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KU football fans have seen some bad football, as we investigated this past summer. Many folks - including some of our own - have called 2015 the worst season ever. Historically bad, they say. Well, is it?
Well - I suppose it depends on your perspective. Going by the metric I used to rank the worst seasons, 2015 places fourth on that list. So yes, it's in the top 5 of worst seasons in KU football history, and that probably technically makes it "historical." But it's still not the worst.
Here is the revised list of worst KU football teams:
| Year | W | L | T | SRS | Coach | PS/G | PS Rank | PA/G | PA Rank |
| 1988 | 1 | 10 | 0 | -15.45 | Glen Mason | 17.2 | 90th of 105 | 45.1 | 105th of 105 |
| 2002 | 2 | 10 | 0 | -14.87 | Mark Mangino | 20.7 | 96th of 117 | 42.2 | 115th of 117 |
| 1954 | 0 | 10 | 0 | -14.44 | Chuck Mather | 9.3 | 102nd of 111 | 37.7 | 111th of 111 |
| 2015 | 0 | 12 | 0 | -13.73 | David Beaty | 15.2 | 123rd of 128 | 46.1 | 128th of 128 |
| 1987 | 1 | 9 | 1 | -13.22 | Bob Valesene | 12.3 | 101st of 104 | 36.2 | 99th of 104 |
| 1942 | 2 | 8 | 0 | -12.15 | Gwinn Henry | 7.7 | 108th of 121 | 24.8 | 117th of 121 |
| 1986 | 3 | 8 | 0 | -10.65 | Bob Valesene | 10.2 | 104th of 105 | 29.7 | 92nd of 105 |
(For more information on the SRS, which is our primary measuring stick, click this link here. Basically, the best tools for comparing teams - Sagarin and F+ for example - don't go back far enough, so this was created.)
The late 1980s still dominate this list. So the next time someone says that 2015 was the worst KU football team in history, you can call them out for recency bias and remind them of the Bob Valesente years.
Also, because I'm a jerk and I hate those guys, I'd like to note that Kansas State has 11 seasons worse than the 2015 Jayhawks - including 1989, better known as Year 1 of the Bill Snyder era.