Kansas Preview

Now that everyone is resigned to their respective fates, I've been thinking recent Buff history; specifically '06. It's astonishing to look back on the past 5 seasons of Buff football and see the course of events. CU went out and got one of the premier up-and-coming coaching names in an attempt to reshape the program after the "scandal." Immediately, and most shockingly, the program was slapped in the face. With anticipation of things to come, and the possibility of 50+ points being thrown up against lowly Montana St., Buff fans poured in to see CU play its first D-1AA opponents in years. Instead of a rout of the Bobcats from Bozeman, the fans witnessed one of the most demoralizing performances in CU history. Unable to even crack 225 yards of offense, the post-Barnett era got off to the most embarrassing of starts as CU lost at home to a D-1AA team that would lose to a D-2 team the following week.

(Remember these guys? They started it all....)

I bring that-day-which-must-not-be-spoken-of up because the situation is eerily similar to that of Kansas. After a hastily reached decision to fire the previous head coach, the university (Kansas) goes out and grabs the hot, up-and-coming name from a non-BCS school (Turner Gill from Buffalo). After much hype, the team goes out and loses, embarrassingly, to a D-1AA school (North Dakota St., go Bison!) at home. The team then proceeds to win 2 games over the course of the season (fingers crossed on that one). Judging by the resulting 5 years of the Dan Hawkins coaching era, maybe Kansas should just cut it's losses after this year and hire Dave Logan.

--
Sasnak

(Baby Mangino can't save you anymore, KU)

Oh, Kansas. You were good for exactly 2 months. I don't know how, or why, they were able to cobble together that talented '07 team, but they certainly have reverted to form recently. You would think that leading a traditionally abysmal football program to a one-loss Orange Bowl season would be enough to buy some leeway, yet KU fired the fat man for being overly aggressive. He yelled at kids during a practice... oooOOOOoooo.

(I'll miss you, fat man!)

Whatever. It's the start of basketball season; does anyone at KU really care?

It is what it is, and it's currently a disaster. After the aforementioned loss to NDSU, the Jayhawks rebounded to randomly beat Georgia Tech (who I'm sure prepared very hard), but have since struggled to even play competitively against a real opponent. The straits are so dire that Coach Gill even praised his team just for leading at half last week.

It's a simple equation, they give up too many points, and don't score enough. Red Zone efficiency is way down (only 68%) and they're getting less than 200 yards per game through the air. Only scoring 16.1 points a game isn't going to help anybody, and offensively, KU looks like they're straight out of the dark ages. While they do get over 320 yards per game from the offense, they don't really do any one thing particularly well, and are often stuck in neutral when they have the ball.

Offensively, the team is lead by... somebody. The team still hasn't announced a starting QB for this week's game. It could be Jr Quinn Mecham... or Fr Jordan Webb who's had most of the snaps this season.... or even So Kale Pick. Say what you will about Cody, at least we know who our starter will be Saturday afternoon. Whoever the QB is, I don't expect a lot of production from the position. When an offense is stuck in the mud, you can usually look at who's under center for the cause of the problem. The rest of the Jayhawks offense is a collection of could-be talent, but with no real go-to stars. WR Bradley McDougald (He's a Sophomore!) is struggling after a break-out freshman campaign. Other go-to targets for whoever the QB is will be Johnathon Wilson and converted DB Daymond Patterson. RB James Sims and the rest of the rushing attack are often just as ineffective as the passing attack. A lot of backs will see touches, and that's not necessarily a good thing...

(Webb, who's handled most of the snaps this year, may not be the QB come Saturday)

Defensively, the Jayhawks are a mess. In their 4 Big XII contests, they've given up an average of 47 points per game. They've given up over 450 yards of offense 3 times this season, and even allowed Baylor to crack them for 678 yards. This unit is porous, especially against the run where they allow 5.1 yards per rush. They only have 8 sacks on the year, so they don't really get after the quarterback, and they only have 2 picks on the year, which makes me think their coverage is soft. Sr Linebacker Drew Dudley, Jr LB Steven Johnson and Sophomore Safety Lubbock Smith lead the defense, such as it is.

Prediction Time
If a game isn't on television, does it really happen? As it is, these sort of match-ups often make for good games; two struggling teams facing off with nothing to lose, etc.

CU should win. Even Vegas agreed as the Buffs were installed at 9 point favorites earlier this week. The problem is that damn road game jinx. Hawk can't coach his way out of a brown paper bag when the game is played outside of Colorado; the team comes out flat, doesn't have the internal fire to kick-start the engines, one thing leads to another, and it's another Buffs loss.

I really want to pick CU to win this week. Even after all the jokes CU does have a shot at a Weedeater bowl, which is important to the kids on the field. CU needs this game for confidence and pride, unfortunately I don't think they'll get it done.


Yes, KU is awful this year, and yes they don't even have a QB, but even bad teams catch breaks once in a while, and this Buffalo program loves to give bad teams breaks. I expect an ugly game; turnovers, bad special teams, poor offensive efficiency, etc. I also expect CU to find a way to lose, as it has every time it's gone on the road the past 3 years. If we hadn't decided to abandon the run game, maybe I'd give us a chance, but the team is playing scared and lifeless, and I just can't overlook it.

But, don't worry CU fans, Hawk will still be employed come Monday morning, because of some nebulous "honor" concept. Sigh...

(At least he's happy...)

KU 19 - CU 12

GO BUFFS!