[2024] [Kansas Jayhawks] The Homestretch: Bowl or Bust?

[Bundy]

It's been a season of brutal lows and ecstatic highs for the Kansas Jayhawks faithful.

After winning against Clemson in Week 1, and blowing out FCS Montana in Week 2, the Jayhawks were even receiving national recognition, climbing as high as #9 in the Coaches Poll. And then they hit the Big 12 Conference schedule, and things derailed quickly.

Consecutive losses to then-#18 Arizona State, then-#19 Houston, then-#10 TCU, and then-#1 Baylor really killed the hype the program had been building. A rebounding win over Colorado was quickly silenced with a crushing loss at then-#23 West Virginia. 

And so the Jayhawks sat at 3-5, needing to win 3 of their final 4 games to make a postseason bowl game, and the rumors began to swirl.

In a rare midseason coaching carousel, UNLV's coach abruptly resigned, causing Miami (Florida)'s coach, @cultur3, to head back to the west, ditching the land of cocaine and hookers for, well, cocaine and hookers. With Miami's vacancy, Wisconsin coach @kwheele headed to Miami and the ACC. Leaving the Wisconsin Badgers... open 👀

This isn't Wisconsin's first coaching vacancy, but in Madison, the athletic department has been making a push in early coaching searching to find someone "rooted to the area", who would sign a "long term" deal with a massive buyout. They want to win, and they want to do it for a long time, and, reportedly per the Wisconsin State Journal, at the top of their list is Wisconsin-born, and raised ~1 hour from Madison, @Bundy. 

For the KU athletic department, there's been little public comment, but Fox 4 KC has been reporting "growing signs of internal anxiety" about the situation. @Bundy has been the Jayhawks coach for both the football and basketball teams, and while the results on the field and court haven't always translated to "talent level", the coach has certainly done something to get recruits to Lawrence in both sports. After last years' public bout between the football coaching staff and QB Tyler Summers, KU neglected to pick up a 1-year extension option, making the coach and acting athletic director an effective "free agent" following the 2024 football season, which concludes his initial 4-year contract. 

But recent weeks have led to a bit of a stalemate in the KU-UW courting process, with Kansas beating Dick Richards and BYU, and now this past Saturday, an energetic, blowout win on Senior Day against Iowa State. 

Coach @Bundy hasn't commented on his future with Kansas, potentially Wisconsin, or elsewhere, but instead remains extremely excited for the season that redshirt senior RB Cody Casspi has been having. 

 

"The fact that Iowa State was our senior day was extremely exciting - we came in with a 2-1 all time series lead, but every game with them has been close. 2021 we won by 3, 2022 we lost by 4, last year we won 17-10. It's a game where it could go to either team, no matter how good of season either of us is having. And Cody took that personally."

Cody Casspi's personal goal has been to rush for 2,000 yards in a season ever since he stepped on campus. And through two seasons as at least one of Kansas' lead backs, Casspi amassed just over 2,000 yards - career, from 2022-2023. To hit 2k in a 12-game season, one needs to rush for nearly 167 yards/game, and coming in to Iowa State, he was at "just" 165 through 9 games, with a shortened-to-injury game really putting a damper on his efforts.

And then, during his final home game in his incredible Kansas career, he put up the best Cody Casspi game - and best Kansas game - ever.

During Kansas' blowout home finale, Casspi - in just 3 quarters - rushed for 261 yards. It was also just his second "hat trick" of 3 rushing TDs in a game ever. 

"We love that for Cody," noted QB Tyler Summers, who himself has had 3 "rushing TD hat tricks" of his own just this season. "I've really felt like a TD vulture at times, put Cody just embraced it being his final home game, and put the team on his back." 

Casspi now has 1,746 yards on the season, with 2 games in hand to get those final 254 yards. Unlike fan favorite 2021-2022 RB Bene' Humber, Casspi has been soft spoken and quiet, but he made time for media availability following Saturday's win. "Obviously we all have personal aspirations, but our team aspiration is to go 1-0 every week - we gotta capture that rare 'Iowa' cup, beat both teams, and make a bowl game. I don't want to go out with a bowl-less season on my resume, I want all of the future Jayhawks to know that their predecessors didn't give up." 

 

Kansas faces Iowa this Saturday at the intimidating Kinnick Stadium, where the 4-5 Hawkeyes will host the 5-5 Jayhawks. Then, after a Week 13 open date, the continuation of the Sunflower Showdown closes the regular season, with 8-3 Kansas State hosting Kansas. 

[tsweezy]

Wisconsin needs to back up the Brinks truck here