Kansas Jayhawks football vs. Boston College: Kickoff time, TV, 5 things to know
Through two weeks, the Kansas football team finds itself in a familiar spot: It’s the worst Power Five football program in the country.
That’s at least according to the advanced SP+ measure from ESPN’s Bill Connelly, which rated KU as 114th out of 130 FBS teams. Perhaps more disturbingly, the Jayhawks’ offense is ranked 127th, while the defense is a respectable 48th.
Connelly describes the SP+ rankings as “a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency ... intended to be predictive and forward-facing.” His numbers routinely have done favorably against the Vegas spread and are considered one of the top publicly available measures.
Jeff Sagarin’s numbers are a little higher on KU ... but only barely. The Jayhawks are 111th, with one Power Five team (Vanderbilt, 146th) behind them.
Here’s a look at this week’s game against Boston College.
The details
Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. Central time Friday
Where: Alumni Stadium, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
TV: ACC Network
Radio: WHB (810 AM) in Kansas City, KFH (1240 AM) in Wichita
The line: Boston College by 21 1/2.
Five things to know
Staying perfect? Boston College enters with a 2-0 record after defeating Richmond 45-13 last week. The Eagles also already have a Power Five win this season, defeating Virginia Tech 35-28 at home in Week 1.
Grounding it out: Friday’s matchup will be between two of the nation’s run-heaviest teams in the nation. Boston College has rushed on 70% of its plays through two games, while KU isn’t far behind at 60%.
- NFL bloodlines: Boston College left tackle Tyler Vrabel is the son of former Chiefs linebacker Mike Vrabel — the current head coach for the Tennessee Titans. Tyler has been productive so far, allowing no sacks, no QB hits and only one hurry on the Eagles’ 48 pass attempts.
- Turnover tail-off After ranking second in the nation in turnover margin (plus-16) last season, KU’s minus-3 total in 2019 is back to a tie for 114th nationally. In addition, KU has nearly half as many giveaways this season (five) as it did all of last year (11).
- Knowing the foe: Miles is familiar with Boston College coach Steve Addazio, as Addazio recruited Les’ son and current KU fullback, Ben Miles, to Boston College. “Really good coach,” Miles said of Addazio. “Really good person.”
