Baylor at Kansas Breakdown: Week 8, Oct. 24, 2026

The story

Baylor arrives in Lawrence at 4-2 after a 17-6 home loss to TCU on Oct. 17, a game that stalled an offense that had rolled through Colorado and Arizona State. Kansas has dropped two straight, both on the road, and sits winless in Big 12 play. For fantasy purposes, the quarterbacks carry this game, while both backfields and both receiving rooms come with real questions.

The angle

Neither offense's scoring points to an extreme game, so usage and matchups decide most of the calls. The matchups tilt toward Baylor. Kansas is about average against every position and allows 24 points a game, about average. Baylor holds opponents to 14.7 points a game, the ninth-best scoring defense in FBS, and ranks above average against every position. Kansas's skill players face the harder path.

Start 'em

DJ Lagway has played in four of Baylor's six games, and in that time he has handled nearly all of the team's passing. He has averaged 261 passing yards a game over his last three games, along with a handful of carries. He has scored 18.5 points a game over that stretch and 18 this season, with a high of 33.8. Kansas is about average against quarterbacks, so nothing in this matchup should pull him off that line. Call him a safe floor, because his workload rarely changes from week to week.

Isaiah Marshall gives Kansas a dual threat that does not depend on the matchup. Over his last three games he has averaged 215 passing yards and 83 rushing yards on about 11 carries a game. That rushing role is what steadies him, and he has averaged 22.9 points over that stretch and 20.1 this season, with a high of 27.4. Baylor is an above-average defense against quarterbacks, top 20 percent of FBS, which probably caps how high he climbs. Start him anyway, since his legs supply a floor that a good defense struggles to take away.

Risky plays

Gavin Freeman has been Baylor's primary receiver all season. He has averaged 19.4 points a game this season and has a high of 33.4. Louis Brown (Baylor) has carved out a real share alongside him, but Freeman's 17 points a game over the last three games outpaces Brown's 11.5, so Freeman remains the receiver to roster. The concern is volume: Freeman has caught 29 percent of the team's passes over his last three games, down from 40 percent earlier in the season. Kansas is about average against receivers, which gives him no help in rebuilding that share. Treat him as risky while that share of the catches stays reduced.

Dylan Edwards (Kansas) has taken on a bigger workload since Yasin Willis (Kansas) was ruled out for the season. He has averaged 15 carries a game over his last three games, up from 10 a game before that, and he has drawn 40 percent of the team's carries over that span. He has turned that work into 22.1 points a game over that stretch and 16 this season, with a high of 35.7. The obstacle is Baylor's run defense, which ranks in the top 20 percent of FBS per carry and allows 87 rushing yards a game. Edwards rates as risky, because the extra carries are running into one of the tougher run defenses in FBS.

Sit 'em

Dawson Pendergrass shares the Baylor backfield with Caden Knighten. Over the last three games, Pendergrass has 32 percent of the carries and Knighten 25 percent, so neither one is the lead. Pendergrass's share has also slipped further recently, to 24 percent of the team's carries over his last two games, down from 44 percent earlier in the season. Against a Kansas defense that is about average against running backs, that shrinking workload is hard to trust. Fade him until his carries come back.

TL;DR

Lean on Lagway and Marshall at quarterback, keep Freeman and Edwards as risky flex calls, and leave Baylor's split backfield alone.