Justin Thornton has sure come on this season. If he improves as much this year to next as he did last year to this year, then he'll be an all-america candidate. I was thrilled to see him shouting to get the D-Line fired up.

Number 5 in the nation isn't too shabby.. Great season and destroy whoever we play in our bowl game.. Rockem Hawks!!

I'm so stoked about this team that I am going to have a hard time waiting until next year to see the encore. Losing to Missouri really hurt my night, but I immediately was thankful for the effort throughout this season and am impatient for the what comes next. I'm on the fence on wanting those people to the east winning. I realize we would almost be assured a BCS bowl and we probably would get one here in my town (Fiesta); however, that means those people will be playing for a national championship which I cannot bear to think could happen. The KC payday makes up for any money lost in the difference between the BCS game and the next one down. I know, I know, BCS is a big deal; but I can tell you I will have an extremely hard time actually wanting Missouri to beat Oklahoma (actually don't think I can physically do it). Good luck 'Hawks on whatever bowl we dominate.

I thought they said it would be 60-40 or even 70-30 KU to MU fans. It wasn't even close. 50-50 at best

KU AD's were way off in speculating that KU would have 50,000 in attendance. They forgot that Mizzou has more football fans. Just look at the stadium sizes and you will see that Mizzou has a easy 10,00 seat advantage over KU.

Inever trust the AD for ticket estimates. They are classic "homers" that just say what you want to hear to get you off their backs. They have a hard tiem counting the teal money!

what is teal money? do you mean till money?

anyway... I sat in the MU section because when I bought tickets I could not get them from KU. This was three or four months ago and at that time I guess they were not available for some reason, so I easily got them from the MU site. Thought I was plundering them.
Some of the MU fans were rude jerks. One threw ice at me from behind. Others cursed and flipped off out team... and that was before the game even started. Another carried a sign he spent some time writing out, about 3 x 3, which explained why me hates KU. He held it for MU fans to read and then moved on. I only glimpsed something written about Jacque Vaughn. (Thank you Jacque, for whatever you did). In the late 70s when KU played at MU, the band went, and was bombarded by ice and stuff. We didn't go back for 20 years but it was worse then, from what I read. And MU is the only place I have been where they actually booed us. They booed the band! Who does that. They did it again Saturday. Rather than sit politely while the band played, they did their loud chants. This takes me back, not very long ago, when our Bball team beat them by about double, and thorougly slaughtered them. That always provides a warm feeling. And the truth about beating Brad Smith three times in a row that I remember was amazing to me also.

KU played tough, and although it seemed as if the game was out of hand at times, we were in it till the end, and if you make a couple more catches, take away a bad throw or two, or hit a couple of field goals...
and especially, throw the flag when the MU player clearly knocked our receiver off of his spot, that game could have been tied or better. I realize we got a lot of flags on cheater MU, but that call was bad. Coach won't say it, but I will.

This is a great year, and only provides optimism for the future, including the bowl game. There is a lot of pride for this team. We will just have to beat mu next year
(and several times in between in Bball)

What a whirlwind regular season. Not enough can be said for the effort this team has displayed. Kudos to Coach Mangino who should be Coach of the Year.

I didn't think it looked even 50-50. Everywhere I looked was lots of nasty yellow & black on display. Even TV announcer Brent "can't keep the BIG 10, I mean 12, Conferences Straight" Musberger was sporting a sicko-looking MU colored coat. Frigging POS.

"Some of the MU fans were rude jerks."

I'm shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that MU fans would be jerks. In all fairness, though, I have to say that the last two KU games I've been at (ISU this year and KSU in 2006) the KU fans booed the band, so I'm surprised you'd ask who does that. It's bad enough for KU fans to boo the KSuck band, but it was RIDICULOUS when they booed the ISU band. (The only good thing is that the ISU band played so well that the same KU fans actually cheered them afterwards.)

As for the game itself, the thing that still sticks in my craw is that we seemed to basically play a prevent defense the entire game, even after it clearly wasn't working. It's like Bill Young was so afraid of MU's speed that he refused to even try doing something different. It would have been nice to see what could have happened if we had played at least a LITTLE closer to the receivers. So that bothered me, and I was also pissed off at the punt coverage at the end. With virtually no chance to return the punt for a TD, and being almost certainly doomed to have to go 80 yards or more in under 20 seconds, there was NO reason that we shouldn't have put all 11 on the line and tried to block the punt--especially given that MU had already had three punts blocked this season.

That being said, I'm thankful for a great season. It's been a wonderful ride, and hopefully KU can close it out with a resounding bowl victory to prove how good we are when completely healthy, and to end up in the top 5.

I was disappointed that we seemed to have gone back in time and played conservatively when playing more aggressively has worked all year long. This was not the game to hold back.

I am also disappointed in the entire Arrowhead experience.
We left for the game about 2:00 (we were just a few miles away) and was worried that we would miss kickoff. We were in a virtual standstill in the parking lot for two hours. It was totally brutal. Especially since it gave all the MU fans an opportunity to talk their crap since we had nowhere to go. I was pretty well sick of the entire thing by the time we actually got parked. And the only reason we parked when we did was because we finally drove over curb. Call me a whiner - I really don't care. We should have played the game in Lawrence. Perkins kept trying to convince everyone that the crowd would be 70-75% KU. That wasn't even close. What made him think the Chiefs tickets would be mostly pro KU? That's ridiculous. From the looks of the parking lot and the stadium, the KU fans numbered about 50% - maybe a little more.

I wanted to beat Missouri, no doubt but it's impossible to be very disappointed. We're 11-1 and the season has been A LOT of fun. These kids have played with so much heart, they would inspire anyone. I have been really proud to be a Jayhawk and I can't wait til September 2008!! Right now, I'm anxiously awaiting word of the bowl game and I hope it works out for us to make the trip. Thanks Mangino and Co. and Rock Chalk Jayhawk.

Despite the tougher schedule in 08, you have to be optimistic about next year. We have a very high percentage of people returning from the 2 deep on both sides of the ball.

What a catch by Briscoe!

MU was on their game Saturday night, so you've got to hand it to them. Still, if Reesing's throw that was intercepted in the endzone was about 4 or 5 feet left and a bit deeper, we have a real ballgame.

If you told me we would hold MU to 14 first-half points, I would take that any day. The defense gave up a lot of yards, but "holding" MU to "only" 34 points is really very good, especially when Daniel was as "on" as he was all night.

The good first, the bad second:

First: Congratulations to the strong-hearted KU players and coaches that never gave up during the entire season filled with doubt from all across the country. There is no question KU is very deserving to be a top 5 team. All KU faithful should hold their heads high and be proud of the accomplishments thus far. Nothing to be ashamed of. This bowl game will be a huge step towards the special season we will have in 2008. Keep up the good work.

Now the rant:
Why does the opposing band even need to be in the stadium??? Its SUPPOSED to be a HOME GAME, that is what home field advantage is all about!!! Lew Perkins completely SOLD his SOUL.............all for money............I don't care if the chiefs give you $10 million per year to play there, we have boosters that are keeping the programs alive. How much is enough?????? I know hindsight is 20/20 but I hope we learned a very costly lesson. THANKS LEW. A rivalry should never be played neutral.

Good Luck to the Hawks in the Bowl game and preparing for another good season in 2008.

Areyouserious, Are you serious? What does the band being there have to do with it being a home game? Every team brings a band with them most times. I think there were more band members than fans from ISU. K-State always brings a big band as does Nebraska.

Good teams should be able to play well at a neutral site. I thought this team was gonna be able to pull it off. Once this team gets to that top tier, get ready to play at nuetral sites regularly (Big 12 championsips, and BCS Bowls).

It was a great year, lets be happy for what it was.

Perkins, based on our history, should have known we would be undefeated and #1 in the BCS and insisted the game be in Lawrence.

Proud to be a Jayhawk. And those Tigers are good. Let's face it, if we had played in the first half like we did in the first half, we would be the #1 team right now gunning for OU. Still, for as poorly as we played most of the game, we were one Aqib Talib punt return from winning the game. There's a reason we didn't drop down to 10 in the BCS, like Oregon and Oklahoma did: nationally, and according to the computers as well, we are still seen as a VERY GOOD top 5 football team. According to the AP articles in the paper today, we are still considered a Dark Horse for the National Championship game if Mizzou and WV both lose. This won't happen of course, as we would also have to leapfrog Georgia (a 2 loss team) but the fact that we are STILL in the discussion should let us know this KU team we saw the entire season was not a Mirage. A great learning experience for the Coaching staff too: Perhaps next time we'll show up to the neutral field a few hours earlier to not look so shell-shocked. ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!

Still, for as poorly as we played most of the game, we were one Aqib Talib punt return from winning the game.
____________________________________________________________

That was virtually impossible, given that they were punting from a short field. Either they would get more hang time (which they did) or the ball would go in the end zone. There was almost NO chance for Aqib to have a great return. Given those facts, and the fact that MU had already had THREE punts blocked this year, it was a HORRIBLE coaching decision to not rush all 11 and try to block the punt.

As for being a dark horse for the championship, it's really a shame that Georgia's ahead of us. Is there any chance that our schedule strength would go up enough by Mizzou playing Oklahoma a second time that we could then leap over Georgia?

It seems many that attended the game did not see what those of us that watched on TV could see. The Jayhawks could not tackle and the kicker choked. You could have easily swapped those Jayhawk uniforms for Chiefs uniforms, both display poor tackling and poor kicking. What a difference the two missed field goals and just one defensive stop would have made.

"There was almost NO chance for Aqib to have a great return."
________________________________

You never punt to the other team's fastest man with the game on the line, especially if he has a history of returning punts for TD's. That punt to Talib was a major mistake by Missouri. It wasn't high enough. I'm sure many of their coaches just about had coronaries. Take a look at the replay -- everyone on Missouri's punt coverage was coming up the middle, right at him. And Talib had a full second after he caught it. Talib could have dashed right, cut up the sideline and created havoc. Perhaps not all the way, but who knows? At least it would have been much more interesting.

I just don't see us leaping Georgia, even if OU beats MU and Pitt as a 28 point dog beats W Va at W Va. Moreover, if LSU or V Tech win their title games, idle KU will get passed by them. So really we need many things to go exactly our way, some help in the human polls, some computer help (remember that Central Michigan also plays for a title this weekend) and divine intervention.

Does anyone know why Jake Sharp only had one carry? I only saw him in the game for a play or two. Was he sick or something? He has been a major part of the effectiveness of our offense all season, by giving diversity to the run game. I couldn't understand why he didn't get more touches.