photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Fans cheer before an NCAA college football game between Kansas and Kansas State, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, in Lawrence.

In Oklahoma State, a team that is currently 1-7, Kansas guard Kobe Baynes sees a team playing football with much the same spirit the Jayhawks did when they were 1-5 in 2024.

“I think their coach kind of has them really amped up to play each week, and I think that we’re really looking forward to the challenge of going against them,” Baynes said. “… Last year, I think we played that same mentality, like every game, we’re going to go out here, (we’re) 0-0, the records don’t matter, we’re going out here to play ball. So I think us having the same mentality kind of last year, I can see that way they play each game.”

KU will have to hope, when it faces OSU at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium at 3 p.m. on Saturday, that it doesn’t meet the same fate of some of its own late-season opponents from last year. When the Jayhawks were 1-5, as Baynes referenced, they blew out Houston; when they were 2-6, they rattled off three straight wins over ranked opponents.

They did fall short of a bowl game due to a blowout loss at Baylor, and now this year’s team is hoping for a different outcome, for which it will need to win at least two of its final four games.

“I told the boys today, ‘I only got four left, and I just want to make it fun, and just win out with y’all, because it’d be nothing (more) special, it’d be nothing better than that,'” sixth-year defensive tackle Kenean Caldwell said.

The OSU matchup, which is KU’s homecoming game, is easily the Jayhawks’ best chance at another win in the weeks ahead, especially with road trips to Arizona and Iowa State looming. The Cowboys have lost seven consecutive games, including five straight Big 12 matchups by an average of four touchdowns under interim head coach Doug Meacham (a former KU offensive coordinator).

They are expected to get quarterback Zane Flores back — not their season-opening starter, but the starter of games two through five, in which he did not pass for a touchdown. In Flores’ absence, OSU’s quarterback options have included a converted wide receiver (who was originally a quarterback earlier in his career) in Sam Jackson V, a player who spent last year as a regular student at UCF in Noah Walters, and last year’s Lawrence High School starter, Banks Bowen (their interim defensive coordinator, of course, is former LHS coach and longtime KU assistant Clint Bowen).

“You got to dig deep in the archives,” KU defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald said. “You got to do a little bit of everything in games like this. Just because it kind of feels like one of those first-game type of things, just because every week they’re reinventing themselves, and they’re doing a good job with that. They’re being really creative.”

OSU’s top players this season include running back Rodney Fields Jr., who ran for 163 yards and a touchdown in a loss to Cincinnati but missed last week’s shutout loss to Texas Tech, and edge rusher Wendell Gregory, who has been credited with 26 pressures this season per Pro Football Focus, which is more than double the next closest Cowboy (and nearly double the closest Jayhawk). Both are redshirt freshmen.

“They have some athletes,” KU coach Lance Leipold said. “They have some talent. They have speed. They’ve created some big plays, they’re doing things, and then all of a sudden, again like many of us, we’re trying to find the answers why we shoot ourselves in the foot, so to speak, and something happens.”

OSU enters the week tied for 126th in total offense and 128th in total defense, although the Cowboys have stopped the run well since elevating Bowen, including limiting Tech, a team that gashed KU, to 88 rushing yards.

“I’m sure they’re looking at it, through their lens of where we’re at, that this is a great opportunity for them to get a conference win and get themselves feeling good,” Leipold said.

The Jayhawks have some history with big home wins over OSU. Jason Bean led the Jayhawks to one over a ranked team in 2022 to clinch KU’s first trip to a bowl game since 2008. That is, however, the only time the Jayhawks have beaten the Cowboys in their last 14 tries.

Even setting aside the postseason implications of the matchup, this is a key bounce-back spot for KU after its dire 42-17 loss to rival Kansas State.

“We got a big test to kind of see where we’re at as a program right now, and as a team in our leadership, and leadership from myself and others, that we have to make sure that we keep coaching this group and finding solutions and answers and create competition where we can,” Leipold said.

Kansas Jayhawks (4-4, 2-3 Big 12) vs. Oklahoma State Cowboys (1-7, 0-5 Big 12)

• David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, Lawrence, 3 p.m.

• Broadcast: ESPN+

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9 / KMXN FM 92.9)

• Betting line: KU -24.5; over/under 55.5

• Series history: OSU leads 42-30-2

Keep an eye out

1. Second-half stagnation: During each of their last two games, the Jayhawks have entered the second half with momentum after scoring late in the first and have been utterly unable to capitalize. At Texas Tech, they cut a deficit from 21-0 to 21-17 and even got a stop at the start of the third quarter but proceeded to punt on five consecutive drives and didn’t score. Against K-State, they killed the clock with a touchdown drive to make it 21-14 before the break and got the ball out of halftime but went three-and-out and scored three points the rest of the day. In the month of October, KU posted one second-half touchdown and it was set up by a fumble recovered at the 2-yard line. Offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski has said he needs to do better calling plays to help his team, when it’s earned momentum, “ride that wave a little longer and get us past that third quarter.”

2. Tight-end trouble: KU did well to weather the loss of DeShawn Hanika for the season, largely thanks to Boden Groen, who has exceeded expectations after transferring from Rice late in the summer. Well, the Jayhawks have another obstacle to face now with promising big-bodied redshirt freshman Carson Bruhn injured. The depth behind Groen (who was banged up ahead of the K-State game and managed just two catches for 17 yards) consists of Leyton Cure, who has served primarily as a blocker and has been targeted three times in his KU tenure; Eudora native Jaden Hamm, a redshirt sophomore special-teams contributor; and walk-on Quinton Conley. Leipold liked what he saw from Cure against K-State, and Zebrowski said he expects that the reserve tight ends will be “not stunned by the moment.”

3. Rawls’ rematch: KU safety Lyrik Rawls, who has 50 tackles on the season and has been one of the Jayhawks’ most frequently used defensive players this year (he is second in snaps with 462, per PFF), is a transfer from OSU. He started for the Cowboys early in their 2023 season, which ended with a trip to the Big 12 title game, but tore his ACL and redshirted before seeing rotational action in 2024. The native of Marshall, Texas, said on Tuesday that he felt bad that OSU coach Mike Gundy had been fired, knowing that he “changed a lot of men’s lives there, he got me there, got me in college football.” Rawls said he still knew “a good handful of guys” on the OSU roster despite its turnover and that he was looking forward to seeing them.

Spotlight on…

Mason Ellis: The Mulvane native, one of KU’s top athletes in terms of speed and strength, looked good in nonconference play starting at the Jayhawks’ nickel spot, but for the second year in a row missed time due to an early-season injury. In his absence, and that of fellow nickel back Syeed Gibbs, starting cornerback Jalen Todd slid inside. Ellis made his return against K-State, but KU largely left Todd at nickel and had Ellis return to his original position of safety. McDonald said KU needed the depth there and wanted his speed on the back end. The question is whether the staff will continue to consider that the best possible allocation of the Jayhawks’ personnel, especially after a tough day for their young corners against K-State.

Inside the numbers

21: Yards KU allowed per completion to Avery Johnson during the Kansas State game.

11: KU kicker Laith Marjan’s streak of consecutive field goals made as a Jayhawk, which matches a team record.

1: No OSU player has thrown more than a single passing touchdown this season.

Prediction

KU wins 41-20. Oklahoma State has struggled against the pass and Jalon Daniels is bound to bounce back from his poor showing against Kansas State. On the other end, OSU doesn’t have the arms to challenge KU’s vulnerable secondary. It all makes for a pretty good matchup for the Jayhawks as they look to regain some momentum.