Monday, November 22, 2010
There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the Kansas basketball team right now. The Jayhawks are 3-0, freshman guard Josh Selby has been cleared to play on Dec. 18, and a win tonight would break the school record for consecutive wins at home.
However, let’s not forget one thing. It’s Missouri week. This Saturday the Kansas football team will take on the Tigers for the 119th time in history. It’s the second most played rivalry in college football history. As it stands, the Jayhawks lead the all-time series 55-54-9, meaning a Missouri win would tie things up between to two schools.
However, a Kansas win may not be as far-fetched as you’d initially think.
Kansas and Missouri moved the rivalry game to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City three years ago. The first game in the professional stadium featured two teams ranked in the top five in the country. Kansas was ranked second at the time and was playing its last regular season game, in what was a complete surprise of the season. They set a Kansas football record for most wins in a season and faced the Tigers without a loss and with realistic hopes of playing for the national championship.
Over 80,000 people packed into Arrowhead and witnessed the Tigers hand the Jayhawks their first loss of the season. Kansas would go on to play in the Orange Bowl that season, beating Virginia Tech for their first BCS Bowl victory in school history. Missouri went on to lose the Big 12 Championship game to Oklahoma before winning the Cotton Bowl Classic versus Arkansas.
It was the first of three epic games against Kansas and Missouri at Arrowhead.
The two schools met the next year when Kansas, after losing considerable talent to the NFL draft and to graduation, was having a down year compared to the success of the previous year, but all things considered, it was still an exciting season for Kansas football. Missouri was ranked 11th when they faced the unranked Jayhawks and Kansas was looking to spoil the Tigers hopes of playing in a BCS Bowl game that season. In a back and forth game, Kansas won on a last second pass from Todd Reesing to Kerry Meier, winning the Jayhawks one of the most exciting Border Wars in school history.
Last year, despite the Jayhawks winning only their first Big 12 Conference game of the year, they still put up a fight against Missouri in the final game of the season. Kansas lost only 41-39.
Now, the Jayhawks will look to duplicate last year’s competitive performance by keeping things close with Missouri. Over the last three Border Showdowns at Arrowhead, the margin of victory by the winning team has been eight, three and two respectively.
Over Missouri’s last five games this season, the margin of victory by the winning team has only been an average of 10.8 points. The Tigers haven’t been blowing people out lately and have only won three of those last five games.
The Kansas seniors that have competed in the last three Showdowns know that in Arrowhead Stadium, anything can happen. After the senior’s last home game against Oklahoma State, coach Turner Gill was already thinking about leaving on a positive note against the Tigers.
“I’m glad they have one more game and hopefully we can finish on a great note for those guys,” he said.
— Edited by Leslie Kinsman
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