The Kansas Jayhawks have a golden opportunity versus the Baylor Bears on Saturday.

A win could potentially turn their season around and help put an end to one of the last remaining bad losing streaks that the program currently suffers.

Kansas has not beaten Baylor since 2007 when the Jayhawks put together their magical 12-1 season that ended with an Orange Bowl win over Virginia Tech. The Jayhawks beat the Bears in Lawrence that year by a final score of 58-10.

Since then, it’s been all Baylor. The Bears have won 14 straight over the Jayhawks and done so in convincing fashion with an average victory margin of 33.7 points per game.

Baylor has four different head coaches during that span, while KU has had six. Current Baylor head coach Dave Aranda is 4-0 versus the Jayhawks and KU head coach Lance Leipold is 0-3.

The 2024 loss to Baylor in Waco was especially painful for the Jayhawks. KU was projected to have a special season that year with a bevy of talented seniors, including running back Devin Neal, cornerbacks Cobee Bryant and Mello Dotson, and a trio of senior wideouts in Luke Grimm, Lawrence Arnold, and Quentin Skinner.

Kansas got off to a rough start that year but rebounded to win three straight late in the season and put themselves in position to reach a bowl game when they headed to Waco for the final game of the regular season. Unfortunately, KU’s postseason dreams were slashed with a 45-17 loss, which brought the program to 0-12 all time in the series in games played in Waco.

At home, KU is 4-7 all time versus the Bears, which is a much more encouraging statistic for a game that the Jayhawks have to win this Saturday.

Entering the season, the Jayhawks had the opportunity to end three ugly losing streaks: The 17-year losing streak to Missouri, the 17-game losing streak to Kansas State, and the 14-game losing streak to Baylor.  

KU failed the first two tests but can still pass the third with a win over an average Baylor team on Saturday that would put an end to the losing streak and keep the Jayhawks’ flailing postseason dreams alive.

Kickoff is scheduled for noon CT with the game airing live on TNT.