The number crunchers haven't posted a line on this one yet, but the shape of the matchup is already obvious: Missouri's trying to protect a defensive identity, Kansas is trying to find literally anyone else's identity. That gap tends to show up fastest in the first month, before either roster's fully settled.
Missouri's calling card the last two years has been defense, and 2025's group was the best of the Drinkwitz era — top-10 nationally in total defense, top-15 in scoring defense. The catch is a lot of those veteran leaders are gone now, which means this Kansas trip doubles as an early audition for whoever's replacing them. Ahmad Hardy still gives the Tigers a proven ground game to lean on while that defense finds its footing, and new pieces like transfer receivers Cayden Lee and Caleb Goodie give Simmons real targets from day one.
Kansas isn't without answers. Bringing back Andy Kotelnicki to call plays is a real move — he was part of the staff during Leipold's best Lawrence stretch — and portal additions like running back Dylan Edwards and offensive lineman Connor Stroh were aimed squarely at fixing what broke in a 5-7 season. But more than 50 new faces means chemistry is still a work in progress, and whoever wins that quarterback battle will be doing it in front of a home crowd against a defense with a lot more continuity than Kansas has right now.
This is exactly the kind of September game that tells you more about December than the final score might suggest — a program trying to hold onto an identity versus one trying to build a new one in real time.