No apologies for weak schedule

By Ryan Wood     Dec 5, 2007

Fans can vote for coach of the year

Kansas University football fans can have a say in the Coach of the Year awards by visiting CoachoftheYear.com.

KU coach Mark Mangino is one of 10 finalists in the Division I-A category for the 2007 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year award. Online voting begins today. Other finalists: Rich Brooks (Kentucky), Sylvester Croom (Mississippi State), Paul Johnson (Navy), Joe Paterno (Penn State), Mark Richt (Georgia), Rich Rodriguez (West Virginia), Jim Tressel (Ohio State), Tommy Tuberville (Auburn) and Ron Zook (Illinois).

There’s plenty of time – about a full month – to hyper-analyze the heck out of the Jan. 3 Orange Bowl football game between Kansas University and Virginia Tech.

That’s roughly 30 days to pull the same argument out of the back pocket time and time again.

The Jayhawks, the critics will scream, have a poor strength of schedule. Or a strong puniness, to the glass-half-full types.

Either way, athletic director Lew Perkins isn’t buying it. That, or he just doesn’t care.

“We don’t have a problem with our schedule,” Perkins said without a even hint of emotion. “We’re comfortable with it. We’re playing in the Orange Bowl.”

Yeah, but :

The Jayhawks played four nonconference games against teams outside of the six power conferences. There was no Oklahoma, Texas or Texas Tech on the Big 12 slate. Only one team KU played in the regular season is receiving votes in the current Top 25 poll – No. 7 Missouri, the only loss KU has to this point.

Surely, it had something to do with the Jayhawks’ 11-1 record and first Orange Bowl appearance in 39 years.

Right?

“Let’s put this in perspective. Let’s step back for a moment,” KU coach Mark Mangino responded. “When did you think in your lifetime that you would hear Kansas defeated Nebraska, Colorado and Texas A&M, and we were considered to have a weak schedule?

“We look at the big picture here. There were times when those teams had their JVs in at halftime against us. That doesn’t happen anymore. It all depends on your perspective of the situation.”

So yeah, there are two sides to every story. KU’s schedule is ranked 88th nationally by Jeff Sagarin (ahead of only Hawaii among the 10 BCS teams).

But the KU victories do include:

¢ A 45-point pasting of Central Michigan, which just won the MAC championship and will play in the Motor City Bowl. The other three nonconference games were cupcakes, but as Perkins says, “People don’t realize that schedules are made way, way, way out. You don’t know how things are going to play out.”

¢ Road victories against Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Colorado, three teams heading to bowl games despite losing to KU at home.

¢ Margin of victories consistently greater than the usually dead-on experts expected. Kansas covered the Vegas spread in every game it won. As ESPN’s Lou Holtz put it, “they beat them like a good team should.”

Either way, a victory in the Orange Bowl would do plenty in putting the schedule talk six feet under for good. The Hokies are 11-2, ACC Conference champions and ranked third in the latest BCS standings. It will be KU’s toughest test, played on the biggest stage in school history, perhaps.

For all the grief KU has received for its schedule – dating back to the summer – the Orange Bowl could end up being an exclamation point on a whopper of an I-told-you-so.

“I don’t know that we’re looking for vindication,” Mangino said. “We’ve played in the conference schedule here, and we won some games in tough venues like A&M and like Colorado. We’ve played consistently well.

“: You’re judged on your merits and how you play week in and week out. And I think our kids have played very good football all year long.”

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