Loss to Mustangs set tone for season

By Andrew Hartsock     Nov 21, 2000

Two days after the last game of his fourth straight losing season as Kansas University’s football coach, Terry Allen had the KU football office pretty much to himself.

Most of the assistant coaches were on the road recruiting, and Allen used the quiet time for introspection.

“I started doing some drawing, messing around in my office,” Allen said Monday at his season wrap-up press conference. “I started to say, ‘I wish we could start spring football right now.'”

For the second straight year, KU had preseason bowl dreams. For the fifth straight year, the Jayhawks, 4-7 overall, 2-6 (fifth) in the Big 12 north, will be home for the holidays.

“How close are we? I gotta think we’re awfully close to having a winning program,” Allen said. “This year there we so many what-ifs. There’s no reason Kansas should lose to SMU, and we did. That one made the difference between winning and losing. Does there have to be a huge quantum leap? No.”

The debacle in Dallas ended KU’s season just about before it began. Special teams mistakes, especially in the punting game, had a hand in SMU’s 24 first-quarter points, and the Mustangs went on to win, 31-17.

Allen termed it a must-win game beforehand. In retrospect, it was a can’t-lose game.

“Would we have approached the season any differently?” Allen asked. “We put a lot into the opening game. To go down and lose the way we did set us up for failure. You go back and say, ‘My God, have you done something wrong as a head coach?’ (But) had we gone into the game and not put the significance on that, you’d probably be banging you head on the walls.”

Allen has had plenty of time for second-guessing himself. Criticism has come from many fronts, and at times, Allen admitted, he wondered if he were the right man for the job.

“I think that’s human nature,” Allen said. “You go through the frustrations at times and think, ‘Boy, is it all worth it?’ But we do feel very strongly that we had some good recruiting classes and you say, ‘Hey, stop feeling sorry for yourself and get to work.'”

Allen was mum about possible staff changes. With several coaches at or close to retirement age defensive backs co-coach Dick Moseley is 67, while offensive line coach Walt Klinker is 62 and defensive coordinator Ardell Weigandt is 60 and the national coaching carousel in full swing, Allen could make several moves.

“Right now, you always have change when you have a nine-man staff,” Allen said. “There are a lot of jobs out there, a lot of opportunities out there. We’ll give that a look over the next two weeks.”

Allen has lamented the fact his assistant coaches are the lowest-paid aides in the Big 12. Athletics director Bob Frederick has said he has a three-year plan to get those salaries into the middle of the Big 12 pack, but he since has said that’s not so much a plan as a goal.

Has that hamstrung Allen?

“To go out and hire people? Yes,” Allen said. “But right now, we probably get what we deserve. I don’t feel there’s any situation out there where that happened, where we wanted to change this person right now, but we didn’t have the money to do it.”

In his eight seasons as coach at alma mater Northern Iowa, Allen never had a losing season. Now he’s had four straight at his first NCAA Div. I-A gig, and the fourth was the worst.

“This has been as difficult a year as I’ve ever been involved in,” Allen said. “We got off on a bad note and fought back from it. Ultimately, that responsibility fell on myself as head coach. I need to do a better job making sure everybody’s on the same page.”

All through the preseason, Allen said the Jayhawks of 2000 would be better than the Jayhawks of ’99, even if the record didn’t indicate that. In the final analysis, were they?

“That’s a tough one to answer,” Allen said. “At times I thought we were. At times I thought we weren’t. How much does that parallel the mental standpoint? From a physical standpoint, I think we were better. From a mental standpoint, we probably were poorer.”

Allen will coach the 2001 season in the fifth year of a six-year contract.

“Length of contract today really doesn’t bear out on how long people are going to stay with a coach,” Allen said. “It’d be nice to have a lifetime contract. Do we deserve that yet? No.

“People buy out contracts at the drop of a hat. Would I like to have a seven-year contract? Yes. Do we deserve that? No.”

Naturally, Allen would like to start deserving it now.

“There’s a sense of urgency from all of us,” Allen said. “From the coaches to the administration. We’ve been here four years now. To go through four losing seasons, it’s very difficult, so there is a sense of urgency.”

Allen on Smith: Allen said it about Larry Smith, who was fired after seven years as Missouri’s coach. “It’s a tough profession. I feel bad. He’s been a guy who proved himself at three different places and took them to bowl games. It’s a Missouri guy and the Kansas guy. At my first Big 12 meetings, who’s making sure the Kansas guy knows where he’s going? Larry Smith. I appreciate that.”

Retrospect regrets: Allen again, on his biggest regret of the season. “I try to look forward, not back. I wish, more so than anything, I wish we had Marc Owen snapping punts for us when we were in Dallas. If we found a way to win that football game, that might have made a big change this season. I’m silly enough to think if we’re 5-5, we have a chance to win Saturday in Iowa.”

Super Mario: Allen is tickled by Mario Kinsey’s basketball success. Is Kinsey the quarterback of the future? “That remains to be seen,” Allen said. “The attributes Mario brings to the table are what you want. Is Mario the quarterback we need? Maybe, but he’s got some people he has to compete with.” While Allen admitted Kinsey could be “burned out” by the time spring practice rolls around, the coach joked, “When’s the Final Four?” Told it’s scheduled for March 31 and April 2, Allen said, “We’ll have spring practice in April, then.”

Recruiting report: Allen said KU’s struggles hadn’t hurt recruiting. Yet. “So far, so good in recruiting,” Allen said. “Did it help the situation? It’d be a lot easier to be sitting here talking about a bowl game heading into recruiting.” Allen said he’d sign six to eight junior college transfers, including a linebacker or two, possibly a safety and offensive linemen.

Assault still stings: Allen said the response to the alleged sexual assault in which two football players one of whom left for a junior college were implicated still smarted, even after the district attorney declined to press charges. “That was harder than any loss we’ve gone through,” Allen said. “You always wish the whole story would come out. It is behind us. That one was very hard for me because of my own personal integrity. That one made this season all that much harder. I don’t know what would change it, except for people to know what we stand for, not what we were portrayed as.”

PREV POST

Kirkham, Schryer win for Jayhawks

NEXT POST

621Loss to Mustangs set tone for season