Kansas heads to Salt Lake City still trying to answer why so many winnable games slipped away last fall, right as Utah tries to prove life after Kyle Whittingham hasn't slowed the program down one bit.
Bush’s Picks
KUUTAH
KUUTAH
OverUnder
Best BetUtah
Utah is the far more proven team walking in, coming off a 10-win season with its dual-QB engine intact. Kansas has to show it can finish games before it deserves real moneyline respect on the road against a Big 12 title contender. Back the Utes here, with the caveat that a first-year staff can produce the occasional letdown.
Kansas
+Added dynamic transfer Dylan Edwards to the backfield
+Leipold has a track record of rebuilding programs fast
−Finished 5-7, 3-6 in Big 12 last season
−Facing one of the toughest schedules in the conference
Utah
+Won 10 games in 2025, sits among Big 12 title favorites
+Returns dual-QB duo in Dampier and Ficklin
−First season under new head coach Morgan Scalley
−Offensive line replaces 5 starters, 18 new roster faces
Utah enters Friday, October 9 as one of the Big 12's real contenders, and it starts with the QB room. Devon Dampier and Byrd Ficklin are running it back in the dual-QB rotation that powered a 10-2 season, giving new head coach Morgan Scalley a proven engine to lean on in his first year replacing program legend Kyle Whittingham, who left for Michigan. Kansas, meanwhile, is trying to figure out why so many winnable 2025 games slipped away late — Lance Leipold's group went 5-7 despite being in position to beat Missouri, Cincinnati and Arizona in the fourth quarter.
The roster turnover cuts both ways here. Utah is breaking in 18 new faces and an offensive line replacing 5 starters, the kind of thing that can look shaky even for a talented team early in a season. Kansas countered its own losses by bringing in Kansas native Dylan Edwards, a transfer who gives Leipold's offense a dynamic new piece to build around heading into one of the toughest slates the program has faced in years.
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KU Kansas
UTAH Utah
Neither program is walking into this one settled. Utah is still figuring out its identity under a first-time head coach, and Kansas is deep into a brutal non-conference stretch — hosting Missouri, then flying to London to face Arizona State at Wembley Stadium — before this game even kicks off. How each team handles that early turbulence will say a lot about how competitive this Big 12 matchup actually is.
Kansas Jayhawks
Oct 2?vs Middle Tennessee—
Sep 19?vs Arizona State—
Sep 11?vs Missouri—
Sep 4?vs Long Island University—
Utah Utes
Sep 25?@ Iowa State—
Sep 19?vs Utah State—
Sep 12?vs Arkansas—
Sep 3?vs Idaho—
Recent form.
Utah's preseason Big 12 title odds sit near the top of the conference, and a home game against a rebuilding Kansas squad is exactly the kind of matchup the Utes need to bank if they're serious about a run at November. For Kansas, it's a measuring-stick trip — proof, one way or another, of whether last year's late-game collapses were bad luck or a bigger problem Leipold still has to fix.
