I understand that we have played some pretty crappy teams. I get it. Still, in this year of 2007, the wackiest and most upside-down of any in recent memory, there is definitely something to be said for showing up at the stadium and killing your opponent.
The Jayhawks showed up yet again on Saturday, whipping the Baylor Bears 58-10. It was the most points the 'Hawks have ever scored against a conference opponent, as well as the biggest margin of victory in a conference game. With us winning, at least.
The blowout win, coupled with another wild weekend of upsets in college football, have us sitting pretty at #15 in both the AP and Coaches' poll. Here is a little snippet of the AP poll, showing 3 teams ranked successively:
- USC 5-1 932
- Florida 4-2 865
- Kansas 6-0 664
You read that right.
Kansas (KANSAS!!!) is only 2 spots behind the USC Trojans, only one spot behind the defending national champion Florida Gators.
And that isn't even bringing up the initial BCS Rankings, which were released this afternoon. In those, the ones that really matter (or so we are told), we are actually ranked ahead of both USC and Florida, #13 in the country. the Kansas Jayhawks are the 13th best team in the country according to the BCS, the best tool we have (as of right now) to compare teams.
In addition to the #13 BCS ranking, we are one of only 6 undefeated teams remaining in all of college football. Put all of that together, take out the name 'Kansas' and put in 'Oklahoma', and you have a national championship contender. You can't really blame them though, they had little reason to believe that this team would be any different than the last year's version, the team that dropped 5 games that we could have won. But this team is different than those of years' previous, this team doesn't blow leads late.
Next week is opportunity #1 to earn a slice of national spotlight, as the game in Boulder, Colorado will be nationally televised on the Worldwide Leader. Colorado is coming off a shellacking in Manhattan and will be fighting for their Big 12 North-championship lives, which are on life support. A win next week in Boulder will all but clinch a chance to control our own destiny in the Big 12 North. A win next week and a win in Arrowhead to close the season and we are making our way down to San Antonio for the Big 12 Championship game, as long as we take care of the teams we should take care of.
And no matter what you want to say about the Kansas Jayhawks, what you want to contribute to the easy non-conference schedule, you can't say we haven't taken care of the teams we should take care of.
We haven't just beat them either, we have absolutely demolished them by a combined score of 302 to 57.
302 to 57.
ROCK CHALK!