Week-By-Week Preview: Kansas

We continue our week-by-week preview of the TCU football season, we have come to the halfway point of Week 6.

The Horned Frogs will at this point have been through five games, including a non-conference matchup with a respected SEC squad and a conference game that could determine the trajectory of the Big 12 title race.

Week 6 is the Frogs' final game before their first bye week, and it comes against a team that is still looking to climb its way up from the bottom of the Big 12 standings but always manages to play TCU close.

The Kansas Jayhawks were winless last season. Not just in conference play. They didn't win a game all season. However, they almost beat a top-20 team when they played TCU in Fort Worth in November.

Josh Doctson was ineffective with a wrist injury, and Trevone Boykin left after the first quarter with an ankle sprain. The Frogs slipped by Kansas for a 23-17 win, but the game gave TCU a glimpse of what life without Boykin and Doctson might look like.

The offense will look better than it did in that game. It would be nearly impossible not to. Foster Sawyer and Bram Kohlhausen were thrown into that game without any warning. Either Sawyer or Kenny Hill will have been starting for more than a month, and the other will have spent the whole offseason competing for the starting job. TCU's quarterback play will be better.

Kansas has been a difficult opponent for TCU since the Frogs joined the Big 12. They're 4-0 against the Jayhawks, but all of the previous matchups there have been closer than anticipated. These are the results since TCU joined the league:

2012: TCU 20, KU 6 (Halftime: TCU 10, KU 6)

2013: TCU 27, KU 17 (Halftime: TCU 10, KU 10)

2014: TCU 34, KU 30 (Halftime: KU 13, TCU 10)

2015: TCU 23, KU 17 (Halftime: TCU 10, KU 10)

TCU has had a habit of playing down to the competition in these games. The Jayhawks have a decent quarterback in Ryan Willis and some talented receivers, including Texas A&M transfer and former 4-star recruit LaQuvionte Gonzalez.

The Frogs still boast an athletic advantage in this matchup, which usually shows itself by the fourth quarter. If TCU wants to keep this game from being uncomfortably close again, however, it should exploit that advantage early and often.

Big-play receivers like Deante' Gray, KaVontae Turpin and Emanuel Porter should get the ball deep a lot as the Frogs seek to outrun the Jayhawks early. On defense, TCU can probably get by playing sound assignment defense. Mistakes have been the biggest reason the Kansas offense has been able to hang around against TCU the last two seasons.

On paper, this game should be no problem for the Frogs, and they should go into their off week feeling good about themselves. If history is any indication, however, the matchup may be tougher than people expect. So at this point, maybe it should just be expected.