Kansas opens its 2026 season on Friday night against Long Island University at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. It is the first live test of a reshaped Jayhawks team after a 5-7 finish in the 2025 season, a move that will show quickly whether the offseason changes have any immediate payoff.
The headline change starts on the sideline and reaches all the way to the quarterback room. Andy Kotelnicki is back from Penn State as associate head coach and offensive play caller, Jim Zebrowski shifted to passing game coordinator and Joe Dineen was promoted to defensive ends coach as Taiwo Onatolu turned his attention to special teams. Kansas also added transfers Dylan Edwards, Yasin Willis and Nik McMillan, strengthened the secondary with Elijah Cannon, Roman Pearson, Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman, Corey Gordon and Jaden Harris, and went with Isaiah Marshall over Cole Ballard to replace Jalon Daniels at quarterback.
That is why Friday matters. Kansas is not just starting a new season; it is trying to show that a new structure can produce cleaner football immediately. Leipold said the Jayhawks must respect every opponent and be ready to play their best football right out of the gate, a warning that fits a matchup like this one. Long Island University is an FCS team and enters as a heavy underdog, but it is not a blank slate. It beat FBS Eastern Michigan early in 2025 and came into this season as the rare smaller-program defense with a top-10 scoring ranking in FCS a year ago.
The problem for Long Island University is that its opener did not match that profile. It fell behind North Dakota 42-0 by halftime and lost 42-21, even after Rafael Fasolino put up 10 tackles and an interception. Kansas has reason to notice the contradiction. A defense that looked elite in one season can still be exposed in a bad first half, and an offense with a new play caller and a new quarterback can still need time before it settles in. That leaves Friday as more than a tuneup. It is the first real answer to whether Kansas looks like a team rebuilt or a team still searching for itself.
