A decade and a half ago, Mark Mangino and Todd Reesing helped elevate the [autotag]Kansas Jayhawks[/autotag] to the national conversation. They became Big 12 title contenders behind an offense that was able to keep pace with just about everyone.
But that was a long time ago. In the aftermath, Kansas became one of the worst programs in the country, cycling through Turner Gill, Charlie Weis, David Beaty, and Les Miles. They couldn’t replicate the success of the Mangino-Weiss era, failing to reach bowl eligibility for 13 consecutive seasons.
Then the Miles era abruptly ended and the Jayhawks went all the way up to Buffalo to bring Lance Leipold to the Power Five and to a program in desperate need of resuscitation. Coming in late in the spring, Leipold didn’t have much of a chance to find success that first year, but they were a team that was far more competitive than they had been in a long time despite the two-win season. One of those two wins came on the road against Texas.
Then last year, the Jayhawks started strong, earning their first bowl bid since 2008, and in 2023, they are 5-2 and on the verge of reaching a bowl game for the second straight season.
And while they head into their matchup with the Oklahoma Sooners as a double-digit home underdog, there’s a sense this Jayhawks team could cause some problems for the Sooners.
To get ready for the 114th meeting between the Oklahoma Sooners and Kansas Jayhawks, Sooners Wire had the pleasure of discussing the matchup with Jordan Guskey, a Sports Reporter covering the Kansas Jayhawks for The Topeka Capital-Journal.
