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LAWRENCE, Kan. – Ranked in both major college football preseason polls, the No. 22/24 Kansas Jayhawks will host Lindenwood to kick off the 2024 season under the lights at Children’s Mercy Park on Thursday night. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. on ESPN+ with Shawn Kenney (Play-by-play) and Taylor McHargue (Analyst) on the call.
Kansas opens its 133rd season of football, including its fourth under head coach Lance Leipold on Thursday night. Kansas and Lindenwood meet for the first time in program history, in what is Lindenwood’s first matchup against an FBS opponent. The game also serves as the season-opener for both teams, including the first of six Kansas home games that will be played in the Kansas City Metro area in 2024, and the first of two at Children’s Mercy Park – Home of Sporting Kansas City of the MLS.
The Jayhawks enter the 2024 season ranked No. 22 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 24 in the Coaches Poll, marking the first time since 2008 that Kansas was ranked in both preseason polls. Kansas is coming off back-to-back bowl appearances for just the second time in program history following a 49-36 victory over UNLV in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl on Dec. 26, 2023. The Jayhawks finished the 2023 season at 9-4 (5-4 Big 12), marking just the seventh nine-win season in program history and first since 2007.
Kansas enters the 2024 season with a plethora of returning experience, including 30 seniors throughout the roster. The Jayhawks return seven starters on offense from the 2023 season, including Maxwell Award Watch List candidates Jalon Daniels and Devin Neal, a star-studded trio of receivers in Lawrence Arnold, Luke Grimm and Quentin Skinner, and proven experience on the offensive line in Bryce Cabeldue, Michael Ford Jr. and Kobe Baynes.
Defensively, the Jayhawks return two All-Big 12 cornerbacks in Cobee Bryant and Mello Dotson. As a unit in 2023, Kansas held opponents to 378.2 yards per game and 26.5 points per game, both of which were the fewest allowed in a single season by a KU defense since 2007. Kansas’ defense ranked fourth in the Big 12 Conference in total defense in 2023 (378.2), compared to 12th in 2022 (469.3).
The Thursday night game marks Kansas’ fourth-straight weeknight season opener after opening on a Friday night in each of the last three seasons. The Thursday night game is Kansas’ first played on a Thursday night since 2016 and the Jayhawks’ fourth Thursday night game since 2000. The last time Kansas opened the season on a Thursday night was on Thursday, August 28, 1997, when the Jayhawks defeated UAB, 24-0.
Lindenwood, of St. Charles, Missouri, enters the 2024 season following a 3-7 (1-5 Big South-OVC) record in 2023 after dropping their final four games of the year. Under eighth-year head coach Jed Stugart, the Lions were selected to finish eighth in the Big South-OVC Preseason Poll.
Following Thursday night’s season opener, Kansas hits the road for the first time of the 2024 season as the Jayhawks travel to Champaign, Illinois to take on the Illinois Fighting Illini on Saturday, Sept. 7. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m. CT on FS1.
The matchup between Kansas and Illinois will be the seventh in the series history, after Kansas got the best of Illinois in last year’s meeting, claiming a 34-23 victory on Sept. 8, 2023, at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Illinois holds the series advantage in games played in Champaign, leading 3-1, while its Kansas’ first trip to the home of the Illini since 1968.
