MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Reinvigorated takes on revenge-minded when West Virginia and Kansas meet tonight at newly refurbished David Booth/Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas, in the Big 12 opener for both teams.

Reinvigorated is West Virginia, following its 31-24 overtime victory over arch-rival Pitt last Saturday in Morgantown, while Kansas has revenge on its mind after last year's 32-28 loss in Morgantown when the Jayhawks blew an 11-point lead with 5:30 remaining in the fourth quarter.

In that game, wide receiver Rodney Gallagher III's 15-yard touchdown catch with 26 seconds left proved to be the deciding score.

Gallagher is one of just a handful of remaining players left from that game for West Virginia, while Kansas boasts several key returning performers, including quarterback Jalon Daniels, running back Daniel Hishaw Jr., All-Big 12 center Bryce Foster, right guard Kobe Baynes, defensive end Dean Miller, defensive tackle Tommy Dunn Jr., and safety Devin Dye.

Daniels was unstoppable against West Virginia in 2022 when he led Kansas to a 55-42 overtime victory in Morgantown by accounting for 304 yards of total offense and three touchdowns in the 13-point victory.

Last year, the Lawndale, California, resident was limited to only 184 yards passing and 11 yards rushing in WVU's comeback win.

In three career games against the Mountaineers, Daniels has completed 55 of his 86 pass attempts for 652 yards and five touchdowns with three interceptions. He's also rushed 31 times for 106 yards and a score.

"He's a well-built, strong-looking player who breaks a lot of tackles," West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. "You hate facing mobile quarterbacks like that who have a lot of experience. You can have the perfect defense called and you've got a guy right on him and he shakes somebody or makes somebody miss and makes a big play.

"That's the biggest concern when you play an athletic guy like that," he added.

Hishaw, now No. 1 on KU's depth chart with the departure of Devin Neal to the pros, has also been a thorn in the side of West Virginia in two career games against the Mountaineers. The 5-foot-10, 220-pounder ran 10 times for 63 yards and two touchdowns in 2022 and contributed 72 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries a year ago. His 19 rushing attempts have accounted for three scores and an average of 7.1 yards per rush.

During the offseason, the Jayhawks added a key backfield addition from the transfer portal in Iowa transfer Leshon Williams, a 5-foot-10, 215-pound senior who ran for 821 yards last year for the Hawkeyes, including 100-yard performances against Western Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska.

Hishaw, Daniels and Williams have helped Kansas average 174.3 yards and 5.2 yards per carry on the ground so far this year in games against Fresno State, Wagner and Missouri two weeks ago.

Hishaw leads the Jayhawks with 169 yards, while Daniels has contributed 90 and Williams 52. Interestingly, the trio are all about the same size weighing 215 to 220 pounds and each wear single-digit numerals: Williams (4), Daniels (6) and Hishaw (9).

Daniels is completing 72% of his 75 pass attempts for 679 yards and nine touchdowns, three each of those scoring strikes going to Cam Pickett and to end DeShawn Hanika.

Senior Emmanuel Henderson Jr. leads Kansas with 12 catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski is now in complete control of the Jayhawk offense after being promoted from co-offensive coordinator during the offseason.

The KU defense, overseen by coordinator DK McDonald, has a familiar face in linebacker Trey Lathan, who leads the Jayhawks with 25 tackles, 3 ½ tackles for loss and two pass deflections through three games. He recorded a team-best 13 tackles in the Missouri loss while also generating a sack.

Lathan played three seasons at West Virginia, including a 79-tackle, nine-TFL, two-sack campaign in 2024.

"They do a lot – they're very similar to us defensively," Rodriguez said. "Some teams you will see a certain base defense, mostly on first and second down and then third down some of the exotic stuff, but you'll see a lot from these guys on every down. With two weeks, we're probably going to see some stuff that we haven't seen that we've got to be prepared for."

Seniors Dean Miller and Tommy Dunn Jr. lead an experienced defensive line that has a combined 58 career starts and more than 300 career game's-worth of experience among them.

Starting defensive tackle DJ Withers, and Texas transfer Justice Finkley are also seniors.

The top playmaker in the secondary so far has been senior safety Lyrik Rawls, an Oklahoma State transfer who has accounted for 17 tackles, a tackle for loss, an interception and a pass breakup.

Rawls is one of 13 players expected to be in Kansas' starting lineup on Saturday who began their collegiate careers at another schools.

The others are left guard Amir Herring (Michigan), center Foster (Texas A&M), right guard Baynes (Louisville), right tackle Enrique Cruz Jr. (Syracuse), tight end Hanika (Iowa State), wide receiver Pickett (Ball State), wide receiver Henderson (Alabama), wide receiver Levi Wentz (Old Dominion), defensive end Miller (College of the Canyons), defensive end Finkley (Texas), and linebackers Lathan (West Virginia) and Bangally Kamara (Pitt).

Kansas opened the season with victories over Fresno State and Wagner before falling 42-31 at arch-rival Missouri two weeks ago in Columbia. The Jayhawks jumped out to a 21-6 first-quarter lead before the Tigers came roaring back.

"We've got a big challenge on the road," Rodriguez said. "Kansas has a really talented team with an open week, so they've had two weeks to prepare in a new stadium with all that goes with it."

West Virginia and Kansas have met 13 times, beginning in 1941 in Morgantown, with the Mountaineers owning an 11-2 overall edge. Kansas' two wins were in 2013 (31-19) in Lawrence and in 2022 (55-42) in Morgantown.

Here is tonight's Countdown to Kickoff:

10 – West Virginia has now generated five scoring drives of TEN plays or longer so far through three games this season. Of the five, three have resulted in touchdowns.

9 – The Mountaineer defense is ranked among the nation's top 35 teams in NINE different statistical categories this week. They are: sacks (fourth), interceptions (12^th), turnovers gained (14^th), kickoff return
defense (18^th), third-down defense (19^th), fumbles recovered (24^th), tackles for loss (27^th), rushing defense (29^th) and scoring defense (33^rd).

8 – WVU has held EIGHT of its last 16 opponents to fewer than 130 yards rushing in a game.

7 – SEVEN of West Virginia's 11 victories in the Kansas series have come in Morgantown. The other four in Lawrence happened in 2021, 2019, 2017 and 2015.

6 – Including West Virginia's 31-24 overtime victory over Pitt last Saturday, the Big 12 now has SIX nonconference wins against Power Four opponents so far this year, second most of any FBS conference.

5 – Today's game will be the FIFTH time West Virginia has kicked off Big 12 play against Kansas. The other instances were in 2024, 2022, 2019 and 2017.

4 – Rich Rodriguez ranks FOURTH among active power conference coaches with 192 career victories.

3 – Running back Tye Edwards' THREE rushing touchdowns, all scored last Saturday against Pitt, has him now ranked 37^th in the country in that category.

2 – Rich Rodriguez now moves into sole possession of SECOND place on WVU's career win list with 62 victories, trailing only Hall of Fame coach Don Nehlen's 149.

1 – The Mountaineers continue to rank FIRST in the country in red zone offense by successfully scoring on all 10 of their red zone opportunities so far this season.

The game will kick off at 6 p.m. and will be televised nationally on FS1 (Noah Reed and Robert Smith).

Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning begins at 3 p.m. with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show leading into regular network coverage at 5 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.

Stop back afterward for complete postgame coverage.