JAYHAWK
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Football
Inside Sports today
The Kansas women's basketball team opened its season with a 63-59 defeat of the Creighton Lady Jays. Suzi Raymant led the Jayhawks with 21 points. SEE PAGE 6B
Saturday's game - Kansas vs. Texas
KANSAS
5-6, 3-5
UNRANKED
31
TEXAS
4-6, 2-5
UNRANKED
45
SECTION B, PAGE 1
WWW.KANSAN.COM/FOOTBALL
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1997
College Football Saturday
Big 12 Conference
No. 10 Kansas State 37, Colorado 20
No. 15 Missouri 42, Baylor 24
No. 3 Nebraska 77, Iowa State 14
Texas 45, Kansas 31
No. 18 Texas A&M 51, Oklahoma 7
Texas Tech 27, No. 24 Oklahoma
State 3
Associated Press Top 25
No. 1 Michigan 26, No. 23 Wisconsin 16
No. 2 Florida State 58, Wake Forest 7
No. 4 Ohio State 41, Illinois 6
No. 5 Tennessee 30, Arkansas 22
No. 6 Penn State 42, No. 19 Purdue 17
No. 16 Auburn 45, No. 7 Georgia 34
No. 8 North Carolina 17, Clemson 10
No. 9 UCLA 52, No. 13 Washington 28
Notre Dame 24, No. 11 LSU 6
No. 12 Florida 48, South Carolina 21
No. 14 Washington State 38, Stan-
No. 15 Arizona State 52, Oregon 31
No. 17 Mississippi State 32,
Alabama 20
No. 21 Syracuse 32, Pittsburgh 24
Northwesten 15, No. 22 Iowa 14
AP Top 25
The Top 25 teams in The Associated Press college football poll, with firstplace votes in parentheses, records through Saturday, total points based on 25 points for a first place vote through one point for a 25th place vote and previous ranking;
rank team rec pts pvs
1. Michigan (44) 10-0 1,723 1
2. Florida St. (24) 10-0 1,695 2
3. Nebraska (2) **10-0** 1,622 3
4. Ohio State 10-1 1,513 4
5. Tennessee 8-1 1,442 5
6. Penn State 8-1 1,401 6
7. UCLA 8-2 1,296 9
8. North Carolina 9-1 1,254 8
9. Kansas State **9-1** 1,198 10
10. Florida 8-2 1,066 12
11. Washington St. 9-1 1,054 14
12. Arizona St. 8-2 1,027 15
13. Auburn 8-2 888 16
14. Georgia 7-2 838 7
15. Mississippi St. 7-2 686 7
16. Texas A&M **7-2** 657 18
17. Washington 7-3 514 13
18. Syracuse 7-3 506 21
19. Virginia Tech 7-2 494 19
20. LSU 7-3 456 11
21. Missouri **7-4** 277 25
22. West Virginia 7-2 208 —
23. Purdue 7-3 185 19
24. Wisconsin 8-3 178 23
25. Colorado St. 8-2 168 —
Others receiving votes: Southern Mississippi 70, Air Force 68, Mississippi 65, Toledo 33, Oklahoma St. 11, Iowa 28, Marshall 27, Texas Tech 26, Louisiana Tech 24, Florida State University, California 11, Clamson 5, Virginia 4, Utah State 1.
USA Today/ESPN Poll
The Top 25 teams in The USA Today/ESPN college football poll, with firstplace votes in parentheses, records through Saturday, total points based on 25 points for a first place vote through one point for a 25th place vote and previous ranking:
rank team rec pts pvs
1. Florida St. (29) 10-0 1,509 1
2. Michigan (20) 10-0 1,489 2
3. Nebraska (13) 10-0 1,663 3
4. Ohio State (2) 10-1 1,342 4
5. Tennessee 8-1 1,235 5
6. Penn State 8-1 1,203 6
7. Kansas State 9-1 1,119 8
8. North Carolina 9-1 1,109 9
9. UCLA 8-1 1,101 10
10. Florida 8-2 964 12
11. Washington St. 9-1 918 13
12. Arizona State 8-2 859 15
13. Auburn 8-2 797 16
14. Georgia 7-2 689 7
15. Virginia Tech 7-2 627 17
16. Texas A&M 8-2 611 18
17. Syracuse 8-3 481 19
18. LSU 8-3 427 19
19. Mississippi 7-2 410 25
20. Washington 7-2 405 14
21. West Virginia 7-2 397 23
22. Colorado State 8-2 145
23. Missouri 7-4 140 —
24. Wisconsin 8-3 137 24
25. Purdue 8-3 114 20
Others rtds receive votes: Air Force 93, Southern Mississippi 69, Oklahoma State 84, New Mexico 70, Nebraska 82, Utah 81, Kansas 71, Clermont 16, Louisiana Tech 8, Michigan State 4, Brigham Young 3, Marshall 3, Touche 2, Dulane 1.
Members of the 1996-97 Kansas football team sit on the sidelines, disappointed by the outcome of the Kansas-Texas game. Saturday's 45-31 loss at Texas ended Kansas' hopes for a bowl game. Photo by Pam Dishman/KANSAN
"We weren't quite good enough"
Disappointing loss to Texas ends hopes for postseason play
By Kelly Cannon kcannon@kanson.com
Kansan sportswriter
AUSTIN, Texas — Heads hung, tears fell and bowl hopes flew out the window for the Kansas football team Saturday, so now it's time to look toward the future.
Texas handed Kansas its sixth loss of the season, a 45-31 heartbreaker, giving the Jayhawks a losing record and no bowl bid.
"It's hard to take congratulations when you had an opportunity," Kansas coach Terry Allen said. "It is kind of funny sometimes how this game works."
The Jayhawks will lose 15 seniors from this year's team, including nine starters.
Allen said he could only describe the loss as disappointing.
"There are still bright things in the future for this football team," Allen said. "It's pretty hard because as a new coach coming in, in transition and change, the way, especially those seniors, accepted me and helped me through the process, it's kind of hard to say goodbye."
This season is the first since 1989 in which Allen has not coached a postseason game, he said. He made the playoffs at Northern Iowa seven consecutive years.
"You don't look one way or the other when you have a game like this," Allen said. "When it's over, it's over. And then you have to go back and re-evaluate, sit down, and start on the recruiting trails and pull that football team together and get going in the things that we want to accomplish."
Simply stated, Texas running back Ricky Williams was the death of Kansas' bowl hopes. Williams rushed for 211 yards and three touchdowns, including a 59-yard in the fourth quarter. However, Williams, a
junior, has hinted that he may turn pro at the end of this season.
Kansas linebacker Ron Warner said Texas had executed the plays it needed to.
"I didn't think they could move the ball on our defense like that," Warner said. "Ricky was going to get his. I give all the props to him. He's a good back."
In fact, the Kansas defense probably didn't think its last five opponents would have moved the ball the way they did. The Jayhawks' defense surrendered 42 points to Colorado, 31 to Nebraska, 24 to Iowa State, 48 to Kansas State and 45 to Texas
Conversely, the offense improved at the end of the season, posting scores of 34,16 and 31 to finish.
Allen said the team knows what it has to do next season.
"Sure it would have been nice to win a sixth game, but maybe the reality of the situation was we weren't quite good enough." Allen said. "I think that was demonstrated out there, that we weren't good enough to be a bowl team."
Freshmen give Allen, Kansas a ray of light in Texas storm
By Kelly Cannon
kcannon@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas running back David Winbush is brought down by a Texas defender. Winbush led Kansas in rushing with 87 yards in Saturday's loss to Texas. Photo by Pam Dishman/KANSAN
AUSTIN, Texas — Perhaps Kansas' young, inexperienced offense won't be such a curse next season because that offense will have had a year to mature.
And if the final three games of this season are any indication, the Kansas offense could be a force to be reckoned with.
The offense will lose one starter — Eric Vann. That means 10 players will have had a year of practice to perfect their positions, iron out the kinks and gain confidence.
The offense has been working pretty good the last couple of weeks together." Termaine Fulton said. "We're young, and next year we should be much better. Good things are going for us from the start, and we'll just keep working at it."
Fulton is one of those good things. The freshman receiver scored two of Kansas' four touchdowns Saturday, including a 77-yard pass from Zac Wegner against triple coverage.
"I didn't think Zac was going to throw because there were three guys on me," Fulton said. "But he lofted it right over their heads, and I came up with the catch."
"The first one was a go rout where I had to stutter, and Zac put it in the right place, and I just happened to come up with it." Fulton said. "Actually, I thought it was going to go out of bounds because he has such a strong arm, but I guess he put just
That touchdown gave Kansas the lead, 14-7. The Jayhawks' previous touchdown was also a Weger-to-Fulton pass.
the right touch on it."
"I was kind of frustrated, and Coach told me to calm down and not try and break it on every play," Winbush said. "I had to sit back and look at that and do things from that standpoint. My patience paid out."
David Winbush also scored a touchdown — the second of his career. The freshman's first touchdown came against Kansas State last weekend.
Kansas football coach Terry Allen, while proud of the role the seniors played this season, emphasized the future of the program.
"We're here to build a football team and build a football program," Allen said. "As I told those seniors in there, we thank them very much for their effort and their help through the transition. But we've got things yet to do with this program."
Kansas football college road trip come together for weekend fun
weekend would be my time.
AUSTIN, Texas — This is what college is supposed to be about: skipping Friday classes, piling a group of people into a vehicle and traveling an obscene distance for a weekend of fun. It's something that every college student must do at least once, and I decided that last
At noon Friday,
my friends and I
loaded up my
mother's minivan
and headed south
for Saturday's
Kansas-Texas
football game.
Almost everything was perfect. We were going to visit Sixth Street in Austin, Kansas
Scott Corcoran
sports@kansan.com
had a chance to qualify for a bowl game against a team with a 3-6 record and we didn't have to spend the afternoon sitting through lectures. There was only one problem. Kansas played its first basketball game Friday night vs. Santa Clara.
But we were able to avoid that problem. While at home Tuesday, I noticed my dad's Alumni Association newsletter, which listed sports bars throughout the country that show Jayhawks basketball games. After making a few calls, we found a bar in Plano, Texas, that broadcasts the 'Hawks. Problem solved.
My friends and I arrived at the Austin Avenue Grill and Sports Bar in Plano with 30 seconds remaining in the first half. The manager at the bar turned on a TV at the bar for us and seated us at the big screen, which also was showing the Kansas game, when a seat became available. It was a thrill watching a game in a restaurant full of Jayhawks fans from Texas.
We finally arrived in Austin at 12:30 a.m., checked into the hotel and headed straight for Sixth Street — Austin's version of Massachusetts Street. We bar-hopped for a while before retiring for the evening.
The next morning, we toured Texas' huge campus and then headed to the football stadium. Knowing how crazy most Texans are about football, we expected hostile treatment. But the Texas fans were extremely kind to us. I don't know if they were indifferent because of Texas' poor season, but I didn't hear a single rude comment directed toward Kansas from any of the Longhorns' faithful. This was very unusual for me after having gone to Kansas State and Missouri and getting bombarded with insults. It was refreshing to be treated with respect by opposing fans.
When Zac Wegner threw a 77-yard pass to Termaine Fulton, Kansas took a 14-7 lead. My friends were upset that we didn't bring old computers to throw onto the field to commemorate Kansas going to the Insight.com Bowl. But the rest of the afternoon didn't go the Jayhawks' way, and Kansas' season ended with a 45-31 loss. Though the fans might have been perfect hosts, Texas' football team wasn't', and they put an end to Kansas' bowl dreams.
When we left the stadium, I initially was disappointed. But it faded as I thought about how Coach Terry Allen's team surpassed even the greatest of preseason predictions.
So I left Austin after having had a great time despite Kansas' lost. The 44-hour road trip was an experience that I will remember with fondness for the rest of my life, and I'm sure that Allen will remember the effort that his Jayhawks put forth this year with similar sentiment.
Corcoran is an Topeka, Kan., senior in biology.