OK, is the Kansas football team starting to irritate you just a bit? Bad, then good, then pretty bad again, then decent.
And then Saturday, against the almighty Baylor Bears in Waco. The same Baylor that had won 14 Big 12 Conference games in 14 seasons going into its game against the Jayhawks.
I know, the Bears looked like they could play with any team in the country in rolling up 678 yards of offense in a 55-7 win over KU. But doesn’t that go against everything we know about Baylor, one of the worst BCS programs in America? Should we really believe that the Bears are in it to win it? And by “it,” I’m talking about the Big 12 South. Because Baylor looked really, really, really, really good Saturday.
Quarterback Robert Griffin was dynamic. He had a bunch of different dynamic receivers to throw to. The Bears ran the football dynamically. They scored on good plays, they scored on busted plays. Baylor’s speed made it look as if Kansas had played a bunch of mannequins.
Speaking of Kansas . . . Well?
What do you have to say for yourselves? This was an embarrassment. Baylor hadn’t won a Big 12 game by more than 28 points. It hadn’t ever won a conference game by this many points. In 1922, the Bears beat Arkansas by 47 points in a Southwest Conference game. Before Saturday, that was a record.
Congratulations, Kansas. You’re now a prominent mark in Baylor football history.
Kansas didn’t look ready to play. It looked as if the atmosphere at Floyd Casey Stadium was intimidating to the Jayhawks, except there is no atmosphere at Floyd Casey Stadium. Of its 50,000 seats, just more than 35,000 were filled. And you know what most of those spectators thought as they were headed to the game Saturday: “Oh, boy, another Baylor game. Gee, can’t wait.”
That’s what they thought.
Now they’re thinking that they’d love for Baylor to play KU every week. Because KU was a joke. KU’s players looked disinterested and it makes you wonder whether new coach Turner Gill and his new staff has anyone’s attention.
This was a big game for Kansas, its Big 12 opener. A win would have set up the Jayhawks for an Oct. 14 home game against Kansas State. And who knows?
Not even the ever-positive Gill could find any positives with this KU performance. But he did say, in his mild-mannered way, that the Jayhawks have to continue to work to find solutions to their problems, and that it’s still early, and that . . . blah, blah, blah.
He needs to throw something. I don’t care what it is, just throw something. Maybe he’s the greatest motivational
Peter Finch as Howard Beale in "Network"
speaker since Patton behind closed doors, but it’s time for the Jayhawks fan base to get a sense that Gill is fed up with his team’s roller-coaster persona. He needs to take a page from Howard Beale and scream: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
There’s something strange about this Kansas team, something I can’t put my finger on. I’m so impressed with Gill as a person, but I don’t understand where he’s coming from as a football coach.
He took a team to Baylor on Saturday and didn’t have his guys ready to play. The Jayhawks had no answers for the Bears’ speed and Baylor also played with more urgency and physicality. It was an absolute mismatch and now it’s impossible to tell how Kansas responds.
After the Jayhawks lost an embarrassing game against North Dakota State in the season opener, they came back to beat 15th-ranked Georgia Tech at Memorial Stadium the next week. Then they went to Southern Mississippi and played an uninspired game.
Football teams should never be uninspired. Football is all about inspiration and emotion and toughness. Kansas had none of that Saturday. And, once again, Jayhawks fans have no idea what to think.
My Facebook Friend
Aleycia Crawford I Wichita
I’m enjoying this Wednesday and Saturday feature on my blog. I’ve never met Aleycia, but we’re frends. That’s one of the wonderful – and kinda freaky – things about Facebook. People you’ve never met can be your friend.
I’m picking people at random to highlight here and Aleycia, a professional fine art airbrush artist and owner of Eye Kandy Pin-Up Portraits in Delano, was nice enough to volunteer. Here’s what she had to say:
“Well Bob we are FB friends because I have enjoyed reading your articles in the paper for years now. Let’s see I’m 34, newly single after being married for almost 14 years, I have 2 teens, I’m an entrepreneur of a growing business called Eye Kandy Custom Paint (motorcycle and automotive airbrushed murals) and Eye Kandy Pin-up Photography (Vintage pin-up, boudoir, and old Hollywood glamour photography for women and families/couples in Delano). I used to be a designer/airbrush artist at Big Dog Motorcycles when it was booming, and decided to strike out on my own before it went down hill. I love my life, just trying to figure out how I’m going to do it on my own, where to go from here.. and just having fun meeting new friends.”