Leo Durocher was wrong. Nice guys don’t finish last.
Proof is Kansas University football coach Terry Allen, a man constitutionally incapable of un-niceness.
Allen hasn’t finished last in the four years he has been in charge of KU’s football program. Of course, he hasn’t finished first, either not that anyone would expect Kansas University to win the Big 12 Conference championship but still he has won no fewer than four and no more than five games in a season.
Mediocrity, yes, but incompetence, no.
Now as Allen embarks on a fifth season many people thought was unlikely, he will operate for the first time with the luxury of limited expectations.
If anything, unfulfilled expectations some of them fueled by Allen’s own rhetoric have precipitated a perception that raking leaves would be more fun than sitting in Memorial Stadium on an autumn afternoon.
Spring practice will begin today and Allen said Wednesday he is “excited” about the genesis of the 2001 edition of the Jayhawks. Use of that word may have surprised people who have studied the Jayhawks’ spring depth chart.
Kansas does have some proven skill players, but they are all wide receivers speedsters like Termaine Fulton, Harrison Hill, Roger Ross and Byron Gasaway.
Allen’s cadre of running backs won’t knock your eyes out. Allen calls third-year sophomore Reggie Duncan his “marquee back” while hoping the 5-foot-9, 220-pound Texan will emerge from the shadow of David Winbush and prevent the Jayhawks from having to throw, throw, throw.
Speaking of throwing, if Zach Dyer possessed a major-college arm he almost certainly would have supplanted the turnover-prone Dylen Smith last season.
Dyer has the size (6-3, 210), the athleticism (he can dunk a basketball) and the speed to be compared to Nebraska’s Eric Crouch, but KU has neither the running backs nor the offensive linemen to run the I-formation. Allen’s offense is, out of necessity, more wide open.
Two KU quarterbacks do have strong arms, but Kevin Long and Mario Kinsey are both freshmen who red-shirted last fall. Is there a coach in America who wants to open a season with a quarterback who has never played a down? Of course not.
On defense, new coordinator and assistant head coach Tom Hayes, fresh from the Washington Redskins, will discover he has some good players, some not-so-good players and some players who need a swift kick in the fanny.
Hayes was hired, it has been speculated, to be the bad cop to Allen’s good cop. If so, then more power to Hayes because there are times when football players need a drill sergeant, not a Dutch uncle.
Also a sign of the changing times is the hiring of Clint Bowen as special teams coach. It’s no secret Allen did not put enough emphasis on special teams last year. The punt team was particularly dreadful in the season opener at SMU when it handed the Ponies 17 points, and it remained shaky the rest of the way.
At least some of KU’s problems last season are attributable to a difficult schedule. No one in the Big 12 had a tougher draw than the Jayhawks. Unfortunately, little has changed. In fact, UCLA has been added to the mix.
Still, you have to consider seven home games a positive. Allen has won 18 games at Kansas and 16 have been at Memorial Stadium. Allen’s road record is 2-18, but the Jayhawks have just four road games this fall instead of the usual five.
Nevertheless, as spring drills begin, it’s difficult to be optimistic about the Jayhawks’ 2001 season. That’s not all bad, though, if the coaches and players use the low expectations as incentive.
