Kansas' Week-One Outlier and What It Could Mean Moving Forward
It’s mainly done out of self-preservation. Don’t get too excited about a week-one blowout of a worse team. Temper expectations.
That’s what you’re supposed to do. The real tests are coming. It’s only one game. This is what fans tell themselves and each other. And that’s true. But when you’ve had a decade-plus run like Kansas football, even a result like this is hard to come by.
Here are the opponents and results of KU’s week 1 contests since 2010.
2022
Opponent: Tennessee Tech
Score: 56-10 W
2021
Opponent: South Dakota
Score: 17-14 W
2020
Opponent: Coastal Carolina
Score: 38-23 L
2019
Opponent: Indiana State
Score: 24-17 W
2018
Opponent: Nicholls State
Score: 26-23 L
2017
Opponent: Southeast Missouri State
Score: 38-16 W
2016
Opponent: Rhode Island
Score: 55-6 W
2015
Opponent: South Dakota State
Score: 41-38 L
2014
Opponent: Southeast Missouri State
Score: 34-28 W
2013
Opponent: South Dakota
Score: 31-14 W
2012
Opponent: South Dakota State
Score: 31-17 W
2011
Opponent: McNeese State
Score: 42-24 W
2010
Opponent: North Dakota State
Score: 6-3 L
Remove this year and in the previous 12 openers, Kansas has played 11 FCS teams and gone 8-3 against them with the average margin of victory in those eight wins being 17 points. And that was helped by the 49-point victory over Rhode Island in 2016.
So, not only have the Jayhawks proven these openers aren’t sure things even for wins, they have not been blowing the doors off these teams. Yes, Tennessee Tech is not a good FCS opponent, but it’s still a dominant performance that we just haven’t seen much of recently.
What is unknown is whether this type of performance can carry over into the next game. Only once (2011, a 45-42 win over Northern Illinois) did KU follow up a week-one victory with another win in week two. Every other next game has been a loss, and only three were by single digits. The blowout of Rhode Island, the best week-one win of that span, was followed by a 16-point loss in week two to Ohio.
But it’s understandable that following an offseason of optimism, this type of performance would lead to big reactions. Kansas fans aren’t used to seeing it of late. Now the hope is that they will see another rarity: positive momentum from week one to week two.
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