‘Excitement is everything’ as Kansas’ bowl hopes approach finale
For the second straight season, Kansas’ bowl eligibility hopes come down to the final regular season game. The two seasons have played out differently. In 2024, the Jayhawks beat three straight ranked teams before being blown out by Baylor, while this year’s team has lost four of their last five after starting 4-2.
Despite the differing journeys, the scenario is the same. Kansas has one game left to get into the postseason for the third time in Lance Leipold’s tenure. Jalon Daniels said he’s emphasizing excitement leading up to the regular season finale against Utah, after falling 38-14 against Iowa State.
“Excitement is everything,” Daniels said postgame. “Losing hurts you both mentally and physically. But excitement is what continues to make you want to go out there and do it.”
After getting its fifth win against Oklahoma State, Kansas lost consecutive road games– a heartbreaker to Arizona and a blowout to Iowa State. Leipold said they’ve been searching for that sixth win for a while and wants to extend his seniors’ seasons.
“We’ve been playing for that sixth one for a while,” Leipold said. “We talked about where they want to be and do they really want to do it. And again, you’ve got to make sure that we got a bunch of really good young men playing their last regular season football game. And I think we owe it to them to put our best efforts out.”
Daniels is one of those players playing in his last game of a six-season tenure at Kansas. He said he doesn’t want to change how he approaches the game but noted its importance.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m going to, you know, push harder,” Daniels said. “But at the end of the day, we do know that we need this game. So we’re going to do everything that it takes to try to go out there and win the game.”
Kansas has emphasized quickly turning the page on past results, both after wins and losses. That will be especially important this week, with the Jayhawks having a short week as they play on Black Friday. Kansas will start preparing for Utah on Sunday for what Boden Groen called a must-win game.
“It’s a must-win game. There’s no second chance,” Groen said. “It’s, [you] get on this bus, get home, take a couple hours to yourself tonight, wind down, and then show up for a quick six-day stretch. And, you know, it’s no different than any other week other than you don’t have your Sunday off.”
The Jayhawks have their entire season at their fingertips as they try to extend their season. Daniels said they’ll hammer home everything to try and play their best against Utah.
“We have to hammer down on everything, every little thing that we continue to talk about this whole entire offseason, during season, every single win, every single loss,” Daniels said. “We have to hammer everything down home right now because, like you said, this is the last regular season game and we’re gonna have to go out there and be able to play our best.”
