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| Source: KU Sports |
Okay, nobody likes the guy I'm about to be. The guy who has to announce to the room, "I told you so"--and has evidence at the ready to prove it. But right now, I'm going to be that guy. And I'm going to be that guy for a reason I believe worthwhile and not self-serving: a young man's redemption. Young Matthew Wyman, kicker for the Kansas Jayhawks.
From the TCU blog post on October 10th, in which the Hawks came up a point shy, I wrote the following:
Something tells me that the senior Wyman, who has struggled throughout the year and much of his career, will get another chance this season to win a game, and he will come through. Fans like to assign heroes and goats. Wyman, remember, did connect from 50 when Kansas was losing some momentum, so keep that in mind. He's as much a part of this team as Dorance Armstrong and the backup punter. The beautiful thing to see is that he's got the support of his teammates and coaches, who kept his head up. I think part of that stems from the idea that they believe this isn't going to be their last chance to get that elusive victory...They know they're going to need Matthew this year, and they've got a team that can make some noise. They might not win another game this year, but this won't be the last close one.
So I was right, whether clairvoyant or blind squirrel, I was right. Last night, in his final game inside Memorial Stadium, Matthew Wyman kicked the Kansas Jayhawks into overtime, and then kicked them into the Big 12 victory column, as the Texas Longhorns fell to Kansas, 24-21, for the first time since 1938.
"We were cheering his name when we got to the locker room," Steven Sims would tell media inside a joyous Anderson Family Football complex. "We've always got his back. We trust him. I knew that the TCU field goal was still probably haunting him today and so for him to win a game for us, it was great."
To this day, that loss hurts because to think what a win like that could have done for Beaty and this program. But the credit must go out to this team for their winning and supportive attitude when nothing tangible has given them any reason to have this attitude. That alone might mean something more than a win over TCU in early October. Responding to setback. The fact of the matter is this: when the press and many fans were down on the senior and former walk-on kicker, his team stood behind him.
And that's exactly what feels so different about the recent happenings inside Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas. The culture is changing. It's a culture redemptive in nature. Hungry. Fearless. It has been since David Beaty stepped foot on campus, hired on no-nonsense strength coach Je'Ney Jackson (spent time with Mangino), established an expectation of earning it (his salary lends credibility to this mantra. Beaty is bottom-tier salary but incentive-heavy) and the headlines are starting to finally reflect that. Talks of offering the man an extension have already begun.
Saturday, a team still well short the scholarship limit, dealing with an injury-depleted linebacking corps, coming off a gut-punch loss to Iowa State the week before in what many figured was KU's last remote chance of breaking its 19-game conference losing streak, playing for its coach's longevity (Beaty entered the game 1-21 and still in search of FBS win No. 1), the 23-point underdog Jayhawks willed themselves to a statement, come-from-behind win, and Matthew Wyman was as much a part of that feat as any.
A little more on the man of the hour. Wyman has a history of coming back from falling short. In 2012, he was cut from the team in open-tryouts. So he came back the next year. KU gave him a spot, and that season he nailed a 52-yarder as time expired to beat Louisiana Tech.
These are the stories that Mangino prided his program on and around. This is the way Kansas will have to do it. They'll have to work harder and smarter than everybody in the country. Beaty appears to be doing so with guys like Wyman among many others.
See, it wasn't just Wyman who performed when so many said he couldn't. A Kansas offense mired in ineptitude for the better part of the past seven seasons, found itself down eleven points with 10:36 left in the fourth quarter. For a team that entered the game averaging 20 points per game, 11 points felt like 40. The Kansas defense had all but carried the entire team in 2016 and for the better part of this game. A 55-yard pick-six by senior Brandon Stewart, and a fumble recovery in Texas territory forced by Dorance Armstrong on a sack of Tyrone Swoopes, gave KU its 10 points. The offense had been what it has been all season: punchless.
But that's where you start to see the mettle that's beginning to toughen inside the Jayhawk football program. KU's offense finally answered the call.
Said defensive star, sophomore end Dorance Armstrong, who finished the day with 11 tackles, two sacks, a fumble forced, and a fumble recovered, "I just told [the offense] to go out there and get in the end zone and that's what they did."
Although it would probably be justified, there is no rift between the offense and defense. A KU defense which is one of the better units in the Big 12, finds itself paired with one of the least-explosive, most turnover-prone collection of players in America. But David Beaty has managed to maintain one team and one collective force, through the good and the bad. And Saturday, the offense rewarded a defense who had been earning it week after week.
Freshman quarterback Carter Stanley, who had been shaky since coming out of the locker room for the second half, with an interception and few other balls that could have been picked, all but removed himself from the meaning of the moment. When the lights shined the brightest, Kansas's last chance for romance on a senior day for 25, from that point on he carried himself with a coolness you'd find on the sandlot. Kansas drove 80 yards on 10 plays in just 2:54, and converted the 2-point play as well, cutting the Texas lead to 21-18.
After Heisman-candidate D'Onta Foreman fumbled inside the Kansas red-zone, Stanley got the Jayhawks moving again, but the drive stalled in large part because of a false start penalty. With just 2:36 left and 1 timeout, the Kansas defense held once again. Stanley had 58 seconds from his own 29 with an empty pocket of timeouts.
It didn't matter. The kid made plays.
Aided by a Longhorn personal foul penalty, Kansas drove the field with dinks and dunks to senior Ke'aun Kinner and sophomore Steven Sims to tie the game at the end of regulation. I'd be remiss if I didn't write about Sims playing defensive back on the 19-yard pass into double coverage in the end-zone. Without his awareness and reaction, there would be a much different story-line today had he not batted a game-ending interception away. Kansas did the little things to win on Saturday. And that's huge.
I've cited the 2009 loss to the Colorado Buffaloes as the inflection point in which the Kansas football program's trajectory went from steadily up to steadily down.
Saturday's win against Texas, I dare say, is the new era of Kansas football. The ebb now finally flows. Kansas will continue to pain as it grows, but puberty itself is never pretty, but it all works out in the long run. If you're not convinced, at least Peyton Bender was.
KU heads to Manhattan, Kansas this Saturday to take on a Bill Snyder coached team that alone is quite good, but during KU week is next level. Surely Bill Snyder took heavy notice of KU's monumental win against the Republic of Texas Longhorns, and understands the kind of positive impact that can have in program morale, recruiting the fertile Lone Star State, and in the mind's of donors with fat wallets. Ergo, he is going to take great measures to ruin the parade.
Winning in Manhattan may be too much to ask for this season. The defense is ready for this next step, but the offense still lacks consistent output for Big 12 football.
Still, a competitive game this weekend, and look out. Kansas loses 25 seniors this year, including Fish Smithson who had an early interception against Texas, and will go down as one of the better sure-tacklers we've seen in a while, and Kinner, who could wear a facemask on Sundays. Marquise Roberts, who was sidelined with an injury on Saturday, graduates. There are others as well. "First day football" Cameron Rosser (didn't play high school football) has been a dark horse.
But the Jayhawks bring back some heavy hitters from a team that's young, growing, talented, and buying into their coach. Steven Sims, who eclipsed 800 yards receiving will be a junior. Safety Mike Lee, who should be getting ready for prom (early graduation), and honestly already rivals Aqib Talib in one-on-one tackling ability, is a young pup. The kid is vicious, and has a knack for the ball (see interception that all but clinched this game in overtime). Lee will be a sophomore. Dorance Armstrong, a man-child coming off the edge with a vengeance, added sacks 9 and 10 on Saturday. He's one of the best defensive ends in the conference and country. One day, he will make a lot of money doing what he does now. He'll be a junior. Defensive tackle Daniel Wise, who is the heart of this football team and one of the hardest workers, will also be a junior. Keith Loneker, of the Kevin Kane mold (smart and with a big heart) will be a junior. Khalil Herbert, a running back with some giddy-up has three more years. We've got three more years of Carter Stanley's spunk. Hakeem Adeniji will protect the blind side for three more years, before he does it for a paycheck. Don't forget Alabama transfers wide receiver Daylon Charlot and tackle Charles Baldwin.
Kansas gets SEMO and Central Michigan at home to start the year. They then head north to play the Ohio Bobcats in Athens. Baylor, Texas Tech, and Kansas State at home. I see another step forward in 2017. And if this team is putting up 30 points per game in 2018 like David Beaty's air-raid offense should, 2018, your Kansas Jayhawks are going bowling.
A brisk November afternoon slipped into nightfall, as the Jayhawks mounted their improbable comeback in a game in which the opponent scored on its first play from scrimmage. A team that had lost football games in every way imaginable: blowout, comeback fallen short, early lead coughed away, and every variation in between, gritted its way through a competitive football game against a team playing for its coach and a bowl game, with a historic name on the front of its jersey. A jersey many Jayhawks were told they weren't good enough to wear. On Saturday, the Evil Empire collapsed. Good prevailed (yes, I know this is arbitrary, but in a way its not; there's great meaning behind this win).
Okay, enough filibustering here. I cried a little bit on Saturday and I know I wasn't alone. For those who have stuck with the program, inside and outside, thank you. Kansas football has been and always will be part of my life story. And Saturday is a little tease. KU Football is on its way back.
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