Jayhawks too generous

By Felicia Haynes     Nov 18, 2000

Kansas University football quarterback Dylen Smith knows with the holiday season approaching it might not be the best time to say it, but he knows for a fact it’s better to receive than give.

Turnovers, that is.

“If we eliminate half our turnovers, we’d have six, seven wins,” Smith said.

Maybe, maybe not, but turnovers have played a huge role in the Jayhawks’ disappointing season.

Kansas (4-6 overall, 2-5 Big 12) will play its season finale today at Iowa State (7-3, 4-3). Kickoff is 1 p.m. at Trice Stadium.

In the first 10 games, the Jayhawks turned it over 28 times, resulting in 98 points for opponents. Kansas has recovered 20 turnovers and turned them into 38 points.

KU’s minus-8 turnover margin is tied for 96th (out of 114) nationally. Its 28 turnovers rank 107th.

“A lot of those could have made a big difference for us,” Smith said. “Oklahoma, obviously, we probably could have won the game if not for the turnovers. We were in the whole game until we started turning it over. Kansas State I had a fumble and gave them good field position. Against Colorado, I almost threw two picks that obviously would have changed the game. There are other games where turnovers cost us.”

Two stand out.

In the season-opener at SMU, the Jayhawks had a season-worst six fumbles, three of which the Mustangs recovered. At Oklahoma, Kansas had a season-worst seven turnovers (all by Smith), including a season-worst five interceptions.

“A lot of it is just me trying to do too much,” said Smith, who has thrown 11 interceptions and lost seven fumbles. “Sometimes I get complacent with the ball. I don’t really understand it. I threw 14 interceptions in two years in junior college. I really don’t know what to tell you.”

KU coach Terry Allen is at a loss, too.

“The numbers, obviously, are unacceptable,” he said. “Over the last four or five weeks, they’ve become better, something like 1.4, 1.5 per game. Did we know this would be such a fumble-prone team? No. Is it reflected upon trying to do more things offensively? Yes, but that’s not the main problem.”

Back in 1997, in Allen’s first season, he was criticized for an unimaginative, conservative offense. His response was that he didn’t have the horses for anything more complicated, and he tried to keep things simple to keep turnovers down.

The ’97 Jayhawks finished minus-two in turnover margin, with 25 giveaways and 23 takeaways. Kansas’ 25 gifts resulted in 119 points, while opponents’ 23 turnovers resulted in 70 points.

“That probably could be a reason,” Smith said. “Last year, we didn’t do too much with our receivers hurt. We kept it simple. This year, we opened it up more. If you try to do too much, turnovers are going to come.”

“I don’t know what it is,” countered KU receiver Harrison Hill, who has been charged with just one turnover. “I didn’t see any indications of it. I don’t think we’ve opened things up that much. I’m not really sure why it is, but it’s not going to happen next year.”

KU’s minus-eight turnover margin is its worst since 1990, when the Jayhawks finished minus-13. Since then, the Jayhawks have been on the positive side of the giveaway-takeaway ratio in seven of the last nine years. The only aberrations were minus-two in 1998 and ’97.

Smith shoulders most of the blame for this season. In addition to his 11 interceptions, Smith has fumbled 10 times and lost seven. No other Jayhawk has dropped more than two.

“Maybe I’m too comfortable out there,” Smith said. “You can’t think about having turnovers, because that’s when you have them.”

And then there was the Oklahoma game, when Smith threw five picks to turn a close game into a runaway OU victory.

Few knew it at the time, but Smith’s grandfather passed away just days before the Oklahoma game, and, Smith reluctantly admits now, his grandfather’s death weighed heavily in Norman.

“We were real close,” Smith said. “But I didn’t think about it going into the game. I didn’t want to use that as an excuse for why I played bad. I talked to my mom, and she said, ‘Just play the game, don’t think about it.’ I thought about it a lot before the game and after the game, but I didn’t think about it during the game too much.”

Of course, turnovers have been just part of KU’s season gone awry. Punt-team mistakes and porous defense of late also played key roles in the Jayhawks’ failure to reach the postseason for the fifth straight year.

“The season has had a lot of coulda, woulda, shouldas,” Kansas senior center Bob Schmidt said. “We should have done things differently. But we want to show Iowa State what we’ve made of.”

They’re made largely of seniors 20, in fact who will play their final collegiate games today.

“Being a senior, it’s very important to me personally,” Schmidt said. “This will be the last thing I remember about football. A friend said something that put it all in perspective. He said, ‘Of all the people who played their last game of college football, half the people lost.’ That really put it in perspective. It’s real important for me, personally, when I’m telling stories to my kids and grandkids.”

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