Thursday, November 20, 2008
Things may seem awfully glum right now in the land of Jayhawk football.
Kansas endured a 35-7 drubbing at the horns of Texas on Senior Day, and now is a week and a half away from a “showdown” with the explosive Missouri Tigers.
The drop in wins and production from last year to this year has been covered ad nauseum. After an Orange Bowl, fans just aren’t happy with a six-win season.
Oh how times have changed.
Once upon a time, Kansas football was bad. Really bad. “Wrong Turn 2” bad? Worse than that, even. At least that movie had Henry Rollins.
Kansas football was once such a joke, that the winning six games in a season would have been considered a monumental success.
1987 was such a year.
The date was Nov. 7. The opponent: the Kansas State Wildcats. The scene: Manhattan. The records? About that...
Kansas came in to the game an astonishing 1-7. Not be outdone, Kansas State faced their cross-state rival at 0-8.
National press dubbed the game the toilet bowl. And boy, did it ever live down to expectations. Eight turnovers and one botched field goal later, and the game ended in a 17-17 tie.
Now, Kansas football isn’t the most tradition-rich program. Sure, there’s Gale Sayers and John Riggins, and even last year’s Orange Bowl team. But generally, the Jayhawks have not fared well on the gridiron. Thus many of the great achievements KU football fans can treasure are, well, less than great.
Unfortunately, one of Kansas’ long standing efforts of football futility is about to be challenged. The 1987 edition of the Governor’s Cup may be supplanted, or at least matched, by the 2008 edition of the Apple Cup as the most woeful inter-state rivalry game of all time.
The Apple Cup, for those who don’t know, pits the Huskies of Washington against the Cougars of Washington State. And make no mistake about it, both teams are the pits this year.
Washington is the lone remaining winless team in college football’s top division. They’re minus their quarterback Jake Locker, and minus a head coach. The real strength of the Huskies is their defense, though. It comes in ranked as the 116th best unit in all of college football. That’s their strength, because their offense is ranked 117. But, truth be told, Washington is a little better than their record might indicate. They should have beaten BYU, and could have mustered wins over Stanford and Arizona State. But that’s little consolation for a fan base that saw a national championship in 1991.
Then there’s Washington State. The Cougars, if it’s possible, are even worse than their record. Like the 1987 Jayhawks, Wazzu’s only win came over a lower division opponent. Unfortunately, a victory over Portland State didn’t instill Washington State’s players with the confidence they needed to navigate a mediocre Pac 10 schedule. Arizona and Stanford, who are less than juggernauts, defeated Wazzu by a combined total of 83-42. USC probably could have done worse than that themselves, but Pete Carroll called off his Trojans after they had amassed a 56-0 advantage. But maybe this can all be chalked up to poor preparation. After all, the scout team quarterback is some guy named Peter Roberts who made the team via an open tryout held a few weeks into the season.
Thus the stage is set. The teams are ready, and sufficiently terrible. The legendary 1987 Governor’s Cup finally has a deserving sequel — Toilet Bowl 2: The Crapple Cup. 6-5 never looked so good.
— - Edited by Scott Toland
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