Bottom Feeders: Predicting each Power Five college football conference’s last-place team

Big 12: Kansas Jayhawks are trending up under Lance Leipold, but it’s Kansas!

It may not be the case forever going forward, but the Kansas Jayhawks are still … the Kansas Jayhawks. While they played Oklahoma tough and upset Texas last year, resulting in an Applebee’s commercial, it has been a minute since the regular Big 12 bottom feeder achieved bowl eligibility. Kansas has been one of the worst programs in the country, but they employ Lance Leipold now.

Leipold was successful in his previous coaching endeavor at Buffalo. He seems to be about the grind, which is what it will take for Kansas to not finish in dead last in the Big 12 for the foreseeable future. Although the Jayhawks will win conference games this fall, or at least be competitive in more than you would expect, how many games are the Jayhawks really winning?

They are probably beating Tennessee Tech and Duke in the non-conference, so that’s two. While the road date at future Big 12 foe Houston will probably be a loss, Kansas certainly has the potential to be closer to six wins than zero this fall. If they were to win multiple Big 12 games to get to somewhere around 4-8, who are the Jayhawks beating exactly? How about one of these?

There is no way Kansas is beating Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor this year, and probably not Iowa State either. As for the other five conference games vs. Kansas State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech and West Virginia, the Jayhawks could win upwards of three. However, the real question is if Kansas does not finish last in the Big 12, who is it then? This is why is it a safe bet to pick KU.

If it is not Kansas, how much faith do you have in TCU, Texas Tech or West Virginia being worse?