Kansas Football: 5 Worst Seasons in the Past 3 Decades
Kansas Football: 5 Worst Seasons in the Past 3 Decades
It seems like it's been decades since the last time Kansas won a major bowl game, but the fact is it was only a few years ago. With another season looking like a complete disaster, there has been a drought of quality football in Lawrence.
The following five seasons are the worst Kansas Jayhawks football has seen in the past three decades.
5. 1987 Record: 1-9-1
1987 was one of the most miserable seasons in KU football history. Not only did the team fail to put up 30 points in a game, they gave up at least 40 points five times that year, including a whopping 71 to Oklahoma.
The Jayhawks managed to pull out one win in 1987 by the skin of their teeth, edging out Southern Illinois by one point.
The only reason this was not the worst season in the past three decades is because the basketball team ended up winning the national championship that year, so no one ended up caring about how the football team fared.
4. 2009 Record: 5-7
It is hard to put a team who did win five games on the list of worst seasons in the past three decades, but this team belongs on it.
In 2007, the Kansas Jayhawks went on to win the Orange Bowl with practically the same team.
In 2008, they also had a good season, going 8-5 and beating Minnesota in the Insight Bowl.
So as 2009 approached the Jayhawks were once again supposed to contend for a good bowl game. They had all of their playmakers back in Todd Reesing, Jake Sharp, Kerry Meier and Dezmon Briscoe.
The team was ranked 25th in preseason polls. However, after winning five games in a row to open the season, the Jayhawks then ended up losing their last seven in a row and completely missed out on a bowl game.
3. 2010 Record: 3-9
In 2010, the KU football team was doomed right from the start.
The Jayhawks opened up the 2010 season at home, in the debut of the highly sought-after coach Turner Gill and what they ended up doing was losing a 6-3 ball game to North Dakota State, an FCS school.
Even though the team managed to win three games in Gill’s first year as head coach, the painful loss to North Dakota State will be something that is going to take a long time for fans to get over.
This loss was arguably the worst loss in the history of the KU football team.
2. 2011 Record: 2-8 (So Far)
While the 2011 season is not over, it will still go down as one of the worst in KU football history.
They Jayhawks still have a chance to salvage their season, as they still have games against Texas A&M and Missouri, but let’s be honest, they’ll be lucky if they lose by less than 30 points in each of them.
The team started out the season by going 2-0, and many believed this was going to be a new team from what they were a season ago.
Since their 2-0 start, it has been nothing but a nightmare. The Jayhawks are currently on an eight-game losing streak. They are also the worst defensive team in all of the FBS, giving up an average of 44 points per game.
It truly has been a miserable sight to watch all year long, and all I can say is thank god basketball season has started.
1. 1988 Record: 1-10
After the 1987 season, head coach Bob Valesente was fired and the Jayhawks hired Glen Mason to take over.
Mason was coming off a season where he coached Kent State to a 7-4 record. Confidence and optimism were high heading into the Jayhawks 1988 season. After losing nine games the season before, many believed it could only get better.
Unfortunately that was not the case as the Jayhawks went on to lose even more games than they did in the previous season.