Orange Bowl Mania

Listening to Scrutebag (for all of you not in the know, Scrutebag is the blog world nickname for blowhard Colin Cowherd) on ESPN Radio right now just killing Kansas for playing such a soft schedule, ending up in the Orange Bowl and reaping the benefits of it. He said "The Kansas athletic director should jump off a cliff for that schedule." We all know Missouri deserved to be in the BCS over KU and over Hawaii. But when KU was scheduling soft over the past few years but weren't winning conference games, did anyone care? All Lew Perkins is trying to do is win games and get bowl eligible. Never in his wildest dreams could he have ever imagined a season like this. 12 wins. A BCS Bowl bid. Mark Mangino as National Coach of the Year. Beating the ACC Champion in the Orange Bowl. No way he should have to apologize for that. Sorry Scrutebag.

Aqib Talib's 60 yard interception return was the start of it and Todd Reesing's QB draw for a TD finished it. Kansas won the Orange Bowl in a game that was closer than it should have been. But regardless, it was a win that KU football fans have been waiting for. As one of my boys put it "it was nice to see KU win it's last game of the season for a change."

Mangino's boys did it their way. The spread offense, rugged defense, and trickery. Check these out (per the Lawrence Journal-World):

• A fake punt in the third quarter shocked Virginia Tech, as Brandon McAnderson took the snap and hurled a pass to gunner Micah Brown on the left side for 22 yards.

“We watched on tape for about a month of them leaving the gunners exposed,” Mangino said. “We said that we’re not going to let them do that.”

• Down 17-14, Virginia Tech had a chance to tie the game in the third quarter. But Joe Mortensen slipped through the line and blocked the 25-yard field-goal attempt cleanly to keep Kansas ahead.

• Talib, the Orange Bowl MVP, actually returned a missed field goal 39 yards in the first quarter, giving Kansas a little better field position.

• Brandon McAnderson bullied his way within one yard of the end zone to get the final first down of the game with less than a minute to go. On the final play, KU quarterback Todd Reesing kneeled down, stood up and flung the football 30 feet in the air in celebration.

That tells you all you need to know right there. There may never be a season like this in Lawrence again, so I hope the Jayhawk Nation enjoyed it.

Lets get into the ACC. Virginia Tech is the best you've got? Come on. This conference is trying so hard to be a football conference and it never will be. Adding Miami and Boston College was supposed to help. Guess what? It hasn't. The ACC bowl record this year was 2-6. It's two wins were in the Meinke Car Care Bowl (Wake beat UConn) and the Champs Sports Bowl (BC over Michigan State).

When Miami and Florida State are down, the conference becomes irrelevant. I watched Va Tech lats night closely. I was told by my ACC people that they reason this team won the league is because they have superior speed. That was true. Their defense was very quick and physical. That said, they lost to LSU 48-0. What does that say about their speed? Their "passing" QB Sean Glennon wouldn't be my backup QB. Their "running" QB Tyrod Taylor is a hell of an athlete, but last night was completely swallowed up by the KU pressure. It was his bad pas that Talib went 60 yards with for the opening score.

Again, this was the class of the ACC? Arguably, KU was the third best team in the Big 12, maybe 4th if you put Texas ahead of them. This was also supposed to be a down year for the Big 12. Interesting. As much as I bash the Big Ten, they were a better league than the ACC. Other than the Big East, they are by far the weakest link in the BCS conference chain.

B-C-Yes Indeed - Ryan Wood, Lawrence Journal-World

Jayhawks Prove Their the Best Ever - Tom Keegan, Lawrence Journal-World

It Took Till the Last Game,but Kansas Proved it Belonged - Heather Dinich, ESPN.com

Nation Has a Feeling Kansas Isn't a Pretender Anymore - J. Darin Darst, CBS Sportsline

All the Right Moves - Jason King, Yahoo Sports