive coordinator, and the uncertainty surrounding Kansas’s post-Jalon Daniels offense. Hot seat rumors, schedule gauntlets, and pivotal matchups against Missouri and Utah set the stage for a potentially season-defining rivalry clash. Will Kansas finally snap their losing streak, or does Kansas State’s continuity prevail? Don’t miss this deep dive into the storylines electrifying Kansas football. Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel.Visithttps://FANDUEL.COMto get started now.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Sunflower Showdown is going to take a different look this season. New head coach for Kansas State and for Kansas, are they on the hot seat? Lance Lightbulb. Let's talk about it, Lockdown College Crossover. You are Locked on College Crossover. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day.

Yes, welcome on into a Lockdown College crossover, a Sunflower Showdown edition, Lockdown Kansas State. Lockdown Jayhawks, Derek Johnson, Christian Rout here. Let's get right to it. Thank you so much for making either one of our shows your first listen or second listen of the day, depending if you're listening as a bonus episode on today's episode. Let's get to it, Derek.

Let's start right from the jump. Let's do this episode, hot. Lance Lighthold. Last year, five and seven, just missed the bowl game. You can make the argument that if the Cincinnati situation would have been in a different way, maybe you would be six and six. Couldn't do it against the sunflower showdown, but regardless, we'll talk about it in different things. Is he on a hot seat this year?

Is he on the hot seat? I think a lot of fans would tell you, Yes, but I don't think he is. Now, obviously, if he goes like 0 and 12 or something, then like that, that would change the conversation. But realistically, if they win, you know, at least four games or whatever, I think there would be a lot of fans that would go, hey, three straight seasons without a bowl game.

Like, is it time to look for somebody else? I don't think it would happen. I don't know what the buyout drops do next year, but as of right now, the buyout is like $22.9 million. dollars and kansas i mean listen you see some of the cc schools and and penn state with james franklin like a big donor steps up but kansas is in a unique position right now where it's like you're not just trying to pay for you know basketball and football and nil and everything you're still paying for this new stadium that you're building right now right um that's something

that a lot of other schools don't have and that costs a lot of money kansas is also working on an indoor practice facility for baseball, which is going to cost like $15 million. So I don't think Kansas is in the right position right now that it would happen. I think it would have to be like an absolute disaster, like off the field stuff or like I said, like oh and 12, 1 and 11 to get into that conversation. To me, the make it or break a year would be 2027.

Okay. How much of a, should we give him leeway? And the reason I say that is before him, we know where this program was. And although that they, they are not where you want them to be, you know, competing for Big 12 championships, getting yourself at least bowl eligible year and year out. He has definitely raised that floor.

I think I can definitely say that for certain. Do we think we need to give him that type of leeway? Is that what you're saying this year is not the make it break it one for you? Well, I think if the money was in a different direction, then maybe it would be a different conversation. But yeah, I do think that's important to note. Like even as much as the last two years missing bowl games is hurt and obviously the late game losses, the close score losses, the game management questions, that has made it,

I think more of a question. But like, at the end of the day, you've won five games the last two years. And that is more than you won in any season prior to Mark Mangino, you know, and I get it. Like expectations change and Kansas fans are allowed to feel like they want more. And they should. They absolutely should want more, right? But it's also important to have realistic expectations, even if you're going to hope for more, if that kind of makes sense.

So the way that I kind of look at it is Lance Leipold's an older coach too. I think, I mean, who knows? For all we know, he retires at the end of this season. He retires at the end of 2027 and maybe a guy like Andy Codle, Nikki takes over the job or something like that. Like that's entirely possible too that this isn't even a conversation there. But I do think it is important to bring up that also whatever happens at the end here of the Lance Leipold tenure, regardless of how it goes,

It was still a home run higher. I mean, to go from where Kansas was to be winning bowl games, listen, I would like, you know, have them to made at least a bowl game one of the last two years, if not both years. I would have liked them to beat a rival. He hasn't beat K-State or Missouri yet in a season. But at the end of the day, it's still a home run from where this Kansas program was. It's just we'll see kind of how it ends.

A shocking potential retirement after a season inside the Big 12 inside the state of Kansas. Has that happened before? I mean, I don't know. Are you sure the way that can actually happen? You think that might happen? We just saw that happen with Kansas State and Chris Klyman. And Lance Leibold and Chris Climann are actually kind of buddy, buddy. Like they're close.

Like, I mean, I'm sure there was a lot of people on the K state side. I know this was like there's a lot of people on the KU side that kind of were not happy about that, how close they seem to kind of be, right? That they want it to be more animosity. So, you know, if Chris Klyman's enjoying his year off and doing fun things and Lance will probably reach out to him and be like, are you are you enjoying this not getting to coach football and if chris klyman's like now i'm getting the itch again maybe maybe it's you know what he needs to keep coaching or if he's like no i'm really enjoying you know getting see the grandkids more do this this and that uh then maybe lance libel's

like yeah i think i might want to do that too yeah imagine if they did the complete opposite found themselves coaching together somewhere and maybe the fcs or something that'd be absolutely hilarious not saying that's going to happen but there's always scenarios in the head one thing that is going to be a big change as well obviously colin the head coach of Kansas State. We'll talk about more of that later on in the next segment. I'm sure you have some questions and thoughts there. Let's stick on the Jayhawk side, though.

Your quarterback situation is going to look completely different in 2026. There's no Daniels. Daniels is no longer there for the first time in what, five years? So now it's six. Six, yeah, wrong direction. What's that look like? And how has that been this off season? I'm sure that's got to be a big narrative for you.

Yeah. And the thing is, like, nobody knows who's going to win the quarterback job. I mean, it feels like if I had to guess right now, Cole Ballard would be the guy that I would assume is going to be the starter. But it gets complicated because with Cole Ballard, he's the most experienced and seems to have, I don't know, maybe the highest floor knowing the system.

When you look at Isaiah Marshall, he is just an electric runner and he is somebody that I think KU fans want to see on the field. I'm actually like a big Chase Jenkins guy who they brought in as a transfer from Rice. I went back and watched some of his, you know, film of his games and was really impressive. and didn't think the stats totally spoke about what his game was.

But he was injured in spring ball. And so that puts him behind the eight ball for this competition. And I think as we're talking KUK State, like we did get to see Cole Ballard in a game against Kansas State. And it wasn't his best game. He had, I think he turned it over twice, although I want to say one of the interceptions was on a fourth down and long where he just had to kind of throw one up. And so that's not really against him. He did have an interception that was dropped. So maybe that, you know, filters out and just transfers with that.

Honestly, he did enough in that game to win the game. Like, I mean, if Trevor Wilson catches the punt, if Rich Miller catches the pick six that could have been had, like he wins the game as is. And I think his total QBR in the game was over 60, which is decent enough. So it'll be very interesting to you the quarterback is. I think one thing is for sure.

I would be surprised if whoever the quarterback is is able to be as productive as Jalen Daniels or Jason Bean were. I think this Kansas team is going to have to be about more than just the quarterback position. It's going to have to be about running the football. It's going to have to be about the defense. Can this be the best defensive lipled era? And what does former K-State Wildcat Dylan Edwards do, right? I mean, KU has a chance to turn him into something good in the Andy Kodal-Nicky offense, but like, is he going to be ready for a bulk of big carries? Is he going to, you know, stay with the team, right? Is last year enough to kind of humble him to get one good season from him,

similar to win like, you know, Terrell Owens went to the Philadelphia Eagles and had one good year, helps him go to the Super Bowl. I don't know. It'll be very interesting to see because right now they're, I would say the most question marks we've seen to Lance Leipoldera since maybe like the first or second year. I know there's a lot of drama surrounding Dylan Edwards. And of course, that's going to be a big story, especially when it comes game week between Kansas and Kansas State. But man, I mean, when he is healthy and he is able to take the bulk of the carry, he's one of the most electric running backs in college football. He really is, but the thing is we didn't get to see it enough.

We saw it in the Rape Bowl game against Ruckers, where he was almost, I think he was either over 200 yards total or just under it. He had one really solid game against UCF last season as well, and that was about it. If he has the opportunities to excel, then Kansas is in a really good spot, at least in the running back game for sure. You won't get a Dylan Edwards hater out of me when it comes to his playing type

if he's able to be healthy, no doubt about that for sure. That's going to be such an interesting narrative, though. There's no doubt about that. And I know the fans on each side are going to milk that as long as they possibly can. Let's talk the other side. Let's talk Kansas State as we come right back on this lockdown college crossover. But first, Derek, the biggest stage in the world soccer is here. And every match feels like the potential for a memorable moment.

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We're pretty respectful thing. The odds are sitting around plus 3,000. France seems like the favorite though here, Derek. Yeah, and the path got a little more difficult here with some recent results. But, hey, you can also get them plus 100 at Fanduel to make the quarterfinals. Ooh, that might be the play right there. Get down there one more step. And that's talking really respectful for the United States men's soccer team.

and hopefully they can make that happen. So from the opening whistle to the final kick, let there be goals on Fanduel. Visit Fanduel.com to get started now. Welcome back to this lockdown college crossover, lockdown Jayhawks, locked on Kansas State. Derek, I'm sure you have plenty of questions on what's going on with Colin Klein

and his Kansas State squad as we get ready for this season. FanDil has win total for Kansas State at eight and a half. And as much as I want to say, yeah, that's a sure thing. That's a high expectation for a first-year head coach. Yes, very high. it's funny because when you look at the win totals in the big 12 it's it's very much like I don't know it's just like everybody is really condensed in and packed in more than some of the other teams which I think at the end of the day is them just kind of shrug in their shoulders

sometimes and they're like I don't know you think you guys figure it out you bet on the over under wind totals but um you know when you look at this this first season I find it interesting because there were some key players that obviously graduated some others that transferred away and like do you think that that they retooled enough in the transfer portal with Colin Klein this first year. And do you think like, I don't know, like, is that going to be an adjustment for the current guys on the roster to getting to know his offense, even though he was with K State for so many years? Yeah, that's interesting. That's a really good fun way to look at it.

Let's talk offense first. One, of course, Avery Johnson's still there. And Talent Klein is the guy who recruited Avery Johnson. So there's a lot of optimistic viewpoints on how that's going to be. Can Avery Johnson finally reach that potential that a lot of folks think he can get to, maybe raise that completion percentage up, be Marcine as that dual threat quarterback under Colin Klein. If you compare to how he was with Marcel Reed at Texas A&M last year, I think you have a very good, you know, very good reason to be excited about what comes to

for Kansas State this season with him at the helm. But when you look at his weapons around, you know, Dylan Edwards taking over to Kansas, Jace Brown on the transfer portal now going to be with LSU and Lane Kiffin. He's going to be a broad receiver that plays on Sundays, no doubt. And then you have a lot of players leaving on the offensive line, mostly not for a portal, but because of eligibility reasons. Sam Heck, now part of the Carolina Panthers. I think that's my biggest concern is how the offensive line will adjust.

And if that doesn't work, then the rest of these weapons, of course, aren't going to excel. Avery Johnson's not going to have a step forward if the offensive line can't protect him. The running game is not going to excel, although Joe Jackson is back for another year. and what he did last year in the second half was certainly impressive. And there's not a true number one wide receiver on this roster. But I do think the entire wide receiver room, the floor lifted, if that makes more sense for you. Yeah. And you bring up an interesting point with the Marcel Reed stuff.

And we know Reed is very much a dual threat running quarterback. And we've talked before on the show about how when, when Avery Johnson is unlocked as a runner and runs the football more, like it makes Kansas State so much more difficult. Now, obviously, you know, you don't want. want to get him injured. You don't want to wear him down at different points. And so you kind of want to save some of those bullets. But do you think we're going to see him run the football more this year with a Colin Klein? I mean, when I think a Colin Klein at K State, I think of being a bell cow runner. And I don't think Avery Johnson is that style of runner. He's obviously faster, I would say. But do you think we see them run the quarterback more this year? I think they have to. I don't know if you remember last year,

but there was so many issues at the beginning of the season for Kansas State. And maybe it was, you know, I made the argument that it was because of the Dylan, Edward. injury at the beginning of the season that they didn't want to lose both of their, you know, their weapons in the backfield. So they started limiting Avery Johnson a lot. And Matt Wells was putting him kind of in like this different type of prototype that wasn't fit to Avery Johnson's mold. They were trying to make him more of a pocket guy, not run. They were focusing on him sliding even if it was before the sticks. And that just wasn't his game, at least from what we saw in years prior, you know, when he put five rushing touchdowns up on Texas Tech's freshman

the season kind of style. So I think you have to shift back to that. Look, Avery Johnson, if he wants to play at the next level, what he's done so far is not helping his case. I think if he wants to take that next step, he's got to do it this year. I know the five for five will potentially give him a second year, but I think now is the year to make it happen.

So I do think that they're going to run it a lot more with him. I think they are going to put the ball in his hands a lot more. And if they do, I think that truly does benefit Kansas State. I think they are the best. offense when he is just unleashed and able to do anything that he desires to do. Now, obviously, the Dylan Edwards thing for Kansas makes the game and the rivalry more interesting, but so does Jordan Peterson, the defensive coordinator now for Kansas State, who was very highly thought of in his time at Kansas.

Obviously, he goes to A&M, where he was with Colin Klein, now comes over to Kansas State. Does that feel like the, I don't know, like the unheralded, underrated, at least from a national perspective addition that the K State made this offseason. I think so. And I think it also is the most important hire for Colin Klein in his first year because Colin Klein is obviously known as an offensive guy, being the offensive coordinator, Kansas state, being the Heisman Trofer running up in 2012, you know, getting to the college football playoffs is the office coordinator for Texas, the A&M.

You know, I can spell out the resume. So having that defensive-minded coach on the other side of you is certainly important. For Peterson, I think he's done an outstanding job at. bringing in some good players and retaining good players. He kept Zayshan Rich at the corner spot, never left for the portal. Donovan McIntosh left for the portal for a few days, and that quickly came right back. So you're bringing both your starting corners back to this roster,

and that's a big important thing for Peterson because he's known for corners. And then you're already doing a good thing on the recruiting trail for 2027, bringing the top player in the state of Kansas for 2027 and Cooper Ochmont. So that's something to keep in mind as well. I think it's a very underrated hire. What I am concerned about, though, is how that defensive trenches will look. You lost a ton on the defensive front,

whether from eligibility or the transfer portal, a couple went to Indiana. You lost some for, I mean, it just ran out of eligibility. One's a coach now on the defensive line. So that is my biggest concern. If they can figure out the defensive front, I think they're in really good shape

because I think the secondary should be pretty good this year. Yeah. And when you're talking, what a successful season would be. I know it's easy to just base it off the wind total and be like, well, if they're over eight and a half wins, then that would be successful. But I don't know.

Like what does a successful season this year look like for Kansas State? Yeah, I mean, I've gone back and forth on this. And I'm glad we're bringing it up on this show because I've asked this to my everydayers, like if you go six and six, but you lose the Sunflower Showdown, is that a successful season? I don't think so. I don't think it is because you have that streak. It's Colin Klein's first season for the record, by the way.

right when Colin Klein was a player in his first year was the last time that Kansas actually won that game so like first year Colin Klein doesn't you know when you put it in the ties there don't give me help don't get me help the stars could possibly be aligning for you right so like if you're if you're 10 and two but one of those two losses is to Kansas is that a successful season like where do you draw that line if the sunflower showdown is a loss in your wind column and like I know it's not it shouldn't be seen as like the Super Bowl. on either of our schedules, but like it is a very important game. Yeah. For the fan base and for the state. Well, no, when I look like on the flip side of it, like for Kansas, if you told me they can go six and six and beat one of Missouri or Kansas or Kansas State, because we haven't seen KU beat either in the Lance Leipel there. If you told me six and six beat one of the two, I would gladly take it.

Now, that's different because KU's win total is five and a half. K state is more seen as one of the contenders in the big 12. But what if it's the same scenario, you get one of those wins, but you're five and sevens. you're not bowl eligible. Yeah. So like, would you rather if you're a Kansas fan go six and six,

but you lose the Missouri and K state or go five and seven, but beat K state for instance? Yeah. That's a great question. And honestly, I might take the five and seven just because, I mean, at this point,

the 17 straight hanging over their head is worse than if they miss a bowl game again. I mean, I think, yeah, breaking that street could be important than any other Birmingham bowl, right? Exactly. Exactly. from recruiting standpoint, local recruitment too.

And like, here's the deal. They got rid of the APR. So like five and seven teams can make bowl games now based on the conference picking them. So like KU's never had good APR scores. So they've never been one of those teams. And heck, they got invited to a bowl game last year and declined it too because so many teams said no. So yeah, give me the five and seven with the win over K state. I actually think that would be more beneficial for KU in a weird way.

I mean, that's interesting. But see, the flip side is because it's different when it's five and seven, six and six or it's like, oh, cool, we made a, you know, lower end bowl game, which, listen, I don't get CQ playing a lot of bowl games. So I'll take anything I can get. But like with the K state element, like here would be the comparison to that. Would you take Kansas State going 10 and 2 with a loss to KU, but 10 and 2 gives you a shot at playing for a big 12 title and therefore college football playoff appearance? Or would you take 8 and 4, but a win over Kansas?

Or maybe we say 9 and 3, but a win over Kansas because that's probably not good enough to make the big 12 title game. Me personally, and I can't speak for my everydayers, but me personally would take the ten and two and let the street go away. Because, I mean, again, although it's really important, I would certainly rather be seen as a college football playoff contender, a chance at Arlington in what could be seen as Colin Klein's first year, obviously, and potentially Avery Johnson's final. And I think that, even if you did lose that Sunflower Showdown, I think would trump the in-state recruiting needs that. you'd need to because you could say, well, we're a big 12 contender. Yeah, we might have lost that game, but we, uh, we're doing just fine. We found ourselves where we need to be. And that would certainly help the resume for Colin Klein. Not only could I take Texas A&M to the Calchrist as an

offensive coordinator, look who I can do it in year one at my alma mater. And it could easily erase any type of thoughts that of Colin Klein being called Scott Frost. Because that's in the, that's in that's there. People are thinking about it. I don't see. Hopefully that's the case, but it didn't work for them in Nebraska. I hope it doesn't work. I hope it does work for Colin Klein at Kansas State. Let's talk more about this the other side. Media days are coming up. What expectations are we looking for on that one? And let's look at this game a little bit closer as we finish up this one because both of our teams have a really tough opponent before the Sunflower Showdown. What does that mean? Let's talk about this next to wrap up this show, the Lockdown College Crossover.

Always fun, always fun having these chats, locked on college crossover, lockdown Jayhawks, locked on Kansas State. We don't do this enough. But every time we we do this, I usually get great comments saying that we need to do this more, which you would think you wouldn't like this. You'd think that you would get in the audio feeds and be like, why are we talking about the other team? Why are we doing this?

The other team in the state. But normally I get a lot of good comments when we have these conversations. So it's pretty fun. Media day is coming up, Derek, and just a couple weeks here. And, you know, Lance Light pulled, you're going to bring some players. Colin Klein, obviously going to bring some players completely different. I think. route of the road here for both of these coaches.

You got a first year coach that is going to be setting his expectations, and there's going to probably be some questions regarding that. I would not be surprised if the narrative for Lance Leipold, though, is more focused on where we started this show, thinking that he might be in some hot water. I mean, the schedule is not easy for KU. And that's going to make things more difficult there in fueling. kind of the conversation.

And like, I mean, you go from, you get Missouri in your second game of the season, then you're playing in London against Arizona State. You have a buy week the next week after that long travel, and then you play nine straight games. So the schedule doesn't do KU any favors here, whether it's the K-State game, whether it's just the full season for, you know,

trying to build together a bowl-level season. But, you know, when you look at media days upcoming, I do find it interesting that KU, doesn't have the quarterback going with him. So we don't get any tell for that. But when you look at it, it's a lot of guys that I would have expected to go. One of the guys that I wasn't sure on is Calvin Clemens, who had some ups and downs last year as a starting left tackle.

And that's going to be huge for KU this season. If he can man down that position and they can be a road grading team who has a strong offensive line, maybe they can, you know, kind of weather the storm in the schedule and and shake that potential heat off, right? and I do find it interesting in terms of, you know, we're having that conversation earlier with the potential heat there at the court, that the head coaching position.

And what would be more likely for Lance Leipold, would it be trying to get Kansas to go off to a bowl game and then ride off into the sunset or would it be, hey, you know, I went four and eight, five and seven. Like maybe it's just time for me to move on and give it off to somebody else. I do find that kind of an interesting storyline as well. But I don't know how much you'll get asked about that specifically.

I think there will be a lot of quarterback questions. he'll probably get tired of them and probably won't give much away. But yeah. I hope that if that is the case, if there is a point where you're thinking that it might be the final year for him, that you do get the first scenario where you can go six and six and kind of pull the Chris Clyman because I think there's still a lot of positive feelings towards Chris Clyman, although the season didn't go as expected and you still went six and six, you still were bowl eligible moving on and they moved on to super fast and went

to Colin Klein. you still have a lot of deep respect for Chris Clim, and I know the majority of the fan base does. I would love for that to happen for you over at KU when it comes to the White Pold, if you could at least leave as a bowl eligible and then move on if that was the case, instead of going four and eight

and have that sour taste in their mouth. As also, by the way, as someone who just dealt with this last year, international travel to beginning of season is not fun. Don't recommend it. So hopefully that doesn't go hard against you, doing it against the conference rival too. I mean, that was terrible.

And right after you play, yeah, right after you play Missouri. It's not even like it's week zero where you have all this time to like get ready. I think you got it worse. Yeah, I think you got it worse because not you don't get the prep all off season for a international trip. You are already two games deep. You're already going to be beat up. You're playing an SEC opponent. You're in week two.

Like, yeah, I think you have it worse than what Kansas State and Iowa State did in Dublin, week zero. And then, you know, week five, you go and travel to Utah before you put. play the Sunflower Showdown. Kansas State has Houston, both really two tough games before the Sunflower Showdown takes up. I think if anything, I think we are going to certainly know what both teams are by the time we get that.

I think the identities will certainly be there. I don't think we'll be talking about first year head coach Colin Klein. I don't think we'll be talking about light pulled about, you know, what will he be this season. We will know about both sides of this team. Yeah. And it's just really tough when you have to go. I mean, playing at, you.

Utah, which is in altitude too. So now you're having to worry about that come down. Utah's usually a very physical team. I mean, we'll see what they are this year with a new head coach, one who's ranked higher than Colin Klein, right? Now, wink, wink, nod at that. But yeah,

that's brutal, right? Like, you would have, I mean, it's interesting because last year, both teams had a buy coming into the game. And I mean, it's hard to say it didn't help K State more than it did KU. Like,

clearly they did a better job preparing for the game with the extra week off with how that beat down went. So I don't know, maybe that's actually a good thing that both teams are coming off tough games because we saw both teams coming off rest last year and it didn't work for KU. So maybe they need it to be completely opposite this time. I'm crazy. I don't think the expectations about them being a nine win team is still wild to me. But I do think that Kansas State can get off to a really hot start. When you look at their schedule, I think their non-conference is very doable.

They obviously have a bone to pick with last year's non-conference slate because they struggled. But I think they can go three and no a non-conference. I like their Big 12 road opener, Big 12 opener against Cincinnati. Houston's a tough one for me. I think they could be four and one when they get to the Sunflower Showdown. On the flip side, though, KU, what would you see as a successful first five games before this game? I mean, they're going to be underdogs to Missouri. Even though it's a home game, they're going to be dogs there.

And then you look at the Utah game, like, I don't know, probably double-digit dogs. If Utah's as good as I think they'll be, I don't know. Again, it's tough with the new coach. So you're looking at at least two losses. and then the Arizona State game is a coin flip game, right? Overseas playing Arizona State. I don't know how great they'll be this year. Like I trust their head coach, but Sam Levitt no longer there.

Like we don't exactly know. So Kansas is either going to be probably two and three or three and two coming into that game. And you're playing on the road. Like you said, K State could have a hot start. They can be ranked at that point in time. Like I'd imagine K State will be favored around a touchdown. Yeah, I could see that. I could see that happening being the case for sure.

Man, I mean, four and one versus three and two, if that's how we entered the middle of the season and the Sunflower Showdown, that's going to be a very pivotal game. Yeah, but I mean, to the flip side of what we've kind of been talking about today, if they're two and three, if they lost the Arizona State game too, and then KU loses to K State again. And they're now two and four with already two losses to both your rivals. There's the hot seat for you, right? 100%. 100%. So maybe this might be the final Sunflower Showdown with. this exact coaching lineup. Exciting. Exciting stuff.

We're going to definitely break this down more over the next couple weeks. We're going to do this more. We need to do this more before the season starts because it is always fun hanging out with you, Derek Johnson, Lockdown Jayhawks. Make sure you can check out his show wherever you listen to Lockdown, Kansas State as well, always a good time. Let's get on out of here. Thank you so much for listening and watching.

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