Saturday's game a 'must-win' for bowl play

By By Kellis Robinett

Thursday, September 15, 2005

The Kansas football team faces a must-win game against Louisiana Tech on Saturday.

But for some reason, no one wants to admit it.

“It’s hard for me to sit in front of my football team and say that a certain game is a ‘must-win game,’” Kansas football coach Mark Mangino said. “If we lose, then what happens? Do we drink grape Kool-Aid?”

Probably not, coach, but a loss on Saturday will just about end any post-season hopes for Kansas.

Win or lose, eight games remain on the Jayhawks’ schedule after their game with the Bulldogs. So, mathematically, they would still have a chance to make up for a loss. But if Kansas can’t go undefeated with the easy non-conference schedule it has, how can anyone argue that the team will rebound and finish 4-4 in Big 12 Conference play?

With a 3-0 start, however, the Jayhawks will be halfway to the six victories required for bowl eligibility and be in a position to make a run at even higher aspirations.

“To start 3-0 going into conference play would be a huge boost of confidence,” senior linebacker Kevin Kane said. “With three wins under our belt, it would be great. Hopefully we’d make it to a bowl game.”

Indeed, a perfect start to the season would give the Jayhawks confidence that hasn’t been seen on Mount Oread in nearly a decade. The last time Kansas started 3-0 was 1997, and it comes as no surprise that only one Kansas team between then and now has gone to a bowl game.

The squad fortunate enough to overcome a non-conference loss was the 2003 team that made it to the Tangerine Bowl after falling to Northwestern. That team played four non-conference games, though, and only needed three Big 12 victories to finish the regular season 6-6.

This team doesn’t have that advantage. If it loses to Louisiana Tech, where will the other required four conference wins come from?

Home games against Missouri and Nebraska both appear to be winnable, as do road games against Kansas State and Colorado. But each of those games is no better than a toss-up if the Jayhawks aren’t good enough to beat the Bulldogs at home.

Oklahoma’s slow start helps Kansas’ outlook at Arrowhead a little, but the Sooners resemble the Jayhawk basketball team this year — long on talent and short on experience. Oklahoma will do nothing but improve as the year goes along under one of college football’s best coaches, Bob Stoops.

Iowa State seemed like a probable win two weeks ago, but after the Cyclones crushed the Iowa Hawkeyes, they look like a team to be reckoned with. Still, the games against Oklahoma and Iowa State are both possible victories.

You can hope for more than three victories in those six games, but there is no reason to expect it. At the moment, Kansas would likely be the underdog in most of those games.

So 3-3 against those opponents might not be the best case scenario, but it would be a good one. If Kansas plays well and comes up with three victories in that group, the team will still need one more victory, without a triumph over Louisiana Tech, to become bowl eligible.

Will that victory come at Texas or at Texas Tech? Probably not.

Yes, the Jayhawks should have won both those games last year in Lawrence, but they will be heavy underdogs in Austin and Lubbock this year.

So basically, it all comes down to Saturday. With a victory, Kansas will be right where it wants to be. But a loss will all but ensure that the Jayhawks spend Winter Break at home.

Robinett is an Austin, Texas, senior in journalism. He is a Kansan sports editor.

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