MIAMI — The Kansas football players kept their mouths glued shut as tightly as a rag doll all season long. They said they didn’t listen to the naysayers’ criticism of their weak non-conference schedule and it didn’t bother them when analysts questioned their legitimacy.

They all lied. Seconds after the 24-21 victory against Virginia Tech in the FedEx Orange Bowl became final, the players rushed the field and insisted that they just validated the most phenomenal football season in school history.

“Any doubts that we didn’t belong on top all are gone,” senior tight end and captain Derek Fine said. “We just beat the number three team, a very, very good team, the ACC Champions.”

Sophomore quarterback Todd Reesing added that the doubters were silenced now. But Reesing and Fine weren’t just saying it. They were yelling it.

Maybe they elevated their volume so reporters could clearly hear their statements over the pandemonium on the field that comes with winning a Bowl Championship Series bowl game. That’s not what it sounded like, though.

Reesing and Fine’s tone and expression just made you feel like they were releasing five months of pent-up frustration. It was a moment that can normally only be found in cheesy sports movies. It even seemed awkward without uplifting orchestration.

Most of the players repeated those feelings in the locker room and in the post-game press conference but it wasn’t the same. Reesing and Fine hollering about respect to people standing inches away from them was the perfect ending to a storybook season. And they had a point.

After starting the season with four straight victories, the Jayhawks weren’t supposed to beat in-state rival Kansas State in Manhattan, where they hadn’t won in nearly 20 years. Kansas traveled up the road and racked up more than 430 yards of total offense in a 30-24 victory.

The attitude then shifted to OK well, Kansas can’t possibly win two straight games on the road. But Boulder, Colo. and College Station, Texas became tour stops on the Jayhawk invasion in late October.

Beating Texas A&M 19-14 in a slug-it-out game at Kyle Field, one of the most storied stadiums in college football, was supposed to prove to the nation that Kansas was for real. It didn’t.

ESPN personalities called out the Jayhawks as frauds. Columnists wrote that they were over-rated. The majority of the national media still doubted them. I doubted them.

It took a 76-point massacre against Nebraska and 15-point victory on the road against Oklahoma State in front of a national primetime television audience to finally receive positive attention.

But none of that mattered when it came to predicting the Orange Bowl. Kansas wasn’t going to be able to win the special teams battle against Virginia Tech and the Hokie defense was far too superior.

Wrong again. The Jayhawks made a big special teams play of their own when junior linebacker Joe Mortensen blocked a field goal in the third quarter. Reesing threw for a gritty 227 yards, which was just enough.

“A lot of folks counted us out on this one. We’ve heard that for about a month,” coach Mark Mangino said. “And that’s OK because we’ve been in that position quite a bit. I think we play better when we’re an underdog anyhow.”

Kansas spent the season proving that it excelled as the underdog. And it spent the Orange Bowl proving the cynics wrong.