The final damage
0-12. Kansas did it. We notched our first winless season since 1954, and considering all the bad teams that have come in between, that's quite a feat. The Jayhawks were the worst team in FBS and certainly one of the five worst of the last 15 years.
The final damage includes the following statistics. Kansas surrendered 553 points and lost each game by an average of 46 to 15. Opponents had 6,730 yards of total offense, twice as much as Kansas, and had coaches not shown mercy on us, it would have been considerably worse. That's seven yards a play and 561 yards per game. I would be surprised if the yardage surrendered wasn't at least close to a record, if not an outright record for futility. Unfortunately those statistics are hard to find. The Jayhawks finished with 70 penalties and an averag of 56 yards lost per game (opponents had 53 penalties, 38 yards lost per game). We punted the ball twice as much (86 to 43). The Jayhawks scored 24 touchdowns all season and kicked just six field goals.
The most distressing part of the season was not the lack of talent. Coach David Beaty promised the team would play smarter and harder, but I did not see any indication the team learned from its mistakes, nor even had proper coaching. It's one thing to be pancaked because the other guy was better. It's another not to even be in the right place on the field. Kansas often found itself out of position, in the wrong gaps, guessing where offensive players would go instead of staying in their lanes. As mentioned above, Kansas showed no improvement in penalties. David Beaty and staff couldn't control the talent dealt to him. But he could control little things like assignments and technique, and in that sense, Beaty failed.
Next year doesn't look much better. If the coahing doesn't improve, the players certainly won't. When the Jayhawks are allowed to practice, they should use the entire practice tream to drill, drill, drill. Practice assignments, alignments, techniques and plays. Don't waste time watching the lowlight reel of what went wrong. Let a graduate student do the video scouting. Practice, practice, practice-- until you can play football. If the players don't get the basics correct, this year will repeat itself ad nauseum.