2011 Kansas Jayhawks Football Preview

Head coach Turner Gill’s first year in Lawrence was certainly a memorable one. One memory that Kansas fans will take with them was an improbable 28-point fourth quarter comeback victory over Colorado. For the most part, though, 2010 was a nightmare that Mr. Gill and company would like to forget.

The Jayhawks lost by an average of 17 points per game, were defeated by an FCS opponent (North Dakota State) in week one, and lost by four touchdowns or more a staggering five times in the course of Big 12 competition. Kansas returns a total of 15 starters, seven on offense, eight on defense, in 2011. Despite Gill’s track record, Kansas fans are waiting to see how he will turn things around.

One has to realize, before developing any optimism about the KU crew, that 15 starters are returning from a team proved to be downright miserable on the field. Aside from a surprising victory against Georgia Tech in early September, this team did nothing of consequence. Sure, the response to a 45-17 fourth-quarter deficit against Colorado was something to behold; the 52-45 victory made extraordinary headlines for a game between two bottom-feeding teams (it basically got Colorado coach Dan Hawkins fired; that’s how potent the occasion was in Lawrence). However, the fuller reality of Kansas’ season is that it represented a pronounced decline from the Mark Mangino years. Yes, Kansas has a higher-quality human being in its seat of football authority – Mangino was abusive to players, and that’s why he was nudged out of town by former athletic director Lew Perkins – but if Gill can’t deliver the goods on Saturdays, he and his character won’t be around very long. Gill made himself a hot coaching commodity in 2008, when he led the Buffalo Bulls to their first-ever bowl game. He was tied to many national jobs, and a sports personality as visible as Charles Barkley expressed his disappointment when Gill was passed up for the job at Auburn University, Barkley’s alma mater. When Gill was tabbed as Mangino’s replacement at Kansas, the Jayhawks cast their lot with a coach who – though unproven at the BCS conference level – arrived with an appreciable amount of buzz. This was not an off-the-radar coaching candidate; this was viewed as the next step up for a man on the rise within his profession. Therefore, the 2010 Kansas season marked a big step back for Gill’s image and reputation. His job is not on the line this season, but if he falls flat on his face, the 2012 campaign could very well be a make-or-break season not just in terms of his tenure in Lawrence, but his career as a head coach, too.

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With that weight of pressure serving as a prelude to the coming autumn, here’s what’s brewing at Camp Kansas: At the end of spring ball, Jordan Webb and Quinn Mecham were locked in a contentious quarterback battle. High-profile recruit Brock Berglund could also make a play for the starting nod come August camp. Whoever ends up behind center will rely on the talent of James Sims, who rushed for 742 yards last season and could be a 1,000-yard back this year. The defense has been upgraded athletically and will need to play solid during the early stages of Big 12 play because the Jayhawks need to start fast.

A trip to Georgia Tech in week three will show how far the Jayhawks have come in year two of the Gill era. Big 12 games begin a week later with a home date against Texas Tech. A road trip to Stillwater to take on Oklahoma State, followed by a home contest with league favorite Oklahoma, will be a tough two-week task for this manifestly underequipped team, which will need to recruit better if Gill is to make things happen before his third season (in 2012) comes to an end. The Jayhawks also travel to College Station to face Texas A&M and play Missouri at Arrowhead Stadium in back-to-back weeks to close the season. Formidable foes litter the slate, so after a year in which that Colorado comeback was the only conference triumph for KU (the Jayhawks went 1-7 in the Big 12), it’s clear that 2011 has to be a gateway year built on player development and the formation of a winning identity. Everything Gill seeks won’t come to fruition this year, but he needs to plant seeds and enable some positive trends to take root in Lawrence.