Jayhawks took quick peek ahead to Iowa State during recent bye

By Matt Tait     Nov 6, 2014

Nick Krug
Kansas head football coach Clint Bowen laughs with senior defensive captain Ben Heeney as Heeney leads the team in stretching at the beginning of practice on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014.

Although the Jayhawks spent the bulk of their bye week (Oct. 25) preparing for their match-up with Baylor, Kansas University interim head coach Clint Bowen said Tuesday that parts of the off week were spent looking ahead to this week’s match-up with Iowa State.

“Yeah, any time we had a little extra time on Friday (Oct. 24), we always glanced ahead,” Bowen said.

The idea was not as much to worry about the ins and outs of the Cyclones (2-6 overall, 0-5 Big 12) as it was to get a jump-start on ISU week.

Bowen said the practice was something he learned while working for former KU defensive coordinator Bill Young and its intention was to position the team to be ready to take bigger steps forward the Sunday after the game that followed its bye. In this case, that was last Sunday, which Bowen said went well.

“By the time we got on the field on Sunday, our guys realized that there’s nothing you can do about the Baylor game, but there’s plenty we can do about the rest of the season,” he said.

Kansas (2-6, 0-5) and Iowa State will kickoff at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in a showdown of the Big 12 Conference’s two last-place teams.

The Jayhawks have lost four straight games to Iowa State, with two low-scoring, close losses to ISU coming during the Turner Gill years and two losses by the combined total of 85-23 during the past two seasons.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.