- Kansas doesn’t seem to have an identity right now so the best way to understand where they are is to know where they’ve been. They peaked in 2007 when they went 12-1 and finished with a #7 ranking in the country. They finished with top rankings in both total offense and total defense, but perhaps they were better on paper than reality. While Kansas has had a strong passing game over the years on offense, their defense has been weak and perhaps 2007’s defensive numbers were simply outliers? And perhaps bolstering those numbers was the fact that Kansas played only one team true[1] ranked team during the regular season that year(Missouri—whom they lost to), making their only quality win in the bowl game against Virginia Tech. Therefore, it was no surprise that in 2008 their record slipped to 8-5 as they faced top ranked Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Texas (each of those opponents was vying for the Big 12 Title that year). Last year they began strong with a 5-0 start, but then it all fell apart. They didn’t win a single game after that, losing seven straight in the midst of the Mark Mangino controversy. Mangino was their head coach and was praised for the success he brought to this program until allegations of verbal and even physical abuse to players led to his firing after last season.
- New head coach Turner Gill (from Buffalo) takes over a program in disarray. It is rebuilding and may not have even been as strong as once believed.
- In addition, Kansas loses some significant players from 2009, including their all-time passing leader in Todd Ressing, their all-time receiving leader in Dezmon Briscoe, and their top tackler from last year in Darrell Stuckey.
[1] “True” means they finished the season ranked. Many of these early rankings aren’t real because they’re based on pre-season rankings that have nothing to do with how a team plays and are simply reputation and speculation based.
