Coming off a busy offseason, the excitement and anticipation for the 2024 Kansas Jayhawks football team is palpable, and it's not too early to start looking at the opponents on the schedule.
KU has a good chance to win a conference title in the new-look Big 12 Conference thanks to a combination of returning talent and a favorable schedule, and with a 12-team College Football Playoff format in place this year, optimism is running high in Lawrence.
The first test for Kansas will be against Lindenwood University on Thursday, August 29th at 7pm. The game will be played at Children's Mercy Park, home of Sporting Kansas City, in Kansas City, Kansas.
Not familiar with Lindenwood University? It's no surprise. I know a lot about this school, and the reason why speaks to the school's rise. When I was there in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Lindenwood was an NAIA school in our conference, but it never felt like it belonged. This school in the St. Louis area was much larger than the others (roughly 7,000 students vs. 1,500 for the other NAIA schools), so I wasn't surprised when they moved to D-II in 2013. Then, in 2022, the Lions made the jump to DI and joined the Ohio Valley Conference.
Lindenwood had a successful first season in the OVC, going 7-3, but finished 3-7 last year with just one win coming in conference play.
First Down
The Lions' offense hasn't been nearly as lethal in 2023. Lindenwood is averaging 22 points per game, which isn't too bad, but that number drops to 16 points per game if you exclude a 77-9 win over a D-III Wisconsin-Stevens Point team. The Lions only scored 30 or more points against a DI team once, and there were six games in which they were held to under 20 points.
Second Down
The only two quarterbacks who played for Lindenwood last year were on the spring roster. The likely starter is junior-to-be Carter Davis, who has played in five games and thrown for 372 yards and three touchdowns (but completed just 53 percent of his passes), and freshman Tyler Kubat, who has thrown for 300 yards and two touchdowns in two games and completed a slightly higher percentage of his passes (59 percent).
Third Down
Their most dangerous offensive weapon was wide receiver Jeff Crawley, who led the OVC in touchdown receptions with eight and led the team with 599 receiving yards in nine games, earning him a spot on the Big South-OVC All-Conference First Team. Meanwhile, the running backs were selected by committee, with no rusher scoring over 500 yards in the season, but instead three rushers totaled 1,065 yards.
Fourth Down
Lindenwood isn't awful in any part of the defense, but it is weakest through the air, allowing 271 passing yards per game. But it does have some good players returning on that side of the ball. Kobe McClendon was sacked 6.5 times last season, the fourth-most in school history. That, along with his 9.5 tackles for loss, earned him second-team all-conference honors. Also returning is All-OVC second-team linebacker Ethan Staalsatz, who led the team with 70 tackles last year.
This will undoubtedly be an unusual early-season test for the Lions, as Kansas is the first FBS opponent Lindenwood faces as a football program, while it will be a good opportunity for Kansas to tweak some things early with new OC Jeff Grimes before a road trip with Illinois.
