Not all 43 consecutive Kansas football road losses blowouts

photo by: Nick Krug

With a backdrop of the Franklin Mountains, Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing (5) drops back to pass against the UTEP defense. Reesing threw for 260 yards in the Jayhawks’ 34-7 victory Saturday in El Paso, Texas.

Kansas faces long ends in trying to stop its road losing streak at 43 games Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas. TCU opened as a 37-1/2-point favorite and at last check the line had climbed to 39 points.

KU last won on the road Sept. 12, 2009, blasting UTEP, 34-7, when Mark Mangino was the coach, Todd Reesing the quarterback, President Barack Obama was in his first year in the Oval Office and Donald Trump was a reality TV star. Clearly, much but not everything has changed since then.

At one point, Kansas lost 14 consecutive road games by double figures. The Jayhawks have had trouble keeping home teams from running up big scores. The hosts have scored in the 50s 10 times, the 60s twice, the 70s once, meaning that the home team has scored 50 or more points 13 times in the 43 losses, 30 percent of the time. But there have been some close games, just not that many. Sixteen percent of them have been decided by single figures.

A look at the smallest margins of defeat during the streak, which has included 16 games in Texas:

Rank Date Opponent Score Margin Head Coach
1 Nov. 5, 2011 Iowa State 13-10 3 Turner Gill
2 Nov. 17, 2009 Colorado 34-30 4 Mark Mangino
3 Nov. 14, 2015 TCU 23-16 6 David Beaty
4 (tie) Sept. 22, 2012 Northern Illinois 30-23 7 Charlie Weis
4 (tie) Nov. 11, 2009 Kansas State 17-10 7 Mark Mangino
4 (tie) Sept. 22, 2012 Texas Tech 41-34, OT 7 Charlie Weis
7 Sept. 14, 2013 Rice 23-14 9 Charlie Weis
8 Oct. 12, 2013 TCU 27-17 10 Charlie Weis
9 Oct. 30, 2010 Iowa State 28-16 12 Turner Gill
10 (tie) Sept. 26, 2015 Rutgers 27-14 13 David Beaty
10 (tie) Oct. 18, 2014 Texas Tech 34-21 13 Clint Bowen