With just two weeks off leading up to its Border War matchup with Missouri, the Kansas University football team was able to nurse itself to health enough to upset the Tigers, 40-37, in Kansas City, Mo. on Nov. 29.

With a month to rest before they’re scheduled to take on Big Ten opponent Minnesota in the Insight Bowl, the Jayhawks figure to be in peak shape by the time they arrive in Tempe, Ariz., for the Dec. 31. matchup at 5 p.m.

“I promise you we will all be feeling way more athletic before this game than we did before the Missouri game,” said running back Jake Sharp, who earned honorable mention all-Big 12 honors this season despite a late-season injury. “You have a month of not getting the tar beat out of you and to get back in the weight room and just feel better.”

Following a bruising Big 12 schedule in which they lined up against four ranked teams, the Jayhawks entered the month of December far from 100-percent. Injuries to Sharp, receiver Kerry Meier and quarterback Todd Reesing made it unclear whether any of the three would play in the Missouri game, and dealing with the normal bumps and bruises of the college football season was a constant issue as well.

Players are confident, however, that an extended break — 31 days between games, to be exact — will work wonders for healing every matter of wound from which a player might be suffering.

“The past week we’ve had off I think a lot of people have gotten a lot healthier,” linebacker James Holt said. “So given a month, we’ll still be practicing, but it helps out a lot being able to get that long break and letting your muscles recover and everything.”

Notes:

20 Win Club?: With a victory in the Insight Bowl, the Jayhawks would join just 15 Football Bowl Subdivision schools to have won 20 games between 2007-08.

After last year’s 12-1, Orange Bowl-championship season, Kansas sits at 19 victories from this year and last. A victory over Minnesota on Dec. 31 would put the Jayhawks in a select group, one that includes, among others, Florida, Oklahoma and USC.

“Having 20 wins in two years is more than just good,” Kansas safety Darrell Stuckey said. “There’s only a few teams in the nation that had the potential to do that this year. ... That’s something that’s phenomenal as a team.”

Young Guns: If experience is of the virtue in matters involving football bowl games, the Minnesota football team might be in trouble.

The Gophers are tied for No. 5 in the nation for fewest seniors with 11. What’s more, 15 true freshmen participated for Minnesota this season, the highest number in the Big Ten.

Recruiting visit: Ronnie Wingo Jr., the nation’s No. 71-ranked high school football player in the Class of 2009, scheduled an official visit with Kansas University on Tuesday, according to Rivals.com.

Wingo, a productive runner and receiver for St. Louis University High, told Rivals.com he scheduled the visit during a home visit with KU coach Mark Mangino and assistant Ed Warinner.

“The balance of the offense at Kansas is something I really like. It’s a spread offense, but the number of times KU runs the ball and the number of times they bass the ball is just about the same. You wouldn’t think it would be that even, but it is.”

Wingo, who is listed at 6-foot-3, 212 pounds, has received scholarship offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee, according to Rivals.