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What a couple of weeks for the Kansas Jayhawks.
On Oct. 2 Turner Gill led the Jayhawks into Baylor for a Big 12 conference game and they were throttled 55-7. Baylor has never beaten anyone in the Big 12 that soundly. It was an embarrassing loss for KU.
The good news? They had a bye week to prepare for Thursday night's game against Kansas.
The bad news? That bye week makes their 59-7 embarrassment against Kansas State last night look even worse.
We'll turn it over to Turner Gill....
"Right now we're not a very good football team. That's the reality of it at this point in time. However you want to take it from that. We're not a good football team right now."
It was something Gill repeated often throughout his session with reporters following KU's home loss. He says KU isn't doing the basics like tackling, blocking, passing or catching the ball. To me, failing to do the basics is a clear point to the coaching staff.
"We have a tremendous staff that you always hear me talk about so we got the right people here and we'll get it turned around."
Yeah, that staff. You don't lose two consecutive games by a combined score of 114-14 and not point a finger at the coaching staff. Kansas State was a two point favorite against Kansas. People thought this game would be close. It's not like this was a double digit spread and things got out of hand. Kansas, at home, was supposed to be able to hang with Kansas State.
"When you're looking for opportunities, that's the biggest thing we've been missing, defensively, is creating turnovers but then also, offensively, we haven't done our part. We've been turning it over and causing penalties. The basics of it right now is that we're not a very good football team."
Kansas needs turnovers to win. I think that's becoming clear. Gill said before the game last week that he needed his team to go +2 in the turnover margin. Creating at least three turnovers on defense and giving it away one time or less. On Thursday night, Kansas turned it over three times to Kansas State's on turnover.
I understand that coming in here there was going to be some work to turn a program around into a winning program and that's what we're still here to do. I'm still here to get this thing turned around. How long will it be? I don't know how long it'll be but we will get this thing turned around.
Frustrating all the way around for Kansas, especially when you hear the coach say they're not doing the basics. But Gill is right. Kansas simply isn't a very good football team. It's looking like reality may be four wins for this team. That would not be an upgrade from 2009. New coaching regimes take time but this one, in particular, seems to be going in the hole. People are making fun of KU for Turner Gill's rules. It's easier to make fun when the team is getting embarrassed on the field.
It's not a good time for Kansas football. There are a lot of unhappy people with this football team.