Close your eyes and think back to significant moments in life that came along twice. The first day on two different jobs, perhaps. The birth of two children. Two (gulp!) weddings.
Now, decide: For which were you more prepared?
Translate it to sports, and to the 14 starters currently on Kansas University’s football team who were here two years ago when the Jayhawks went to the 2003 Tangerine Bowl.
They’re now working to play in the 2005 Fort Worth Bowl as juniors and seniors. But will they be more prepared with a similar experience stored away in their memories?
Coach Mark Mangino thinks so.
“Most of our players know what to expect now,” Mangino said. “The novelty of participating in a bowl game has worn off. The tempo of the practices are much more buisinesslike, very focused.
“They’re not worried about what activities are going to take place at Fort Worth. They’re more interested in winning the game.”
Strong words, but the 2003 Jayhawks shouldn’t be blamed here. There’s an aura of unparalleled excitement the first time anything comes along in life. No one can deny it, no one can hide it. And so the Jayhawks went to the 2003 Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla., to Disney World, where they wore Mickey Mouse ears, and to a children’s retreat, where they squeezed tangerines and had fun and made terminally ill kids laugh for a day.
And then they played North Carolina State in the bowl game at the end of the trip and got bopped, 56-26, with a nation watching on ESPN.
“Nobody likes to lose,” center David Ochoa said, “and nobody likes to lose on national TV the way we did. I think the whole Tangerine Bowl serves as a learning experience for us, because a lot of us had never been to a bowl game. We were kind of taking it all in.”
Only one player on that ’03 team had bowl experience, and that was linebacker Gabriel Toomey. This year’s team is traveling to Fort Worth with 39 players having been on a bowl-bound roster in the past.
Most of them are Tangerine Bowl veterans, but Charlton Keith played in the Music City Bowl in 2002 while at Minnesota, and Matt Thompson was on the Air Force team that played in the ’02 San Francisco Bowl.
“You have a lot of distractions,” Ochoa said of bowl weeks. “I think it will be good for us because now we’re a mature team that can handle those distractions and stay focused on the task at hand.”
That, of course, is winning — and maybe shaking off a reputation Kansas football has acquired in the last decade. Since Glen Mason led the Jayhawks to a 10-2 record in 1995, no Kansas team has finished with a winning record.
With a 6-5 mark currently, Kansas won’t have a losing record this season. But the Fort Worth Bowl could either keep that 10-year streak of non-winning seasons going, or smash it in spectacular fashion — a 7-5 record and wins in four of the team’s last five games.
“You know, 7-5 and 6-6 are two totally different things,” Ochoa said. “A winning record is what everyone strives for. The difference there is huge.”
Added senior Jermial Ashley: “It’s really important to set the standard for players to come.”
Exhibit one: Ashley, a senior transfer and one of the starters on the squad without any bowl experience, seems to get the team theme. Jason Swanson, Aqib Talib, Ryan Cantrell, Brian Murph and James McClinton are a few of the others with no bowl ring on their finger.
“Prepare to win,” linebacker Banks Floodman said of the game plan. “Prepare like we’ve been preparing all season long. Several of the guys will have to help the younger guys down there who aren’t used to being there a week early.”
Exhibit two: Flash back to 2003, and a burning question that was asked several times to Mangino and his players: What do the extra December practices mean to this KU squad?
Two years ago, the time on the practice field might have been more important than the game itself. Development and the experience was critical in that stage of the program. And hey, they already had overachieved after going 2-10 the year before.
Well, Mangino was asked again earlier this month about the extra practice sessions and the future of his team. And, as ambitious as the fourth-year coach usually is toward his mission, that just wasn’t the case this time.
“We’re not going to lose sight of the fact,” Mangino said, “that our preparation mainly is to prepare to play well in the bowl game and win the bowl game.”
The future, it seems, just isn’t as important as the present. And maybe the Jayhawks can thank the past for that.
“We’re going to go out and try to play a little better this time around,” Floodman said. “The first time, I think a lot of us were happy to be in a bowl game.
“This time, it’s not going to be the same situation.”
6Sports video: KU shooting for winning season
Photo Gallery: Ft. Worth Pre-Bowl
Jolly old Jayhawks
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