South Dakota State @ Kansas preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 1, 2012 ) South Dakota State 17, Kansas 31

New coach David Beaty is trying a new approach to help Kansas get back on the road to respectability after six straight losing seasons. The Jayhawks begin that quest Saturday when they host South Dakota State, an FCS program from the Missouri Valley Conference.

Beaty, who spent the last three seasons as the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Texas A&M, is back for his third stint as Kansas after previously serving as the program’s co-offensive coordinator (2011) and wide receivers coach (2008-09). He inherits one of the nation’s least experienced rosters with only four starters and 40 letterwinners returning from last season’s 3-9 squad. There’s some excitement in Lawrence as Beaty has installed a new up-tempo spread offense and has revamped the program’s recruiting philosophy, replacing the juco-heavy emphasis of the Charlie Weis era with an added focus on luring recruits out of the perennial hotbed state of Texas. Kansas is opening the season against an FCS foe for the seventh straight season, but South Dakota State won’t be a pushover as the Jackrabbits are ranked 15th in the FCS Coaches preseason poll.

TV: Noon ET, Fox Sports Network. LINE: NL.

ABOUT SOUTH DAKOTA STATE (2014: 9-5): Under coach John Stiegelmeier, the Jackrabbits are one of six FCS programs to appear in the playoffs in each of the last three seasons and have been ranked in both FCS polls every week since Oct. 29, 2012. Stiegelmeier, the most successful coach in the program’s history, has guided South Dakota State to winning seasons in 14 of his 18 seasons at helm, but the task is a little more daunting this season, having to replace three-time 2,000-yard rusher Zach Zenner and the program’s all-time passing leader in Austin Sumner. Quarterback Zach Lujan will get the start for the Jackrabbits after taking over for the injured Sumner last season and piloting the team to a 5-2 finish.

ABOUT KANSAS (2014: 3-9): Montell Cozart won the job in a tight fall-camp battle to allow the Jayhawks to open back-to-back seasons with the same starting quarterback for the first time since 2008. Still, there figures to be growing pains almost everywhere else as 25 of the 59 players listed on the team’s current depth chart never have played in a Division I game and the squad doesn’t return a single player who scored a touchdown last season. “I wouldn't call (the inexperience) a concern,” Beaty said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “It's something we have to deal with obviously. We understand it, and we know that's not going to be a part of their thinking.”

EXTRA POINTS

1. Kansas was picked to finish last in the Big 12 preseason poll and joined Iowa State as the only two programs not placing a player on the preseason all-conference team.

2. Since 2000, the Jayhawks are 12-1 against FCS foes, losing only to perennial power North Dakota State 6-3 in the 2010 season opener, and are 29-3 in its last 32 home nonconference games.

3. South Dakota State is looking for its first win over an FBS foe and its first victory over a Big 12 opponent with all-time record of 0-7 against the conference.

PREDICTION: Kansas 30, South Dakota State 27