I’m guessing that fans of little brother to the west of us might disagree with my next statement. The best college football team in the state of Kansas might just reside in Emporia. More on this later.

Not really looking forward to today’s game… why would I? Kansas has shown nothing offensively all year long. Texas is one of the hottest teams in the conference. It could be a long game.

Pregame:

Looks like a nice day down in Austin. Looks like the crowd might be a little thin, too. So it goes for Kansas football. Oh wait… no, nevermind, actually seems like a pretty strong crowd now. Tony Pierson is out, but Ben Heeney is back. For once this year I don’t hate our uniforms. Ok. I guess I’m ready. I’m on my couch… let’s roll.

First Quarter:

Kansas defense comes out strong again, picking off a pass on UT’s first possession. Is it just me, or is this streak we have pretty cool? (If you read last week’s "View" then you know Will Ferrell approves.) Nobody has scored on their first drive against us all year long. Incredible. KU’s first possession is actually quite encouraging. Mixing up runs and screens and… whoa, what was that, Jake Heaps looks like a real quarterback! It was for only one play, though, as on a third and short, Heaps misses a WIDE open Tre Parmalee. Wyman misses the short field goal. Bummer. Ugh, is Trevor Pardula going to lead the team in total yards again? Nice punt, but geez… I’ve seen enough of Parula this year. Penalties are hurting the KU defense and special teams. The quarter ends with Texas threatening, Kansas 0, Texas 0.

Second Quarter:

Montell Cozart starts the second quarter for Kansas. Oooh, a shovel pass! Memories of Mark Mangino surface. Yeah, he never beat Texas or Oklahoma, but winning the Orange Bowl sure was fun. Sorry for the detour down memory lane. I don’t particularly care to see Sims running stretch plays. He needs to stay between the tackles for the most part. And Cozart misses the snap and it’s fourth down and here comes Pardula again. Helluva kick though. Boy, I tell ya, I like seeing Heeney back on the field. He’s making plays all over. Kansas stops Texas on fourth down near the 20. Now penalties are hurting the offense. Three plays later Kansas is punting again.

Texas goes right down the field and punches it in. Heaps comes back in, let’s see if Kansas can do anything before half. Another three and out, another good punt by Pardula. Texas seems content to run the ball and go to halftime, but Charlie Weis apparently disagrees. Kansas uses their timeouts and forces a UT punt. It’s a poor punt and KU has a chance at something… anything… come on guys… wow, even I saw that holding call. That was bad. A deep pass gets completed! Nice grab by Coleman. Sets KU up for a field goal, apparently Matt Wyman has been relieved of his kicking duties. Ron Doherty nails the short FG, and Kansas goes into halftime with some momentum? Yes, I meant that as a question. Kansas 3, Texas 14.

Halftime Thoughts:

The defense is fighting hard, as usual. The offense is struggling. Both sides are being hurt by penalties. Ooh, they’re interviewing Todd Reesing at halftime. He thinks Charlie should pick a QB and stick with it. I for one happen to agree. I would now like for Todd to go down to the locker room and put on Jake Heaps’ pads and uniforms and see what he can do in the second half. No one will know, right? I won’t tell if you don’t.

Third Quarter:

KU gets the ball first, and Heaps with a great throw on the post to Coleman! Maybe Reesing did go put on Jake’s jersey… hmmm. Are Texas defensive backs not taught to turn and look for the ball? Another pass interference. Man, Jake is standing tall in the pocket and taking some shots today. Doherty back out for another field goal, and sneaks it inside the goalpost. Defense holds, but the offense can’t do anything again, and Pardula unloads a BOMB from the goal line and puts Texas all the way back on the 20. Talk about flipping field position. Defense holds, special teams penalty on Texas, Kansas with great field position.

Aaaaand this game is probably over. Heaps is sacked on first down, fumbles, and UT runs it in for the touchdown. Teams like Kansas usually don’t recover from such things. Predictably, the offense sputters, Pardula fumbles the long snap, and barely gets off a short punt. Texas can probably put the game away with a score on this possession. And that’s exactly what happens. As the quarter ends, Rodriguez Coleman is wide open and drops what would have been a first down conversion. Kansas 6, Texas 28.

Fourth Quarter:

Oh… Coleman may have torn up his knee on the second play of the fourth quarter. Not good, as he has actually been one of the bright spots today despite the drop at the end of the third quarter. Kansas just NAILS Case McCoy and picks off another pass. Nice smash by Jake Love. Three and out by the offense again, though. The Kansas defense is still fighting, but starting to look tired. UT is just running right at them, and they keep getting larger and larger gains. And on fourth and one, KU lined up to stop the run, Texas busts a 30 yard touchdown run.

Go get the bus, this game is officially over. Cozart is finally back in. Hopefully he finishes the game at QB. Cozart with an option keeper gets a rushing touchdown. It’s probably worth noting that Doherty kicked the PAT. Tyrone Swoopes comes in for UT, Texas runs some clock, Kansas gets the ball back with a minute left and runs out the rest of the clock, and there’s your ballgame.

Final Score

Kansas 13, Texas 35

Offense:

Darrian Miller ran well. Connor Embree was in a lot on offense, but I don’t remember him doing much. Did Cozart throw any passes? It sure didn’t seem like it. Very disappointed in Justin McCay so far this year. I hope Rodriguez Coleman is OK. I feel better about the KU offense than I thought I would. They showed some things. Overall, Jake Heaps looked better I thought. Minus the sack and fumble of course.

Defense:

Defense played as well as can be expected. They played great for three quarters, actually. Jake Love was pretty pissed off at someone today, he was really laying the lumber. Isaiah Johnson really has a knack for the ball as well.

Special Teams:

Doherty did OK. Pardula kicked some nice balls. Minus his fumble, of course. Wyman missed a short kick that would have given Kansas an early lead. Special teams have kind of been a bummer lately. Better get that fixed before Nov 30 or K-State will have a field day.

Conclusion:

We got close to what we expected. Texas won comfortably, but not going away. Kansas hung in there well into the third quarter. Games against West Virginia and Kansas State are looking less winnable every week. I think our only shot is Iowa State. Oklahoma State put the hammer onto Texas Tech as well, so next week in Stillwater could be rough. We’ll be watching, though. Stay tuned for next week’s "View."

Feel free to skip to the comments below if you don’t care about Division 2 football, as I need to address my statement at the very beginning. Now is the time for full disclosure. I did not watch the KU game live. I recorded it, and watched it off the DVR this evening. I was in St. Joseph, MO this afternoon, on the campus of the Missouruh Western Griffons as they took on the Emporia State Hornets. ESU was undefeated and ranked #14 in Division 2. MWSU had one loss and is ranked #12. It sounded like fun.

It was a great game with an exciting finish. The Emporia coach apparently thought that a five point lead with three minutes left means you throw the ball. I guess that’s why he’s in D2, amirite? Of course, the pass gets batted at the line and picked off. MWSU drove down to the six yard line, but got picked off (ESU forced 6 MWSU turnovers) with 11 seconds left to preserve the Emporia State victory.

ESU is now 8-0. They’ll be moving up in the rankings. They average 47 points a game. MWSU was the first "good" team they played, and ESU went on the road and emerged victorious. Their next two games are both at home vs current #2 Northwest Missouruh State and #8 Washburn. (NWMS and WU played today, and NWMS smoked the Ichabods.) So, if (and I know it’s a big "if") ESU knocks off NWMS next Saturday, I say they can claim to be the best college football team in Kansas. Since the MIAA thought it would be cool to go all Big 10 on everyone a couple years ago and expand to 14 teams, through a scheduling quirk, Emporia and Pittsburg will not be playing each other this year (unless it’s in the playoffs).

Yeah yeah, head to head, K-State would most likely beat the Hornets or Ichabods. KU would "probably" beat the Hornets or Ichabods.

It’s still fun to say, though! Especially if it gets little brother all defensive.

As always, Rock Chalk. We’ll be back for more next week.