Football

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only known site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for another semi-regular update to this site. Something I haven't done in a while.

Let me begin with the following: KU football is 10-0 this season. Yes, I said KU football. Normally, the only team at KU that is 10-0 at any given time of the year is the men's basketball team. And they look like the men's basketball team may not get to be 10-0 this year, considering that Brandon Rush is out with an ACL injury until late November, early December and the team's defense is kind of lacking at this moment. The defense is good, but not at the level that it has been in years past. The scoring, however, is still there. I might be considered a pessimist, but that's how I see it.
Who would have thought this would have happened? Not too many people. Hell, nobody, I think thought this unlikely occurence would have happened. I for one, a person who watches college football when its on, did not think so. I was wrong. Like nearly everyone in the United States, including the sports pundits.
And yet, they are 10-0. The KU Jayhawks (AKA "The Fighting Manginos" according to ESPN) are 10-0 this year, with the possibility of going 11-0 and possibly 12-0. A perfect regular season. With the Big XII Title game and a definite bowl game in the works. It's the most absurd sounding thing ever. And for the following reasons.
The Coach didn't look much like a coach. The quarterback (Reesing) looks more suited wearing a suit and tie instead of a football jersey and he's also too short and skinny for a QB (but Flutie was short and he's a legend). Their top WR was also considered short and undersized. So were a lot of their defense, maligned by other schools for being short, undersized, not the right stuff for college football. And yet, despite being a ragtag group of misfits that was mediocre at best (.500 football), they somehow managed to gel together into a surprisingly good football team. One that might, if things go their way by going undefeated and the chips fall their way, a national title contender. One that, until now, wasn't given much respect or much notice.
Whatever Mangino did during the off-season, whatever the team did this year, whatever happened on and off the field, somebody should bottle it. Somebody should write it down. Whatever the hell happened, it's working. The football team is beating teams, marching down the field and scoring, and staying calm under pressure. They're a machine. They're sawing the wood and winning. The KU Jayhawks are quite possibly, the real thing.
Mark Mangino is National Coach of the Year material. He's like Bill Snyder, the guy who turned K-State from the Mildcats to the Wildcats. How else do you explain the turnaround? How else do you explain this season?
Then again, considering college football this year, anything is possible. The #2 team was rotated in a weekly basis. Southern Florida was in the Top 10. A Division IAA team beat Michigan at Michigan. USC lost. So did Ohio State at home last week. Boston College was near the top for a while. This season has proven to be freaky, even for college football. Maybe the Jayhawk's success this year is part of this.


At least I was right about the Chiefs. They're becoming like the KC Royals of Pro Football. They're a joke of a team in the joke of a division called the AFC West. They're worse than mediocre.
They have no offense at all. They have a better defense, but it can't win the games for them every time.
No run attack now that Larry Johnson is out and Priest Holmes is back from a two year hiatus. The passing is awful, even with Huard (an old-timer QB with experience) at the helm. Long gone are the days of Shields and Roalfe at the offensive line. KC now has an offensively bad offensive line. A QB that lives up to the name: you want a refund from him for the lousy throwing and scrambling skills. A running back corp that runs backward and not forward. And don't get me started on the field goal kicker problems that plague the Chiefs. At least the punter can get the ball down the field, which is the problem. It means the offense just went three and out...again. Or it stalled...again. And yet, they're still near the top in the AFC West. Which should be called the AFC Worst as it's pitifully bad.
Rename Arrowhead to something else. Something that fits the quality of play of the Chiefs. Toilet Bowl. Yes, it's a worn cliche, but it fits.

That's all for now.