Previewing the 2026 season
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Well it’s now August friends and that means fall camp in Lawrence is currently underway. A QB competition is in full swing as this years roster will feature a lot of new faces with only 11 returning starters. This season figures to be a rough rebuilding year by pretty much all accounts. I think I’d be fine with that if we had finished games and made it to the post season the last two. I get a feeling coach LL’s seat will be very hot by the time December rolls around.
Offense:
As stated above the QB spot has yet to be decided between Ballard and Marshall. I look for Ballard to win the job and Marshall to have several packages that he is on the field. The two biggest stories of the offense during the offseason was the return of Coach K and all of his pre-snap madness. Then addition of Dylan Edwards at the running back position. No doubt in my mind Edwards is an NFL caliber RB as long as he can keep his head in the game. WR group looks very pedestrian at best basically returning one guy in Cam Pickett. The line has a few returning but is a lot of new faces. I look for this group to struggle, the only hope is Edwards turning into Reggie Bush. I don’t see this group averaging more than 18 ppg.Defense:
The defense I think has a fair chance to make a stride forward from last season which was statistically the worst defense under coach LL outside of year one. One of the big stories on this side of the ball has been the return of leading tackler Trey Lathan after he had initially entered the portal following last season. With him staying in Lawrence we have 6 of our top 8 tacklers back in the fold. I think we have a good group of linebackers and some good young talent at DB. The question lies on the defensive line a spot where we lost all 4 starters from one year ago and we hit the portal in those positions. So it will be a guess til we
Get on the field.Special teams:
New kickers all around this season after Marjan was automatic most of last season. Just hoping they all do their jobs and don’t cost the team any games.Outlook and predictions:
This is the least excited I’ve been going into a football season since David Beaty roamed the sidelines. This will be a very inexperienced team at several key positions. Lots of question marks at the LOS on both sides. The last 2 years we were only able to win 5 games with NFL talent on both sides so that doesn’t bode well for this season. The only way I see us being competitive is to run the ball successfully and milk the clock as much as we can. The schedule is very tough and having one bye week after the trip to London meaning we have 8 straight game weeks doesn’t look good on paper. I also hate losing a home game for it and it seems most of the teams that play the over seas game are completely burnt out by mid season. I think Mizzou destroys us by 40 plus in our new stadium. I’m Officially predicting 2 wins this season, even wearing blue and red glasses I don’t think I could see more than 4 if the ball bounces our way. I think LL seat is on fire by the end of the season and he is fired after 4 straight losing seasons in 2027. But we will have millions invested and a new stadium to be 1/4 full to watch us go straight back to where we started at before him. -
@kjayhawks2.0 lol hopefully Coack K makes us greater than the sum of our offensive parts
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Nice summary of the preseason.
