SPORTS
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KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | MONDAY, NOV. 30, 2015
Kansas coach David Beaty walks onto Kivisto Field before Saturday's matchup with Kansas State. The Jayhawks fell to the Wildcats to end their season winless.
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
55-23
45-14
38-13 66-7
CHRISTIAN HARDY
@ByHardy
Just like the first 11 games of the season, Kansas' game against Kansas State was a must-win. But it was the last must-win — the finale, of sorts. It was a must-win for the seniors, whose last win came Nov. 8, 2014. It was a way for Kansas coach David Beaty to show some hard evidence of progress in his first year at the helm of the program. A win would provide a way to walk away from the 2015 season with some sort of pride.
49-0
62-7
Instead, Kansas dropped to 0-12 with a 45-14 loss to Kansas State. The team experienced its first winless season since 1954, leaving the departing seniors and next year's returners with a sour taste.
59-20
"I'm certainly not proud of it," Beaty said of the winless record. "It's not something you ever really think about. We don't have time to dwell on it. It is what it is; we had our opportunities. We had 12 opportunities to go out there and put a team on the
field that could win the game."
The Jayhawks sixth-straight loss to the Wildcats was rather illustrative of its entire season, too. Two minutes in, Kansas special teamer Matthew Wyman muffed a snap and was pulled down far behind the line. Kansas State scored on the next play.
"Obviously those special teams mistakes where we were backed up into our own territory were huge. Not only were they huge point swings, but they were huge momentum swings," senior running back Taylor Cox said. "One of the things we felt like we needed to do to win this game was not beat ourselves, and, obviously, we weren't able to get that done."
"What is causing that? I don't
But yet, at least momentarily, there was a glimmer of hope
58-10
— something that has regularly risen out of almost every Kansas game this year. Freshman quarterback Ryan Willis drove the Jayhawks down in six plays over 1:47 to tie the game at 7-7. It would be the best Kansas drive of the game, without question. Kansas' success quickly went by the wayside, something that has happened far too often this year.
know that there's really any excuse, to be honest," Beaty said of the early stalling offensively. "A lot of people talk about the youth on our football team, but those youthful guys get spoken to just like those older guys do. We've just got to keep talking to them until they get it."
On its next four drives, Kansas either went three-and-out or turned the ball over on all of them. Kansas State scored four more touchdowns of its own, one of which came off a blocked punt — the second special teams blunder of the game that led to points for Kansas State.
With that, the glimmer of hope — the chance of a victory in the final game in a Kansas uniform for some, and the first of the season for all — was dashed. At the end of the first quarter, Kansas State was up 28-7. At half, it was 35-7.
The game was on par with the 576 yards Kansas tallied up in the season opening loss and the 10-0 lead the Jayhawks ran out to against Memphis before being clobbered through the remainder of the game, 55-23. It was comparable to the opportunities Kansas had against Iowa State to grasp momentum
But this one, this momentum Kansas held for a few moments, it was different. It wasn't just another chance, or another "must win". It was Kansas' last chance to save its status as the only winless team in a power five conference.
before the offense stalled. The quick drive and score to tie it up was almost identical to that of the game against the Baylor Bears, where the layhawks tied it up 7-7, only to lose in front of their home crowd, 66-7.
Then, it faded; the wiliness season the people around the Kansas program had feared since falling to South Dakota State in the opening game had been reached.
"I would have never thought of anything like this ... Not in a million years," junior safety Fish Smithson said. "It's real
For most everyone, a season like this was never expected. Yet still, the layhawks sit in the aftermath of a 0-12 season.
"Moving forward, this program needs more consistency, and I think we're going to get that," Cox said. "There's nothing you can really say. Obviously, you love to get some of those games back that were close."
frustrating that it happened, but that's something that we've got to live with and try to prevent that happening again.
The Jayhawks stood at 125th in run defense and 122nd in pass defense of 128 teams in FBS heading into the game against the Wildcats.
They finished the year allowing 11 straight opponents to rush for 200 yards. The 553 points the team allowed were the most Kansas had given up in a single season; the average of 46.1 currently stands as the worst in college football, though most teams have one game to go.
Coming into this game,
KUfball had given up
508 points. Today's not
over & its at 553. By my
calculations, that's the
most in KU history.
Offensively, the Jayhawks' top three quarterbacks were lost to injury, forcing Beaty to start freshman Ryan Willis to close out the season, without a whole lot of success. He tallied with eight touchdowns on
— Amie Just (@Amie_Just)
November 28, 2015
1,719 yards passing, along with nine interceptions. With Willis under center, and even with juniors Montell Cozart and Deordre Ford at quarterback, Kansas never scored more than 20 points after the Week 2 loss to Memphis.
That was all expected, in some way, in Beaty's first year of his five-year plan. Still, there is some silver lining for Kansas. As the seniors are ushered away, the freshman-heavy team now has an entire year under its belt to build off of. However, it's certain that this season did not go the way anyone around the program wanted it to.
Now it's up to next year's team to change the culture.
"That'll be motivation, honestly," sophomore linebacker Joe Dineen said. "
It's embarrassing to go 0-12. I mean, that's unacceptable. It's unacceptable for the fans, and it's unacceptable for the University of Kansas. But that'll drive us.
"All the way through winter, spring, into the summer, and we just know that we've got to get better and we've got to improve on where we are now."
- Edited by Scott Chasen
For KU volleyball, the road to Omaha begins in Horeisi
AMIE JUST
@Amie_Just
The Kansas volleyball team's initial reaction to its seeding was lackluster. The NCAAs Selection Sunday Show on ESPNU announced the top eight seeds individually, then plastered the rest of the 16 in list format. No one moved.
"Aw. Wait. That's us," one of the players said, pointing at the screen.
The eruption wasn't completely forgotten, but rather delayed. The No. 9 Kansas Jayhawks, one of 16 teams to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament on their own court, screamed in excitement when "Kansas" flashed up on the screen, showing its first-round pairing with Furman.
They became even more raucous when the final team in the division was selected.
The Kansas volleyball team reacts after Missouri is revealed to be in its region.
But playing Missouri isn't guaranteed. Kansas plays Furman first. And Missouri plays Missouri State. And for a 26-2
That team? The Missouri Tigers.
Kansas volleyball team that set numerous school records throughout the year, it's really about so much more than that. Regardless, the road to Omaha goes through Furman and starts in Horesei.
First round: Furman
AMIE JUST/KANSAN
Kansas (26-2) faces off against Furman (21-8) on Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Horejsi, Kansas and Furman have played one time before in school history, back in 2000, when Kansas won in three sets. Currently, the Paladins are on a five-match win streak, a run that lasted through the Southern Conference championship.
Kansas and Furman have both played Missouri State, which also made the tournament. Furman opened up against Missouri State and fell in three sets; meanwhile, Kansas swept Missouri State 3-0.
If Kansas gets past Furman, it will face either Missouri (26-5)
or Missouri State (24-10). The Tigers finished second in the SEC, while the Bears finished second in the Missouri Valley's championship tournament.
Second round: Missouri/Missouri State
Kansas has already played Missouri State in what was a three-set victory. However, Kansas hasn't played Missouri since Nov. 2, 2011, the final game before the Tigers left for the SEC. Kansas lost that game in four sets.
This season, both Missouri and Kansas shared one opponent: Arkansas. The Jayhawks went to four sets with the Razorbacks, but ultimately defeated them. Missouri played Arkansas once this season as well, winning in three sets.
The game between Missouri and Missouri State is slated to be played on Friday Dec. 4. The time has yet to be announced.
If Kansas defeats Missouri or Missouri State, it heads out to San Diego for the regional.
Regionals: San Diego
The four potential opponents for Kansas would be Loyla Marymount (22-8), Colorado
State (26-3), New Mexico State (28-5) or No. 8 Stanford (22-6). If Kansas would move past that game, the second regional game would be played against No. 1 USC (30-2), Cleveland State (26-6), Northern Arizona (28-4), San Diego (21-9), North Carolina (20-9), North Carolina-Wilmington (24-7), Coastal Carolina (25-4) or No. 16 Creighton (25-8).
Final Four: Omaha
If Kansas advanced in the Final Four, it would play against the winner of the semifinal from the Austin regional and the Des Moines regional.
The ranked teams in that regional are No. 5 Washington (28-2), No. 12 Ohio State (23-9), No. 13 BYU (26-3) and No. 4 Nebraska (26-4).
If Kansas managed to get through the gauntlet of the San Diego regional, it would move closer to home in Omaha, Neb. The winner of the San Diego regional is pit against the winner of the Lexington, Ky., regional.
Ranked teams in those two regionales are No. 3 Texas (25-2), No. 14 UCLA (23-7), No. 11 Florida (22-6), No. 6 Wisconsin (24-6), No. 7 Penn State (26-5), No. 10 Texas A&M (23-6), No. 15 Louisville (24-6) and No. 2 Minnesota (26-4).
- Edited by Scott Chasen
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