College basketball blue bloods looking like football schools with hot starts

Look at these college basketball blue bloods all being 3-0 to start the college football season!

When you think of Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina, you think of college basketball excellence, and not necessarily dominating on the college football gridiron.

Yet here we are … The Blue Devils, Jayhawks, Wildcats and Tar Heels are all 3-0 through their first three games of the season. Kentucky being great is not a huge surprise, or UNC playing up to par under Mack Brown, for that matter. What is shocking is Kansas being 3-0, given how awful they have been in the Big 12 for a decade-plus, and Duke being 3-0 under new head coach Mike Elko.

Prepare yourselves to live in a world where all four basketball blue bloods are going bowling…

College basketball blue bloods are now officially football schools after hot starts

The cool part in all this is all four schools are at different points in their respective climbs. This is Elko’s first season in Durham. People thought Duke would win three games this year, just not their first three. ACC play could be a challenge, but the Blue Devils certainly were able to hold their own in conference play when Elko’s predecessor David Cutcliffe was in the midst of his coaching prime.

Leipold is a tad further along than Elko. People expected Kansas to be about a four-win team this year. They still have to win three more games to be bowl eligible, but he is the perfect man for the job. The big question is not if he will get Kansas to bowl eligibility this season, but if he will emerge as the favorite to replace Scott Frost in Lincoln. Leipold was a terrific coach at Buffalo previously.

For UNC, it just shows the power of an all-time head coach having strong quarterback play. Brown did amazing things in Chapel Hill the first time around before becoming a legend at Texas in the 2000s. While he did have the Tar Heels playing in a New Year’s Six bowl in 2020, that was in the midst of a COVID year. Fortunately, he has the right guy under center in UNC legacy Drake Maye.

And for Kentucky, Mark Stoops is probably the best thing to ever happen to the UK program. The Wildcats were a disaster when he arrived in Lexington after being Jimbo Fisher’s defensive coordinator in Tallahassee. Stoops has elite job security, but the question is if he wants to take on the Nebraska challenge. What happens if Florida State or his alma mater Iowa open up as well?

Overall, it is always good to see basketball schools more than hold their own on the gridiron. Although most will never be able to usurp all the success that has happened on the hardwood in the pantheon, Kentucky is a shining example of what happens when you invest fully into your football program. The Wildcats should win 10 games this year and make it to the New Year’s Six.

Kentucky and UNC are now locks to go bowling, but will Duke and Kansas join the awesome party?

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