The most highly anticipated road game of the 2026 Kansas football season arrives this Saturday when the Jayhawks travel to Manhattan. They will be searching for their first win in conference play against a K-State team that has also dropped its first two Big 12 contests.
KU is in the midst of one of the most embarrassing active streaks in college football, falling in 17 consecutive Sunflower Showdowns to its in-state rival. Things aren't projected to change this Saturday, either, with the Jayhawks entering the matchup as a heavy underdog.
Despite everything head coach Lance Leipold has done since taking over the program in 2021, his biggest shortcoming has come in the games that matter most. During his six-year tenure in Lawrence, Kansas has lost all five of its meetings with K-State and was unable to defeat Missouri in either edition of the renewed Border War.
The frustration building among KU fans has only been exacerbated by Leipold's comments about the rivalry in recent years. Whenever the Jayhawks have lost under his guidance, including several times in which they blew second-half leads, he has generally emphasized that the team can't treat it differently than any other conference showdown.
During his weekly press conference Monday afternoon, though, Leipold made it clear that he understands what this rivalry means to the Jayhawk faithful. He knows exactly how much the fanbase wants to see the Jayhawks come out on top for the first time since 2008.
"For a lot of years, I said, 'It can't be much of a rivalry unless we hold our end of the bargain up,' and we haven't done that yet," Leipold said. "We're well aware of that and we've got to find a way to get it done on Saturday. I know it's important to our fanbase, and it should be. We're going to need a great week of preparation to have a chance to go into their home and find a way to win the game."
Leipold on Kansas' Sunflower Showdown Struggles: 'We Know What This Game Is'
Leipold doesn't believe that the significance of the rivalry should change how his team prepares. Kansas isn't going to simply abandon its normal routine because it is playing K-State, but that doesn't mean he is unaware of how badly his players, coaches, and KU supporters want to win.
"We know what this game is," Leipold reiterated. "Sometimes, people take it as, 'He doesn't care about the game, or the program doesn't care about the game.' We're not stupid. I've always just tried to say, you got to line up the next week and prepare."
The lack of success, or more accurately, the complete absence of it, in marquee contests warrants significant criticism for Leipold. The Jayhawks have undoubtedly had talented enough squads to take down K-State in recent years, but poor coaching decisions and inexplicable gaffes have contributed to several of those defeats.
Skip past this section if you don't want to relive the horrors of the past few years, Jayhawk fans.
It's easy to forget that in the 2023 and 2024 campaigns, the Jayhawks came close and
should havefinally ended the streak. In 2023, linebacker Rich Miller dropped what would have been a walk-in pick-6 that would have put Kansas up three possessions in the third quarter. A year later, a Jalon Daniels fumble on what could have been a game-sealing drive allowed the Wildcats to kick a game-winning field goal with under two minutes remaining.
Leipold understands why the blame has been directed his way for these blunders. For all the good things he's done for the football program, fans aren't going to overlook the fact that Kansas has yet to beat K-State during his tenure.
"Now, where I've done a poor job, obviously, is not giving it enough of the credence of what it means to a lot of people outside the building. There's a lot of bragging rights and pride and things that go back and forth. That's in all the sports across our athletic department. For that, I don't want to minimize it, and we understand it'll be a great environment and we need to go play well," he concluded.
Quite frankly, it's about time that Leipold has addressed the elephant in the room surrounding KU football. The Jayhawks' nine-win season in 2023 was undoubtedly a step in the right direction, but beating K-State even once during Leipold's first five years at the helm likely would mean more to the people of Lawrence.
After a somewhat encouraging loss to Utah this past week, the hope is that KU can build on what it did right and apply it against a K-State team that looks extremely flawed under first-year head coach Collin Klein. Then again, history suggests that something otherworldly will prevent the Jayhawks from ending the losing skid.
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