Numbers say Kansas weakest of 65 power-five football schools

By Staff     Nov 20, 2017

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Several Baylor players celebrate over Kansas quarterback Carter Stanley (9) after sacking him during the fourth quarter on Saturday, Sept. 4, 2017 at Memorial Stadium.

Now that Kansas routinely is referred to as the worst of the 65 power-five football conference schools (a designation that includes independent Notre Dame), it’s time to see if the numbers support the label.

It boiled down to a two-school race with Kansas edging Oregon State, thanks to the Beavers having strong back-to-back weeks in the first two games under interim coach Cory Hall, who lost 36-33 to Colorado in his first game and 15-14 to Stanford in his second. Hall took over after one of the more stunning moves by a coach in recent memory. Gary Andersen quit with a 1-5 record and in doing so walked away from a guaranteed $12.6 million.

After checking the margin between points scored and points allowed for the 65 schools, I ranked the 10 worst in that category and also tracked how many times each school has been on the wrong end of a blowout, which we’ll call any loss by 38 or more points.

Illinois checks in at No. 3 and Baylor, which defeated Kansas 38-9 two weeks ago in Lawrence, is No. 4.

Just those four schools had negative margins of more than 100 points. A look at the 10 worst programs, ranked in order of margin between points scored and allowed, with conference record breaking ties:

School Rec/Conf PF PA Margin Blowouts
(38+L’s)
Coach (Record)
1 – Kansas (1-10, 0-8) 207 463 -256 4 David Beaty (3-32)
2 – Oregon State (1-10, 0-8) 238 447 -209 0 Cory Hall (0-5) interim
3 – Illinois (2-9, 0-8) 178 336 -158 1 Lovie Smith (5-18)
4 – Baylor (1-10, 1-7) 270 386 -116 1 Matt Rhule (1-10)
5 – Vanderbilt (4-7, 0-7) 253 352 -99 1 Derek Mason (17-31)
6 – Tennessee (4-7, 0-7) 214 307 -93 2 Brady Hoke (0-1) interim
7 – Maryland (4-7, 2-5) 286 379 -93 1 D.J. Durkin (10-14)
8 – Rutgers (4-7, 3-5) 209 300 -91 2 Chris Ash (6-17)
9 – Arkansas (4-7, 1-6) 300 386 -86 0 Bret Bielema (29-33)
10 – Nebraska (4-7, 3-5) 295 381 -86 1 Mike Riley (19-18)
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