The Devin Leary era for Kentucky begins Saturday when the Wildcats host the Ball State Cardinals in Lexington, Ky., in the season opener for both schools.

A transfer from NC State, Leary will have big cleats to fill in replacing Will Levis, UK’s signal-caller over the past two seasons and a second-round draft pick (33rd overall) by the Tennessee Titans in April.

Leary, 23, should fit right in with the Wildcats, who are coming off a 7-6 (3-5 SEC) mark and a 21-0 loss to Iowa in the Music City Bowl last year.

Leary tore a pectoral muscle on Oct. 8 and finished the 2022 season with 1,265 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions in six games. In 2021, the New Jersey native passed for 3,433 yards and 35 touchdowns against five picks. He passed for 6,807 yards and 62 TDs in four seasons — two of which included season-ending injuries.

An ESPN analyst named Leary the year’s most significant transfer — high praise in this age of abundant portal entries.

No argument from Kentucky offensive coordinator Liam Coen.

“Extremely accurate,” Coen told The Athletic this week. “And not just one day, but really every day. He’s consistently making these throws. … He’s made every throw you can ask a quarterback to make at this level.”

Coach Mike Neu and Ball State, which went 5-7 overall and 3-5 in the Mid-American Conference in 2022, will have their own transfer quarterback — Texas State’s Layne Hatcher.

Hatcher’s journey began after being named Arkansas’ Gatorade Player of the Year and joining Alabama in 2018. He soon transferred to Arkansas State, where he was the 2019 Sun Belt Freshman of the Year.

The Little Rock native’s experience should be a big plus beginning Saturday.

“(Hatcher’s) seen a lot, he’s been exposed to a lot,” Neu said. “Layne’s experience and being in that type of environment (at Kentucky) certainly (is) in his favor.”

Ball State’s next outing will also be a road game against SEC opposition — top-ranked Georgia.

–Field Level Media

For Fresno State, it’s a chance to build on the history it made last year.

For Purdue, it’s a chance to start the Ryan Walters era with a splash.

When the Bulldogs visit West Lafayette, Ind., on Saturday for a matchup with the Boilermakers, they’ll try to extend the third-longest active winning streak in FBS. After starting 1-4 last year, Fresno State ripped off nine straight wins, claiming the Mountain West Conference title and winning the LA Bowl to cap a 10-4 season.

“Tells you how tough they are, how together they are in that building,” Walters said of the Bulldogs. “It’ll be a challenge.”

How much of a challenge depends on how new faces respond to bigger roles. Fresno State lost its top passer (Jake Haener), top runner (Jordan Mims) and top three receivers (Jalen Moreno-Cropper, Nikko Remigio and Zane Pope). Mims’ 1,372 yards made him the first Bulldog to pass 1,000 yards in eight years.

UCF transfer Mikey Keene earned the starting job at quarterback, beating out Logan Fife, Joshua Wood and freshman Jayden Mandal. Keene started 10 games as a freshman for the Knights in 2021, completing 63.6 percent of his passes for 1,730 yards with 17 touchdowns and six interceptions.

“Mikey is going to start but we’re very fortunate to have a really good quarterback room,” Fresno State coach Jeff Tedford said.

Identifying a new quarterback has also been a top priority during the preseason at Purdue, which reached the Big Ten title game last year behind Aidan O’Connell. O’Connell threw for 3,490 yards and 22 touchdowns, connecting 110 times with top receiver Charlie Jones.

Texas transfer Hudson Card, who played in 20 games and started five the past two years with the Longhorns, has won the job. Card has thrown 11 touchdowns and only two interceptions in 194 career attempts, rolling up 303 yards and three scores last year in a win over West Virginia.

This will be the first meeting of the Bulldogs and Boilermakers.

–Field Level Media

The Troy Taylor era at Stanford will start Friday at Hawaii with uncertainty, not only because of the Cardinal’s potential move to the ACC, but because the new coach will not announce his starting quarterback before the game.

With former starter Tanner McKee now in the NFL, Taylor is deciding between early enrollee Myles Jackson, Ari Patu, Ashton Daniels and Syracuse transfer Justin Lamson.

“I’m not gonna announce anything,” Taylor said Monday. “I think it’s become more and more clear for us, but I won’t make any announcement. Everybody will know right when the game starts.”

Taylor, a former quarterback at California, Stanford’s chief rival, starts his career with the Cardinal after compiling a 30-8 record in three seasons at FCS Sacramento State.

He may be coaching in the ACC starting next season, with that conference reportedly voting soon to add Stanford and California, two of the four remaining Pac-12 schools after this academic year.

None of his four quarterbacks has more than 16 passing attempts in a season in college.

Hawaii (0-1) is coming off a 35-28 loss at Vanderbilt last week, falling short after rallying in the fourth quarter with a couple of touchdowns.

The Rainbow Warriors have an established quarterback, Brayden Schager, a junior who made his 10th consecutive start last week.

He completed his first eight passes engineering Timmy Chang’s run-and-shoot offense against Vanderbilt.

He finished 27-of-35 passing for a career-high 351 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. His 27 completions and three touchdowns were also career-high totals.

Hawaii outgained Vanderbilt in total yards, 391-297.

With one less day to prepare for Stanford, with the game landing on Friday, Hawaii’s coaches reviewed and graded film of the Vanderbilt game during the charter flight back to Honolulu. After arriving home early Sunday morning, they went straight to their offices.

Chang also prepared for Vanderbilt and Stanford during fall camp.

“We jumped ahead,” Chang said. “That was part of the plan.”

–Field Level Media

It’s been well over a decade since there was this much anticipation for Kansas football heading into a season.

The Jayhawks will host the Missouri State Bears on Friday night, looking to build on last season’s 6-6 regular season. Coach Lance Leipold’s team is getting noticed in ways not seen in Lawrence since the late 2000s.

Kansas’ last winning season was in 2008 when it went 8-5. That’s also the last season it finished anywhere in the conference standings other than last or next to last (and the last time it won more than two games in the Big 12) before going 3-6 last season, good for seventh place in the 10-team league.

With four new schools entering Big 12 play this season, Kansas is expected to be somewhere in the middle of the pack. The Jayhawks were picked ninth in the 14-team league, but within shouting range of Oklahoma State and UCF, which were seventh and eighth, respectively. They are ahead of Iowa State and West Virginia, two carry-overs, as well as newcomers BYU, Houston and Cincinnati.

“Last year was an exciting year for us to take a big step forward as a program,” Leipold said at Big 12 Media Days in July. “We’re excited to take another step this year.”

The Jayhawks will be relying on quarterback Jalon Daniels, the Big 12 preseason Offensive Player of the Year.

“He’s making all the throws, (being) everything we need him to be,” Leipold said. “I think one thing we forget about Jalon, with everything he brings to our program, is that he’s an academic all-American. What we put on his plate … I think he does an outstanding job.”

The Bears are coming off a 5-6 season in which they won three of their last four games, snapping a five-game losing streak in the process. MSU first-year coach Ryan Beard returns 11 starters, 38 lettermen and 62 total squad members from last season.

“The one thing I like about this group is they truly love football,” Beard said. “There are a bunch of position battles going on. I think we’re going to continue to get better every single day.”

–Field Level Media

A once highly touted quarterback gets a chance to put a new spin on the narrative around his college football career in what amounts to a fresh start with No. 18 Oregon State.

The first chance for former Clemson signal-caller D.J. Uiagalelei arrives Sunday afternoon when the Beavers open their regular season in a nonconference match on the road against San Jose State (0-1).

Uiagalelei spent three seasons at Clemson, starting 28 games and appearing in 36 overall. He showed flashes of his great potential but ultimately entered the transfer portal as the Tigers failed to achieve the same success as they did under previous top quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Oregon State gladly offered a landing spot for Uiagalelei and confirmed his starting role this week.

“He just continued to get better and better,” Beavers head coach Jonathan Smith said. “We had two big scrimmages and he played the best in those two.”

Behind Uiagalelei on the quarterback depth chart will be freshman Aidan Chiles and redshirt sophomore Ben Gulbranson. Chiles was a four-star recruit out of California and figures to get an opportunity if Uiagalelei struggles or gets injured this season.

Oregon State is hoping to pick up where it left off last season, when it finished with seven wins in its last eight games. The Beavers finished with a 10-3 record, including 6-3 in the Pac-12 Conference.

As Oregon State prepares for its season debut, San Jose State will face a ranked opponent for the second time in as many weeks. The Spartans visited No. 6 Southern California at L.A. Memorial Coliseum last week, when they started respectably but ultimately lost 56-28 to the Trojans.

“We didn’t make the plays we needed to stay in it and keep it close, and I was disappointed we had a couple breakdowns that really hurt us,” San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan said. “But that’s football. I think we’ve got a resilient team. We’ve got some really talented kids on this team.”

San Jose State’s Chevan Cordeiro completed 21 of 38 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns against USC. He also rushed 10 times for 52 yards.

Quali Conley had 108 rushing yards on only six carries to lead the Spartans, and Nick Nash caught a team-high six passes for 89 yards and three touchdowns.

The Spartans’ performance against USC caught the attention of Smith and his Oregon State squad.

“There’s some advantages of being able to see their first game on tape and I think there’s some disadvantages,” Smith said. “Usually you make a huge jump in improvement from week one to week two.

“I think being able to see them on tape compete at a high level against a really good football team — they went toe to toe with those guys for a long time. They had our attention, but it raised our urgency recognizing how good (of) a football team this is.”

Oregon State leads the all-time series 4-2. This will be the programs’ first meeting since 2015, when the Beavers pulled away for a 35-21 win on their home field.

The teams have not met in San Jose since 1988, a 41-27 Oregon State victory.

–Field Level Media