Preview: Kansas football visits No. 17 Coastal Carolina in first road test of season

Kansas football seeks revenge Friday against No. 17 Coastal Carolina in their first road test of the season.

The Chanticleers have dominated the Jayhawks in the last two matchups inside David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium -- and Friday marks the first time Coastal Carolina will ever host a Power 5 opponent.

“[It will be] a great opportunity to be on national television...and we [have] got to play well,” said head coach Lance Leipold Monday. “And it will be a challenge, but it’s part of it.

Heading into Friday night, the cards are stacked against a Jayhawk team that escaped with a mere 17-14 win over South Dakota in week one, whereas Coastal crushed The Citadel, 52-14. In that contest, redshirt sophomore quarterback Grayson McCall registered 262 passing yards on 16 completions and a touchdown.

But for defensive coordinator Brian Borland, he is not too concerned about the preparation as the coaching staff is very familiar with the Chanticleers after their extended stint in Buffalo.

“Being at Buffalo, we couldn’t get away from Coastal [Carolina], so we had a pretty good head start on a plan for this week,” Borland told the media Tuesday. “Working on getting to know Coastal Carolina’s option offense early on is definitely going to help. It’s a mixed blessing. I am happy we had a plan before and had knowledge prior, but it doesn’t make it any easier.”

Aside from Coastal Carolina, Kansas presumably worked a lot on refining its run game this week after Leipold made a note in a Monday press conference that there were several areas in clean-up in order to have a successful run game this week.

“If it was one easy thing to clean up, you make the adjustment and go,” Leipold said. “Many times if it’s one thing on - whether it be two guys working together, someone working off to the wrong man, not getting movement - there are multiple things that need to be corrected and cleaned up.”

In addition to the run game, Kansas’ passing game will also need to come out in full force Friday, as it lacked consistency last week. However, in the second half, redshirt junior quarterback Jason Bean showed more poise and increased comfortability in the pocket.

Though, Bean said it took a while to get the jitters out.

“We [have] got to come out stronger, faster next week,” Bean told the media after the win over South Dakota. “But you know, we got it going... we kind of struggled a little bit early on, like I said, but you know, I think the tempo helps a little bit, getting the offensive line going -- getting them moving.”

Kickoff from Brooks Stadium in Conway, South Carolina is scheduled for Friday at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN2.