If Kansas University’s football players have fire in their eyes with Toledo coming up on the schedule, they’re not admitting it.

Instead, they’re saying it’s just another week of work for the Jayhawks, who will play the Rockets on Saturday at Memorial Stadium – one year to the day after losing in double overtime to them, 37-31, in Toledo, Ohio.

“I just see it as another step up,” defensive tackle James McClinton said. “They’re going to be a better opponent, I believe, than the two teams we’ve played. We still have to come out and do what we usually do: work hard, fight hard and play.”

The Friday-night meltdown on national television last season, in hindsight, crippled KU’s chances at playing in a bowl game – along with a few other collapses in Big 12 Conference play. This probably will be KU’s only chance for revenge for a while, as the three-game contract between the two schools wraps up Saturday.

“It’s probably in the back of their minds,” KU coach Mark Mangino said, “but it’s business as usual. We’ve got to improve in a lot of areas.”

Kansas (2-0) practiced Sunday and will take today off before tackling the gameplan for Saturday’s contest. KU’s coaches watched game film from Saturday’s 62-0 Kansas victory over Southeastern Louisiana early Sunday and planned to start on Toledo (0-2) later Sunday evening.

Of course, KU’s problems a year ago were more internal than anything. The Jayhawks committed five turnovers – including two huge ones in the overtimes – to put the Rockets in great shape to steal a victory.

It was a stark contrast to the ’04 matchup between the two teams in Lawrence, which Kansas dominated start to finish in a 63-14 victory.

Only a few current players, including McClinton, played in the 2004 game. But most of this year’s roster was at the Glass Bowl a season ago to experience that heartbreak.

Not that they’re using it as any sort of motivation. Not publicly, anyway.

“They did beat us last year. Our offense turned the ball over a lot last year,” cornerback Aqib Talib said. “Hopefully we just come out and execute on offense and defense this year.

“It’s like any other game, though. It’s not just because they beat us last year, we want to beat them any more. We want to beat every team just as bad as we want to beat the next team.”