Kansas football may not have been much to watch in 2016, but the blueprint is out there for some growth.
Let’s take a trip back in time nine years. Remember when the Jayhawks were good in football? 2008 was a great year for football. On January 3, Kansas beat Virginia Tech 24-21 in the Orange Bowl to finish the season 12-1. Then on December 31, Minnesota was beaten in the Insight Bowl 42-21. It was a pretty good year in basketball as the Jayhawks brought home the national championship.
While it was a great year for Kansas Football, it was an awful year for the Washington Huskies as they finished the season 0-12. While that season was rock bottom, they had finished last or next to last in the last four seasons. That kind of performance may sound all too familiar to Kansas football fans. In fact, Washington was the last Power Five team to go winless until Kansas did it in 2015.
Washington was coached by a former Notre Dame head coach in Tyrone Willingham. Most Jayhawks get their feathers ruffled when thinking about former Notre Dame coaches. While the 0-12 season shows up on David Beaty’s coaching record, much of the blame lands squarely on the very broad shoulders of Charlie Weis.
Kansas Jayhawks
Now that we’ve looked back at the highs of Kansas football and the horrible years at Washington, let’s come back to 2016. So far Washington is 12-1 this season and they faced No. 1 Alabama in the College Football Playoff. That’s right, eight years after they were the worst team in the Power Five, they are now one of the four best teams.
Yes, Jayhawk fans, there is a blueprint in building football from winless to playing for a championship. Washington replaced Tyrone Willingham with Steve Sarkisian after the 2008 season and he led the Huskies to a 5-7 record in the 2009 season.
In each of the 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons; the Huskies finished 7-6 which included a bowl game. It may be unrealistic to think the Jayhawks can make a bowl in 2017, it could certainly be possible in the following years. 2013 was the last season for Sarkisian at Washington and they finished 9-4 that season though Sarkisian had already left for USC before their win in the Fight Hunger Bowl.
Chris Petersen moved from Boise State to Washington for 2014 and they went 8-6 (one extra game thanks to playing at Hawaii). He followed that up inn 2015 with a 7-6 season before the breakout year in 2016. Remember that Kansas finished 6-6 with no bowl game in the 2006 season before their breakout in 2007.
It took eight years for Washington, so let’s let out a timeline for Kansas. David Beaty finished 2-10 in the year after going winless. While he didn’t rebound as well as Washington in 2009, the hole left by Charlie Weis was much deeper. Just taking a wild guess at the Jayhawks record in 2017 makes me think 4-8 or 5-7 is reasonable. Still not bowl-worthy, but far better that we’ve seen since 2009.
If David Beaty continues to build, it is reasonable to hope for at least a .500 record in the 2018 season and a bowl game. That would be year three after the winless season. Throw in a couple more seasons with a record above .500 and there is at least the possibility for a breakout season in 2021 and beyond. Easy enough to plan out on a computer, but much harder for Beaty to bring to fruition.
While Jayhawks fans haven’t had much football hope for the last few seasons, Washington has demonstrated a path back to the top. Now Coach Beaty and his staff just need to recruit and develop players to bring back winning football to Lawrence.