Kansas wide receiver D.J. Beshears caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Jordan Webb with nine seconds remaining to give KU a 45-42 victory against Northern Illinois with 48,084 on hand at Memorial Stadium on Sept. 10, 2011.
That dramatic ending made KU’s record 2-0 and stands as the most recent two-game winning streak for the program. Las Vegas oddsmakers expect that streak of no winning streaks to end Saturday when Rutgers visits David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium for an 11 a.m. kickoff. Kansas opened as a three-point favorite.
KU hasn’t come very close very often in trying for a second consecutive victory in recent years.
After opening Charlie Weis’ first season on the job with a 31-17 victory over South Dakota State, KU lost to Rice, 24-25, in Lawrence with 44,683 in attendance. In Weis’ second season, after opening with a 31-14 triumph over South Dakota, KU lost at Rice, 23-14. The Jayhawks bounced back with a 13-10 win over Louisiana Tech on a Matthew Wyman field goal, but then were drubbed by Texas Tech, 54-16. Later in the season, KU defeated West Virginia in Lawrence, 31-19, but then slipped all over the place in icy Ames, Iowa, and took a 34-0 beating.
Weis opened his third season by holding on to defeat SEMO, 34-28, then took a 41-3 beating at Duke. After a 24-10 victory against Central Michigan, KU was shut out by Texas, 23-0, spelling the end of Weis’ tenure.
Interim head coach Clint Bowen defeated Iowa State, 34-14, then lost to TCU, 34-30, the closest Kansas has come to a two-game winning streak since 2011. It started a 15-game losing streak for the program.
David Beaty’s first victory as head coach came in the 2016 opener, a 55-6 domination of Rhode Island, but Ohio came into Lawrence and prevented a KU winning streak with a 37-21 victory. KU played pretty well the week after defeating Texas, 24-21 in overtime, but lost in Manhattan to Kansas State, 34-19.
The Jayhawks opened the 2017 season with a 38-16 victory over SEMO, but couldn’t stop Central Michigan quarterback Shane Morris from shredding them, 37-21.
