Kansas Names Peyton Bender Starting Quarterback

Kansas football announced on its twitter account that Peyton Bender will be the team’s starting quarterback for week 1 against Nicholls State.

Bender, a Washington State transfer via Itawamba CC in Mississippi, played in 10 games for the Jayhawks last year, completing 54 percent of his passes, throwing for 1609 yards and 10 TDs with 10 INTs. Four of those touchdowns, however, came in the season opener against FCS Southeast Missouri State.

Bender can certainly make all the throws and has the best arm of any of the KU quarterback candidates (although to be fair I have not seen Myles Kendrick throw a pass). But, poor mobility and a makeshift offensive line combined for problems last year, and if the line hasn’t dramatically improved this year he could run into a lot of the same issues again.