Miami ? Any two-loss team chirping about belonging in the Bowl Championship Series national title game instead of Louisiana State needs to get in line behind Kansas University.
Yeah, that’s right, Kansas, the basketball school. It’s the team some didn’t think even belonged in the Orange Bowl, the last game of the BCS undercard.
The Jayhawks were supposed to be a sacrifice for Virginia Tech after the Hokies couldn’t get in the title game. It didn’t take long to figure out the Jayhawks refused to go along with that.
What an impressive 24-21 victory for the Jayhawks. They could have folded when Tech came back from a 17-0 deficit to within 17-14 on a punt-return touchdown. After halftime, they could have panicked when their offense couldn’t put up its usual video-game numbers and blew a prime chance to gain some cushion.
Instead, Kansas stood up to the Hokies, who are far from being pushovers. Tech finished No. 3 in the BCS standings and, if not for blowing one against Boston College in Blacksburg, probably would be playing Ohio State in Monday’s national title game.
The Jayhawks might be there, too, if not for a 36-28 loss to Missouri on Nov. 24. No one really seemed to take Kansas seriously after that. And if that included the Hokies, it turned out to be a mistake.
From the start, Kansas looked faster, hit harder and generally appeared more spirited than the Hokies. When Tech finally offered resistance in the second half, the Jayhawks kept pushing back by getting tough on defense.
The defensive effort was somewhat of a sneak attack by Kansas, proving it is more than a nice little team with a spunky little quarterback. The all-score, no-stop charge was one way for critics to dismiss Kansas.
Another was to assail its ho-hum schedule: Kansas didn’t play Big 12 heavies Oklahoma and Texas, and then lost to Missouri, its only opponent to finish the season ranked in the polls. But then notice how Missouri dominated Arkansas, 38-7, in the Cotton Bowl.
Remember, Arkansas won at LSU. The Tigers also lost at Kentucky, and is Kansas losing to Missouri any worse than LSU losing to Kentucky, which finished 8-5?
Kansas had something to prove in the Orange Bowl and played like it. The game was on once cornerback Aqib Talib jumped a sideline route and took an interception 60 yards for the first touchdown.
That let everyone know Kansas can play defense. Tech quarterbacks Sean Glennon and Tyrod Taylor surely can vouch for that after they were harassed all game. The Hokies managed just two offensive touchdowns.
So the Kansas defense had to win this, and did by getting an interception to set up a two-yard touchdown run by Reesing. That finally put the Hokies away and allowed Kansas to look LSU in the eye.
There’s added pressure on LSU to at least make a good showing against Ohio State. Even if some still dismiss the Jayhawks because of their pedigree they can’t do that with Southern California, West Virginia and Georgia, two-loss teams that rolled to BCS bowl victories.
But Kansas can make the best case to belong in the BCS title game. The Jayhawks can’t complain too loudly because they have to keep getting to this level to earn respect, sort of like West Virginia has done with BCS victories in two of the past three years.
After this, the Jayhawks are on their way.
