Once again, the Kansas football team was trounced, this time in primetime, by TCU, 43-0. The Jayhawks have been outscored 109-0 their last nine quarters of play.
The Kansas football team suffered their 44th straight road loss on Saturday to TCU, a record-tying event, according to Tom Keegan of KUSports.com. It was their sixth straight loss of the season, and they ‘ve allowed at least 42 points in every game but their week one win against an FCS school, Southeast Missouri State.
They have been shutout in each of their last two games, and for nine straight quarters. Against the Horned Frogs, KU could only muster 21 total yards of offense and just four first downs.
It was the worst offensive output in Big 12 Conference history.
The Kansas Jayhawks have suffered through some abhorrent stretches in their long history, but none as long or as awful as this one. In 2009, the Kansas football team started the season 5-0, then crashed, losing their last seven outings. That streak helped then Athletic Director Lew Perkins oust Orange Bowl-winning head coach Mark Mangino.
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Since October 10, 2009, the date of Mangino’s last win at Kansas, the Jayhawks are 15-83. Those 15 wins account for only 15.3 percent of all of their games in that stretch.
It’s worse in Big 12 matchups. Since that date in October 2009, KU is 3-69 in conference play. Let that sink in for a moment – three wins and 69 losses!
Terry Allen won 20 games in four-plus seasons as head coach at the turn of the 21st century. Bob Valesente managed four wins and a tie in his two years in the 1980’s.
In the thirties and forties, the Jayhawks had a pretty bad stretch. From 1934 through 1945, Kansas never won more than four games in a single season. In those 12 seasons, 31-66-10. That wasn’t great, but it was better than 15-83!
Toward the end of the debacle against TCU Saturday, the Fox broadcast caught some Jayhawks laughing it up on the sideline. Any Kansas fan still watching the game had to be taken aback. How could any player be chuckling it up with teammates while getting thumped as thoroughly as this Kansas football team was?
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This is not a laughing matter. It is not a laughing matter for the players, or the coaches, or the fans, or the school. Losing game after game, by such wide margins, is not a laughing matter at all.
David Beaty is a coach you want to like. You want to believe him when he speaks. Unfortunately, the results on the field are getting worse. The Jayhawks aren’t even a little big competitive right now.
According to the NCAA stats page, the Jayhawks rank 107th (out of 129 schools) in total offense and 115th in total defense. They sit 108th in points scored and 128th in points allowed. They are 124th in turnover margin.
The Jayhawks are neither good on offense or defense. They are are not competing and it is getting worse. While Beaty and his staff are working hard to get the players to improve, it just isn’t happening.
The fact the players are yucking it up on the sidelines while being blown out yet again has to make fans wonder about the atmosphere within the program. Yes, these are college students and should be allowed to relax and have some fun. Should it be at the end on a disastrous ballgame, while the game is still in progress? Probably not.
The question becomes if Beaty isn’t the person to lead the Jayhawks moving forward, who is? Who would want this jo? It is a career killer.
Is it impossible for the Kansas football program to turn things around? Glen Mason went 10-2 in 1995, after several years of building things up, but the hole he had to dig out of wasn’t this deep.
Mark Mangino went 12-1 in 2007 and won the Orange Bowl. That took some time, but again, the program was in better condition than it is now.
This prolonged “slump” is nearly 100 games long now and encompasses parts of nine seasons. Four head coaches and one interim have had a hand in this streak. It won’t happen quickly, if at all.
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The school, the players, the coaches, and the fans have to believe it will happen. No matter what! The truth is, though, it is getting harder and harder to maintain the confidence the Kansas football program can turn things around. It doesn’t help when the players can laugh it up while getting demolished on the field.