photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas head coach Lance Leipold talks to the crowd during the Kansas Football Fan Appreciation Day Saturday, April 5, 2025, in Lawrence.

Updated 4:31 p.m. Thursday, May 29:

The Kansas football team now knows when it will play each of its first three games of the season — including the first two in the revamped David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium — and its season finale, as a variety of television times were announced on Thursday morning.

KU has long known that it will open the year and the new stadium on Saturday, Aug. 23, against Fresno State in a “week zero” game before the season starts for most of its peers. That game will take place at 5:30 p.m. and will be televised on Fox.

The Jayhawks will then host Wagner the following Friday night, Aug. 29, at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+.

They will travel to Columbia, Missouri, for an afternoon rivalry battle with the Tigers on Sept. 6 at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN2.

Fresno State will be playing its first season under former North Dakota State head coach Matt Entz, who took the job with the Bulldogs after a short stint as an assistant at USC. Fresno State went 6-7 last season with a loss in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl after former coach Jeff Tedford stepped down for health reasons, concluding his second stint with the program, and Tim Skipper coached the season on an interim basis.

The Jayhawks and Bulldogs have never faced off before, although they will do so again in Fresno in 2030 and in Lawrence in 2031, according to FBSchedules.com.

Wagner, another first-time opponent, is an FCS team from the Northeast Conference. The Seahawks replaced a spot on the schedule originally reserved for Stephen F. Austin. Wagner went 4-8 last year and has never beaten an FBS team.

KU and Missouri will renew the Border Showdown in football for the first time since 2011, when the Tigers won it in Kansas City, Missouri. MU leads the all-time series 56-55-9. The now-SEC program is coming off a strong season in which it went 10-3 with a victory over Iowa in the Music City Bowl.

KU also learned its game time for its final matchup of the year, the first senior day at the new Booth, against Utah. That game is set for Black Friday, Nov. 28, at 11 a.m. and will be televised on ABC or ESPN.

The rest of the Big 12 game times will be announced one or two weeks prior to any given game.

The Utes, who have split four matchups with KU in their history, will take on the Jayhawks for the first time since joining the Big 12. In their first season in the conference last year, they went a disappointing 5-7.

Jayhawks, real and fictional, make brief appearance in video game trailer

It may not have built up quite the same level of anticipation as last year’s release, which was 11 years in the making, but EA Sports is beginning in earnest the promotional offensive for its latest college football game, which comes out on July 10.

The trailer for “EA Sports College Football 26” came out on Thursday morning, and about 36 seconds in, a few Jayhawks are visible from behind as they exit the tunnel in a hostile road stadium — which looks like Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium due to the script “A” on the video board — while Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” blares and a narrator talks about “roars that remind our rivals they’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Linebackers Joseph Sipp Jr. and Jayson Gilliom can be clearly seen in the cluster of players, with defensive tackle D.J. Withers off to the left side and offensive linemen Kobe Baynes and Bryce Foster and running back Leshon Williams out of focus, deeper in the background.

However, two of the most prominently visible Jayhawks, a Clary wearing No. 39 and a Burt wearing No. 54, are not real players. It’s reminiscent of the trailer for last year’s game that showed running back Devin Neal hurdling an Iowa State player but changed his name to “Shade” midway through the hurdle.

KU also announced on Thursday that head coach Lance Leipold and coordinators D.K. McDonald and Jim Zebrowski will be included in the video game.

Foster headed to track nationals

KU’s starting center Foster, who came to Lawrence in part to get the opportunity to continue competing in track and field, has qualified to the NCAA outdoor nationals in Eugene, Oregon, after he finished sixth in the shot put at the NCAA West Preliminary in College Station, Texas, on Wednesday night.

On his third and final attempt, Foster recorded the best mark of his KU career with a throw of 19.20 meters. That was the sixth-best performance at the competition, and he was closely followed by freshman teammate Jacob Cookinham, who came in ninth at 18.93 and also qualified.

Foster previously reached Eugene once during his tenure at Texas A&M, back in 2022 — after he recorded the throw of 19.73 in preliminary competition that still stands as his career-best performance — and finished 21st nationally. But he missed qualification by two spots in 2023 and one spot in 2024 before transferring to KU last summer.

Throughout the spring, Foster balanced morning football practices with afternoon track practices, something he was unable to do at A&M because the two sports overlapped.

Outdoor nationals begin at Hayward Field on June 11.

Leipold opines on current issues at Big 12 meetings

Like his fellow KU coaches Brandon Schneider and Bill Self had done on Wednesday, Leipold spoke at the podium at the Big 12’s administrative meetings in Orlando, Florida, on Thursday afternoon, in his capacity as a committee chair.

Speaking for the league’s coaches as a group, Leipold said they unanimously supported a move to a single transfer portal window in January.

“We know it’s a tough thing with calendars right now and where it goes, and (you would have) a chance to get your team settled,” he said. “You’re signing most of your guys in December, you know what your roster will be like to start the second semester, you’re going to have the opportunity to work and develop and build those relationships, evaluate your team and (get) ready for the next season.”

Also, Leipold had previously lamented the new roster limits set to be imposed by the House v. NCAA settlement, which forced KU to part ways with many of his walk-ons — though he had noted that some of those walk-ons received excellent opportunities at other schools.

But in recent months, with approval of the settlement still pending, it now seems those cuts might not have been necessary at all, as Judge Claudia Wilken now hopes the final settlement will grandfather in players who would have lost their spots otherwise.

“As we still wait for that settlement to be signed and decided, it’s mixed feelings,” Leipold said. “… You feel bad about guys who wanted to stay at the University of Kansas and get their degree and be part of our program, but (it’s) bittersweet.”

He said coaches should really be happy when walk-ons whose spots may have been in jeopardy get to go to places where they could potentially receive more playing time.

“I guess we all wish there had been a little more clarity sooner, but just like everything else I think we’re dealing with, we just want clarity,” Leipold said, “and really how are we going to operate, and I think we’ll all find a way to make it beneficial for all.”