photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas players take the field on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024 at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.

After last year’s loss at Kansas, Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry found himself wondering what had happened.

“You ask yourself why, and what could you have done different to ensure that you had success,” he told reporters on Monday. “Just from that standpoint, I probably watched the Kansas game probably 100-plus times.”

In that way, the loss, which came in his first road matchup as a coordinator and saw the Illini give up 539 yards of offense, became an “incredible teaching moment” for Henry.

“I just felt like we had opportunities to take the ball away,” he said. “I felt like we had opportunities to make tackles. I felt like we had opportunities to capitalize on some things, get off the field on third down, we didn’t. We didn’t properly execute on every single level.”

The result was, after a 28-7 start, a 34-23 victory for the Jayhawks in which Jalon Daniels dazzled, Devin Neal and Daniel Hishaw Jr. combined for 265 total yards and two touchdowns, and KU took advantage of a big Friday night crowd and a hot start to kickstart its memorable 2023 campaign.

“When they asked us to move it to a Friday night, I wasn’t really a big fan of it,” Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said, “but the powers that be got involved, and I knew that was kind of playing into their hands, they were going to hype it up and sell it. (We) saw a very active, loud crowd, and obviously, they jumped on us.”

Now, the Illini have a chance to return the favor on Saturday night, when they welcome the Jayhawks to their own building for a rematch at 6 p.m. The matchup will be Illinois’ first sellout of Memorial Stadium, which has a capacity of more than 60,000, since 2016.

“We were the home team, we came out, played really well in the first quarter, first half, but the second half we weren’t probably as effective,” KU coach Lance Leipold said. “Now we got to go their place and be ready, and I know this is an important game for them as well as us, as you kind of go through this grind of what’s going to happen now from here on out.”

The Jayhawks will be hoping Illinois’ defense looks a lot more like 2023, when it allowed 29.4 points per game in Henry’s inaugural campaign, than 2022, when it gave up just 12.8 under coordinator Ryan Walters, now the head coach at Purdue.

Most relevant, though, is this season, when the Illini have conceded zero after shutting out FCS foe Eastern Illinois.

“I try not to talk a lot about the previous year, or even the previous game, because I’m a really big believer in the fact that this year is this year and this game is this game,” first-year KU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes said. “There’s a saying, ‘No man ever steps in the same river twice, because it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.’ And I think that’s true in football as well.”

The Illini no longer field the fearsome front of defensive tackles Jer’Zhan Newton and Keith Randolph that gave KU trouble last year, and have attempted to replace them with returnee TeRah Edwards and an array of transfers, but further back on defense they have returning standouts like linebackers Seth Coleman, Gabe Jacas and Dylan Rosiek, cornerback Xavier Scott and safety Miles Scott. Schematically, Grimes said one challenge is that Illinois likes to have two linebackers down at the line of scrimmage with its three-man front, forcing one-on-one matchups with each offensive lineman.

Meanwhile, Leipold said he thinks the Illini have gotten better upfront on offense. That’s where Illinois added transfer tackles J.C. Davis and Melvin Priestly.

“They threw around their opponent pretty good last week themselves,” defensive coordinator Brian Borland said, “so it’s going to be a challenge for us, and I think it’ll be a good point to see where we’re at for the rest of the year.”

Running back Kaden Feagin ran for 108 yards in the season opener, and Aidan Laughery added 79 more. They could pose a threat to KU, after only quarterback Luke Altmyer, who Leipold said is now “definitely in command of what they want to do,” got much done in the run game last season in Lawrence.

“We need to go on the road to a Power Four conference school and find a way to win a football game (in nonconference play),” Leipold said, “and that hasn’t probably happened here in a while.”

Illinois Fighting Illini (1-0, 0-0 Big Ten) vs. No. 19 Kansas Jayhawks (1-0, 0-0 Big 12)

• Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Illinois, 6 p.m.

• Broadcast: FS1

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9)

• Betting line: KU -5.5; over/under 55.5

• Series history: Tied 3-3

What to watch for

1. Grimes unleashed: KU’s first-year coordinator Jeff Grimes has been coy at times about his plans for the Jayhawks’ offense. For instance, in mid-August he declined to discuss how the Jayhawks might deploy the option and the quarterback run game, saying, “They might think ‘Well, that was just Andy (Kotelnicki), and Grimey’s not really an option guy.'” Grimes has frequently stated, though, that he doesn’t plan to reinvent the wheel, as KU had success with its multiple, motion-heavy scheme under Kotelnicki and has a slew of veteran players who are familiar with the system; the Jayhawks didn’t put much on tape in their victory over Lindenwood. There have been offseason clues that KU might continue to use the wildcat formation, deploy more two-back looks, put running backs out wide and spend more time under center, but the Illinois game will provide the greatest demonstration of what Grimes actually wants to do.

2. Option watch: On a related note, Illinois seems concerned about Daniels as a rushing threat, even after he did not carry the ball once against Lindenwood in his first game back from injury. Giving the indication that he, for one, expects Grimes to integrate the option heavily, Bielema said of Daniels, “He’s a quarterback that we need to treat as a running back. We need to play with a certain intensity and value to that.” In last year’s matchup, Daniels did carry the ball 11 times, but didn’t get much done beyond a 15-yard run; where he really hurt the Illini was making use of his mobility to deliver downfield throws from outside the pocket.

3. Turnover margin: In reflecting on KU’s season opener against Lindenwood, Leipold reiterated on Monday that he was unhappy with the Jayhawks’ two early turnovers. The mistakes, an interception on a coverage that Daniels said he misread and a fumble by Quentin Skinner, hampered KU early. Grimes said he was happy that there was “an appropriate amount of frustration on the sideline” afterward, as KU tried to get going. The Jayhawks got one back later on with an interception by Mello Dotson, but meanwhile, in Champaign, the Illini were playing a clean game against Eastern Illinois, picking off two passes and recovering two fumbles. Illinois, though facing a lower-level opponent, scored 24 points off those four miscues by EIU, and could have the ability to punish KU similarly.

Spotlight on…

Blake Herold: With the Jayhawks in complete control against Lindenwood on Thursday, Herold got the first 17 snaps of his career at defensive tackle, and albeit in a small sample size, he got the highest Pro Football Focus grade of any player at the position. The redshirt freshman from Shenandoah, Iowa, has received consistent praise from his coaches, and on Monday Leipold said that defensive tackles coach Jim Panagos “loves him, loves his work ethic, loves his improvement.” At least as long as fellow offseason standout Caleb Taylor misses time due to injury — Leipold didn’t have much of an update on him this week, after he sat out the Lindenwood game — Herold will be part of the rotation, and he’ll face a much bigger test against a Big Ten interior line.

Inside the numbers

3,414: The career receiving total for Illinois wide receiver Zakhari Franklin, who previously played at UTSA and Ole Miss, and entered the season as the nation’s leader in career receiving yards.

74: The number of players that participated for KU in its victory over Lindenwood.

7: The number of rushing touchdowns Neal needs to surpass June Henley for the all-time KU record, after Neal added two against Lindenwood last week.

Prediction

KU wins 31-27. The Illini will do a much better job carving out space against the Jayhawks’ front on the offensive end, buying time for Altmyer and space for Feagin and company, and they’ll be able to keep the game much closer throughout in front of their home crowd. But KU’s veteran leaders will keep the offense composed, Grimes will pull out a few tricks and Illinois doesn’t have the personnel on its defensive line to trouble Daniels and Neal more than it did last season.