THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2013
PAGE 5B
FOOTBALL
--ly see another setting and it has its positives and negatives"
ASHLEIGH LEE/KANSAN
Stowers talks road games, defense and stadium shock
Junior defensive lineman Keon Stowers (98) walks onto the field with teammates junior linebacker Ben Heeney (31), junior quarterback Jake Heaps (9) and senior running back James Sims (29) before the Oct. 26 football game against Baylor.
CHRIS HYBL chybl@kansan.com
On a gloomy day in Lawrence, Kansas defensive lineman Keon Stowers sat in a room overlooking Memorial Stadium at a round table of reporters and gave his most definitive answer of the day. He was asked if talking about getting an upset each week ever got old.
"No." Stowers said.
As a captain this year, Stowers has been asked a similar question each week. The Jayhawks have been largely unfavored, for good reason, against each conference opponent this season and their fifth conference matchup at Texas this weekend is no different. Texas is currently favored by 28 points.
"We're going to keep working until it happens, so it will never get old." Stowers said.
What is getting older is the streak of consecutive Big 12 losses and road games. The Big 12 losing streak stands at 25 games. The road game losing streak is at 21. The Big 12 losing streak dates back to 2010, while the road game streak extends back to 2009. That's old.
But what doesn't get old for Stowers is going on the road, and this week, Stowers is ready for the opportunity to end both.
"I definitely like road games. It's good to go on the road just to get that different feel from being at home," Stowers said. "You can get a better energetic feel from the crowd, not saying we don't have a good crowd, but you get to actually see another setting and it has its positives and negatives"
The road may just have as many positives as it does negatives for Kansas. With losses abundant home and abroad, can Kansas really say it has a home field advantage? Kansas has lost by an average of more than 32 points per game against conference opponents at home this year. It's not a glaring advantage.
What road trips can be for Kansas is a break, a hiatus, something different, a switch up. It's why Charlie Weis is even switching up the road trip routine this week. Kansas is leaving a day early to complete its walkthrough at Texas instead of the usual walkthrough performed in Lawrence before the trip.
It could even help players like Stowers get the "tourist" part of the trip out of the way.
"Last year I would go on some of these road trips and see these stadiums and be like, 'Oh my God, I'm playing at Oklahoma' and all these other big stadiums," Stowers said. "That's just another thing to be intimidated by; the name of the school rather than the actual play of the players, so I think that plays a factor into road games in addition to the travels and being out of your element."
Although Kansas will be out of its home element, they will be more comfortable on defense. Ben Heeney is back on the depth chart for the Jayhawks. Heeney, Kansas' most valuable defensive asset, was sidelined just over two weeks ago
against TCU, but is set to return for the Jayhawks against a run-oriented Longhorn team that is undefeated in conference play.
"You can't replace a guy like Ben with his tenacious attitude and work ethic. You just can't replace a guy like that," Stowers said. "Looking over my shoulder yesterday and seeing number 31 definitely made me feel better."
Heeney will definitely help, but he alone can't push Kansas over the edge. It will take more than Heeney to shed an ugly pair of 20-plus losing streaks.
"I think the whole thing with us being on the big stage, going to Texas" stadium with almost 100,000 people and being able to pull off this upset can be used as a sort of fire to get us going." Stowers said.
The storyline is the same, Kansas is a huge underdog. How big does the fire have to be?
Edited by Hannah Barling
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