Going into the season there was a lot of talk and question marks about the Kansas defensive line.

They lost several starters from last year who played a lot of snaps.

The new version of the 2023 front four answered a lot of those questions with a strong performance against Missouri State.

“I think we had a real chip on our shoulder just because we have phones, too,” Hayden Hatcher said. “We have Twitter. We see. The big question is always, what's the D-line going to do? Are we going to be able to hold up and everything? And I think we took that real personal and we got to work, and we could have sat there and talked about it, but instead we chose to get in the weight room, get on the field and be about it. And I think it showed Friday night.”

Hatcher said they know what is being said and they wanted to start with a statement against Missouri State.

They can use the preseason chatter about the team as motivation.

“I would actually say sometimes you want to let it get in your head because it gives you a little extra motivation,” Hatcher said. “At the same time, you don't ever want to get too high. You don't ever want to get too low.

“I would say we as a group of guys, we come in here and work with each other every day, so we know what each other is capable of. We know we have a physical group, a fast group, and it wasn't any surprise to me that were able to go out and show how hard we've been working.”

This week Hatcher and the defensive line knows the challenge will ramp up with a physical Illinois team heading to Lawrence.

Head coach Lance Leipold has put an emphasis on being more physical since the spring and Hatcher is looking forward to the challenge.

“I think that everything we do, we try and base off physicality, and we try to pride ourselves on that,” he said. “So, getting a team like this is really exciting because I'd love to see a team come in you know they're going to try to run the ball on you. You know that they're going to try and hit you in the mouth every time.

“Part of that is getting that taste of blood and kind of getting some adrenaline going. I love playing a physical team, and that's what Illinois is. I think we're definitely going to be up to the challenge.”