Kansas AD Travis Goff happy to face Arkansas in bowl. Mizzou ‘would have been great, too’
There had been some speculation in recent days that Border War rivals Kansas and Missouri, teams with identical 6-6 records, might be matched against each other this postseason in a college football bowl game, specifically the Liberty Bowl.
“I hadn’t heard anything about that,” KU athletic director Travis Goff said with a smile, before providing a longer answer to a question concerning whether he “had any reaction to maybe playing Missouri?”
The two rivals are scheduled to begin a four-year series in football starting in 2025. They’ll play in 2025 at Missouri, 2026 at Kansas, then in 2031 at MU and 2032 at KU.
“Here’s the honest answer,” Goff said Sunday at a news conference held to discuss the Jayhawks accepting an invitation to the 64th Liberty Bowl.
“We really feel so excited about being in a bowl game. Listen, we know where we’ve been. We’re not about to get on a high horse about playing in this bowl game or playing against this kind of opponent. We were excited to play at whatever bowl game desired us and against whatever opponent.
KU will take on another 6-6 team, Arkansas, in a 4:30 p.m. kickoff on Dec. 28 in Memphis. Missouri is headed to the Gasparilla Bowl to play Wake Forest on Dec. 23 in Tampa, Florida.
“That would have been great, too,” Goff added of playing the Tigers. “We got an awesome opponent in Arkansas from that same conference (SEC). It’s a great challenge and a great opportunity.”
It had been reported earlier in the week by college football reporter Brett McMurphy that MU did not want to play KU. Missouri’s official football account replied via Twitter that that report was untrue and the Tigers were “looking forward to our bowl game against any team!”
KU quarterback Jalon Daniels said Sunday the Jayhawk players had been speculating all last week what team they might be matched with in a bowl game.
“We’ve been talking about it for a while. Every single day when we go into the building we were trying to find out who we going against,” Daniels said.
Did he have any preference regarding the foe?
“Me being a West Coast guy I wanted to go against a Pac-12 school, no matter what it was. I didn’t really care who it was. Being a West Coast guy you always want to go against people you know from back home. A lot of the guys I grew up with are from Pac-12 schools,” said Daniels, a native of Lawndale, California.
He respects Arkansas of the SEC.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what they do schematically as a defense. I’m going to start picking up more tips on what Arkansas does starting tonight,” Daniels said.
Senior defensive lineman Sam Burt said players were anxious to learn the identity of their bowl foe.
“Yes of course. You know you are bowl eligible, you just don’t know who,” Burt said. “There was speculation thrown out. We could go to this bowl against this person. It’s been a pretty big topic throughout the week. We had a couple practices. It’s weird to practice with no one in mind at this point of the season. Now that we know who we are playing and where it’s going to be, it’s pretty exciting.”
The KU players are enthused about playing Arkansas in Memphis. It’s just the third meeting between the schools in history, KU winning the other two.
“Great bowl. Great opportunity. They (bowl officials) were saying today they followed us all season and really wanted us there,” Burt said. “Hearing that from them was cool. It’s a blessing for this team. We all are excited about being a part of it.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2022 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Kansas AD Travis Goff happy to face Arkansas in bowl. Mizzou ‘would have been great, too’."
