LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
KUED • SPORTS
AUGUST,1996 PAGE 3E
Bulk of KU's 1995 team returns minus a few key parts
Can Kansas win 10 again?
EARL RICHARDSON/JOURNAL-WORLD PHOTO
Senior Ben Rutz (8) will be KU's starting quarterback一if he heals from his spring knee surgery.
Contemporary JAYHAWK Pendants Sterling Silver or 14K Yellow Gold
Last fall, Glen Mason was more alchemist than coach, turning base materials that were unproven and inexperienced football players into a 10-win team.
BY ANDREW HARTSOCK
JOURNAL-WORLD SPORTS WRITER
SILVER WORKS and more
715 Massachusetts • Lawrence, Kansas
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Now entering his ninth season as Kansas University's football coach, Mason is being asked a question unheard in these parts for 90 years: Can the Jayhawks win 10 again?
"I'll never open up an address to the team by saying we were 10-2 last year," Mason said. "But I will tell them, 'You got where you were because you came together as a队. If you want to get back there, you'd better do it again.' There are higher expectations on this year's group than last year's. But it's no different. We don't have enough talent to play well and win. Not with this schedule.
"Can we do it again? Only if we do the things we did last year to come together as a team. That's the only way."
Nobody saw the 10-2 season of a year ago coming, Mason included. No one thought KU would go to its second bowl game under Mason and dismantle UCLA, 51-30, as KU did in the Aloha Bowl. Not a soul predicted KU would beat Colorado at Colorado and Oklahoma at Oklahoma and tie for second with CU and Kansas State in the final season of the Big Eight. And nobody thought KU would end up in the top 10 in both national polls: No.9 in the Associated Press. No.10 in the USA Today/CNN coaches poll.
FOOTBALL
"Last year can be best described as very successful
and very surprising," Mason said. "Most people thought it would be a tough year last year because of the lack of experience. We got off to a less-thanbanner start, but we were able to win, and winning builds momentum. The end result was 10-2, a success by anybody's standards."
Can KU repeat the feat? Not without replacing several key components.
At least Mason himself does-
See KU's biggest, page 4