Manhattan ? Of course, the road-game drought was going to be brought up again. Anymore, the veteran players expect it.
Until the dreary results are reversed, Kansas University’s football team probably will be reminded of its problems on the road under coach Mark Mangino every year. The Jayhawks, it is well known, are 2-19 in Big 12 Conference play away from Memorial Stadium under Mangino, with Missouri in 2004 and Iowa State last season as the only victories.
It’s obviously not one tangible problem, so convincing outsiders it will be different this time is no easy thing.
“It’s a new year,” tight end Derek Fine said. “Nothing’s ever given to you. We have to go out and play like the past four weeks that we won. It’s going to be a tough environment, but I’m excited to play there. It’s going to be a huge game.”
Kansas and Kansas State will kick off at 11 a.m. from Bill Snyder Family Stadium today. It’s the second consecutive time the KU-KSU game in Manhattan was scheduled to kick off in the morning.
“Like coach Mangino says, it’s just an hour away,” defensive tackle James McClinton said. “It’s not like we’re going to Texas or anything. It’s an hour away.
“The only thing is, it’s a morning game. So we better get our butts up and be ready to play.”
¢ Big audience: Today’s game technically is a regional telecast on Fox Sports Net, though it will be shown live on 17 different affiliates.
The affiliates are from coast to coast, including FSN Arizona, FSN Bay Area, FSN Florida, FSN New York, FSN Pittsburgh and FSN Southwest. In addition, three Comcast networks – Chicago, New England and Philadelphia – will pick up the game.
Locally, the game will be shown live on FSN Midwest (Sunflower Broadband channel 36).
¢ Trash talk: Kansas State cornerback Justin McKinney spouted off to the Topeka Capital-Journal, and it made its way to the Kansas locker room in a hurry.
“I feel like we’re tougher than those guys,” McKinney told the paper. “We’re faster than them. We’re smarter than them. In my head, I don’t see how you can compare us to them.”
Though KU players were pretty reserved all week talking to the media, wide receiver Dexton Fields did acknowledge they read McKinney’s comment.
“We feel pretty focused,” Fields said. “We read some comments one of the players made, so it kind of made us focus a little bit more to come out ready to play.”
¢ Rain coming?: Early weather forecasts for Manhattan indicated that rain was a possibility for today’s game.
For the Jayhawks, a rainy day would be the first in quite a while.
KU hasn’t played in the rain since 2003, when a game-long downfall drenched Memorial Stadium while Kansas played Northwestern.
K-State, meanwhile, played a portion of its game last week at Texas in a storm.
The Jayhawks always stay prepared for the elements, even if bad weather is a rarity on game day.
“We work all the time with wet balls,” Mangino said. “We don’t take any chances.”
¢ Too early: There has been a noticeable buzz around the state all week in anticipation of today’s game. But cornerback Aqib Talib was asked if he had heard people talking about the showdown on campus.
“My class is at 8 o’clock in the morning,” Talib replied. “I’m not on campus when everybody feels like talking. Everybody’s half asleep.”
¢ Quite a drought: Remarkably, Kansas hasn’t scored a touchdown in Manhattan since Oct. 9, 1999.
In the second quarter of that game, fullback Moran Norris bruised in for a two-yard score. Since then, KU has been held to five field goals over a span of 14 quarters.
The closest shot at paydirt since Norris’ touchdown probably was in 2003, when quarterback Bill Whittemore was injured at the one-yard line diving toward the end zone.
Kansas settled for an 18-yard Johnny Beck field goal on the next play.
¢ This, that: Kansas has beaten two Top 25 teams in the Mangino era: A 35-14 victory over Missouri in 2003, and a 24-21 overtime victory over Iowa State in 2005. Kansas State currently is ranked 24th. : KU hasn’t won five straight games since starting the 1995 season 7-0. K-State snapped that streak. : Kansas leads the all-time Sunflower Showdown series, 63-36-5.
