Turner Gill’s first season as coach at Kansas was a roller coaster ride. It began with a loss to FCS member North Dakota State and included a 59-7 loss at home to Kansas State.

But after the Jayhawks’ loss to rival Missouri 35-7 on Saturday, the entire season can be more easily put into perspective and it wasn’t all bad.

This season had more exciting moments than last year’s 5-7 Jayhawk team had. There was a 28-25 win at home against 15th ranked Georgia Tech. Fans had the chance to rush the field afterwards in what was easily the most exciting moment at the time since the Jayhawks had won the Insight Bowl two seasons prior.

A couple months later, the Jayhawks pulled off the greatest comeback in school history, scoring 35 points in the fourth quarter to come back after being down 28 points to Colorado.

In the Jayhawks’ last test of the season against Missouri, they stayed competitive for a large part of the game and found themselves only down 21-7 at one point in the third quarter before ultimately allowing the Tigers to take control.

“I think Missouri gave us more motivation and to come back after the off season as a better team,” sophomore quarterback Kale Pick said.

The Jayhawks will have plenty of players at key positions returning next season, including freshman running back James Sims.

Despite an offense that struggled to score points the last three games of the season, Sims provided a glimpse of what could be the future of the Jayhawk backfield.

Against Missouri, Sims ran the ball a season high 21 times for 82 yards and a touchdown. The Tigers are one of college football’s best defenses, giving up on average only 15.2 points per game.

“I need to give credit to Missouri’s defense, they are a very good defensive football team,” Gill said.

Sims’ touchdown was his ninth of the season, despite not playing in the first game of the season. It capped one of the best freshman seasons from a running back in 17 years. His nine rushing touchdowns were the most by a freshman since June Henley rushed for 13 in 1993.

Sims also led the team in rushing yards. He recorded 742 yards on 168 attempts, a 4.4 yard per carry average. Second on the team was senior Angus Quigley who rushed for 262 yards on 71 carries.

“As a team we are very young and it has been hard to adapt to new coaches,” senior cornerback Chris Harris said. “It’s something that we had to get used to, but I see a bright future for the program.”

Gill said he was very confident about the Kansas football program heading into next season.

“Our guys improved every single day and every single week and we just need to go continue to move forward from that,” Gill said. “We have a lot of pluses that we can take from this and continue to move forward in the off season, recruiting, and also next season.”

— Edited by Anna Nordling