The Kansas University football team closed out with a 56-26 aeration by North Carolina State in the Tangerine Bowl. But enthusiasm has been rekindled and a lot of fans are eyeing the 2004 season with optimism.

Until they look hard at that vicious schedule.

The 2003 Jayhawks finished the regular campaign 6-6. With timely luck against Northwestern, Colorado and Texas A&M, Kansas could have put at least two more victories into the book. KU could have been 8-4 heading to Orlando, Fla.

But could that 2003 club with all its progress and experience and with quarterback Bill Whittemore in top shape come back and do as well as 6-6 in 2004? There’s a massive challenge facing Mark Mangino’s next Jayhawk edition.

The season begins with non-league games against Tulsa (here), Northwestern (there) and TBA (to be announced). Tulsa is reachable but no gimme, and Northwestern will have enough good people to give KU all it can handle at Evanston. As for the TBA, I’m hoping the front office arranges to play somebody along the lines of the soft touches for which Kansas State has become famous under Bill Snyder.

Kansas could emerge from this trifecta with a 2-1; then the hair really gets short.

The conference slate begins with a visit by Texas Tech and its flying circus. KU has only one victory in the series with the Red Raiders. Very iffy even with quarterback B.J. Symons gone. KU enters the season without a proven field general. Adam Barmann has the job until some junior-college whiz morphs into a Whittemore, but the offense will have to regroup.

Next the Jayhawks go to Nebraska. The Huskers are unsettled but still will be ready to maintain tradition with a 36th straight victory over KU. Kansas State is here Oct. 9 and has a string of 11 wins against the Crimson and Blue. Will an unsure new quarterback at KSU and a nifty new guy at our throttle finally turn the tide? Yet there’s that terrible threat posed by Darren Sproles.

If Kansas somehow could get through the NU-KSU crucible at 1-1 it will have broken some big ice.

Oct. 16 is open but then come trips to Oklahoma and Iowa State. Norman, no way. Ames, KU used to play ISU better there than here so we can hope things revert to form.

Colorado and Texas visit Nov. 6 and 13. CU is never a patsy, here or there. Texas, for all its inability to capitalize on an incredible bin of talent, won’t fold to make Kansas happy.

The season-ender is Nov. 20 at Missouri; by then, one or both clubs will be either good or floundering. Sure, KU soundly whipped Mizzou here the past fall. You think that will make the Kansas job any easier in November with about 70,000 people growling for the Tigers? Wish Kansas had a Brad Smith in the stable the way Mizzou has.

If Kansas could open with wins over Tulsa, Northwestern and the TBA, where is it going to get three more victories from that Big 12 Valley of Death? Gone are Baylor, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M, against whom KU could go only 1-2 the past season. In their place are T-Tech, Oklahoma and Texas, a possible 0-3 zonk.

If Kansas could somehow beat Big 12 foes T-Tech, Iowa State and Colorado after a 3-0 start it would duplicate its 6-6 of 2003. But a lot of good people and a many good things have to materialize between now and Sept. 4.

The Jayhawks came a tremendous distance from that 2-10 of 2002 to its bowl-eligible 6-6 of 2003. With some luck it could have done even better. Posting a 7-5 or better in 2004 will take some major doing.

The Jayhawks are still struggling to overcome the bare cupboard Terry Allen’s gang left after 2001. It may take still another year to really get off the dime. Let’s hope not, but it could.

l The tentacles of the Kansas athletic family never cease to amaze me. Another KU-elsewhere link came to mind with the recent death of all-pro quarterback Otto Graham, 82, of Cleveland Browns fame (10 championships in 10 seasons). He was recruited from Waukegan, Ill., to Northwestern by Dutch Lonborg, all-time great KU athlete, former NW basketball coach and eventual KU athletic director. Dutch got the kid for his basketball.

Along with his athletic skills, Otto, the son of music teachers, learned the piano, violin, cornet and became Illinois state champion on the French horn at age 16.

Lonborg lured him to Northwestern. Graham won All-America basketball honors in 1943 and as football quarterback finished third in the Heisman Trophy race, won by Notre Dame’s Angelo Bertelli.

Dutch saw Otto playing intramural football, told friend Pappy Waldorf he looked pretty good, then lent his court star to football. You did things like that for friends in those days.

Graham missed one college season because of a bad leg but twice led Northwestern to victories over Ohio State, coached by Paul Brown. When Brown took over the pro Browns, Graham was the first guy he went after. Brown was so impressed he paid Otto $7,500, highest contract on the new franchise, in 1946. Graham also won a pro basketball title with the 1946 Rochester Royals.

Said coach Brown, “The test of a quarterback is where his team finishes. By that standard, Otto Graham was the best of all time.” He could have played in any era and would have been a success.

Nobody admired and appreciated Otto more than Dutch Lonborg, the direct Kansas connection to a football legend who was also a basketball great. Never underestimate KU’s outreach and impact.