Thursday, November 12, 2009
Amidst the rampant excitement surrounding Kansas’ highlight-reel exhibition victories and the pending regular season, it’s easy to forget that football season isn’t over.
Old habits do die hard, after all. And for many Kansas fans, football season falling out of mind once the ball tips in Allen Fieldhouse is a habit as old as they themselves are. Fans tread lightly through fall, “wait ‘til basketball season!” a retort held taut on their tongue, ready to be fired at a moment’s need.
But despite the fact that it was employed as a weapon by Kansas fans, that refrain was equal parts damnation and praise for the Jayhawks. Certainly, it implied a strong level of confidence that the Kansas men’s basketball team would play up to its lofty reputation. But it also implied that Kansas football would play down to its and, furthermore, that Kansas fans were willing to grant as much.
Which is why this Saturday — a Senior Day showdown against Nebraska — is crucial for Kansas football. Not because the Jayhawks have any aspirations of winning the Big 12 North, or of vaulting back in to the rankings. Both of those aspirations were specters before last week, and they’re altogether banished now. Kansas does not need to defeat Nebraska to achieve any impossible level of national notoriety, or to grasp at out-of-reach straws. But, as much as the enveloping circumstances allow, Saturday’s game is indeed a must win for Kansas.
Because, the night before, the wait for basketball season will have ended. Barring some confluence of unfathomable events, the No. 1-ranked Kansas men’s basketball team will demolish Hofstra. And the Jayhawks will do it in style. Enough style that Kansas fans may be tempted to forget that there’s a football game the next day. And it is on ABC, so maybe they won’t even bother showing up. The fan base had enough of a hard time staying for an entire game when the Jayhawks were undefeated and ranked, after all. Now, far removed from those utopian circumstances, an even greater level of disinterest ought to be expected.
A loss, and those expectations will be fulfilled. The level of disinterest will persist, or maybe even grow.
Of course, there’s a simple, if not terribly easy, way to stop that from happening.
Kansas football simply must rediscover its winning ways. Hurt or not, Todd Reesing needs to play with the same reckless abandon that turned him in to a star — without turning over the football. The Kansas offense, as a whole, must rekindle a fire that burned bright not so long ago. They need big plays, and more importantly, points. There’s responsibility on the other side of the ball, too. An improving Kansas defense must continue that trend, and clamp down on a Nebraska offense which is, at best, mediocre.
Again, Kansas must win. The Jayhawks need to defeat the Cornhuskers, so that they can defeat a more threatening enemy: the growing ambivalence of Kansas fans.
— Edited by Alicia Banister
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