Both the Kansas Jayhawks and Kansas City Chiefs too often play dumb. Neither team is going to win more games than it loses until there’s an SSU epidemic (suddenly sharpen up a term an old Air Corps drill sergeant vehemently demanded almost 60 years ago).
Start with the penalties that so often have cost both clubs so dearly this season. Throw in the special teams which have flopped so often, then consider the comfort zone some athletes seem to have found in playing hard, coming close and losing. And may we never again hear about a setback from 12 men on the field!
Kansas, of course, wrecked its season with that inept opening performance at SMU and never recovered from letting a game it had to win fly out the window. When a kicking game remains consistently bad after long periods of practice, some coaches are to blame or a player or two needs to be reassigned. Yet the malaise was allowed to fester far too long.
Look at how often the Chiefs have done something positive and had it negated by a bonehead penalty. Anyone can get fooled, but how in the world did coach Gunther Cunningham and Co. create the “personnel grouping” that let Buffalo make such fools of them on that fake punt pass? (And how can the waffling Cunningham expect to be accepted as a big leaguer when he keeps that wad of tobacco, or whatever, tucked inside his lower lip like he just got back from the dentist and forgot to spit out one of those cotton rolls?)
The 2000 Kansas season is dead and the Chiefs’ campaign might as well be; unless they go 5-0 down the stretch, no hope for the playoffs. Still the KC guys are being paid handsomely for their misery while the Jayhawks must rise from the dead with paltry NCAA-approved compensation.
That’s not gonna be easy, with Missouri about to regroup and strive for a post-Larry Smith renaissance. KU should have an edge with a head coach with four years under his belt.
Yet considering how disorganized KU looked at times in 2000, are major changes dictated for the staff? How about hiring hustlers who are so good you know they won’t be around more than two or three years because they’ll be stolen for head jobs?
Some old buddies may have to go.
Don’t know if you watched that Florida State-Florida game the past weekend. There were no half-ass efforts or uncertain dawdling. Can’t recall when so many guys moved so fast and so decisively on both sides of the ball. They were well-tutored about their responsibilities, knew their jobs and showed it. How many times this year have the Jayhawks and Chiefs looked like those whiny Blair Witch dummies wandering aimlessly in the woods?
Whether it’s Mario Kinsey, Zach Dyer or Johnny Unitas in disguise, Kansas has to find a passer who doesn’t insist on throwing five yards over receivers’ heads so much. Then there were the receivers who dropped so many crucial balls. Offensive line breakdowns. SSU is the clearcut need.
We’re often reminded that it took Dan McCarney six years at Iowa State to come up with this season’s 8-3 bowl-eligible mark. Thing is, the 2000 ISU club benefitted from Baylor and Oklahoma State on its schedule while Kansas had counterparts like Texas and Texas Tech.
It gets no better for 2001. Two non-league games (one yet to be decided line up a cupcake, Freddie!) are with UCLA and Southwest Missouri State. After the SMU el floppo, nobody’s a lock. Then the Big 12 Conference slate has Colorado, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas State, Nebraska, Texas and Iowa State.
The same brutal maelstrom as this fall.
The job of Terry Allen is safe right now; if there is no 6-5 or better next season, CEO Bob Frederick will face High Noon. Phog Allen used to say the tenure of an athletics director is generally no longer than two unsuccessful football coaches. Well, Glen Mason after one surge left here under a cloud and Terry hasn’t stuck gold yet. Freddie might also wind up glancing furtively over his shoulder if there isn’t a quick productive bounce.
Back to Missouri. Right now you might figure it’s the only “reachable” for KU on that hellatious 2001 schedule. But the Tigers, too, are dedicated to a bounce and nobody knows how that might boomerang on Kansas.
Yeah, several KU players have commented about how disappointed they are that local stadium crowds weren’t much, much bigger and how they found it hard to get fired up when the audience was so small. So how do you explain the Chiefs with their traditional 80,000 cookouts.
Full seats haven’t prevented their being dumped on their derrieres. Enough of this “If you come, we will build it,” please. You play good ball and folks will turn out. You play like sausages, you lure only diehards, God love ’em. Too much sausage on the plate this year, guys, and that’s gotta change fast.
KU and Missouri clearly have to rebuild for 2001 to keep from playing to some miserable 0-0 tie. With a coaching staff, recruiting format and support people already in place with four years of experience, you’d think KU has the edge. But does it?
That’s just Missouri. Think of those other seven league back-breakers on the slate.
KU’s been good in football in clusters of years, though never for long periods. It can be good again, no matter what anyone says, and can attract nifty crowds. Between now and this same time next year, there’s a lot of proving to be done.
