KU closing the gap on K-State is notable enough. But how and why? That’s what matters
The clock showed nothing but zeroes at 9:26 p.m. here in Lawrence. And by 9:28 p.m., the field was virtually empty at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
Some 100 Kansas football players had departed for a locker room that one of them would later describe as “just crushing.” The stands had mostly cleared out. The goal posts remained upright in both end zones.
To think, the place was rocking earlier Saturday, primed for a celebration of the long-time-coming variety, certainly not to be confused with the mammoth-upset variety. And instead it was a ghost town in the snap of the fingers.
Welcome to the aftermath of a missed opportunity.
A new feeling here. And one the home team should embrace. Eventually.
Kansas State beat Kansas 31-27 in the Sunflower Showdown, but it’s been a minute since it felt like this.
KU and K-State are competitive again. Wait, again? Scratch that. KU and K-State are competitive finally.
And it’s not because the Wildcats have slipped. They actually played a good football game Saturday, same as they’ve been playing good football for a couple of months now, or a couple of years now, or for the better part of a couple of generations now. But you could tell me you thought KU played a better game, and I wouldn’t argue.
And, well, that was fun, wasn’t it?
“Little brother,” as Kansas State quarterback Will Howard intentionally slipped in when referencing KU, is almost all grown up.
Almost.
Let me offer this, and I’ll recognize that probably neither side wants to hear it: What unfolded during and after the game supplied better signs of the Jayhawks’ future success in the in-state rivalry than any single result could have been.
“I said it from the start two years ago: We’re not in the moral victory business,” KU coach Lance Leipold said. “So I won’t want to start acting like I am now.”
As I said, no one wants to hear it. The Jayhawks fumbled a punt that would’ve offered them the chance for a go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter, dropped a pick-six that might’ve sealed the game even earlier and threw a pair of interceptions (though one of them was a fourth-down desperation heave).
By game’s end, they traded four touchdowns with K-State; neither team kicked a field goal; and somehow one of them left with a four-point margin.
So, absolutely, the Jayhawks ought to feel pretty lousy about that. They had this game. Any feel-good aftermath doesn’t erase that the very reason it was a missed opportunity was their own doing. That matters.
But they ought to feel quite pleased for what it all represents for the future.
The signs of a good program, not to be confused with a good season or a good day, are those that can plug-and-play and keep it rolling. Those that encounter some bumps in the road and press the accelerator anyway. I haven’t even mentioned this yet, because KU nearly made it irrelevant: They played with a third-string quarterback who opened the season as a walk-on.
Cole Ballard, it turns out, is a gamer. His running back teammate, Devin Neal, will be carrying footballs on Sundays in the future. Neal scored three times Saturday night.
But what took place in Lawrence wasn’t about the individuals, even those who survived some grim years here, and that’s what makes the future promising. There was a time in the very recent past when it felt like KU could’ve put Tom Brady in the pocket and still stood hardly a chance against Kansas State.
KU went the other way. Turned to a true freshman’s first start at quarterback.
And they were in it, man. Could’ve won it. Probably should’ve won it.
They averaged 6.9 yards per play; K-State finished at 5.4, though it was 6.1 before an intentional loss of yardage to eat up clock and end the game.
Kansas had the Wildcats in a straightjacket for 2 1/2 quarters, trying to find their way out. With a third-string quarterback. I mentioned that, right? What we’ve learned not just Saturday, but this season, is the KU offense is about more than one player. Same as this KU team.
And if you’re a K-State backer wondering, hey, what about us? That’s the point. Those are the qualities that have made the Wildcats so special for so long. They plug and replace and keep on moving.
“Making that game a battle hasn’t been done in a really long time,” Neal said. “For us to do that, it means a lot. It shows how far we’ve come as a program.
“(But) at the end of the day, we want to win those games. We’re not looking forward to just losing by four.”
Fair enough. I get that. I do. One last time: They won’t get better if they are merely content with the result. The point isn’t to change anyone’s minds there.
It’s to say that those days are coming, and not because KU finally gave K-State a game, but rather because of how they did, and why.
The narrative that the state of Kansas isn’t populous enough to house two good Division I programs is gone.
The Sunflower Showdown will mean more in the future because the “little brother” is at long last ready to stand up to an older sibling.
A win Saturday, in that case, should feel like more than mere relief for K-State. It should feel like real accomplishment. Because it was. The Wildcats beat a good team.
And in the end, they provided the missing ingredient that separates programs on the rise and those that have arrived — the drive when you just have to have it. The Wildcats did it on offense with a veteran quarterback. After the KSU defense forced a coupled of turnovers. Oh, and after the special teams got one, too.
KU is on the journey to close the gap.
Even if that journey requires marching on, this is a program that is marching in the right direction.