Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels (6) heaves a pass as the quarterbacks warm up prior to kickoff against TCU on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 at GEHA Field in Kansas City. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas City, Mo. — Many of Kansas’ players have dreams of making it to the NFL. Few had experienced playing in an NFL stadium prior to Saturday afternoon.

They had, however, gotten the chance to practice at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium just before the start of the season, which, as defensive tackle Caleb Taylor put it, helped them get the “oohs and aahs” out of the way.

“It’s a lot different feel on the field than off the field,” tight end Jared Casey said.

That doesn’t mean the novelty had totally worn off.

“It’ll of course always be surreal playing in such a storied NFL stadium with one of the best teams in the league that’s actually playing in it,” Taylor added.

His offensive line counterpart Bryce Foster, KU’s starting center, said at first, “I don’t care about the environment. I don’t care if there’s a million people at the game, I don’t care if there’s nobody at the game and it’s like a scrimmage-type thing. I’m there to play football and I’m there to try to win a football game for my team.”

But even he, having previously played in professional stadiums at other points during his career, acknowledged that “it’s always exciting to get to play where the big dogs get to play at.”

Many of TCU’s players, too, are no stranger to NFL stadiums, having played in the homes of the Dallas Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Chargers and Rams during the Horned Frogs’ playoff run at the end of the 2022 season.

KU entered the matchup having won just one of the previous six games it played at Arrowhead from 2005 to 2011, including five instances of the Border Showdown. The 2008 iteration, which featured a 40-37 victory for the Jayhawks, was the lone game to go in KU’s favor.

The Jayhawks will play three more games at Arrowhead: against Houston (Oct. 19), Iowa State (Nov. 9) and Colorado (Nov. 23).

Recruiting boost

The fact that KU played its first two home games of the year on weeknights naturally inhibited its ability to bring prospective high school recruits in for visits. So naturally, Saturday’s game — even as it was played off-site at Arrowhead — presented an opportunity for the Jayhawks to host a larger group.

“Just through conversations, I think from here on out, I anticipate those numbers to be back where they normally are as far as game-day visits,” head coach Lance Leipold said.

Playing away from David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium makes it more difficult for KU to show high schoolers its facilities and campus, Leipold said, but some recruits had planned an additional trip to Lawrence the day after the game to check them out.

“From the start, it was an exciting topic for recruits to play at Arrowhead, and we’re excited as well,” he said.

Matching

KU wore for the first time the new red jerseys it had unveiled shortly prior to the 2024 season. The uniform selection, with the Jayhawks playing at the Chiefs’ home stadium for the first time, formed a nice parallel with when they wore powder blue in their first game at Sporting Kansas City’s facility on Aug. 29.

The all-red uniforms match the style of the new blue, white and black uniforms KU debuted in 2023 in that they eschew the Trajan font. The defining design characteristic of the new red jerseys is that they read “Rock Chalk” with a pair of stripes on each shoulder.

KU wore its previous red jerseys in a pair of games during the 2023 season, against BYU and Texas Tech.

This and that

Foster had a special connection to one of his opponents on the opposite side of Saturday’s matchup, a fellow native of the Houston suburbs, TCU defensive lineman Caleb Fox.

“I actually played with him when I was like in little league ball, South County football league, so it’s pretty cool,” Foster said. Foster is from Katy, Texas, while Fox is from The Woodlands, slightly to the northeast.

Saturday was the first collegiate football game played in Missouri for a number of Jayhawks native to the state, including Kansas City-area players like wide receiver Luke Grimm (Raymore) and tight end Trevor Kardell (Lee’s Summit). However, Kardell previously got to travel to his home state as a member of the KU baseball team, which visited Columbia, Springfield and St. Louis during his freshman year in 2021.

Three former Horned Frogs visit Arrowhead Stadium on a regular basis, as Emani Bailey, Lucas Niang and Jared Wiley are all on the Kansas City Chiefs’ roster.

A pair of David Beaty-era KU assistants, Doug Meacham (now TCU’s inside wide receivers coach) and A.J. Ricker (now its offensive line coach) faced off against the Jayhawks on Saturday. TCU staffers Tyler Olker and Sarah Woodruff also spent time in Lawrence prior to Leipold’s arrival.