This is the sort of stretch that separates teams with real depth from teams merely pretending to have it. Kansas does not get the comfort of another bye week after its lone open date following the loss to Arizona State, and that makes Saturday at 11 a.m. against Middle Tennessee more than just a routine nonconference game. It is the first step in a nine-game run that will keep testing the Jayhawks right through Nov. 28.
Lance Leipold has already made the point as plainly as it can be made: Kansas cannot use the London trip as an excuse. That matters because the original scheduling plan did not work out as intended, leaving the Jayhawks with eight Big 12 contests still ahead and no extra breather to hide behind. In this business, complaints about logistics only matter if they affect performance. Kansas does not get to lean on either. It has to play.
That is easier said than done when the injury list is already giving this team problems. D.K. McDonald said the staff will have to make sure everybody is fresh and ready to go, and that is the entire issue in one sentence. Kansas is not just trying to win a game; it is trying to manage a body of work that will demand much more than a polished first half or a good-looking opening month. The challenge is durability, not drama.
Middle Tennessee brings enough to make this awkward
Middle Tennessee will not arrive as some glamorous obstacle, but it is not a team Kansas can treat casually either. The Blue Raiders are 2-2 and come in after a 3-9 season in which they won their last two games, which is exactly the kind of detail that should prevent anyone from assuming this is a soft landing spot. Their offense also has a clear focal point in Cam’ron Lacy, and that is where Kansas’ defense must stay alert.
McDonald called Lacy quick as a hiccup and even joked that he can become a kind of Where’s Waldo problem when the ball is in play. That is the right tone. Not panic, not overthinking, just respect for a receiver who can make a defense look foolish if it loses track of him for even a moment. For Kansas, the priority is simple: don’t give away cheap space, don’t let one player turn the afternoon into a chase scene.
There is also a mindset issue here, and it is not a minor one. McDonald said, “This is what we get to do,” and Isaiah Marshall echoed the same sort of edge with the reminder that it is what you signed up for. That is the correct attitude for a team entering a grueling run with no bye-week safety net. Kansas cannot afford to act as if the schedule is unfair. It has to act as if the schedule is the point.
Eamon Smalls was even more direct about the practical response: the team is going to live in the training room, and that is the best way to handle it. That sounds almost comically simple, but it is exactly what this stretch demands. Practice hard, but practice smart. Keep as many players fresh as possible. Survive the early grind without creating bigger problems for the weeks that follow.
So yes, the headline is straightforward enough: Kansas begins a nine-game stretch with Middle Tennessee on Saturday. But the real story is tougher than that. There is no mystery here, no excuse waiting to be discovered, and no hidden reset button. Kansas has its first test of endurance in front of it now, and the way it handles this one may say plenty about how the rest of the run goes.
