Preview: KU @ Iowa State

Source: zimbio.com

KU snapped a 27 game conference losing streak with its 31-19 win over West Virginia, and Saturday's game against the Iowa State Cyclones presents another opportunity to streak-bust. Dating back to 2009, Kansas has lost 23 straight road games, and hasn't won a Big 12 road game since the 35-33 win over these very Cyclones on October 4th, 2008. Kansas had to rally back from an early 20-0 halftime deficit, thanks to strong second half performances from Todd Reesing, Jake Sharp, and Kerry Meier. This year, KU finds itself a 4 and 1/2 point underdog in Ames, and has a very good chance of ending the streak, but they better not try to do it like they did in '08. I'm afraid that offense was a smidgen better than this one...

Losing Streak Ends, So Naturally: We Want Bama

Source: KU Sports

Funny story: So I started officially keeping this blog, The Rock Chalk Rant, on Blogger in the Fall of 2011, during KU's 2-10, 2011-2012 season. What most don't know, though, is that I actually first considered writing a game recap following KU's 52-45, 28 point comeback on November 6th, 2010. I was, and still am, enamored by the twists and turns of a college football game, especially that one, and I thought, as I sat there thinking about all the variables that impacted that game in that post-game delirium, that people would find it interesting to read game-recaps like they would a story. Because I think football games are stories, in a sense, (some better than others, and some, as we have seen, are the same old same old story) full of little occurrences that often go overlooked, but actually have a substantial impact on the game and season's outcome. I don't want to get too sappy, but like life, the little things add up over the course of time and add up to something pretty sizable...

Preview: KU vs. West Virginia

Source: isportsweb.com

The Vegas line puts the West Virginia Mountaineers as 7 1/2 point favorites for today's matchup, which is the closest spread Kansas has faced as the underdog since the Rice game, and the most favorable match-up since the home game against Louisiana Tech in the third game of the season.

Back on the Ground

Source: KU Sports

KU fell to Oklahoma State 42-6 on Saturday.

Preview: KU @ Oklahoma State

Source: Bleacher Report

And the gauntlet continues for KU. As we are all well aware of by now, the Big 12 Conference allows no time to for you to sit down and catch your breath. Today, the 2-6 (0-5) Kansas Jayhawks travel to Stillwater, Oklahoma to take on the 14th ranked, 7-1 (4-1) Oklahoma State Cowboys. It marks the Jayhawks's first trip to Stillwater since 2011, when they grabbed an early 7-0 lead over the heavily favored 6th ranked Cowboys, only to surrender 56 straight first half points, losing 70-28. Hopefully the coaching changes and player turnover will make this year is a slightly different story. I'd be happy with a game more like last year's version: Oklahoma State won the game on a wet afternoon in Lawrence, but by the skin of their teeth.

Hawks Still a Few Steps Slow

Source: KU Sports

In my last podcast with Crispin Brim, I said that the Texas Longhorns, at this stage in the game, are just a better version of what Kansas is. Now, I didn't out-rule Kansas being a Texas-level team. They were something Kansas could be, but something that Kansas just isn't yet. Sure enough on Saturday, the two teams played a very similar game from a schematic standpoint, Texas was just a better at it. Kansas trimmed the 14-0 Texas lead to 14-6 after closing out the first half with a field goal, and starting the second with another one, but a few critical mistakes down the stretch swelled the Texas lead a gave them the victory 35-13.

Preview: KU @ Texas

Source: ESPN

I preview the Texas game with Crispin Brim on this chilly Halloween night, and touch on how, despite the records, eerily similar the two teams actually are.

Bear Beatdown

Source: KU Sports

In the KU/Baylor Pregame podcast, I said that good, bad, or indifferent, there shouldn't be too much stock put into the game this past Saturday. Baylor is just that good. So, after watching what ended up being an old fashioned curb stomping from wire to wire, I'd be more than happy to just call the 59-14 Baylor romp water under the bridge. Unfortunately, we can't do that, and Charlie Weis definitely can't do that, so let's see if there are any tangible takeaways from one of the least competitive 59-14 games played in the history of football.

Preview: KU vs. Baylor

Source: saturdayblitz.com

Check out the first official Rock Chalk Rant podcast with Crispin Brim from crispinbrim.com.

Kansas Football: Outside the Lines

KU DB JaCorey Shepherd. Source: KU Sports

I’ll admit, I have been pretty tough on the KU Football team both in The Kansan and in the blogosphere lately, ranting about the wide receivers dropping passes, our secondary blowing assignments, and everything in-between.

Kick in the Gut

Source: KU Sports

On Saturday, KU played Oklahoma the closest it had played them since Todd Reesing, Jake Sharp, Kerry Meier, Dezmon Briscoe, Joe Mortensen, Mike Rivera, James Holt, and Darrell Stuckey did in 2008. The Hawks fell to the Sooners in Norman on that October day, 45-31, but put up a noble fight against a Sam Bradford led squad. Today was much of the same. KU jumped out early to a 13-0 lead, trailed by only 5 at halftime, 18-13, and trimmed the game to 25-19 Sooners in the fourth quarter, before it all unraveled in the final minutes. As well as Kansas played, this game felt like nothing more than another kick in the gut, and that feeling was only heightened because of how well Kansas played.

Preview: KU vs. Oklahoma

dfw.cbslocal.com

35-13 Oklahoma

Defending This Defense

Source: KU Sports

TCU

Preview: KU @ TCU

Source: Zimbio

Sometime in the next 24 hours, the Kansas Jayhawks will travel to North Texas to face the TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth this Saturday, and I will be following closely behind. It's my first road-trip with KU Football since I saw them play in Manhattan in 2009, losing 17-10 to Daniel Thomas and the K-State Wildcats during Todd Reesing's disappointing senior season. I also saw them lose to Colorado a few weeks before that, so as you can tell, I am extremely good luck when travelling with the Jayhawks. Here's hoping this week goes a little differently!

Blue October

Source: KU Sports

Argh. Texas Tech was an awesome candidate for an upset. This was the conference game I had circled to get the monkey off the Jayhawks back. I even thought that KU had a shot Friday evening, going into Saturday morning. Yes, Tech was unblemished on the year, but outside of a Thursday night home win against TCU, they hadn't been challenged through their first four games. They had tossed SF Austin and Texas State at home, and in front of a pro-Tech crowd in Dallas, the "road" game at SMU was hardly that. You had to figure if KU could get them in a close game outside of the friendly confines of Jones AT&T Stadium, freshman walk-on quarterback Baker Mayfield and head coach Kliff Kingsbury would find themselves in uncharted waters, and that Kansas would expose the reality of some presumably inflated statistics.

Preview: KU vs. Texas Tech

Source: ESPN

And today, opportunity presents itself. The 4-0, 20th ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders visit Memorial Stadium today to face the 2-1 Kansas Jayhawks. Kansas comes off the walk-off victory two weeks ago, and Texas Tech hasn't really been challenged all year outside of the TCU victory three weeks ago. It will be a tough challenge for the crimson and blue, but if Kansas wants to break streaks and get over the hump, today might be a nice day to do so.

Highway Robbery; Hawks Steal Away Into Bye Week at 2-1

Source: KU Sports

On a sun-bathed Kivisto Field, in front of 39,823, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs out-Kansased the Kansas Jayhawks. Leading 10-3 with 14:09 left in the fourth quarter and driving into Kansas territory, Bulldog quarterback Ryan Higgins made his unabated way into the red-zone and down near the front corner of the end-zone. Veering toward the sideline and down close to the five yard line, Higgins got greedy and cut back towards the pile-on for the deafening knock-out punch. Had he scored, Kansas would have been down 17-3, and, given the offensive performance to that point in the game (3 points on 256 total yards and two interceptions), would have faced a a very steep, slippery uphill battle. But Higgins didn't score.

Preview: KU vs. Louisiana Tech

Source: Yahoo Sports

If this game had been played just twelve months ago, Kansas would be in deep, deep doggy doo. Bulldoggy doo, that is. Last year, LA Tech was a bowl team and had the nation's highest scoring offense. But that was last year. This year, the Bulldogs will have to replace 32 seniors off last year's top-25 team, and head coach Sonny Dykes with Skip Holtz. I'm not saying it can't be done-- let's remember, this is Kansas Football we are talking about, not the '85 Bears, but the LA Tech offense will have a tall task against a suddenly becoming Kansas defense.

A Losing Epidemic

Source: KU Sports

There are a lot of different ways to lose a football game, and in the 10 or so years that I've been watching Kansas Football, I can honestly say, without much reserve, that I have seen...ehhh... just about all of them. I could really go as far as saying in the past 4 seasons, I've seen all the ways a team can possibly lose a football game. Early blowouts, late-game chokejobs, and everything in between. Hey, variety is the spice of life, right? Even variety in losing football games? No? It's not? Yeah, you're probably right...

Preview: KU @ Rice

Source: Sporting News

Last season, the Rice Owls came into Lawrence, trailed and were worked for almost the entire game (the score was 24-13 Kansas with a little more than 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter) and beat the Jayhawks on a last second field goal, 25-24. The loss set the tone for both teams for the rest of the season. Rice went on to a bowl game and finished 7-6; Kansas, however, lost 11 straight.

Putting the Horse Back in Front of the Cart

Source: KU Sports

Kansas kicked off the season 1-0 after holding down South Dakota 31-14 on a muggy September Saturday. It wasn't pretty outside, and it wasn't much prettier on the field, but Kansas is where it needs to be (in the standings, at least). Let the process begin...

Preview: KU vs. South Dakota

Source: davisenterprise.com

I need to start this post with a little precursor: I am writing this preview in extreme haste (crunching it into a little hour respite in my unnecessarily crazy, busy life), so now, if ever there was a time, please bear with me... and this post. I will get back into the swing of things soon enough, but in order to quench your KU Footbal thirst, you'll just have to swig this one down--I apologize in advance if she goes down a little rough.

In the very near future, I'm planning to put out a game-preview on Thursday and the usual game-recap on Sunday/Monday.

KU Football: The Resume

First Season: 1890
Home Stadium: Memorial Stadium (Opened in 1921; 7th oldest in the nation)
Stadium Capacity: 50,071 (63rd in the nation)
Stadium Record: 52,530 (September 1, 2009 vs. Northern Colorado)

All-Time Record: 573-580-53
All-Americans: 6 (Ray Evans, Otto Schnellbacher, George Mrkonic, John Hadl, Gale Sayers, Dana Stubblefield, Bobby Douglass, John Zook, David Jaynes, Bruce Kallmeyer, Nolan Cromwell, Aqib Talib, Anthony Collins)
Pro Football Hall-of-famers: 3 (Gale Sayers, John Riggins, Mike McCormack)

It's Time to do Some Catching Up

Source: KU Sports

In January, I accepted a columnist position for the University Daily Kansan, so I took my tomfoolery over there and put this site on the back burner. On second thought, I think it be more accurate to say that I just took it off the stove completely and stuck it back in the freezer for another time.

But now that the summer months are here, the time has come to defrost this thing and give it some life. Idle hands are the devil's playthings, as they say, so here I am, back writing about KU Football on a website with about as much traffic as I-70 West... barren wasteland.

A lot has happened since I last wrote, so I will try my very best to hit the high points. I'll be updating this more often with my normal, long-winded rants. It's good to be back.