photo by: AP Photo/Annie Rice

Kansas head coach Lance Leipold walks along the sidelines during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against Texas Tech Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Lubbock, Texas.

Lubbock, Texas — Entering a bye week off a loss is very familiar for the Kansas football team. Fortunately for the Jayhawks, so is exiting one with a win.

KU slumps into its second of three bye weeks during the 2025 season coming off a 42-17 road loss at Texas Tech on Saturday night, much as it entered its last five bye weeks off road losses to Missouri, Arizona State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Baylor, dating back to 2022.

Whatever head coach Lance Leipold and his staff have been doing continues to work, because those open dates were followed in short order by victories over West Virginia, Iowa State, Houston, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, respectively. That’s five in a row.

Something has to give, because this time, coming up after the open date is a team with a streak of its own, Kansas State. The Wildcats have, of course, beaten KU 16 straight times.

They will be coming off a bye as well in this case — a position in which their own head coach Chris Klieman has not always excelled — but they have much more momentum after taking down TCU 41-28 on Saturday, and both KU and KSU are now 2-2 in league play.

As well as the Jayhawks and Wildcats know each other already, they will be even better acquainted by the time they meet at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Oct. 25.

“It’s another week of prep, and especially with coming in against a rivalry opponent, you get seven extra days to watch film and game plan on those guys,” tight end Boden Groen said. “It gives you a chance to get your body back under you, but also, we’re going to know K-State that much more than we do on a weekly basis.”

Many of the new Jayhawks will need to familiarize themselves with the rivalry; meanwhile, a handful of veterans from earlier stages of the Leipold era will have a final chance to take down KSU and snap the streak.

Setting its opponent aside, KU has a lot of work to do.

“If you don’t watch film and own what’s on film and get better from it, then at the end of the day you’re cheating yourself,” quarterback Jalon Daniels said.

Safety Taylor Davis added, along the same lines, that KU needs to “own what’s on film, keep making the small things go away and just keep building that brotherhood as a team.”

Leipold was already concerned about the Jayhawks’ consistency last week. That was before they went to Lubbock and played essentially one good quarter, and for the second game in a row had to try their best to account for a dreadful start (it went a lot better against UCF than it did against Texas Tech).

There have been familiar problems, like missed tackles and large cushions in coverage on defense, or minimal holes in the run game on offense. Some have seemingly improved, like KU’s pre-halftime woes; the Jayhawks handled that period much better in each of the last two games. And some new ones have popped up, like the offensive line’s comprehensive struggles at Tech, albeit against an elite defensive front.

Those won’t all be solved in a matter of days, but the extra time can go a long way for a handful of injured Jayhawks. Running back Daniel Hishaw Jr. made a rather promising return on Saturday. If KU can get players like Mason Ellis and Syeed Gibbs back, it’ll look a lot better in the secondary.

“Mentally and physically, (the schedule) takes its toll on our guys and again, they’re in the building a long time working hard,” Leipold said. “We’ve got some guys that are again banged up, and I’m sure it’ll be again tomorrow. So we’ve got to be smart.

“Again, getting ready for K-State, we understand what that’s about and those things, so (we’ll find) the balance of getting things taken care of but mentally and physically getting our team in a good position to prepare for that game.”