83 Days Until Kansas Football: Tennessee Tech Preview

Your first look at the opening opponent of the 2022 Kansas football season

Year two of the Lance Leipold era at Kansas is now just 83 days away and will kick off under the lights on Friday, September 2 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. Let’s take a closer look at the first opponent of the 2022 Kansas football season.

Pre-Game Notes

This is the first meeting between Kansas and Tennessee Tech as the Golden Eagles celebrate their 100th year of football. Last year, Tennessee Tech went 3-8 overall and 1-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Its offense only averaged 18.4 points per game and gave up 31.8 points.

Tennessee Tech football has been on a similar parallel to Kansas over the past decade, as the Golden Eagles haven’t recorded a winning record since 2011 (though it did have a 6-6 year in 2019).

Scouting Report

In a strange turn of events, Kansas has the consistency advantage at quarterback with Jalon Daniels ready to build on the last half of the 2021 season. Meanwhile, Tennessee Tech had a sophomore (Willie Miller) and grad transfer (Davis Stanley) split time at quarterback. Miller is a dual-threat quarterback who threw for 648 yards, five touchdowns, and seven interceptions last season while also rushing for 334 yards and two touchdowns.

But the player to watch at QB is Jeremiah Oatsvall, who was a breakout quarterback at fellow OVC school Austin Peay before walking on at Memphis to play wide receiver last season but failing to reach the field. He was the OVC Freshman of the Year and then the preseason OVC Player of the Year as a sophomore.

In the backfield, Tennessee Tech returns senior David Gist, who rushed for 901 yards and eight touchdowns in 11 games last season. Quinton Cross and Ashton Maples are the two players to watch at receiver, though that has not historically been a downfield-passing team.

Matchup on Paper

It will be interesting to see if the Golden Eagles’ offense transforms at all should Oatsvall get the nod at quarterback. This has been a run-first program, and Tennessee Tech only averaged 160 yards through the air a season ago. Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles’ defense gave up 223 yards through the air and 140 yards on the ground in 2021. The fact that there weren’t as many passing yards given up could be the result of teams putting their foot off the gas after getting up to big leads.

While this is not a perfect comparison, last year Tennessee Tech traveled to Knoxville to take on Tennessee in its only game against a FBS team. The Volunteers blew out the Golden Eagles 56-0 while putting up 215 passing yards and 202 yards on the ground. This type of balance is something that could make Leipold and the offensive staff’s eyes widen with excitement as they could get creative with ways to get both Daniels and Devin Neal going.

Way-Too-Early Trend Lines

We’ll have plenty of predictions coming – and Andy already has you covered there – so instead let’s look at some way-too-early trends for those who care about things like spreads and unders (for entertainment purposes only).

Neither team in this matchup was great last year from a gambling perspective. Kansas was 2-7-1 against the spread in its final 10 games, while Tennessee Tech was 3-6 (though just 1-4 in its last five). The better bet (pun intended) was in the over/under category, where Kansas was 6-4 in its last 10 and the Golden Eagles were 4-5.

The over has hit in two of KU’s last five and three of TTU’s last five, so that’s a good place to start. Kansas’ offense should be able to get off to a faster start this year, while there aren’t many signs that Tennessee Tech has improved on the defensive side. 

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