Kansas Football should know not to take Coastal Carolina lightly

Kansas football opens their 2020 season this Saturday against Coastal Carolina, who they faced last year as well. They should have learned from last year not to take the Chanticleers lightly.

The original plan for the 2020 season was for the Kansas Jayhawks to travel to Conway, South Carolina to play the Chanticleers, but that all changed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Instead, Coastal Carolina will come to Lawrence for the second straight year and will serve as KU’s only non-conference game on the schedule.

When the two teams played each other last year, Kansas had every opportunity to secure an early season win, but they couldn’t muster more than their singular touchdown, losing 12-7. Had the Jayhawks won that game, they’d have moved to 2-0 and then 3-0, as they defeated Boston College the next week.

KU would have been looking at an entirely different season if they had simply taken care of business against Coastal Carolina. Instead, they got ahead of themselves and it showed. They weren’t prepared.

Kansas football has a shot in this one and hopefully this time they can win.

Both teams are going into this game without a true starting quarterback, as the Jayhawks will give Thomas MacVittie and Miles Kendrick a shot under center. Coastal Carolina didn’t need their quarterback to be great last year, as they took to the ground game and ran roughshod over KU, totaling 172 rushing yards.

That obviously helped Coastal Carolina control the time of possession and that’s ultimately what the game came down to. Kansas couldn’t get the job done offensively and their defense failed to stop the Chanticleers run game. That can’t happen again this year, especially now that KU knows losing to Coastal Carolina is possible.

It’s year two for Les Miles as the head coach of the Kansas football program and there were glimpses of potential last season. Beating Boston College on the road was a huge accomplishment for the team and something that past teams wouldn’t have been able to do. Not only did they beat the Eagles on their home turf, they blew them out! It was incredible.

Kansas also beat Texas Tech, which was a big moment for last year’s squad. This was yet another difference Miles made, as the Jayhawks had struggled against their own conference over the past decade and finally got a victory against someone other than the bottom barrel teams.

KU saw what happened when they didn’t take Coastal Carolina seriously and hopefully they learned from their mistakes and take it to the Chanticleers on Saturday.