KU looks prepared to stay

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jan 5, 2008

Thursday night was the Jayhawks' turn to crow, a right they earned after their impressive 24-21 victory over No. 5 Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

After hearing for a month that they didn't belong in Miami - that their 11-1 record was built on a cupcake schedule, that Missouri deserved to be in a BCS game more than they did, that there was no way they could score enough points against the Hokie defense - KU played the no-respect card perfectly in recording the biggest football win in school history.

And when the last card was turned, after taking a knee at the 1 to avoid a run-it-up TD at the end, Kansas' players and coaches had a legitimate chance to say "how does this cupcake taste?" to the cynics of the college football world who had reasonable doubts about whether the Jayhawks truly deserved to be considered among the nation's elite teams this year.

"We showed the world that KU football is for real," crowed linebacker Joe Mortensen in an onfield interview. "I was here when no one respected KU, and now to win a BCS bowl is awesome. KU is here, we're for real, and we're coming back."

Added safety Darrell Stuckey, who was asked what the victory meant to the KU program: "It means respect. It means no one can underestimate us anymore.

"This was God's gift to the world," he added, "(a way of saying) you can never count people out or belittle someone just because of their history. Every day is a new day. Every team is a new team. It's all about today, not what happened yesterday."

Coach Mark Mangino played the no-respect card like he was Chris Moneymaker. He consequently won the right to thank the pundits who "banged on their desks on their TV shows talking about how we hadn't played anybody and didn't have a chance against Virginia Tech."

It was a shot only an underdog victor can take. So take it while you can, boys, because you only get it once.

The fun really starts now. The Jayhawks, having shown they deserve to dance on a stage called something other than the Final Four, are underdogs no more.

They've raised expectations to the point that they'll be expected to compete on an admittedly less-than-equal footing next year with Texas and Oklahoma, the teams they didn't have to play this year. They've earned their respect, and now we'll watch closely to see what they do with it.

The guess here is they'll handle it as well as they did the no- respect bit. This program has the look of a player who plans to be at the table a good while longer.

Rick Dean can be reached at rick.dean@cjonline.com.