BYU at Kansas Football Preview

The Cougars and Jayhawks both bring a 3-0 record into Big 12 play and will face off in front of a sold-out crowd.

The Kansas Jayhawks are back at home with a 3-0 record and have sold out The Booth for the start of conference play. The opponent Saturday is BYU, who is making its Big 12 debut and coming to Lawrence for the first time. The only other time these two teams met was in 1992 in Hawaii for the Aloha Bowl (KU won 23-20).

Opponent Overview

Team: BYU

Record: 3-0

Line: KU -8.5

Team Form

The Cougars are also undefeated and now have a strong road victory under its belt against a team Kansas has recent familiarity with. BYU went into Fayetteville last week and beat Arkansas 38-31. This was the first real test for BYU, as the first two games of the season were a 14-0 win over Sam Houston State and a 41-16 drubbing of FCS’s Southern Utah.

Players to Watch

The Cougars are led by journeyman quarterback Kedon Slovis, who is spending his final year of eligibility in Provo after starting his career at USC for three years before moving to Pittsburgh last year. And Slovis is off to a great start, throwing for 660 yards and a 6:1 touchdown-to-turnover ratio during non-conference play.

Slovis has a trio of talented receivers to connect with, including one with a name familiar to KU fans. Chase Roberts leads the team with 13 receptions, 138 yards, and two touchdowns, while Isaac Rex (10 for 184 and a TD) and Darius Lassiter (9 for 116 and a TD) are close behind. And you read that last name correctly. That would be KU great Kwamie Lassiter’s son and the brother of current Jayhawk Kwinton and former Jayhawk Kwamie II.

On the defensive side of the ball, defensive lineman Tyler Batty has been disrupting backfields so far this year, leading the team with 3.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. And in the secondary, Jakob Robinson has been a ball hawk with two interceptions in three games.

Matchups to Watch

Can BYU stop the Kansas run game and get anything going on the ground itself? BYU has not been effective on the ground, only averaging 78.3 yards rushing per game (2.7 yards per carry). The KU defensive front has been stout so far (running quarterbacks being their downfall), and Slovis isn’t going to run, so it will be interesting to see if the Jayhawks can keep BYU from gaining momentum through the ground game.

The BYU defense has given up less than 100 rushing yards per game, but some of that might be due to the competition. Arkansas put up 177 yards and two touchdowns on the ground last week and Devin Neal has been one of the most productive backs in the country so far this year. So this is a different type of challenge for the Cougars.

BYU has also dominated the turnover battle through three games, forcing seven turnovers while only giving the ball away twice themselves. Kansas’ running backs will need to tighten their holds on the ball or else momentum could change in a hurry.

Prediction

KU Director of Football Communication Andy Eisch put out a great stat after the announcement of a David Booth Memorial Stadium sellout:

https://x.com/Andy25eisch/status/1704568493826261240?s=20

Unlike the Friday night starts for the first two home games, this is a prime Saturday afternoon kickoff on national TV in front of a packed crowd. So it’s safe to say the environment will be electric. And KU has done a good job feeding off crowd energy over the past year.

I actually think the Nevada game probably did a good job of humbling the Jayhawks a bit and helping them regain their focus. And with BYU being undefeated and making a statement against Arkansas – and this game being at home – it’s hard to see KU overlooking the Cougars in favor of Texas next week.

The line for this game got as high as 9.5 on Sunday before coming back down a point, but it’s still impressive to see KU favored by more than a touchdown against an undefeated conference opponent. To me, this feels like a higher-scoring, back-and-forth game much like BYU faced against Arkansas last week.

Given that it’s in Lawrence and the coaching staff will have the team’s attention after last week, I’m going with the Jayhawks to win but BYU to cover.

Kansas 35, BYU 28

Record ATS: 2-1 (Last week: Kansas 31, Nevada 24)