Austin, Texas ? As expected, it’s down to one game.
The Kansas University football team’s 66-14 blowout loss to No. 2 Texas on Saturday puts Kansas at 5-5 on the season – meaning the Nov. 26 battle between the Jayhawks and Iowa State will determine whether Kansas plays in a bowl game next month or goes home for another empty December.
“Hats off to Texas, but we’re focused on a one-game season right now,” KU coach Mark Mangino said, not 15 minutes after the final whistle blew Saturday at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. “For the next two weeks, all we’re interested in talking about and focusing on is Iowa State.
“That’ll be an important game for us to get an opportunity to play in postseason play.”
KU’s last make-or-break season finale was in 2003 – oddly enough, at home against Iowa State. Kansas cruised to a 36-7 victory in that game, hit the necessary six-victory plateau and went to the Tangerine Bowl a month later.
The Jayhawks, though, won’t be playing the 2003 Cyclones in two weeks. Iowa State is vastly improved from its 2-10 season two years ago and has come on strong lately to post a 7-3 record in its first 10 games of ’05. It has played especially well since the return of running back Stevie Hicks from injury, rolling past Texas A&M, Kansas State and, Saturday, Colorado in consecutive weeks.
Kansas, meanwhile, has won two of its last three after finally finding some sort of offensive groove midway through the Big 12 Conference season. The recent stretch includes emotional victories over Missouri and Nebraska at Memorial Stadium, both of which were followed by a goalpost-swiping party by the student body.
The Jayhawks are 5-0 in Lawrence this season – one edge KU has in the Nov. 26 matchup against the ‘Clones.
After admitting that Texas “kicked our defense’s butt” Saturday, linebacker Nick Reid was asked how KU was going to move forward, knowing that it has to win the next game in order to reach their ultimate goal of prolonging the season by one game.
“Just that – we have to,” Reid responded. “If we dwell on this, we’ll let this loss beat us twice. We can’t let that happen.”
