[Husker] Kansas is not a bad team.

[Pat Gaule]

3aoo-cvfd at dea.spamcon.org wrote:

>dkarre at comcast.net wrote:
>  
>
>>it was more KU's lackluster performances against a weak schedule
>>(until last night, that is). They played much better than what 
>>they had shown heretofore. 
>>    
>>
>
>Kansas beat South Florida (not a weak opponent):
>
>Kansas        13               Rutgers (#23)  22  
>South Florida  7               South Florida  20
>
>I think Kansas is showing that it is pretty competitive
>with the tail-end ranked teams.
>  
>

Comparative scoring is not a reliable way to analyze teams.  By this, I 
mean the "Team A barely beat Team B but Team B played Team C (who is 
ranked) tough, therefore Team B isn't bad and Team A is really good for 
beating them" stuff.  There are certain bad teams that will match up 
better against "good" competition than other "good" teams.  There are 
just too many variables (injuries, home field advantage, bad luck, etc.) 
for such a simple analysis to be reliable.  Look no farther than what 
Kansas did to a decent Husker team last year!

Even if you want to go down the comparitive scoring route, I present the 
following scores of South Florida:

21-20 win over Florida International, an 0-4 team ranked 148th in the 
Sagarin Ratings having played the 86th toughest schedule

24-17 win over UCF, who is 0-3 against 1-A opponents, ranked 118th in 
the Sagarin Ratings having played the 55th toughest schedule.

Eliminating a degree of seperation, Kansas lost 37-31 to Toledo, a 2-3 
team that is ranked 76th in the Sagarin Ratings having played the 67th 
toughest schedule.  Toledo was obliterated by the likes of Western 
Michigan and Pittsburgh, although they nearly beat Iowa State in Ames to 
open the season.

Kansas also only beat Louisiana-Monroe by 2 points, a team that is 0-3 
against 1-A competition, ranked 163rd in the Sagarin Ratings and having 
played the 148th toughest schedule.

If we are to follow your theory, we'd also have to conclude that Kansas 
is merely competitive against teams in the lower echelon of Division 
1-A  All we can  say for sure is that Kansas has been competitive 
against every 1-A team they've played  So, they've been competitive 
against 2 bad teams (ULM and Toledo), 1 mediocre team (South Florida, 
and it might be a stretch to even call them mediocre) and 1 good team 
(Nebraska).

Playing Nebraska tough sticks out like a sore thumb.  Hopefully, this 
was an aberration and not a sign that Nebraska is more like the previous 
three 1-A teams that Kansas played.

.