4 Days Until Kansas Football: Season Over/Unders

The season is nearly at hand, and that means it’s time to make up some completely arbitrary Over/Under totals. Share your thoughts in the comments, and no, the mikeville casino will not be taking bets at this time.

Team O/U

1.5 wins. Taking the over basically means you think Kansas will take care of business in the season opener and pick off one more team: Duke? Tech? Baylor? K-State?

Last year: KU went 0-9, but did not have an FCS team on the Covid-altered schedule.

1,800 rushing yards. To get to 1800, KU would have to average 150 yards per game, and we’re guessing that Leipold will want to run the ball more than even Les Miles did.

Last year: As a team KU rushed for 944 yards, or 104.9 per game, on pace for 1,258 yards for a full 12-game season. Note that KU’s team rushing totals included -258 rushing yards due to sacks allowed.

2,100 passing yards. To get to 2100, KU would have to average 175 yards per game.

Last year: 1,389 passing yards in 9 games. At just 154.3 yards per game, the Jayhawks were on pace for 1,851 in a 12-game slate.

12 sacks. Do you think Kansas can get to the quarterback an average of once per game?

Last year: Kansas had 9 sacks as a team, again, in 9 games.

30 sacks allowed. How much will the offensive line improve? This translates to allowing 2.5 sacks per game.

As mentioned above, KU lost 258 yards going the wrong way on passing downs last year, allowing 47 sacks. That averages to 62 sacks over a 12-game schedule, or just over 5 per game. It is therefore unsurprising that Jalon Daniels and Miles Kendrick were 1-2 in the Big 12 in sacks taken.

6 interceptions. Can the KU defensive front get enough pressure to let the secondary go to work?

Last year: 5 INTs in nine games.

Individual O/U

A QB with 360 rushing yards. If one of the QBs started and played all 12 games, they would need to average just 30 yards per game for the over to hit.

Last year: Jason Bean (at North Texas) 346 yards. Jalon Daniels led KU in rushing attempts, but netted just 20 yards due to being the most-sacked QB in the Big 12.

Devin Neal 600 rushing yards. The highest rated KU recruit in the era of recruiting rankings would have to emerge from a crowded RB room and average 50 yards per game to hit this number.

Last season: Velton Gardner led Kansas with 325 rushing yards. That’s just 36 yards per game.

Any receiver 750 receiving yards. Will anyone step up and average over 62.5 yards per game? Kwamie Lassiter? Luke Grimm? Perhaps Buffalo transfer Trevor Wilson?

Last year: Lassiter led KU receivers with 458 receiving yards, or 50.8 per game.

Any receiver 60 receptions. Again, who will step up? Someone would have to average just 5 receptions per game to hit 60.

Last year: Lassiter hauled in 43 receptions to lead the team, or 4.7 per game.

Leading tackler 80 tackles. Kansas hasn’t had a leading tackler go over 100 since Joe Dineen in 2018.

Last year: Kenny Logan totaled 58 stops, or 6.4 per game, for a 12-game pace of 77 tackles.