Fort Worth, Texas ? The fall leaves have yet to change colors, much less start dropping from tree limbs. But we’re already preparing for a pivotal matchup to settle one of the Big 12 Conference’s top individual honors.
Pencil in today’s winning coach at the Kansas-Missouri game as the man with the inside track to becoming the 2003 Big 12 Coach of the Year.
Sure, it’s early. But look around. Who’s doing a better job, right now, of maximizing his team’s talents than Kansas’ Mark Mangino or Missouri’s Gary Pinkel?
You could make an argument for Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, who is working with a stacked deck. You could nominate Nebraska coach Frank Solich, whose pedestrian offense will soon have the Cornhuskers mired in the middle of the North Division standings.
But if you want to talk about teams capable of blowing away preseason expectations — the universal yardstick for measuring coach-of-the-year candidates — you’d better pay close attention to what happens today in Lawrence.
This is not your typical Kansas-Missouri football encounter. It’s more than a mere time-killer until the basketball teams begin practicing in October.
The Jayhawks (3-1) and Tigers (4-0) enter with winning records for the first time since 1997. Even more rare: Regardless of the outcome, both teams will walk away from a KU-MU skirmish with winning records for the first time since 1981.
Snicker if you want, but in a league with eight guaranteed bowl berths, ample postseason possibilities exist for two football programs that have stayed home for the holidays every season in this millennium. If both break that drought this season, look for today’s winner to wind up as the league’s Coach of the Year.
At this juncture, Mangino and Pinkel could care less about postseason acclaim. Each wants to continue building on a rare fast start.
Especially Mangino, whose team was 2-10 last season, including a winless Big 12 campaign. In Mangino’s second season, the Jayhawks rank fourth nationally in total offense (499.8 yards per game) and look good in at least one trickle-down progression of comparative scores. Kansas hammered UNLV, 46-24, Sept. 6. That loss is the only one for the Rebels (3-1), who went on to knock Wisconsin (3-1) out of the Top 25 with a 23-5 pasting. UNLV also defeated Toledo (3-1), which is coming off last week’s 35-31 victory over No. 17 Pittsburgh (2-1).
That’s a far cry from last season when the Jayhawks fell to Baylor, 35-32, helping the Bears break a 29-game winless streak against Big 12 opponents. Mentally, said Mangino, those Jayhawks were “tamped down” and “left for dead, for lack of a better term” by an indifferent fan base. But today, Memorial Stadium will be rocking like it’s Allen Fieldhouse in February. How will Kansas respond?
“I don’t know how good a team we really are,” Mangino said. “But the key is, our players think they’re pretty good and that’s all that matters now. We’ll find out soon enough.”