Up here in the rarefied air of the second floor of The News Center, we of the Journal-World sports staff often banter about weighty topics.
Usually, the subject is where to go for dinner, but every now and then somebody tosses out a question destined for debate.
Like the other day, when staffer Jason Walker wondered out loud who would win if the 2003 Kansas University football team played the 2005 KU edition.
Both those teams became bowl eligible with a sixth victory against Iowa State on the last Saturday of the season, but basically that’s where the similarities end.
The ’03 Jayhawks proved that bowl eligibility is attainable despite a porous defense, while the ’05 club has shown conclusively that having no offense is no detriment to a postseason bid.
How bad is this year’s offense? If you put on a positive spin on it, you can say 15 NCAA Division I-A teams are worse. Yet the fact remains that 101 other major-college football teams have compiled more offensive yardage this season than Kansas.
Those of you who witnessed those stultifying midseason losses to Kansas State (12-3) and Oklahoma (19-3) know it only too well. At times this season, the Jayhawks’ offense has looked like it couldn’t score against the Rolling Stones, and most of that can be attributed to shaky quarterbacking.
Three QBs have started at least one game for coach Mark Mangino this fall and : well, let’s just say that Kansas threw more interceptions (19) than any other Big 12 Conference school.
So, how would this year’s offense fare against the swinging-gate defense of 2003, the one that surrendered 35 or more points six times?
I’m guessing four touchdowns. That’s based on this year’s offense accumulating 30 or more points against the three nonconference foes, and that wispy ’03 KU defensive platoon certainly wasn’t any better than the ones Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech and Appalachian State threw at KU in September.
OK, that brings us to how the ’03 Kansas offense would fare against this season’s defense.
Remember that the Jayhawks’ Tangerine Bowl team featured quarterback Bill Whittemore, who that season ranked No. 11 nationally in total offense.
In truth, Whittemore was the first KU dual-threat quarterback since All-American Bobby Douglass. Whittemore could beat you with his feet and with his arm. But how would he do against the rock-solid ’05 KU defense?
There’s no way of knowing, of course, but my guess is Whittemore would generate about three touchdowns. I base that estimate on the fact Iowa State’s Bret Meyer – a virtual Whittemore clone – was the reason ISU was able to score 21 points Saturday in the Jayhawks’ stirring overtime victory.
So, by my reckoning – based on painstaking hypothesis or pure hokum, depending on how you look at it – the ’05 Jayhawks would defeat the ’03 Jayhawks by a score of approximately 28-21.
One more thing. Both KU bowl teams were counterintuitive in one crucial statistic: The ’03 Jayhawks ranked 99th nationally in turnover margin, and this year’s bunch ranks No. 107.
Gee, maybe mistakes don’t really kill you, after all.
