photo by: Courtesy of Big 12 and Baylor, via Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Sep 26, 2020; Waco, Texas, USA; Baylor Bears running back John Lovett (7) celebrates scoring a touchdown against the Kansas Jayhawks during the second half at McLane Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

College football’s most unenviable streak kept plummeting, reaching a new milestone this past weekend, as the Big 12’s often clobbered travelers, the Kansas Jayhawks, lost the program’s 50th consecutive conference road game.

Often more inadequate than competitive when venturing into another Big 12 city, KU football hasn’t won a league game in an opponent’s stadium since its 2008 trip to Iowa State.

That now-distant — yet most recent — conference road victory was four head coaches (five if you count one interim) and nearly a dozen years ago, so the bulk of the skid has little to do with the current Jayhawks, who lost at Baylor, 47-14, last Saturday.

Even so, second-year KU head coach Les Miles said afterward he thought the Jayhawks were better positioned to compete on the road in 2020.

“And we still do,” Miles clarified, despite the 33-point defeat. “I think if you give a good look at what we’re playing with, we’re playing with really some capable guys. And they needed to grow and they need to experience college football. But they’re going to be good players. So we’re excited about it.”

The Jayhawks at least put an overall true road game losing streak of 46 games to rest in 2018, with a win at Central Michigan. They also won on the road in another nonconference game at Boston College in 2019, Miles’ first season in charge.

But the Big 12 keeps chewing up the road Jayhawks and spitting them out.

KU’s Big 12 free fall began in 2008, the program’s most recent winning season.

After Mark Mangino coached Todd Reesing and the Jayhawks to a 35-33 October road win in Ames, Iowa, KU lost its only other true Big 12 road games on the calendar, at Oklahoma and Nebraska (KU beat Missouri on a neutral field in Kansas City, Mo., to close the regular season). Kansas ultimately went 8-5 and won the Insight Bowl, making it impossible to fathom at the time that those back-to-back road losses would evolve into a perpetual nosedive.

KU went 0-4 in Big 12 road games in 2009, Mangino’s final season. And the successors rarely came close to helping the Jayhawks put an end to the skid. Turner Gill was 0-7 leading KU into opposing Big 12 venues, Charlie Weis went 0-9, Weis’ interim replacement Clint Bowen finished 0-5 and David Beaty left the job 0-18 in road conference games.

Following the loss at Baylor, Miles found himself 0-5 so far at KU against Big 12 competition on the road. The Jayhawks nearly killed the streak in Austin, Texas, in Miles’ first year on the job before losing a 50-49 shootout at Texas.

This season, the Jayhawks still have four more chances to bury what is, per sports-reference.com, college football’s all-time worst conference road losing streak — currently six games longer than a 44-game skid Sewanee suffered through from 1931 to 1939.

KU’s remaining 2020 road dates are Oct. 17 at West Virginia, Oct. 24 at Kansas State, Nov. 7 at Oklahoma and Dec. 5 in the regular season finale at Texas Tech.

Shortly after the program’s 50th consecutive Big 12 road loss, star running back Pooka Williams gave his assessment of what the Jayhawks have to do to be more competitive in Big 12 games outside of Lawrence.

“The first thing we’ve got to do is just put this ‘L’ behind us,” Williams said. “It happened already. And honestly go to the film and lock in the rest of this week, and don’t let a loss break us.”

KU’s Big 12 road losing streak (2008-??)

Mark Mangino era

2008

at No. 4 Oklahoma, 45-31

at Nebraska, 45-35

2009

at Colorado, 34-30

at Texas Tech, 42-21

at Kansas State, 17-10

at No. 3 Texas, 51-20

Turner Gill era

2010

at Baylor, 55-7

at Iowa State, 28-16

at No. 9 Nebraska, 20-2

2011

at No. 6 Oklahoma State, 70-28

at No. 24 Texas, 43-0

at Iowa State, 13-10

at Texas A & M, 61-7

Charlie Weis era

2012

at No. 7 Kansas State, 56-16

at No. 10 Oklahoma, 52-7

at Baylor, 41-14

at No. 25 Texas Tech, 41-34 (2OT)

at West Virginia, 59-10

2013

at TCU, 27-17

at Texas, 35-13

at No. 15 Oklahoma State, 42-6

at Iowa State, 34-0

Clint Bowen (interim)

2014

at West Virginia, 33-14

at Texas Tech, 34-21

at No. 12 Baylor, 60-14

at No. 23 Oklahoma, 44-7

at No. 11 Kansas State, 51-13

David Beaty era

2015

at Iowa State, 38-13

at No. 14 Oklahoma State, 58-10

at Texas, 59-20

at No. 15 TCU, 23-17

2016

at Texas Tech, 55-19

at No. 11 Baylor, 49-7

at No. 16 Oklahoma, 56-3

at No. 14 West Virginia, 48-21

at Kansas State, 34-19

2017

at Iowa State, 49-7

at No. 4 TCU, 44-20

at Texas, 31-24

at No. 18 Oklahoma State, 34-19

2018

at Baylor, 26-7

at No. 8 West Virginia, 38-22

at Texas Tech, 48-16

at Kansas State, 21-17

at No. 6 Oklahoma, 55-40

Les Miles era

2019

at TCU, 51-14

at No. 15 Texas, 50-48

at No. 25 Oklahoma State, 31-13

at Iowa State, 41-31

2020

at Baylor, 47-14

at West Virginia

at Kansas State

at Oklahoma

at Texas Tech