KU football by the numbers
Some of the digits behind Kansas’ fall into the abyss
Mind-blowing numbers help to illustrate just how deeply a Kansas University football program that went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl five long years ago has slipped into the abyss.
A paint-by-numbers look at the state of KU football:
0: That’s how many touchdowns Kansas wide receivers combined for in the first year under Charlie Weis, hired in large part because of his history of success in developing quarterbacks. Linebacker Schyler Miles carried the ball once and rushed for one more touchdown than the wide receivers had touchdown catches.
D.J. Beshears, Chris Omigie, Tre’ Parmalee, Daymond Patterson, Kale Pick and Andrew Turzilli all caught passes, but none of them reached the end zone.
Zero also is the number of sacks that Josh Williams produced in his lone season at Kansas after graduating from Nebraska. Williams made 12 starts, drew solid grades for assignment-soundness, etc., but never became the impact player advertised by Weis. Even so, Williams did more than the other college-graduate transfers dubbed the “cavalry” by Weis.
1.5: The number of sacks produced by the team co-leaders in that category, Toben Opurum and Kevin Young.
5: Consecutive seasons with a diminishing victory total. Since the 12-1 Orange Bowl season, the season victory totals: 8, 5, 3, 2, 1.
7: Touchdown passes thrown by Kansas quarterbacks. Dayne Crist threw four, Michael Cummings three. Todd Reesing set the school record with 36 in 2007 and matched it in 2008.
11: School-record loss total for 2012 team. Also, the losing streak the Jayhawks bring into Sept. 7, 2013, season-opener against South Dakota in Memorial Stadium.
21: Big 12 losing streak, which could have been worse. The 2010 team came back from a 45-17, fourth-quarter deficit in a game in which Colorado coach Dan Hawkins put padding his son’s passing statistics ahead of winning.
If not for that, KU’s conference losing streak would stand at 33.
Also, Kansas has lost 21 consecutive games against teams from the Football Bowl Subdivision.
22: Consecutive losses in games played outside of Lawrence, including three losses at Arrowhead Stadium.
37: Distance of the longest field goal Kansas kicked in 2012.
94: Kickoff returns for Beshears, enabling him to set a Kansas record for kickoff-return yardage (2,123). You don’t want to return that many kicks because it means the opponent is scoring too often.
116: Where Crist finished in quarterback rating standings among players with enough passes to qualify. He finished last with a 96.5 rating. Alabama’s A.J. McCarron was first with a 173.1 rating. Cummings did not have enough passes to qualify. He had a rating of 88.5.
277: Days until the Jayhawks can start to reverse all the negative karma with a victory.