The Kansas coaching staff is coming off a busy summer. Between camps and recruiting there has not been much downtime.

That did not stop them from looking ahead at their schedule and working on some advance scouting. Kansas head coach Lance Leipold talked about their summer preparations during an interview on Sports Radio 810 with the Border Patrol.

Early work involved looking at several of their opponents.

“Before we break, even as we started our camp circuits in the month of June and official visits and all that, we started really our first game planning,” Leipold said. “We also went into UCF, a little bit of the newer opponents because we want to get some background on the new people in our league, not just approach that as it goes into a game week.”

The Jayhawks will kick off the season against Missouri State, who will have a new head coach. Leipold remembered one year at Buffalo they opened with a loss to an FCS opponent. They got an early start studying the Bears because Leipold wants to be ready.

“I go back to our time in Buffalo, we were beaten by an FCS team in our second year,” Leipold recalled. “Again, there's any kind of matchups and a one-time game you've got to make sure you're ready. You see it every year where somebody is upset by an FCS school, this will probably be a game we should be favored.”

Last year Bobby Petrino was the head coach at Missouri State, and many believed he had the program going in the right direction. Petrino is now the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M.

Ryan Beard takes over the head coaching position after serving as Petrino’s defensive coordinator and has been on the Missouri State staff since 2020. The Bears play in the Missouri Valley Conference, regarded as the best FCS conference.

“Missouri Valley is, to me, and being in the Midwest most of my life, is the best FCS conference in the country,” Leipold said. “You look at North Dakota State, South Dakota State, and Missouri State's been a playoff team. So now Bobby Petrino has left as the head coach. They're going to have some new tweaks and you're going to see a talented, athletic football team.”

Leipold and his staff will be ready when they start fall camp with scouting reports for the early part of the schedule.

“We have preliminary breakdowns and initial game plan thoughts in all three phases on really the first four or five opponents,” he said.