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[warthog]

North Dakota St. upsets KU 6-3
By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH
The Kansas City Star

LAWRENCE | Kansas coach Turner Gill’s debut was supposed to be about moving on. Instead, it made KU fans want to live in the past.

North Dakota State 6, Kansas 3.

The Night The Wheat Stood Still.

Gill has vaguely promised fans an exciting brand of football during his first nine months on the job. What they got was a performance lacking in creativity, originality and execution — a stinker deserving of a 0.0.

Somewhere in Naples, Fla., Mark Mangino is feeling something. Validation, perhaps. His teams, no matter how woeful they were at the beginning, never lost to a team from Division I-AA, now called the Football Championship Subdivision. North Dakota State may win a championship this year, but it appears the Jayhawks can forget about that.

The Jayhawks lost to the Bison despite giving up just 168 yards of offense because they turned the ball over three times and could not block North Dakota State. Now, KU will have to look forward to Georgia Tech next week on the same field. It could get ugly — but not any uglier.

Gill wasn’t just brought here to clean up the language in the Anderson Family Football Complex — his mission was to erase the memories of a seven-game losing streak to end the 2009 season and resume the Jayhawks’ march to respectability on a national scale.

After Saturday, the success of the program during 2007-08 — the 12-1 season and Orange Bowl victory followed by the school’s first back-to-back bowl berths and an Insight Bowl win — will feel like a mirage to many. Did that 5-foot-10 Texan named Todd Reesing actually swoop in and save Kansas football from mediocrity?

Gill has begun his career by avoiding real talk about expectations. Asked what he expects, the answer is “to win every game.” Of course, that is not realistic for the Jayhawks, who lost all of their star power after last season and are adjusting to a new coaching staff.

But Gill hasn’t wanted to dip too far into reality since taking this job in December. He has preached building player relationships instead of wins and losses, and in the aftermath of Mangino’s controversial departure, it was a noble idea to have different priorities in place.

Gill’s priority, according to his players, is for them to “enjoy the college football experience.” The assumption is that winning is involved, because what college football program could enjoy losing?

Would Gill’s way work for the Jayhawks? Saturday was the first chance to feel it out, and it couldn’t have gone much worse offensively. Kansas couldn’t run the football all game except for a couple of nifty reverse runs by wide receiver Daymond Patterson. KU totaled just 32 rushing yards from running backs Angus Quigley and Deshaun Sands on 34 carries.

Quarterback Kale Pick, making his first career start, was indecisive and hindered by a conservative game plan that had him throwing mostly short passes. He completed 13 of 22 passes for 138 yards and a costly interception that kept the Jayhawks from at least tying the score late in the third quarter. It was the first time all night Pick had tried to force a pass into coverage, and it cost him. North Dakota State’s Matt Anderson grabbed it and fell into the end zone for a touchback.

There are many Jayhawks who will have regrets Sunday morning. KU kicker Jacob Branstetter missed a 42-yard game-tying field goal wide left in the fourth quarter. Junior tight end Tim Biere fumbled twice, the first leading to the game-winning North Dakota State field goal and the second ending Kansas’ final drive with 3 minutes, 10 seconds left.

After that, the Jayhawks’ defense held once again, but they couldn’t stop the clock because KU had used all of its timeouts by the eight-minute mark.

The Jayhawks had numerous opportunities to take control of the game but didn’t have the offensive line play or the direction from the quarterback to do it. Backup quarterback Jordan Webb entered the game to big applause with 11:27 left and showed promise, but the redshirt freshman didn’t get much help in his first college appearance.

This one will hurt, making KU fans wonder about their identity once again. Hey, at least “Late Night at the Phog” is Oct. 15.

http://www.kansascit...ied-3-3-at.html

[Dom]

Missouri Valley Conference once again owns Kansas

[warthog]

Jayhawks have the early lead as the worst team in the Big 12 conference.

[Coach]

warthog, on 04 September 2010 - 11:08 PM, said:

Jayhawks have the early lead as the worst team in the Big 12 conference.

And possibly the worst team in the Nation.

[Jaydaholmes31]

The worst team in the nation could very well be correct. Gill had 8 months to prepare his team for a middle of the road (projected) div 1AA team and just plain laid a turd. They looked unorganized, poorly coached, and plain stupid. When I attended the spring game I thought they looked disorganized and it almost had a high school football team feel to me. The drills they ran and the way things were done did not impress me in the least. Toben Opurum is being wasted by trying to force him at LB. He was the best back we had when Sharp was down and is still the best back on the team and didn't see the field at all. If this embarrassing trend continues I am all for a change after 1 year. I can't even defend my team.

[Los Pollos Hermanos]

This is Lew's legacy.

[Jaydaholmes31]

DallasChief, on 08 September 2010 - 12:50 PM, said:

This is Lew's legacy.

Yep. He had nothing really to do with 08 national championship or the orange bowl.

[Los Pollos Hermanos]

Jaydaholmes31, on 08 September 2010 - 01:01 PM, said:

Yep. He had nothing really to do with 08 national championship or the orange bowl.

He didn't hire Self or Mangino.

He scalped a lot of tickets though.

[warthog]

Jaydaholmes31, on 08 September 2010 - 01:01 PM, said:

Yep. He had nothing really to do with 08 national championship or the orange bowl.

He had a LOT to do with the Orange Bowl. I'd still like to know how much money went under the table for that one. When the entire country is in an uproar over something like that and they still stick to their stories, there was some major moola involved.

[Jaydaholmes31]

Coach, on 05 September 2010 - 10:25 AM, said:

And possibly the worst team in the Nation.

Not even close! Crow tastes good today.

[AssKickingBoots]

Jaydaholmes31, on 11 September 2010 - 07:22 PM, said:

Not even close! Crow tastes good today.

I knew Georgia Tech was overrated (SEC team that confounds other SEC defenses by running an archaic offense), but I never expected this. Looking at the box score, I don't really know how Kansas won. The turnover margin was even, GT outgained them by 87 yards. The closest thing to a stat that stood out was GT being 5/15 on passing. Webb did a good job passing, but he threw for less than 200 yards.

I still don't think Kansas is very good, but they'll still give anyone a fight.