This Saturday, Texas has a chance to avenge that game from last season.

Of all of the Longhorns’ seven losses last season, the 57–56 loss to 1–8 Kansas in overtime at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium is a running gag that Texas hasn’t lived down. It was Kansas’ first conference road win since 2008 and was the slumping Longhorns’ fifth-straight loss. 

However, head coach Steve Sarkisian said this is a completely different season. 6–4 Texas will go up to Lawrence to face 6–4 Kansas — the Jayhawks’ first bowl-eligible team since 2008.

“Human nature tells you we need to avenge what happened a year ago,” Sarkisian said on Monday. “The reality is we’re a different team. They’re a different team.”

While Kansas rewrote their story this season by creeping into the AP Poll for the first time since 2009 and hosting ESPN’s College GameDay for the first time ever, second-year Jayhawks head coach Lance Leipold isn’t one to give into the pageantry of college football. He is soft spoken and humble in his conferences, and isn’t known for spurting out flashy quotes or monologues of coach speak.

However, he has turned Kansas into a team that can win with what they’ve got. Sarkisian praised Leipold for creating a system that can compete in games against ranked opponents, despite subpar recruiting in comparison to other Power 5 programs.

“Lance has done a great job,” Sarkisian said. “They came out early in the year and really jumped on people (with a) very unique style of offense.”

Sarkisian compared Kansas to programs like Army, Navy and Air Force in that the Jayhawks feature a hard offense to defend against. Leipold runs a triple-option offense, but does it in spread sets with the quarterback in the pistol.

Paired with running back Devin Neal, who ranks 20th in the FBS for season rushing yards at 951, Texas will be forced to play disciplined football to keep Kansas’ offense at bay, especially if quarterback Jalon Daniels makes his return from injury.

This season, Daniels completed about two-thirds of his passes before exiting the TCU game on Oct. 8 with a shoulder injury. Over a month later, Leipold said that the quarterback is very close to making his return to the gridiron.

“He’s at the point where he can play at a level that is gonna allow him to go out there and play freely,” Leipold said. “If it’s not a daily conversation, it’s every other day that we talk and look at it. If you’re watching him in warm ups, you can see it’s really, really close.”

While Daniels would likely give Kansas extra firepower in both the passing and rushing game, backup quarterback Jason Bean gives the Jayhawks a chance to win too. Like Daniels, Bean can also run the football, as evidenced by his 73-yard touchdown run against Oklahoma State.

“A lot of credit to (Kansas) for the job they’ve done,” Sarkisian said. “They’ve withstood the storm of losing their starting quarterback. The backup comes in and has kind of found his way a little bit too. (It’s a) great challenge for us.”