Florida International football coach Mario Cristobal was met with rolling eyes and accusations of over-the-top coach-speak in September.

Six weeks later, he’s getting the last laugh.

Cristobal dissected game film of Kansas University before FIU and KU met on Sept. 22 and came to a conclusion no one expected to hear: The Jayhawks, he said, were going to be as tough as any opponent he had faced to that point.

“No one wanted to believe it then,” Cristobal said this week. “I hope they’re believing it now.”

Count on it.

Kansas is 8-0 overall, 4-0 in Big 12 Conference play and ranked eighth in every major poll heading into Saturday’s game against Nebraska.

It has been a shocking ascension, as KU has emerged from mediocrity to being one of college football’s biggest surprises.

But not everyone was blindsided.

“Not at all,” Cristobal said. “They’re like a machine.”

Florida International, which lost, 55-3, to Kansas and is now 0-8, has played a gauntlet of nonconference powers. Sandwiched around the Kansas game were losses to Penn State, Arkansas, Miami (Fla.) and Maryland.

So is Kansas, Cristobal was asked, the best team FIU has faced?

“They were up there,” he replied. “It’s hard to say. But in terms of efficiency, they’re hard to match.”

About 1,500 miles north of FIU’s campus in Miami, Central Michigan has rebounded nicely from a 52-7, season-opening loss to Kansas. Though just 5-4 overall, the Chippewas are 4-0 in Mid-America Conference play and could make a run at a second straight MAC title.

In the meantime, CMU coach Butch Jones hears the buzz about Kansas and reflects back to the Sept. 1 nightmare.

“I’m not surprised at all,” Jones said of KU’s run. “After we played them, we thought they were an extremely talented football team. Very physical.”

Elsewhere, past praise dismissed as political correctness is starting to show more truth. After Kansas beat K-State, 30-24, on Oct. 6, KSU coach Ron Prince said “This team had no weaknesses.”

Earlier that week, Prince proclaimed that Kansas was “the greatest test we’ve had so far this year” despite earlier games at Auburn and at Texas.