Winless in the still young stages of the David Beaty coaching era, Kansas football will have to upset high-scoring Texas Tech on Saturday (11 a.m. kickoff at Memorial Stadium) to put an end to the program’s eight-game losing streak, which dates back to last season’s victory over Iowa State.

You may not be surprised to learn that no one in our Pick Six group expects the Jayhawks (0-5 overall, 0-2 Big 12) to outscore the Red Raiders (4-2, 1-2). This is, after all, a Texas Tech team that averages 52.7 points a game. And its only losses have come to Baylor and TCU.

Maybe KU can at least stop its trend of declining point totals.

• 38 vs. South Dakota State, 23 vs. Memphis, 14 vs. Rutgers, 13 vs. Iowa State, 7 vs. Baylor

We’ll find out Saturday afternoon.

— Don’t forget to check out our college and pro pick ’em contests to win weekly and season-long prizes. —

WEEK 7 MATCHUPS

Alabama at Texas A&M

Michigan State at Michigan

Florida at LSU

Oklahoma at Kansas State

USC at Notre Dame

Texas Tech at Kansas

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier unexpectedly resigned this week, in the middle of the season, deciding to throw in the towel (and probably his visor) instead of staying the course. What abrupt retirements/resignations from athletes/coaches stand out in your mind as the most odd or surprising of all time?

Last week: 4-2 | Season: 27-9

The one I remember most is Magic
Johnson’s announcement that he was
HIV-positive and was retiring from the
NBA.

Last week: 4-2 | Season: 26-10

I remember being very confused when
former Nebraska quarterback Eric
Crouch retired from the NFL during his
first season with the St. Louis Rams.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ripping
the guy for his decision to walk away
from football. And I actually always
liked Crouch as a player. I just
always thought that in order to retire
from a career you had to have one
first. Crouch left the Rams after
suffering an injury before ever
playing a game. On the flip side of
the equation, of course, is former
Denver Broncos QB John Elway, who
famously retired after a Hall of Fame
career that ended with Elway hoisting
the Lombardi Trophy for the second
year in a row. Oh, what? That wasn’t
the question? My bad.

Last week: 4-2 | Season: 26-10

There is probably something obvious
that I’m not thinking of. All that
comes to mind is Bill Guthridge
resigning at Carolina in the summer of
2000. I remember I was coming back from dinner in downtown Lawrence when
I heard the news. And all hell broke
loose so to speak from that moment on,
until a week later when then-KU coach
Roy Williams decided to decline the
job. Since I was just about to go on
vacation and had to cancel my vacation
and instead head up to Chapel Hill for
the week of the 4th of July, I’d say
that was the most abrupt resignation
of all time.

Last week: 3-3 | Season: 26-10

Former Detroit Lions running back
Barry Sanders. He was one of my
favorite NFL players when I was a kid,
and it was hard to understand why he
would walk away from the game after 10
straight seasons of 1,000-plus rushing
yards from 1989-1998 (including 2,053
in 1997). He was less than 1,500 yards
away from breaking Walter Payton’s
career rushing record (now held by
Emmitt Smith). It’s a lot easier to
understand now, though. You don’t see
many running backs putting up big
numbers in their 30s, much less
playing. The video game-like jukes he
made can add up, especially with the
toll that the astroturf of the
Silverdome (the Lions’ old stadium)
probably took on his knees. That’s not
even getting into how many undiagnosed
concussions he might have had.

Last week: 3-3 | 26-10

Roberto Duran, who gave up in the
eighth round of his fight with Sugar
Ray Leonard, saying, “no mas.” Roberto
Duran was a tough dude, and I figured
he could win any fight at any weight.
Shocking when he gave up against
Leonard just six months after whipping
Leonard in Montreal.

Last week: 3-3 | Season: 26-10

Jim Brown and Sandy Koufax, both
wearing No. 32, were the two best
athletes on our black-and-white TV
when I joined my older brothers to
watch sports. I was just beginning to
become a sports fan and they both
retired in their primes within a
year’s time. I felt cheated. A check
of the records shows Brown led the NFL
in rushing (1,544 yards) and rushing
touchdowns (17) in his final season,
1965. Koufax led the league in wins (27), ERA (1.73), innings (323) and
strikeouts (317) in his final season
(1966). … I covered both of Michael
Jordan’s retirement press conferences
and he sounded the exact same at both,
so I felt safe in predicting the
second time that he would return,
which he did with Washington, for
which he hogged the ball.

Last week: 4-2 | Season: 25-11

Nationally, Michael Jordan, Pat
Tillman, Ricky Williams and Barry
Sanders were memorable. Locally, I was
stunned by Marian Washington’s
resignation/retirement in the middle
of the 2004 Kansas University women’s
basketball season.

Last week: 5-1 | Season: 24-12

Johnny Keane resigning as manager of
the St. Louis Cardinals after they won
the 1964 World Series to manage the
Yankees, the team the Cardinals
defeated in the Series.

Last week: 3-3 | Season: 21-15

The most surprising retirement for me
was Barry Sanders, especially the way
he did it so quietly. He was so close
to the NFL rushing record that I just
couldn’t believe it. I still remember
watching SportsCenter and the breaking
news announcement in stunned
disbelief.

Last week: 3-3 | Season: 20-16

I remember getting in the car after
school one day in the fall of 1997 and
being shocked to hear on the radio
that North Carolina coach Dean Smith
had retired. UNC had just played in
the Final Four and had Vince Carter
and Antawn Jamison returning for what
proved to be another Final Four team,
so the timing just didn’t make sense.
Of course, learning years later about
his declining health and battle with
Alzheimer’s, it is understandable. I
wonder how long he would have kept
coaching if he didn’t have that going
on.