Cliff Churchill and Dean Mathews hit the road for Austin, Texas, later this week and will take turns driving the Kansas football team’s equipment truck, same as always.
And unless Kansas pulls off an upset in a game in which oddsmakers made the Jayhawks 31.5-point underdogs, Churchill and Mathews must find something other than a victory by their favorite football team to fill conversation on the 698.2-mile trip from Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium to Memorial Stadium in Lawrence. Same as always.
Based on the quickest routes provided by mapquest.com, Churchill and Mathews have logged 22,765 miles in search of a victory since Kansas last won a game outside of Lawrence, in the West Texas town of El Paso, 34-7 vs. UTEP, Sept. 12, 2009.
The NCAA does not include KU’s three neutral-site losses to Missouri at Arrowhead Stadium, so the official road losing streak is 33 games. In reality, KU has lost its past 36 games played outside Lawrence.
Three of the losses during the endless slide, by an average score of 43-11, came in Austin under three different KU head coaches.
Texas didn’t score a point vs. Iowa State in Ames last week, but still is more than a four-touchdown favorite vs. a Kansas team that started five true freshmen and a red-shirt freshman on offense in last week’s 62-7 home loss to Oklahoma.
With a 12-56 record (nine more losses than the next-closest school, Purdue, from a so-called power-five conference) since quarterback Todd Ressing exhausted his eligilbity, has more losses than any Football Bowl Subdivision school except New Mexico State (12-57).
**Updated lists on KU’s 36-game road losing streak, which has spanned 13 states, five head coaches and nine starting quarterbacks:
**
**By coach (average score):**
Mark Mangino………………………0-5 (Home Team 37, Kansas 24)
Turner Gill…………………………….0-11 (Home Team 41, Kansas 12)
Charlie Weis………………………….0-12 (Home Team 40, Kansas 13)
(Interim) Clint Bowen………………0-5 (Home Team 44, Kansas 14)
David Beaty…………………………..0-3 (Home Team 48.5, Kansas 11.5)
**By state:**
Texas…………………0-12
Oklahoma…………..0-5
Iowa…………………..0-4
Kansas……………….0-3
Missouri……………..0-3
West Virginia……….0-2
Colorado…………….0-1
Mississippi………….0-1
Nebraska…………….0-1
Georgia……………….0-1
Illinois………………….0-1
North Carolina………0-1
New Jersey…………..0-1
**By starting quarterback:**
Todd Reesing …………….0-5
Jordan Webb………………0-9
Quinn Mecham……………0-2
Dayne Crist…………………0-3
Michael Cummings………0-7
Jake Heaps…………………0-4
Montell Cozart……………..0-4
Deondre Ford………………0-1
Ryan Willis…………………..0-1
