Four straight years without a bowl ring and it sure looks like Kansas University football coach Terry Allen will have a ringless thumb in 2001.
One thing is certain. Allen won’t have the onus of high expectations hanging over his head next year.
On paper, the ’01 Jayhawks look shaky, mainly because quarterback Dylen Smith and running backs David Winbush and Moran Norris were seniors this fall.
Then again, none of those three really had what you could call a senior season to remember. Winbush rushed for a team-high 701 yards, yet that total was only the seventh best in the Big 12. Norris started slowly, then sprained an ankle in the seventh game and played only sparingly the rest of the way, finishing with 313 yards.
Still, it was Smith who had to be the 2000 season’s biggest disappointment.
Smith came in cold from a California junior college in the late summer of 1999 and yet, after just four games, snatched the starting job from incumbent Zac Wegner.
A 6-foot-1, 190-pounder with nimble feet and a strong arm, Smith completed 51.3 percent of his passes for 12 touchdowns while throwing only seven interceptions in ’99.
No doubt Allen based a high percentage of his high hopes for 2000 on having the multi-talented Smith back after an impressive season of on-the-job training. Surely Allen’s biggest fear prior to the first kickoff in September was losing Smith to an injury because he had no one with the juco transfer’s skills or experience in reserve.
As it turned out, Smith started every game. But that’s where the good news ended.
After completing 51.3 of his passes as a junior, Smith completed just 45.8 percent as a senior. And, despite throwing 43 more passes, he threw two fewer TD aerials and four more interceptions.
Worse, Smith accounted for 18 of the Jayhawks’ glaring 29 turnovers (seven fumbles to go with the 11 thefts). His five interceptions and two lost fumbles at Oklahoma might be a school single-game turnover record, but that’s not a category you’ll find in the record books.
Only one Big 12 quarterback finished with a lower pass efficiency rating than Smith. That was Missouri’s Darius Outlaw, a freshman who was thrown into the fire when starter Kyle Farmer was lost for the season.
“That’s one of our disappointments,” Allen said when asked about Smith’s lackluster final collegiate season.
Not that it was all Smith’s fault.
For one thing, KU’s offensive line didn’t remind anyone of the Seven Blocks of Granite, even if some of the hands of the Jayhawks’ receivers notably the tight ends did.
Moreover, Smith cannot have had an easy time spotting potential targets. Of the top five pass receivers on this year’s team, the tallest was Harrison Hill at 5-foot-11. Perhaps that’s why Hill was the leading receiver with 47 grabs.
Otherwise, Smith had to search and discover Termaine Fulton and J.T. Thompson, both 5-10; and Roger Ross and Winbush, both 5-7.
Kansas has only one wide receiver who stands over six feet. That’s Byron Gasaway, a fast and fluid 6-4 soph who so far hasn’t lived up to his high school hype.
On defense, the Jayhawks had too many players who looked good in uniform, but didn’t produce. Nose tackle Nate Dwyer deserves postseason recognition. So does free safety Carl Nesmith who led the team in tackles despite sitting out the opener under an Allen suspension. But that’s about it.
Oh, mustn’t forget the Murphy’s Law punt team. If something could go wrong when the Jayhawks lined up to punt, it usually did.
Overall, the Jayhawks were so insipid that half the coaches of the four teams they defeated Missouri’s Larry Smith and Southern Illinois’ Jan Quarless were fired.
