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Kansas football: Dreaming of a bowl game

By Stan Unruh

MIAMI - JANUARY 03: Kansas Jayhawks fans holds up a sign to cheer on her team during the FedEx Orange Bowl between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Virginia Tech Hokies at Dolphin Stadium on January 3, 2008 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
MIAMI - JANUARY 03: Kansas Jayhawks fans holds up a sign to cheer on her team during the FedEx Orange Bowl between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Virginia Tech Hokies at Dolphin Stadium on January 3, 2008 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /
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Kansas football fans look forward to possibly returning to a bowl game after the 2018 season. There were some very mediocre bowl games in 2017.

The 2017 college football season is one game from away from history. After so much optimism in August, Kansas football fans suffered through a difficult 1-11 season. David Beaty and his staff are working around the clock to return the program to respectability. It’s been too long since that New Year’s Eve 2008 when the 7-5 Jayhawks beat Minnesota in the Insight Bowl.

After watching some of this December’s bowl games, Jayhawk fans didn’t miss much. As a matter of fact, we saw one of the best games of this season when Oklahoma and Georgia met in the Rose Bowl. While there wasn’t a lot of outstanding defense, there was enough when it mattered most. Other than that, most of the college bowl games I saw were mediocre.

You could blame it on the time off between the end of the regular season and bowl game. A few television announcers used that excuse. On the other hand, teams have had that issue since they started playing games.  The extra practices a team gets for earning a bowl game are supposed to  help not hurt their execution.

I thought of coach Beaty and the Jayhawks when I watched Texas Tech. They gave up 21 fourth quarter points to South Florida and lost the Birmingham Bowl. Considering Tech’s record, this might have been the Jayhawks bowl game (had they won some games) Media accounts in August optimistically reported Beaty talking a potential bowl game. The Red Raiders earned the trip instead.

Next: Kansas football: One story stood out in 2017

A few days later, West Virginia minus their star quarterback fell to Utah in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. In September, the Jayhawks opened their Big 12 scheduled against the Mountaineers and played reasonably well. Kahlil Herbert had a huge day on the ground.  I would like to have seen him run all over the Utes.  Maybe next season Herbert and the rest of his Jayhawk teammates will get the opportunity to play in December.

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