Kansas vs. Southern Mississippi Open Game Thread

Hattiesburg Mississippi, under the lights on Friday night with a national television audience. This is fun. Being the first roadie, I'd imagine we'll have a packed house here at RCT for the open thread which kicks off now an hour and a half early for the occasion.

As for the game, this is a big one. A huge test for the Kansas defense and one that will give us hints as to how they'll handle the spread offenses in the Big 12. Yes the conference is moving more toward a run focused spread in some areas but the fact remains that stopping those teams that spread it out and look to score a lot of points hasn't been easy for Kansas.

Offensively the Jayhawks are playing an opponent that could allow Kansas to continue to show improvements in terms of execution. USM still struggles to defend the pass and will leave the middle of the field open in an attempt to create pressure off the blitz. Kansas won't make the play everytime, but if they can take advantage of this enough there could be some big play momentum changers as a result.

One team is going to come away from this one with a 2-1 record feeling much better about the results from week one. USM is a 6 point favorite so it should be a close one. I'm hoping Kansas stays in this and has a chance to win late. Win either by punching one in on offense, or like we saw last week with the defense making a big stop.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!