Just when you thought they may be heading out of the decades-long malaise, the reality of the state of the football program pulls you right back in -- especially when Week 1 is factored in.
Up on Indiana State 16-3 in the fourth quarter of Les Miles’ debut as Kansas’ head coach, the Jayhawks watched as the FCS school took a 17-16 lead before a touchdown with just over two minutes remaining secured a narrow 24-17 win. A week later, there would be no late-game magic as Coastal Carolina, after KU took a 7-0 first-quarter lead, scored the last 12 points to exit Lawrence on the winning side of a 12-7 score.
Both of those games were played in Lawrence, incidentally.
This marks the first time Coastal Carolina, a program that played its first season of football in 2003 (at the FCS level) and has been an FBS member since 2017, has beaten a Power Five school. Kansas, meanwhile, has fielded a football team in some form or fashion every season since 1890.
Had Kansas won, the Big 12 school would’ve won back-to-back games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2008-2009. Instead, Saturday was merely the continuance of one of the worst stretches ever for a member of a major football conference.
Since winning 25 games total from 2007-09, the Jayhawks have won a combined 19 games over the next nine-plus seasons. Of those 19 wins, 12 came against schools from either the FCS (seven) or the Group of Five (five). In those nine years, KU has won a grand total of five -- FIVE -- Big 12 games.
So, yes, Miles has his work cut out for him. But, even given the historical ineptness he inherited, he absolutely has to beat the likes of Coastal Carolina. Anything less is unacceptable.