Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Monday
October 12, 1998
Section:
B
Page 1
More Kansas football! The drive chart and box score on 2B tell the statistical story, and pictures tell the rest.
SEE PAGE6B
Kansas Volleyball
The Kansas volleyball team was swept in two matches in Texas this weekend.
SEE PAGE 4B
Kansas Soccer
The Kansas soccer team went 0-1-1 in Oklahoma this weekend and plays again today.
SEE PAGE 4B
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
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Failure at Baylor continues woes
31-24 loss is team's fourth in Big 12 play
Baylor linebacker Kris Micheaux looks down at Kansas halfback Mitch Bowles. Micheaux and the Baylor defense allowed Kansas 193 rushing yards. Photog. Don Flavieux. KANSAN
By Jodi M. Smith
Kansas sportswriter
Kansan sportswriter
WACO, Texas — It's becoming repetitive.
For the fourth consecutive conference game, the University of Kansas football team entered the fourth quarter either tied with or ahead of their opponent and lost the game.
This time it was against Baylor in a 31-24 down-to-the-wire win for the Bears.
"I'm very, very proud of this football team because they hung in there and fought." Baylor coach Dave Roberts said.
That they did, in a game that dropped the Jayhawks' record to 2-4.
"We don't ever think that we're going to lose a game," punter Matt Tyler said. "You can't think that way if you want to win a game."
Despite the team's high hopes, Kansas failed again.
"I really don't know what to say," coach Terry Allen said. "I feel really bad for those kids. This was a tough one; I'm proud of this team."
Kansas continued to produce offensively. After a dreadful first quarter in which the Jayhawks gained three yards on 16 plays, the offense resurrected its game and gained 203 yards in the second quarter.
The 'Hawks finished the night with 447 yards on 75 plays. Baylor had 457 yards on 70 plays.
Wide receiver Termaine Fulton led the Jayhawks in pass receptions with four for 86 yards and one touchdown, a 27- varder in the third quarter.
Running back David Winbush clobbered the Bear defense for 94 yards on 15 carries. Mitch Bowles, who shares playing time with Winbush, gained 73 yards on 14 carries, including a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, and also added a 62-yard pass reception from quarterback Zac Wegner. Wegner completed 12 of 33 passes for 254 yards.
The defense showed up too, forcing four turnovers. Every starter in the Kansas secondary — cornerbacks Muhammad Abdul-Rahim and Quincy Roe, and safeties Michael Allen and Chad Coellner — intercepted a pass.
But it wasn't enough. Not this time, and that is a song all too familiar to the Jayhawks.
"When we were up 10 in the third quarter, I thought we had them," Bowles said. "They hadn't been able to score on us the whole game, so I though we had it. But we just had letdowns, letdowns, letdowns and letdowns."
Another thing that has become consistent for the Jayhawks is their costly turnovers, and Saturday night's game was no different.
In the closing minutes of the first quarter, Tyler fumbled the punt snap and Baylor defensive end Clifton Rubin recovered the ball and carried it 27 yards for
the Bears' first touchdown.
"It was kind of one of those snaps you can't decide whether to catch with your hands up or your hands down," Tyler said. "It just hit me right in the hands and it was my fault entirely, nobody else's."
And, just like last week against Texas A&M, Wegner threw a costly interception, only this time it wasn't on Kansas' first play of the game. It was on their last.
With Kansas on Baylor's 35-yard line after a 45-yard pass completion to wide receiver Harrison Hill, Wegner's pass, intended for freshman wide receiver Byron Gasaway, was intercepted by Baylor defensive back Nikia Cody with 21 seconds remaining in the game.
And now the Kansas Jayhawks have to figure out where to go from here.
said. "I'm proud of the football team, and I know how everybody's hurting. We have to stay a team and understand that good things someday are going to happen for this football team."
"This was a tough one," Terry Allen
The Jayhawks next travel to Lincoln, Neb., to play Nebraska. The Cornhuskers lost for the first time in 19 games Saturday, 28-21 to Texas A&M, a team to which the Jayhawks lost 24-21.
Makin'a break
Members of the men's cross country team race for position at the start of the 8,000-meter race in the Bob Timmons Invitational at Rim Rock Farm. The event, involving teams from across the country, was a preview of the NCAA championships to be held at Rim Rock in late November. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN FOR STORY, SEE PAGE 3B.
Hinrich's commitment finishes men's basketball recruiting
By Erin Thompson
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas filled its final available scholarship late last Thursday night when it received a verbal commitment from Kirk Hinrich, a 6-foot-3 point guard from Sioux City, Iowa.
Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams and his staff can begin to concentrate fully on the season ahead now that recruiting is done.
Hinrich narrowed his choices to Kansas and Oklahoma after backing out of an oral commitment to Iowa State. He informed Williams and Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson late Thursday of his decision.
Kansas has filled its three available scholarships with a class that some consider one of the best in the nation.
Greg Swaim, recruiting analyst for Midwest Basketball, a recruiting information service, said that with Hinrich's commitment, Kansas' incoming class was one of the top five in the nation.
Gibbons ranks Collison as the second-best prospect in the nation and Gooden as the ninth.
Collison, a 6-foot-9 forward from Iowa City, Iowa, and Hinrich played together on an Iowa AAUteam and are good friends.
recruiting expert Bob Gibbons, joins fellow Iowan Nick Collison and Drew Gouen, a 6-foot 10 forward from El Cerrito, Calif.
Joining Hinrich, who is ranked No. 85 by
Hinrich committed to Iowa State following his sophomore year, when he led the Wolverines to second place in the Iowa state tournament, but reneged after head coach Tim Floyd's resigned to become the Chicago Bulls' head coach.
Hinrich, who plays for his father Jim at Sloux City (Iowa) West High School, averaged 18.1 points and a led West to a 20-2 record last season.
Kansas could have another scholarship available if junior Lester Earl is not cleared for another year of eligibility.
Commentary
Williams can not comment on the new recruits until they sign with Kansas in November.
Pizza, beer football rule lethargic Saturday
With my girlfriend out of town for the weekend and no class or job scheduled to milk my free time, I decided to heed the hidden message embedded in the word "Saturday." I literally "Sat-a-day" and watched college football for almost 13 fun-filled hours and spent some much-needed quality time with my couch.
It all began at 11 a.m., with my beloved
iowa Hawkeyes playing Northwestern, and ended with a UCLA-Arizona Pac-10 clash that finished well after midnight. In between, I ate too much pizza, drank too much beer and watched too much football.
Kevin Wilson
Texas A&M's 28-21 upset of second-ranked Nebraska was easily the most stum-
ning and unexpected story of the day. The Aggies amassed 259 yards rushing and held the Big Red Machine to a measly 141 yards on the ground in ending the Cornhuskers' 19-game winning streak. Nebraska, which has won or shared three of the last four national championships, lost for only the fourth time in its last 69 games and might have seen its hopes of another national title slip away. The loss dropped Nebraska to No. 8 in the AP poll, its lowest ranking in five years, and might have caused a few Cornhusker fans to wonder whether this would have happened with Tom Osborne roaming the sidelines.
In the Big 12, fourth-ranked Kansas State survived a scare from then No. 14 Colorado and held on to win 16-9. The victory was the Wildcats 13th straight and, coupled with Nebraska's loss, Kansas State finds itself in the driver's seat to win the Big 12 and possibly the national championship.
While the Cornhuskers were tumbling Saturday, the other top teams in the country were cruising.
No. 1 Ohio State brushed away another average Big 10 team by blowing out Illinois 41-0 and appears to be headed for an undefeated season and a spot in the national title game.
The Aggies avenged the 54-14 shellacking they took at the hands of Nebraska in last year's Big 12 Championship and silenced the critics who said coach R.C. Slocum couldn't win a big game.
UCLA blasted previously unbeaten Arizona 52-28 in a battle of two top-10 teams and jumped to No. 2 in the polls, while third-ranked Tennessee took the bark out of the upstart Georgia Bulldogs, 22-3.
No. 5 Florida held off the always-overrated LSU Tigers 22-10. And in what used to be THE Game of the Year, No. 6 Florida State outshined the Miami Hurricanes 26-14 to keep their slim national title hopes alive.
Devin West continued to lead Missouri by scoring three touchdowns and rushing for 252 yards on 40 carries, helping push the Tigers past Iowa State. Texas Tech moved into the top 25 and remained undefeated for the season by narrowly edging out Oklahoma State 24-17.
And who can forget Texas running back Ricky Williams, who moved into third place on the NCAA's career rushing list after gaining 139 yards during the Longhorns 34-3 dismantling of Oklahoma. With 5,380 yards, Williams only trails former Heisman Trophy winners Tony Dorsett (6,082) and Charles White (5,598).
Although this Saturday provided me with plenty of rest and relaxation, next weekend doesn't look as promising. I'm traveling to Lincoln, Neb. to watch the Jayhawks do battle with one ticked-off Cornhuskers team. I'm just hoping to get out alive.
Wilson is a Des Moines, Iowa, senior majoring in journalism.