KU football players sense this week’s urgency: ‘We know our back is against the wall’
Kansas cornerback Kyle Mayberry says there’s no avoiding the topic.
It was brought up, for instance, by football strength coach Zac Woodfin before Monday’s weightlifting session. He gave a fiery speech to KU’s players, telling them to sacrifice for each other over the final three weeks.
“We know our back is against the wall,” Mayberry said. “Our goal was to go to a bowl game, and we have three opportunities left — and we only have three opportunities left.”
KU, at 3-6 overall, has only one path to six wins and guaranteed bowl eligibility: three straight victories, beginning with Saturday’s road game at 25th-ranked Oklahoma State.
The bowl talk, while a lofty vision for the rebuilding Jayhawks in Year 1 of the Les Miles era, has been a often-cited objective by KU’s players. That included during a scene from the ESPN+ series “Miles to Go,” as receiver Daylon Charlot was shown motivating teammates at halftime of the Texas game while saying he wanted to end his college career with a postseason berth.
“Whatever it takes, we have to win these three games,” KU safety Mike Lee said. “That’s what Coach Woodfin was saying. No matter how we win a game, we’ve just got to come out with a victory.”
It won’t be easy.
KU is a 17-point underdog at Oklahoma State, then will finish the season with games at Iowa State and at home against Baylor.
“We know what we have to do,” KU quarterback Carter Stanley said, “but it really comes down to one at a time.”
Miles reiterated his team would be emphasizing short-term focus for the best chance at accomplishing long-term goals.
“It’s not, ‘Let’s win games.’ It’s, ‘Let’s practice hard, improve, get this thing done. Let’s take it to the field as a team,’” Miles said. “Let’s everybody in the seat they’re currently sitting in improve. Then now, we’re looking at a different team.”
While it’s hypothetically possible for a five-win team to make a bowl if there aren’t enough six-win teams to fill every game, KU is not likely to be in that position; that’s because the order of selection of those 5-7 teams is the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate — and KU’s 959 is unlikely to be the highest of the potentially eligible schools.
That keeps the Jayhawks’ math simple: They need three wins in their next three games.
“We know what has to get accomplished,” Mayberry said. “We don’t want to harp on it too much on making it a big thing about these three games. We want to focus on this one right here.”
