Getting to Know the Jayhawks

LAST TIME OUT

Pick the adjective to describe the comeback Kansas mounted against Colorado, when the Jayhawks scored 35 points in the final 11:05 to win 52-45 on Saturday. It stopped an 11-game Big 12 losing skid for KU in what has turned out to be a difficult first season as head coach for former Nebraska quarterback and assistant coach Turner Gill.

The greatest comeback in Kansas football history included three of the four touchdown runs Saturday by James Sims. It was Sims' 28-yard scamper with 52 seconds left that capped the scoring. The freshman finished with 123 yards on 20 carries.

Colorado helped out the Jayhawks down the stretch. Tyler Patmon returned a fumble 28 yards for a touchdown to pull Kansas within 45-38, then intercepted a Cody Hawkins pass to set up Sims' game-tying 6-yard run with 4:30 remaining.

Colorado tried to come back, reaching the KU 7-yard line with eight seconds left. But Hawkins threw two incompletions and the clock expired.

Kansas improved to 3-6 overall and 1-4 in the Big 12.

QB CAROUSEL

Kansas started the season with Kale Pick at quarterback, switched to Jordan Webb and will come to Lincoln with Quinn Mecham at the controls.

Mecham was making just his second career start against Colorado, when he completed 23 of 28 passes for 252 yards and two touchdowns. Mecham was 12 for 12 for 165 yards in the second half.

Mecham, from Provo, Utah, is a transfer from Snow Junior College who enrolled in January and went through spring practice with the Jayhawks.

RUN DOWN

An inability to stop the run has caused Kansas trouble all season, although it limited Colorado to 142 yards on Saturday.

Prior to the CU game, the Jayhawks had gone through a four-game stretch where every opponent managed at least 225 yards — Iowa State 232, Texas A&M 227, Kansas State 286 and Baylor 244. Those four teams combined for 13 rushing touchdowns.

Earlier in the season, KU also got stung for 291 rushing yards by Georgia Tech and 202 by Southern Mississippi.

Kansas currently ranks 11th in the Big 12 in rushing defense, giving up 202.8 yards per game and 5.1 per carry. That's not good news with Nebraska heading into Saturday's game leading the Big 12 in rushing offense at 288.1 yards per game and 6.4 per carry.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Kansas fans who lived with decades of frustration were given some hope when former coach Mark Mangino started to change the Jayhawks' fortunes a few years back. It was never better than when KU finished 12-1 in 2007 and won the Orange Bowl.

Since starting out 5-0 last season, however, Kansas has lost 13 of 16 games. The seven straight to finish the 2009 season, along with unhappiness over Mangino's treatment of players, led to KU hiring Gill away from the University of Buffalo.

Nebraska has won two straight against the Jayhawks, but KU had one of its best stretches against the Huskers before Bo Pelini replaced Bill Callahan. Kansas beat NU 76-39 in 2007 and 40-15 in 2005, both in Lawrence, and its losses in 2006 and 2004 in Lincoln were by seven (in overtime) and six, respectively.

HUSKER TIES

Gill isn't the only member of the Kansas staff who previously spent time at Nebraska.

Buddy Wyatt, the Jayhawks' defensive line coach, was a Husker assistant in 2007. Aaron Stamn, who coaches tight ends and special teams for KU, was a Nebraska graduate assistant in 2004 and '05 who followed Gill to Buffalo. Former NU quarterback Joe Dailey is the on-campus recruiting coordinator for Kansas.

Jayhawks offensive coordinator Chuck Long and co-offensive coordinator Darrell Wyatt were at Oklahoma in 2004 when current Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini was the Sooners' co-defensive coordinator and NU assistant Mike Ekeler was an OU grad assistant.