Lawrence.com

Posted by Chris Wristen October 7, 2007 at 10 p.m.

Nonconference slate paid off

The Kansas University football team's 30-24 victory over Kansas State on Saturday - just the fifth road victory in 26 tries for a Mark Mangino-coached team - demonstrates precisely why it was so important for the Jayhawks to go unblemished during the nonconference season.Forget that their schedule was soft. Doesn't matter.Forget that critics called them unproven. Doesn't matter.Here's what was important from those games: Confidence, and plenty of it.By annihilating Central Michigan, Southeast Louisiana, Toledo and Florida International, the Jayhawks learned how to put opponents away. They didn't make many mistakes, but the few that they made never hurt them because they had a schedule that allowed them to make a mistake, shrug it off and bounce back. Most important was that they turned winning into an expectation.Had Kansas lost any of those nonconference games, there's little doubt that they would not have beat No. 24 Kansas State on Saturday. Not after failing to convert on fourth-and-one from inside the KSU 20-yard line. Not after botching an extra point. And not after blowing a lead during the fourth quarter. It probably would have been a case of the same old thing for Kansas: Another golden opportunity and another devastating loss.In previous seasons, Mangino's Jayhawks tried to turn bad nonconference losses into a tradition. They invented ways to blow leads on an almost weekly basis."That's the kind of game that we would have given away last year," KU cornerback/receiver Aqib Talib told reporters after the game. This year we have more experience. We have the confidence at the end of the game."Talib's right. In previous seasons Kansas never would have won this game. We wouldn't have seen quarterback Todd Reesing shrug off multiple interceptions and come back to place balls right on target. We wouldn't have seen Dexton Fields take a ball off the face to set up a KSU go-ahead touchdown, only to come back and make two major catches on the ensuing drive - including the game-winning catch and score.In previous seasons Kansas would be 0-1 in the Big 12 Conference today, but not this year. Finally, after years of building the program the way he wants it, Mangino's Jayhawks opened the season on fire. They went into an electric atmosphere and found a way to beat a ranked team on the road. Now they're on ESPN for all the right reasons (although apparently Reesing's last name is difficult to pronounce), they have a No. 20 national ranking and they're playing like a legitimate Big 12 contender.Yes, Kansas football already has come a long way this season, the confidence the Jayhawks gained during those first four weeks is the reason why.