Kansas Jayhawks Football: How Many More Wins Will There Be
By Joel Wagler
The Kansas Jayhawks won their first football game of the season on Saturday with a 34-28 victory over the Southeast Missouri Redhawks. Kansas jumped out to a 24-0 first quarter lead, then held on for the win.
This game was filled with positives, but all of them should be couched with a warning. Yes, the Jayhawks won, but against a FCS opponent. Yes, the Jayhawks scored 24 points in the first quarter, but were outscored 28-10 the rest of the game.
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Yes, Kansas racked up 457 yards of offense, but they surrendered 421 yards.
Yes, quarterback Montell Cozart did throw for 196 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions, but only completed 50% of his passes.
There were some very nice positives that shouldn’t be diminished too much. The running game seems to be in good hands with De’Andre Mann and Corey Avery. The wide receivers corps looks much stronger with the addition of Nick Harwell and Nigel King.
Combined with Tony Pierson and Justin McCay, these players should make the offense much stronger, and more balanced, this season, if Cozart can deliver the ball on target, as he did in the first half.
The Jayhawks picked off 3 passes, and didn’t turn the ball over themselves. That is always a great thing.
Kansas did give the fans some things to be excited about. And they should improve as the season progresses.
The problem is the schedule for the Kansas Jayhawks.
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Next week, the Jayhawks travel to play the Duke Blue Devils. When this game was agreed to, it probably was seen as a win. Now, not so much. Duke played in the ACC Championship Game last year, and are 2-0 this season.
The third game of the season will be against the Central Michigan Chippewas. This could be a win, but it is no sure thing. Central Michigan handled the Purdue Boilermakers, from the Big 10 Conference, easily this weekend, 38-17.
Then it is right into the Big 12 Conference portion of the schedule. Where will the wins come from?
Last year, KU broke a long conference losing streak against the West Virginia Mountaineers but Kansas plays them on the road, and the Mountaineers competed well against the second ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in week one.
The Iowa State Cyclones lost to a FCS team in week one, albeit a team that has won 25 straight games, including a win against Kansas State a year ago. The Cyclones looked very good at times on offense this weekend in their loss to the Kansas State Wildcats.
Figure in that the Cyclones offensive coordinator is former Jayhawks head coach Mark Mangino, and no one should be putting that game in the win column just yet.
It is going to be very tough for the Jayhawks to win even one or two more games, let alone four or five. They will have to be much better, from start to finish, than they were on Saturday against Southeast Missouri.
They will need to improve drastically in the coming weeks to get to the level they need to be to win conference games. In truth, this team looks to be the most talented from top to bottom as any Kansas squad since the Mangino years, but it may not be enough against this schedule.
It would be terrific to see this program take a step forward in something as tangible as wins, but considering the conference and the schedule, just doesn’t it look like there will many many wins for the Jayhawks.