Thursday, October 29, 2009
I’ve always thought that how a team handles adversity is much more important than how it handles success.
When a team is winning, it has all the momentum and confidence is high going into every game. Sure, there will be some distractions and pressure that come with winning games, but it is still much more difficult to respond to a loss than it is to stay focused after a win. A loss forces a team to reevaluate what it did wrong, and it often causes players to doubt their abilities or question their coaches’ game plans.
After losing two games in a row, Kansas has to hit the road to play a team no one wants to face, the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The Jayhawks have dropped out of the polls after a big loss to Oklahoma, and it would be easy to give up on the idea of winning the Big 12 North.
Instead, the Jayhawks have a big opportunity to prove they are not finished. In a conference where anything can happen, Kansas is capable of regrouping and winning enough games to make it to the Big 12 Championship.
Todd Reesing has never lost three games in a row as Kansas’ starting quarterback. Time after time, he has come up with a big play for the Jayhawks, and you would think he would find a way to get the job done against Texas Tech.
Reesing is coming off perhaps his worst game of his Kansas career. He was intercepted three times in the first half of last week’s loss to Oklahoma, and finished with just 224 yards passing.
Several other players also had subpar games in the loss to Oklahoma, but bouncing back from tough times starts with Reesing. If Reesing can get off to a good start against the Red Raiders, other players will feed off of his play and follow suit.
The Jayhawks have to remember they are not the only ones that are having a tough time right now. Missouri is 0-3 in Big 12 play and Nebraska just turned the ball over eight times in an ugly loss to Iowa State. The Big 12 North is still wide open, and Kansas should realize that it could start a winning streak just as quickly as it started its recent slump.
I was disappointed with some of the fans in my section at last Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma. It’s one thing to leave a game early when it becomes a blowout. It’s another thing to start questioning the players and coaches who have helped put Kansas football on the map in recent years.
I heard constant complaints about the play-calling or Reesing’s play at quarterback as the game was getting out of hand. Instead of having confidence in our team’s abilities, some fans displayed doubt in their abilities, which was surely felt by the players on the field. Yelling at the players did nothing to restore their confidence after they made mistakes during the game, and this did nothing to help Kansas win last week’s game.
Kansas has had its share of bad breaks this season, but it has been nothing like what the Oklahoma Sooners have gone through. After losing their starting quarterback and tight end to injuries, the Sooners have battled through a brutal schedule and responded to adversity by defeating the Jayhawks last week. Their fans still did a great job of supporting the team and appreciated the efforts that the players were giving.
This week’s game will tell us a lot about Kansas football and just how far it has come. Not only will we see how the team responds to adversity, but we will see how the Kansas fans respond to adversity as well.
It’s easy to cheer for a team when it is winning every game. It gets a little bit harder when that same team is losing. I hope that this week the Jayhawks can show the conference they aren’t finished yet.
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