Mark Mangino is looking for a starting quarterback in all the wrong places.

The Kansas football coach has sophomore Adam Barmann and junior Jason Swanson slated ahead of junior Brian Luke because they’ve played well in spring practices.

That’s nice and all, but practice shouldn’t be the deciding factor. What the decision should boil down to is game performance.

If you focus on last season’s results, it’s easy to see that the job should be Luke’s to lose.

When he got his opportunity to play last year, the Jayhawks played their best ball.

He only saw extended action in two games, but he dominated against quality opponents.

Kansas split two games, winning at Missouri and narrowly losing to No. 6 Texas.

When Barmann and Swanson started, Kansas compiled a record of 3-6.

You can’t judge everything by the win-loss record, but Luke simply looked better than the other competitors.

Against Texas he came off the bench and completed 14 of 25 passes for 225 yards and a touchdown. He stayed poised while the heavily favored Longhorns came back, and made a clutch completion to junior Charles Gordon that, if not for a questionable offensive pass interference penalty, would have won the game for the Jayhawks.

He followed up that performance with a monster game at Missouri, where he led Kansas to a decisive victory by throwing for 239 yards and two touchdowns.

He deserves credit for that road victory because no other quarterback on the team has won a game away from Memorial Stadium in his career.

Luke also has the best body of any KU quarterback. The coaching staff says he has the strongest arm, and, at 6-foot-5, he’s tall enough to look over linemen and see the entire field.

The only real setback for Luke is that he can’t scramble, but that’s not too significant. Too often you see college quarterbacks give up on plays and try to run. Because Luke can’t rely on his feet, he is patient with his receivers.

Swanson can scramble, and if Luke isn’t the starter, Swanson should replace him. He is still a wild card, but he looked good in last year’s games against Kansas State and Colorado before suffering a season-ending injury.

With Barmann you already know what you’re getting. He’s a good athlete and can make some decent plays, but he won’t do anything spectacular.

He’s had two good games, against Texas A&M; two years ago and Toledo last season, but other than that he hasn’t had much success. If he were the man for the job it would have showed last year in winnable games against Northwestern, Texas Tech and Nebraska.

The Jayhawks lost those three games and Mangino showed so little confidence in Barmann that he benched him in the second half of several contests.

If you still aren’t sold on Luke, consider this: Kansas built a 30-5 lead against Texas Tech last year with Barmann playing under center. The game was in the bag, but Barmann threw three interceptions and the Jayhawks fell to the Red Raiders 31-30.

Kansas built a similar 28-point lead at Missouri, with Luke at quarterback, and the Jayhawks cruised to a 31-14 victory.

Mangino needs to remember those stats and give Luke another opportunity. He’s earned it.