Predicting ceiling, floor for Kansas in 2024 season
Heading into a 2024 season with a great roster, terrific coach and wide open Big 12, Kansas football has a chance for a historic and special season, according to On3’s Andy Staples and Ari Temkin of Big 12 Radio on Sirius XM.
Those two broke down the ceilings and floors of every single Big 12 team in a live On3 YouTube stream Monday morning. When it came to Kansas, there was great optimism in the Jayhawks being good team at the very least. However, their ceiling may come down to a very unreliable variable at the quarterback position.
So, read below on what Staples and Temkin had to say on Kansas’ best and worst outcome for the 2024 season:
Ceiling: College Football Playoff
Staples began his positive spin by looking at a very manageable KU schedule:
“I actually like the non-conference. At Illinois, I think Kansas is going to be favored in that game. The UNLV game might be one of the more fun offensive matchups we’re going to see all season. Obviously, the Sunflower Showdown is going to be huge, but Kansas does not have to play Utah, does not have to play Oklahoma State. That’s a nice draw.”
With that friendly slate plus what’s in place in Lawrence, Andy Staples is dreaming big for the Jayhawks.
“I’m going to go ceiling: CFP. Because if Jalon Daniels is healthy, they’re a CFP contender because they’re a contender for the Big 12 title. They got a great draw.”
Ari Temkin was right there with him, noting the importance of Daniels’ availability but agreeing that KU is certainly in the mix for the Big 12 title.
“If Daniels plays in every game, totally different animal, and yeah, this team is a viable CFP contender, because they’re going to be a Big 12 title contender.”
Floor: 7-5
Get ready for more discussion on the health of Jalon Daniels, because Andy Staples laid out exactly why there’s more concern in 2024 about the QB spot than even in 2022 and 2023 when Daniels was also injured.
“Jalon Daniels is one of the most exciting quarterbacks in college football, and I will add the caveat: when healthy. The part that makes this interesting is Jason Bean, the backup QB who could always come in when Daniels got hurt, is not there anymore. So, does that change things? If he gets banged up, do they become a different team if they don’t have the stopgap of Bean?”
Temkin believes so.
“The answer is yes. How could they not? This is one of the most talented quarterbacks in college football. Bean, to his credit, did a great job not giving up too much. But even with Bean, there’s a drop-off in talent.”
So, the drop-off is just potentially a bit bigger this year. That could be bad news, since Temkin believes Daniels missing time is inevitable.
“Jalon Daniels is not going to play the entire season. I know that because he’s yet to do that. So all the evidence I have says that he’s not going to play. Again, this is my alma mater, but I think I’m not as high on Kansas as a lot of people are because of that.”
Even with the unknown of a superstar player in Daniels, Staples still had Kansas’ floor as a solid bowl team: “I can’t believe I’m saying this about Kansas: the floor is seven wins. The worst is seven wins.”
Ari Temkin concurred, explaining that you’d be making a bad bet to go against Lance Leipold making a bowl game with their schedule.
“I would think Lance Leipold has done enough in a few years that there’s a credibility, like, they’re not going to miss a bowl game. Even if things go horribly wrong, and Daniels isn’t healthy, they’re just too good and are too-well-coached to not get to a bowl game.”