KANSAN
Section 3
Thursday, August 21, 1980
Football . . . A rough road ahead
Promises vanish with new season
By GENE MYERS
Sports Editor
Don Fambrigh, in a thunderbolt voice,
made a promise—a promise of respectability.
Fambrough took that vow nine months ago at the KU football banquet. He promised that Kansas never would be humiliated again. He promised that never again, as long as he was in Kansas. Fambrough said Missouri had done in the final game last season by scoring 34 points in the last 11 minutes.
"You don't have to remind anyone of the Missouri game," Fambrou, who is in his second season of his second term as head coach, "That's something you won't ever forget."
He promised that KU would remember that game, even during spring drills, fall drills and passing drills.
IN LESS THAN a month, that opening kickoff will fly, but in the place of the promises are question marks. Eleven games will determine whether you will be answered with respectability or mediocrity.
The question marks surround a team that has
won seven games in the past three seasons and has lost 22 more games than it has won in the past decade. There is unrest at quarterback because Kevin Clinton has quit. There is unrest on the defensive line because of heavy penalties and the depth in depth because of youth and inexperience.
But there also is optimism. Fambrough says that the team has a winning attitude, not to mention solid running backs, offensive linemen and pass receivers.
"We're not trying to fool anybody," Fambrough said. "We've got to be realistic about our situation, and we are in a rebuilding stage, and we should build overnight. I've been through that before."
"But we're going to be a much better football team this year than we were last year."
LAST YEAR, the Jayhawks were 3-8 overall and tied Colorado and Iowa State for fifth in the Big Eight with a 2-5 record. The preseason was divided-division finish, anywhere from fifth to last.
Oklahoma, Nebraska and Missouri are in a
TSA IAWKS book note
Big Reds to lead conference charge
By GENE MYERS Sports Editor
Everything under the orange sun is in tune for the Big Eight Conference. That means that the Big Reds, Oklahoma and Nebraska, are expected to finish 1-2.
Oklahoma is supposed to be No. 1 this year and Nebraska no. 1 The Sooners are expected to repeat as champions even though all-world halfback Billy Sims has gone to the pros. All-America linebacker George Cumby also has departed.
"Sims was 95 percent of our offense," Oklahoma头发 coach Barry Shiper. said But I think we can have a good offensive team that helps to help with an experienced quarterback.
THE EXPERIENCED QUARBERBACK J. C. Watts, who has come a long way since he first started his game against Kansas in 1978. He led O. 1 Kalamazoo to a narrow 17-16 victory.
Watts did more than just hand off to Sims last year. He threw for four touchdowns and ran for 35 points.
The Sooners, overall, have 11 starters back,
but only three on defense. The biggest holes to
fill are the defensive secondary and linebackers.
The Sooners' archival, Nebraska, is probably the only team that could upset Oklahoma. The Cornhuskers have the advantage of playing both Oklahoma and Missouri in Lincoln, where they have played before 105 consecutive sellout crowds.
THE ONLY PLACE to see Nebraska, or Oklahoma, this season is in Lawrence. All of the 'Huskers and Sooners' games--home and road—have been sold out since the summer and are left for Nebraska's Oct. 11 meeting and Oklahoma's Nov. 8 meeting in Memorial Stadium.
For the Cornhuskers to have an excellent year, they need a productive year from Jarvis Redwine, the star running back. Handing him the ball will be Jeff Quinn.
"Redwine could be the best running back in the country." Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne said. "And there is no better fullback than Andra Franklin."
The 'Huskers have 11 starters returning, four on offense and seven on defense.
press pot, the Sooners
See CONFERENCE back page
Pressure piles on KU rookies
By TOM GRESS Sports Writer
Life in NFL training camps has been chickens, Mohawk hairstubs and plenty of pressures.
But for the rookies from Kansas attempting to find a spot in the pros, chickens and haircuts are only diversions from the make-it-or-break-it pressure.
"You don't get many chances around here," Mike Hubach, a punter with the New England Patriots, says. "Too many mistakes and you are gone."
FIVE JYAHWAKS from last season's 3-8 team were drafted and mid-August only one player had been cut. The player, tight end Lloyd Sobek, failed to survive the Buffalo Bills camp.
Those who were still in camp, besides Hibach,
were Kirkry Ciswell with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Leroy Irvin with the Los Angeles Rams and Jim Zidd with the New York Jets. Mike Higgins, who signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Falcons, also was still in camp.
The camps aren't easy. Two-a-day workouts in
so-degree heat are common and between
patients and staff are more enjoyable.
"We spend about 15 hours a day with football," Irvin, a strong safety with the Rams, said.
IRVIN TOOK enough time off from football during the first week of camp in July to help win a chicken-leag eating contest among the Rams. Irvin and three other rookies ate 78 chicken legs among them to win the contest. Irvin put away 20 legs during the five-minute contest.
While Irvin has spent part of his free time eating chicken legs, former KU linebacker Kirby Criswell spends his spare hours keeping his Mohawk haircut well-groomed.
"I had a stomach-ache the first week of camp."be said.
BEFORE HE LEFT for the Bengals' training camp in Wilmington, Ohio, Crislwin decided he needed added incentive. He shaved both sides of his head, leaving a strip of hair on the top.
"I wanted to do something to show my commitment to make the squash team," said. "I will work with you to create the team."
Criswell swell only one year as a linebacker at KU. As a sophomore and junior, Criswell was KU's starting tight end, catching 10 passes in two seasons. Last year Criswell logged 67 tackles and recovered four fumbles as an outside linebacker.
1, a second draw chart
See MOHAWK page 13
See MOHAWK page 13
Kirbv Criswell
Lerov Irvin
JOE BARTOS/Kansen staff
KU...1969
Vicious Circle grips losing Jayhawks
By KEVIN BERTEELS
Sports Writer
Winning coaches ignore it. Losing coaches can't.
Nobody can really say when it began, usually the case with the Vicious Circle. The symptoms are easy to spot, but it is hard to separate the symptoms from the cause. The Vicious Circle is drawn to losing football programs, the cause, and to perpetrate that losing, the symptoms.
**DON ALL THE SIGNS SAY that the KU football snarling jaws and propping claws on the Viburnum**
The Vicious Circle will snatch a weakening
grip away every attempt to escape.
grind away every attempt to escape.
The losing coaches don't want it associated with their football program. But after a few losing seasons the Vicious Circle always rears its ugly head.
The way to ward off the horrible beast is a Catch-22 of football. Being a consistent winner requires recruiting the top players, the blue chippers. To recruit the blue chippers, a program offers whatever it can. Some do it under the rules, some under the table. Consistent winners can offer tradition, fan support, fame probably a game bowl at the end of the season.
A LOSER CAN offer little. Therefore, losers
lose blue chippers and continue to lose football games. As they continue to lose, recruiting good players becomes more and more difficult. And around the circle goes.
KU has not had a winning environment. These are the stats, KU football teams posted a 44-62-2 record in the 1970s, KU's last Orange Bowl, the Big Eight football, was the first day of 1969.
The only cure for the Vicious Circle, the only way to escape, is to become a winning football team. The Vicious Circle cannot survive in the rain until after a few winning seasons it quietly alms away.
KU had just three winning seasons in the '70s. In 1973, KU went 7-4 and lost in the Liberty Bowl. In 1975, KU went 7-5 and lost in the Sun Bowl. In 1976, KU went 6-5 and received no bowl.
The 175 and 197 seasons, the peak of the Nolan Cormwell era, were the last times KU made any headway against the Vicious Circle. In the three seasons since, the Jayhawks have won only seven games and never more than three in any season. In 1978, the record was a disastrous
IN BECOMING A WINNER, there is no one place to bisect the circle. But Don Fambrough, KU's head coach, says bisection must start with the coaching.
"When you change coaching staffs every three
or four years, you have to start over again." Fambrough says. "You don't build overnight. It takes four years to get back to where you want to be after a coaching change."
Here the beast has a tight grip on the KU program. Assuming Fambrough was correct, KU has wasted time since hiring Pepper Rodgers in 1867. Every four years since, at exactly the time a program should be gaining momentum, Fambrough, a coaching change has been made.
Rodgers left in 1970 with a 20-22 career record. Fambaugh was hired, w恩赶 19,12 分 and resigned under pressure in 1974. Bud Moore was hired, Fambaugh was fired in 1878. Fambaugh was then rehired.
Only teams in the clutches of the Vicious Circle switch coaches. The Circle thrives on it. Coaches
See WRONG page 15
THERE IS NO traditionally successful college football team that changes coaches every fourth year. Healthy programs have two types of coaching situations.
The first type is the long-term, godfather coach. The tenure of these coaches, such as Paul "Bear" Bryant of Alabama and Bo Schembacher of Michigan, are recorded in decades, not years. The second type is the long-term assistant coach who takes over from the first type. Barry Switzer of Oklahoma and Tom Osborne of Nebraska are examples.
KU...1978