Tony Sands said he wanted to go out with a bang. Some bang.
“It was a boom,” gushed Kansas coach Glen Mason.
An earth-shattering boom.
Sands carried the football 58 times for 396 yards – both NCAA records – as Kansas punished Missouri, 53-29, in its season football finale Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
With the game well in hand in the fourth quarter, Mason and the Kansas players exhibited excitement from the sidelines as Sands first passed the Big Eight single-game record of 342 yards and, finally, with 20 seconds left, the NCAA record of 386 yards.
Everyone wearing a Kansas uniform wanted the 5-6, 175-pound senior to make history in his last game for the Jayhawks.
“I think if I’d taken Tony out,” Mason said. “I’d have been mugged. They were in control. I wasn’t.”
At one point, with everyone’s eyes on Sands, offensive coordinator Pat Ruel called a sweep by backup quarterback Fredrick Thomas.
“I almost fired him,” Mason quipped.
After Sands had clearly supassed the NCAA record, Mason called time at the :20 mark, and Sands’ teammates carried him off the field as the 28,000 or so fans who braved the windy 33-degree day chanted “Tony, Tony, Tony.”
When Sands exited, Kansas was on the Missouri five and, if Mason had left him in, it’s possible Sands could have gone over 400 yards.
“I was worried about getting him hurt,” Mason said. “If I knew he needed four yards, I might have. but if he got injured I don’t know if I’d have been able to live with myself. I don’t know why I worried, though. He’s tougher than 10 guys.”
Tough, yes. Indestructible, probably.
“I’m on such a high now I feel I could go out and play another game,” Sands said in the interview room after a post-game autograph-signing session and a game-ball presentation in the locker room. “I’m not tired at all.”
Missouri was surely tired of seeing Sands – particularly with the outcome decided – and that was another Mason concern.
“I hope no one resents the fact I left him in the game,” Mason said. “He had every right to go for those records.”
Sands accompanied Mason to his post-game radio show and sat there misty-eyed as his coach delivered a soliloquy about the watcharm running back he recruited out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., four years ago.
“This guy is what America is all about,” Mason said. “All he was looking for was an opportunity. I think if Miami of Florida had said come, he would. He could jog over there. He lives closer than the yards he gained today.
“I’m talking about a guy who’s made the most of his athletic and academic career. All this crap that’s going on in college athletics, this guy hasn’t given me one problem.
“I said before the game this would be a sad day for me, win or lose, when I can’t coach Tony Sands anymore.”
Later, when Sands was left alone with the media, he broke into tears and thanked God, the offensive linemen, his other teammates and just about everyone who has made an impact on his life, including his wife and young son.
So emotionally charged was the postgame media session that someone had to remind Mason that Saturday’s victory assured Kansas of its first winning season since 1981.
And it certainly wasn’t as easy as the final score indicated, thanks to a few Missouri trick plays and fakes that produced three touchdowns in the second quarter.
Kansas never trailed, but led by only a field goal several times – including 25-22 at the break and 33-29 late in the third quarter.
“Needless to say, I was quite nervous,” Mason said.
Eventually Missouri, ranked 106th and last in NCAA Div. I-A in rushing defense and 105th in total defense, buckled, and Kansas counted the last three touchdowns – two by Sands.
“Let’s face it, Missouri’s had some injuries,” Mason said. “But we didn’t make any mistakes and that was the difference.”
Kansas gained 648 yards – 513 rushing – on a school record-tying 96 offensive plays and didn’t have a single turnover. Missouri, meanwhiloe, coughed the ball up three times – two leading to touchdowns.
Missouri added quarterback Phil Johnson, the Big Eight total offense leader, to its injury list on the game’s second play when he left with a shoulder separation.
However, backup Jeff Handy completed 17 of 28 passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns.
In the final analysis, though, Missouri’s defense had to spend too much time on the field.
