Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Non-Conference Preview | Early Look at Missouri, Fresno State & Wagner for Kansas Jayhawks Football

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

Border War Renewed: Kansas Jayhawks Football Faces Historic Rival Missouri in the 2025 Border Showdown in Columbia.Derek Johnson breaks down KU's non-conference schedule, highlighting the return of the Kansas-Missouri rivalry. The Jayhawks aim to improve on last season's 1-2 non-conference record, with key matchups against Missouri's formidable defense and Fresno State's new-look offense under coach Matt Entz. Johnson analyzes potential game-changers, including Missouri's defensive prowess and Fresno State's quarterback situation. Can Lance Leipold's squad capitalize on Wagner's struggles and secure a dominant win? Tune in for expert insights on KU's path to success, betting implications, and how these early games could shape the Jayhawks' season.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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)

Maybe you've been living under a rock for the past, I don't know, long time. Kansas playing Missouri. We're renewing the border war. I know they want to call it something else. We're renewing the border war in football this upcoming season. We're going to have an early preview of the three KU football non-conference games, including Fresno State to open the season and that Missouri game. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas

Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on Derek Johnson here. This is locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day and thank you the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of LOJ, we're having an early preview of the

KU non conference slate, we're gonna look at Fresno State, we're gonna look at the at Missouri game, we're gonna look at the Wagner game. I know on the graphic on YouTube, they're out of order, we'll get to why and all that on today's episode of the show. And thank you again to the everydayers catching each and every show. We are free and available again anywhere that you catch the show. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook

as right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins with FanDuel. So we are going to be breaking down those early games and getting a preview of the early opponents KU has in the non-con. We'll continue on with this series as we get closer to the start of the season for KU football. The Missouri game is obviously the big one for the non-con play for KU. And the order of the games for Kansas, it's Fresno State in week 0. It's Wagner in week one KU second game, and then it's at Missouri in week two for KU third game.

And then they have a bye week and it's the start of conference play. Obviously, though, if we're talking about the most important, it is the Missouri game for KU. I mean, just from the rivalry aspect, that's what College Reports is built on. So we're going to start with the Missouri game. Then we're going to do the Fresno State game,

and then we're going to finish up with the Wagner game on this episode. Let's start with the Missouri game, right? So I think before I even get into like the scouting report and the stuff that Missouri brings to the table, let's just address the biggest thing about this game is the rivalry aspect. Right. You haven't played them in this point a decade and a half. That on its own makes it notable, right? It's a long-standing rivalry that has more than just a sports rivalry.

Kansas and Kansas State, that's a sports rivalry. It's two colleges that, you know, they play against each other a lot. You're in the same state. You're recruiting a lot of the same kids. There's going to be just natural, you know, I don't know, difficulties, frustrations that you're going up against each other with. That's a sports rivalry. Kansas versus Missouri is a historic rivalry.

It is a families were murdering each other rivalry, right? Like there's real history to this and why it is such a big deal. So that on its own makes this, you know, such an important thing. And to where like if I offered you right now, Kansas can go six and six, beat Kansas State and Missouri. So you beat your two rivals, you make it to a bowl game, or you have the option of going nine and three, a very good season, but one that probably doesn't put you in the big 12 title game, but you lose two of those three losses are to Missouri

in case date, which would you choose? I don't know, hit us up in the comments section and let us know what you would choose between those. But Missouri is they've been on a good little, I don't know, heater, I guess you would call it out of heater feels too strong for two good seasons, but they've had a really good bet past two years. They went 10 and three last season. They finished ranked twenty second they people you might think

Why did a ten win team in the SEC finish only twenty second? They had kind of a lame schedule by SEC standards like they weren't playing all of the best teams in the SEC But still ten win season there They the year before win the Cotton Bowl by beating Ohio State. That team was even better and that team was very, very good. But then they come into this year and Phil Steele picks them 12th in the SEC this year. Now, if you look at it from a national perspective, 12th in the SEC, like for instance, ESPN SP plus has Missouri 11th in the SEC.

That's still 21st nationally with the 41st best offense and the 22nd best defense. So that's probably a better way of putting it. You're playing kind of a quasi top 25 team on the road. That's going to make things a little difficult, right? When you look at them, they have an offense that scored 29 points per game last year, but they lost their quarterback, their top two running backs, their top three receivers and three starting linemen. So you might think offensively could be a bit more of a weakness for them, but still they're being projected as a top 50 unit. They have a strong portal class.

And I guess it's helpful for Kansas. You're getting them a little earlier in the season before maybe some of that stuff meshes, right? That could be a positive thing for KU in this matchup. Defense side of all, Missouri might have one of the better defenses in their conference and therefore Defense side of the ball, Missouri might have one of the better defenses in their conference. And therefore, I guess the country, they give up just 20 points per game last year.

And they bring back nine starters. And they add some real transfers. So this could be a very awesome defense for what Missouri brings to the table. They have all conference picks at guard with Caden Green, first team on Phil Steele. Center, Connor Tollison, is fourth team on Phil Steel for the SEC and they have four incoming transfers

from the power four so you're bringing in talented transfers. Maybe they're not going to be as good as last year though you lost four legit guys who started at least four games three kind of full time starters, including two draft picks. One was the first router,

so the line might take a step back this year. Running back Ahmad Hardy, even though they lost their top two running backs. Hardy ran for like 1300 yards at Louisiana Monroe. And they've consistently had a strong running game over under their head coach Eli Drinkowitz. So I'd imagine he's going to kind of hit the ground running there. Kevin Coleman is somebody who could be an all conference pick. He comes in from Mississippi State had nearly 1000 yards on a bad Bulldogs squad. and after they lose,

you know, Luther Burden and Theo Weiss and some of these stud receivers, he probably comes in and is gonna have a big season for them. Defense side of the ball, Jaylen Catalon, second team, and Daylen Carnell are third team picks among three returning starting DBs with again two of them being All-Conference picks. They also added some solid power four transfers, which is especially the case on the defensive line. So, Chris McClellan was a fourth team all conference pick by Phil Steele. They lost two starters including an all SEC player, but you bring back McClellan. They had three transfers, two of which on the defensive line are from Georgia.

So, who knows? Maybe they even are as good or better with this unit and then linebacker core. That might be the returning strength overall. I don't know Tristan Newson and Josiah Trotter both 13 picks by Phil Steele in the SEC very strong unit really just all the way through. Obviously the the big name when you lose your quarterback no more Brady cook instead it's not both Pribula and Pribula is the Penn State transfer you might have recognized that name from like

national headlines Pribula was the Penn State transfer who he would kind of come in for like Wildcat packages like he was there. If you remember Chris Leake and Tim Tebow, Tim Tebow would come in for certain packages for that Florida championship team and that was kind of Tribula for Penn State came in for certain packages. He left the team during the college football playoff that got national headlines for when he ended up doing it and how the system's all messed up with transfers.

So he's their quarterback now. Talented. He can run the ball. It'll be interesting to see how he does. I think the most interesting matchup or piece, I guess, factoid coming into this game is if you expect this to be a close game, which I'll be interested to see how much Missouri is going to be favored there at home. They're going to be quasi top 25 team.

Kansas, if you look at power ratings, is closer to that like 35 to 50 range. Missouri more in that 20 to 30 range. So Missouri probably right now would be favored. I don't know, maybe by touchdown or something like that. The fact that it's a rivalry game though, the fact that even yeah, if it's a touchdown, like you're probably projecting it to be

at least a close ish game. Missouri over the last two seasons is 10 and one in one score games. Kansas last year, as we all know, with one and five in one score games. Is that a number that switches? And this is like a perfect culmination of that? Is that a number that continues on and you see Missouri have the advantage, have the edge in a game like this. And it's funny for so long, Kansas just struggled to win road games. But last year you think of them winning at BYU. You think of some of their successes on the road with Lance Lightpool that they haven't been as a program. They're going to have to do that.

And it's going to be to the umpteenth degree because, you know, it's a different level, like as great as the crowds are at BYU, which they are, it's a different level when as great as the crowds are at BYU, which they are. It's a different level when you're going at Missouri, a team who all the fans are going to yell at you yell nasty things are going to absolutely hate you like that is kind of a different level than you know, BYU fans who are going to get very loud and make it a tough environment, but they're not going to hate you. You know, it's a it's a

different level of things. It'll be interesting to see for Kansas and certainly it's a it's not a game that I don't think like if you win the game, it can define your season. It can define your season because of the boost that that would kick you off with and also the impact of beating your rival from a perspective. If you lose the game, it doesn't define your season because you still have big 12 play after that.

You have a bye week after that to kind of reset. So either way, though, it would be certainly nice if Kansas can win a game like that and be true rivals. And that's what college sports is all about. All right, let's talk about the opener though, week zero, which is coming up before you know it versus Fresno State. We'll get to that next.

This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, which you can get in action for the KU Missouri game. Once that happens, you can actually get action right now on the Kansas Fresno State game if you want to get in early on it. And summer sports as well are in full swing. Whether you're all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or high-stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the

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Once we get closer to the game, they'll have some player props available too, which you can make same game parlay or just bet and fire off on a specific prop. And if you're new to FanDuel, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Just open the FanDuel app today or visit FanDuel.com to get started. FanDuel, the official sports hook partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Alright, we're doing these out of order.

Again, we're going to Caves third game, to Caves first game, to Caves second game, but just kind of the order of importance, you would say. The Fresno State game is still very important though. It's your first game at your home stadium. I write this newly renovated home stadium, and it's also the opportunity to set the tone. It's also an opportunity to, you know, you lost to your Mountain West opponent in the non con last year. You were one and two in the non con last year. Can you get to two and one or three and oh in the noncon this year?

Can you beat the Mountain West team? Right? So Fresno is coming off a six and seven season. They have a new head coach now Matt Entz. He was really successful in North Dakota State. They're like every head coach is now at this point 60 and 10 at North Dakota State with a couple national titles. Then he became the linebacker coach at USC last season. And so the fact that he has the North Dakota State tie, I don't know, this is a little bit of a storyline to me coming in this game. I have a hard time believing that Chris Kleiman does not have some sort of contact with him to like try to help him out in some way.

I feel like that is going to happen. And now Phil Steel has Fresno State picked seventh in the Mountain West. ESPN SP Plus has them fourth, so a little bit higher. But ESPN SP Plus has them 89th nationally in what ESPN SP Plus is kind of projecting to be what appears to be a down version of the Mountain West. Like Boise State is seen as like a top 45 team in the country.

No other team is seen as top 70 projected outside of Boise State, right? So you've had some year where yeah, Boise State is a legit top 25 team and then Fresno State is a top 50 team or Wyoming is top 50 team or last year UNLV is a legit top 40 team in the country. It doesn't seem like that's at least the expectation. Maybe it'll end up happening, but the expectation in the preseason. SP plus has Fresno State projected for the 99th best offense 77th best defense. Last year they went for 26 points per game. They're changing schemes though they went from being kind of a no

huddle spread type of offense to now with the guy who was at North Dakota State. If you're familiar with the guy, I mean, shoot, we see Kansas State, right? It's kind of this power spread where you're going to have a quarterback who runs the ball. You're going to want to run, you know, some power concepts out of a spread type of system. It's not going to be a super hurry up offense. That'll be a little different. And maybe it's an opportunity to for Kansas to be like, hey, we can play somebody who plays schematically more like Kansas State. Maybe that'll help us later in the season. Defensively, Fresno State allowed 24.8 points per game last season.

Without the hurry up on the offense, that will probably lower that number defensively because there won't be as many snaps defensively, but they have just four starters back on the defensive end of the ball, so they're going to be bringing in a lot of new defenders in week zero of the

season that could be a good thing for the Kansas offense. It's also a new defensive coordinator which goes both ways, right? Playing them in week zero means that they're going to be trying to get accustomed to the system, especially with a lot of new players. That could be a good thing for KU. The downside, though, is he's a very good defensive coordinator. Nick Benedetto was at Northern Illinois last season. They did not allow 400 or more yards to a single opponent all season long.

That seems bonkers in today's day and age of college football. But nine starters are back overall for Fresno State. Five on offense, four on defense. Receiver Josiah Freeman is a first team all-mountain west pick by Phil Steele. Richie Anderson is a third team pick at tight end. So they have some interesting pieces to throw to. They did lose their top three receivers

and starting tight end from last year's team. So they do have to replace that, but some interesting pieces. Running back Bryson Donaldson, a second team pick in the preseason, six yards per carry as a true freshman last year, about 500 yards for Fresno. On the offensive line, Jacob Spomer leads the way for them fourth team pick on Phil Steele, but he's only one of two starters back on the O line. They did add USC and Iowa transfers that gives them legit, I guess, power for size on the offensive line, but this unit struggled a season ago. And so I guess you could say,

okay, it's addition by subtraction. They lost some players. They added some powerful transfers. We'll see if they struggled last year and lose a lot of players. Maybe the offensive line isn't gonna be great for Fresno State. So it'll be interesting too with Kansas defensive line,

which I feel like is maybe if you are measuring defensive line linebacker and DBs for the three levels of the KUD defense, I feel most confident among those in the defensive line. And we're going to find out right away because if you're getting bullied by Fresno State team that has had some struggles last year and doesn't have a lot of continuity, that could be

a bit of a worry for the D line. But I think more than likely, it means that the KUD line that I expect to be good should be able to kind of bully them at times in week zero. Linebacker Jaden Pearson, first team pick Corey Freeman, a second team pick on that front seven for Fresno State on Phil Steeles magazine. And Freeman actually was the former number one, I think like number one overall

recruit in the country. He went to USC, ends up transferring away to Fresno State and he's back for another year, was good year he should be really good this year so that'll be a tough matchup for whether it's Calvin Clements drawing him or whoever the KU right tackle is maybe Enrique Cruz against him possibly at the back end for Fresno State. and Cameron Braca both second team picks. They do lose their other two defensive back starters and two other players contributors. But according to Phil Steele's past defense metric, they've been top 32 nationally for four straight seasons. Now it is a different coaching staff, but that does tell you that they've consistently found talent there.

Maybe this is going to be a game where Kansas has to do more on the ground than in the air. I don't know. It's tough to totally tell with the new staff and stuff, especially in week zero of the season. Now as we we talk about with quarterbacks, that's always an important thing. Mikey Keene was the starter for Fresno. I think he was a multi-year starter for Fresno last year and he actually transferred off to Michigan. He

was he was a fine quarterback last year. I don't think he was anything special, but he was fine. They added EJ Warner, who's a transfer from Temple and Rice, most recently at Rice, just 9 and 22 as a starting quarterback, not a great record. 58 career passing touchdowns, a 37 career interceptions, not part of that record. Temple has just been so bad around him. He's probably a little better than that. But yeah, he hasn't impacted winning at a huge level. And yes, he is the son of Kurt

Warner. He is also the brother of Cade Warner who played at Kansas State, but you know, he's fine. He'll throw a good amount of interceptions. KUDBs are going to have opportunities there, but you know, he's a solid quarterback, not somebody who I think is a superstar, but I don't think he's going to be a problem for them either. Like I said earlier, FanDuel basically has this as a about a two touchdown game in favor of KU and interestingly enough, Fresno State has covered

seven straight games against the big 12 teams. That said, they're only 14 and 16. And I say only, that's about 500 in the last decade as a road dog. So it'll be interesting to see what they do in this one. But that spread seems about right to me for KU, right? You could see a game, I mean, shoot, we saw Kansas go into Nevada,

which was not a good Nevada team a couple of years ago and that was on the road very late night game, but they had to win that one close going in late. So if Kansas wins this game by 10 points and doesn't cover the spread, it's like, okay, Fresno is probably going to be a bowl team. They have some interesting talent that wouldn't be, you know, a problem or anything like that, right? Just go win this game, win this first game, win this week zero game, but it is one that I expect Kansas to do just that. Let's finish up with their second game of the season. It's against Wagner. Their FCS game, we'll get to that. Next is, are you in any danger? We've seen KUB in danger against FCS teams before, mostly pre-lancer light pulled outside of their first game against South Dakota.

So what are we in store for with Wagner? Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Again, don't forget you can check out Locked on College Football or Locked on College Basketball for your second listen every day. And don't forget to catch all our episodes from this week. So you're making sure you're caught up with all the KU info coming into the week.

OK, so Wagner is the last game again. It's Fresno in week zero, Wagner in week one, at Missouri in week two. We're just doing these out of order because feels like those were the most important to get up to the top. So Wagner was not a particularly great FCS team a season ago.

They went four and eight. They did play one FBS opponent and that was Florida Atlantic, which also was not a great team that by FBS standards and they lost 41 to 10. So obviously not everything is congruent. They don't have everything the same as they were last year standards and they lost 41 to 10. So obviously not everything is congruent.

They don't have everything the same as they were last year. Maybe they're going to be better this year than they were last year. But just based off that you feel like yes, Kansas should be able to go out and you know kind of road great and dominate this game. Overall, if you look at ESPN SP plus, which also applies to the FCS level, Wagner was 108th among 129 FCS teams. So four and eight actually sounds better than 108th among 129 FCS teams. They were 122nd in the country in offense, 55th on defense.

They were decent defense, middle of the pack above average defense at the FCS level, very bad offense. Again, I don't know how much is expected to be back for them. Overall, you can't really find like a preview for them. You can't really find a preview for the Northeast Conference, which they're part of, like, they still last I checked had the 2024 roster up on their website. So it's hard for me exactly to be like, okay, this is how many starters they have back. I have no idea, right? They did lose all conference players at running back,

receiver H back, and they were all NEC second team selections. So no returning all conference player. Also their quarterback who had 19 total touchdowns, eight interceptions, he also graduated. So at the very least, we do know that they're losing some key pieces. Now they do, there was a pre-season, 2025 NEC team that was released. And they did have some players on there. Brady Anderson on the offensive line. Logan Barnes as a defensive end

were both first team picks. And then wide receiver Taree McDonald was picked to the second team. So there still are some interesting players, but it doesn't seem like one of those cases of like a team who OK, they were four and eight, but they brought back 20 of 22 starters and now they're expected to be a seven and five or 84 FCS team.

That's like they could be a little frisky. I don't know that that's the case. Like I don't view this if we're ranking the FCS teams that KU has had to play in the Lance Leipold era South Dakota team that you played the first year of the Missouri State team you played a couple years ago. Like anytime you're playing a Missouri Valley team, those are the ones that scare you.

This one is not one that I view as like, okay, as long as Kansas doesn't completely, you know, poop the bed for lack of a better term there, don't have like a three or four turnover game, You know, you're doing your assignment. You're just, you know, executing what you need to execute. This should be one of those games where Kansas should be able to run their kind of base plays and still have success. You should be able to run your wide zone plays and pick up, you know, six, seven, eight yards on a given carry.

You should be able to run halfback dive up the middle and pick up your four or five yards. You should be able to run some of your base defensive concepts and still be able to make a stop here there. That's the type of game that this is, I think, for KU and is a game that you should be able to run your bread and butter plays kind of over and over game and still find a way to win. And at the end of the day, if you win a game like that, 38 to 3 versus if you win it, 55 to 3, does it really matter like that much?

Like again, you go to the Missouri State game. Kansas won that one. What like 38 to I don't even remember it was. It wasn't like a huge, huge difference. There's 38173810 somewhere in that range. If memory serves me right again, double check that because I don't remember exactly, but I remember going back here before against Tennessee Tech and it was like

55 to three or something like that. Well, that team won six games and the team who beat Missouri State closer ended up winning nine. So just win the FCS game in a measure that is dominant enough, but it doesn't have to be once you get to a certain point, like winning by 28 versus winning by 42. It's more just okay. The backups found a way to get in the end zone a couple times,

right? But I think the K zone a couple times, right? But I think, you know, the the KU game for Wagner, it's going to be their season opener, whereas for KU, it'll be their second game of the season, right? Because they'll be playing week zero against Fresno. And that can serve positives both ways. For Wagner, they get a week of just sitting back practicing, getting ready for the season and watching and scouting KU. KU is not going to have a single thing of scouting on the 2025 version of Wagner.

So that's a bit of an advantage for them. The flip side though is Wagner is going to be shaking their rust off in the first game and Kansas is going to already have that rust kind of shaking off from the Fresno State game. So you can look at that kind of both ways, but obviously again, one that you would expect Kansas to win. So I think two and one in the noncon here for Kansas would be respectable, would be doable. If you can find a way to go three and oh, though, you're going to feel really happy, especially because that third one

is at Missouri going into Big 12 play. All right, that'll be for this episode of Lockdown J-Hawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page, where you can like and subscribe to the show. And again, don't forget to check out all of our other shows throughout the week, including Locked on Big 12, Locked on College Football, and Locked on College Basketball. See you next time for another edition right here

of Locked on Jayhawks.