Gameday Preview: Lindenwood Opens Season With Trip To Kansas

The Lindenwood University football team will kickoff its 2024 season, Thursday night, when it travels west to take on the No. 22-ranked University of Kansas. The game will be played at Children's Mercy Park, home of the Kansas City area's MLS team, Sporting Kansas City, while KU builds a new multi-million dollar football stadium on campus in Lawrence.

This will be the first meeting between the two teams and Lindenwood's first FBS opponent since moving up to the NCAA Division I FCS level in 2022.

The Lions are coming off a 3-7 season in 2023, when injuries completely obliterated the Lindenwood roster. Last year, the Lions had nearly 30 players miss games due to physical ailments and once the season was over more than 20 players had to have surgery to get their bodies put back together.

"It was 23," Lindenwood head coach Jed Stugart said. "We had 23 players that had to have different kinds of surgeries. We had guys limping around here all winter. I've never seen anything like it. Guys just kept getting hurt. But we're happy to be beginning the new year.

"Our guys are doing good. We had a good offseason and a good summer (of lifting weights and rehabbing injuries). We're very excited about this group and what we can do this year."

Lindenwood, which was picked to finish eighth in the nine-team Big South-OVC Football Association preseason poll, will begin the year with quite a test, as it will go on the road to take on a Kansas team that was ranked No. 22 in the Associated Press Top 25, the No. 24 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

The Jayhawks are coming off an outstanding year, when they went 9-4 record and ended the season with a win over UNLV in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl last December.

Thursday night's contest will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Players to Watch: Lindenwood will be bringing back two of its top playmakers on offense in running back Robert Giaimo and wide receiver Jeff Caldwell. Both ended last year on the injured list.

Caldwell had a strong sophomore season -- his first as a starter for the Lions. He caught 32 passes for 599 yards and led the Big South-OVC in yards per catch (18.7) and touchdown catches (eight).

Giaimo was off to a fine start in what would have been his redshirt sophomore year. He had 440 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns, and was averaging 5.4 yards per carry. But he missed the second half of the season due to a torn ACL.

This year, he hopes to find the form he showed in 2021, when he rushed for 742 yards, scored 11 touchdowns, and was the Great Lakes Valley Conference Freshman of the Year.

The 2024 Lions will also feature 17 transfers, including starting quarterback Nate Glantz, who comes to Lindenwood after spending last season at McNeese State.

On defense, the Lions will be led by stud defensive lineman Kobe McClendon and linebackers Ethan Stuhlsatz and Devon Edwards.

Kansas enters the 2024 season with a plethora of returning experience, including 30 seniors throughout the roster. The Jayhawks return seven starters on offense from the 2023 season, including Maxwell Award Watch List candidates Jalon Daniels and Devin Neal, a star-studded trio of receivers in Lawrence Arnold, Luke Grimm and Quentin Skinner, and proven experience on the offensive line in Bryce Cabeldue, Michael Ford Jr. and Kobe Baynes.

Defensively, the Jayhawks return two All-Big 12 cornerbacks in Cobee Bryant and Mello Dotson. As a unit in 2023, Kansas held opponents to 378.2 yards per game and 26.5 points per game, both of which were the fewest allowed in a single season by a KU defense since 2007. Kansas' defense ranked fourth in the Big 12 Conference in total defense in 2023 (378.2), compared to 12th in 2022 (469.3).

Up Next: Lindenwood will host its home opener next Saturday, September 7, when it takes on Central Arkansas at Hunter Stadium. Kickoff that evening is slated for 6 p.m.

Kansas will be at Illinois next Saturday, with a game that will be televised on FS1.

2024 LINDENWOOD LIONS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Aug. 29 (Thursday) at Kansas -- 7 pm
Sept. 7 (Saturday) vs. Central Arkansas -- 6 pm
Sept. 14 (Saturday) at Missouri State -- 6 pm
Sept. 21 (Saturday) vs. St. Thomas -- 1 pm
Sept. 28 (Saturday) at Eastern Illinois* -- 2 pm
Oct. 5 (Saturday) vs. Tennessee State* -- 1 pm
Oct. 12 (Saturday) vs. Charleston Southern* -- 1 pm
Oct. 19 (Saturday) at Gardner-Webb* -- 3 pm
Oct. 26 (Saturday) vs. Western Illinois* -- 2 pm
Nov. 2 (Saturday) at Tennessee Tech* -- 1:30 pm
Nov. 9 (Saturday) vs. SEMO* -- 1 pm
Nov. 23 (Saturday) at Tennessee-Martin* -- 2 pm
* - denotes Big South-OVC Football Association game