Bill Snyder's 200th Victory was a Pyrrhic One

Source: KU Sports

The legend has it that at Heraclea in 280 BC and at Asculum in 279 BC, king Pyrrhus of Epirus, despite his victories, suffered damning casualties to the Romans. He walked away from the triumphs feeling forlorn.

According to Plutarch in a report by Dionysius:

Pyrrhus said that one other such victory would utterly undo him. For he had lost a great part of the forces he brought with him... On the other hand, as from a fountain continually flowing out of the city, the Roman camp was quickly and plentifully filled up with fresh men, not at all abating in courage for the loss they sustained, but even from their very anger gaining new force and resolution to go on with the war.

If you haven't followed the analogy to this point, the Kansas Jayhawks are the Romans. Tired of of the humiliation, and eyes locked on the 2017 Sunflower Showdown in Lawrence. Saturday, KU lost the battle to Kansas State, in a series that the Jayhawks still lead 65-44-5, but the dam that has been burgeoning the length of Barack Obama's time as President-- a solid 8 years of embarrassment-- that dam is about to burst. Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder had this to say about the young Jayhawks:

I will say this, the University of Kansas is making headway and I can assure you that. They have done a nice job. The record does not always tell you what the real answers are, but they are getting better and better.

KU's 15-point loss to in-state rival Kansas State, 34-19, meant the Jayhawks would carry their 38-game road losing streak, and 8-game losing streak against the Wildcats into the offseason. Which with a touch of paradox is also the reason it should extend its coach's contract.

Horns Down; KU Football Stock Up

Source: KU Sports

There was something all too "fairy-tale" about how things happened. His likeness was displayed on the Senior Day ticket stub. He would later say he had 30 people in attendance, including his grandparents who were there for his first game-winner. All I can say is if I am dreaming right now, please don't wake me.

There's a Snake in KU's Boot

Source: KU Sports

The Kansas Jayhawks lead the country and conference in many categories this season. The team has the best 3rd down defense in the Big 12. On a weekly basis, it maintains its NCAA top-10 tackles for loss statistic. Dorance Armstrong registered his 5th straight game with a sack. These are things to hang your hat on. But including the 3 it lost Saturday, the Jayhawks continue to be the country's best at giving the ball away (25 in 6 games), and KU continues to kill its good efforts with costly miscues. Throughout the early afternoon, Kansas was within striking distance of the Oklahoma State Cowboys 5-2 (3-1), but costly turnovers inflated the defeat, 44-20, as David Beaty now falls to 1-18 as head coach.

Over Before it Began

Source: KU Sports

Like many of the KU offensive plays called on Saturday, this game was over before it began. It's not a good sign when a writer throws his hands up before he's out of the first paragraph. But if you watched the game on Saturday, 49-7 Baylor, then maybe you can help me out: where do I go with this story? Now hear me out: there are some 49-7 games that could fill a few pages and keep the modest fan at least mildly interested. But this 42-point shellacking left no doubt in anybody's mind on how night and day the two programs are from one another in development, depth, and talent.

Young Jayhawks Gaining Ground on Big 12

Source: KU Sports

For what so often feels like a 10,000 piece puzzle, the edges are starting to come together for KU Football.

Six deciding seconds remaining, senior Matthew Wyman faced a 54-yard field goal attempt, the difference between victory over the 3-2 (1-1) TCU Horned Frogs and defeat. Restated: the game was in question on its final play when many believed it would be over by halftime. On a sun-bathed fall Saturday in Lawrence, Kansas was within its kicker's range of an upset in which Vegas spotted Kansas 30 points, which is how I choose to lead the blog this week following heartbreak.

While the attempt missed right, and Kansas lost yet again, those who follow the program close enough can see the progress. In a way, it's nice to feel heartbreak again. Call it what you will, but a legitimate chance to win, in itself, is a win for 2016 Kansas football, a team that tries to climb its way out of a hole that's been excavated the past seven years by those preceding it. On Saturday, we saw not only that the program stopped the digging--they've set the shovel aside--but it's also beginning it's gradual ascent out of ineptitude on the backs of one of the league's best defenses, a coaching staff that is getting its players to buy in, and an offense that could be decent by year's end. It'll be a long climb, but it's shorter today than it was yesterday. And the next question is whether we'll be able to say that tomorrow. In a one-point loss, Kansas looked better than a good football team. The kids are young, they're tough, and they've bought in to David Beaty.

Growing Pains

Source: KU Sports

It has become the norm-- or been the norm for the better part of seven seasons, rather-- when following a 36 point loss, a Kansas football fan pores through stat lines to mine out positives. And that's what I'm about to do now. Re-reading that last sentence, I sit in a 30-year old wooden chair (a chair that saw some decent KU football for a brief stretch and a lot of bad for a much, much longer stretch) with subpar back-support that will probably manifest itself in 30-years, punching away at my laptop wondering whether I'm putting my free-time to its best use. My team lost by five touchdowns and I'm hunched here writing too many words that can essentially be summed up as such: "hey, we suck, but tonight we outperformed my expectations."

Memphis Blues

Source: KU Sports

Like the delinquent kid in your 8th grade European History class who you had thought at this point, after all the parent-teacher-student interventions, all the extra attention before and after class, all the hours spent tutoring, cajoling, encouraging, wheedling, and incentivizing, would have made some positive progress, some sign of a pulse, of pride, of self-respect, still failed to turn in his daily assignment--for the SEVENTH year in a row-- Kansas football continues to let its ever-dwindling fan-base down. Which raises the subsequent questions: can things get even worse? Hadn't we already hit rock-bottom? And if not yet, WHEN, for crying out loud? This stuff is old. It smells bad. Find it a home in the dump.

MAC-trucked

Source: KU Sports

Saturday afternoon, Kansas had its teeth kicked in for the first quarter and a half of football. Trailing 25-0 to the 0-1 Ohio Bobcats at home, the Jayhawks would show enough resolve to make the game competitive--trimming the lead to within 14, 28-14 (and then within 10, 31-21 a few minutes later). But ultimately, when given a chance to regain possession on a punt down two scores, a second muffed punt by La'Quivionte Gonzalez, recovered by the Bobcats on the Kansas 10 yard-line, among a litany of other mental mistakes, all but sealed its fate. The hole manifested by KU miscues wound up too big to climb out. And the Jayhawks missed on a monumental opportunity, falling to 1-1 on the season as they head for Memphis, Tennessee to take on the Tigers, KU's first opportunity to lay the 38-game road losing streak to rest.

"Please Leave the Field"

Source: KU Sports

And so I'm back. Back writing about Kansas Jayhawk football. Although, I never left, really. What can I say? KU football has got me by where it counts. That's right, the heart. It's not an equally loving relationship. I'm convinced KU football does not love me back. But you know on my end it's real.