Orange Bowl bound
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 02:21 p.m., December 31, 2007
Updated 02:21 p.m., December 31, 2007
Steve Smith himself says that it wasn’t quite the Orange Bowl.
Still, getting the chance to be Kansas’ starting quarterback in the 1981 Hall of Fame Bowl was an experience he’s grateful for — and a position of prominence rare to Emporians who have been part of the KU football program.
Twenty-six years later, with Kansas in its first Bowl Championship Series game and its first Orange Bowl since the 1968 season, the stakes are quite a bit higher. And on Jan. 3, Smith and his oldest son, a KU student, will be in Miami to watch the 2007 Hawks and coach Mark Mangino try to cap their national championship-contending year with a win over Virginia Tech.
“I’m very pleased with where they’re at,” said Smith, who now lives and works in the Kansas City area. “Mangino’s done a great job there upgrading the talent.”
In recent KU football history, few Emporians have gotten the chance to suit up for the Jayhawks. But several have been on the KU roster at the right times to give them unique perspectives on KU’s Orange Bowl berth and what it means for the program.
Smith got the chance to start the Hall of Fame Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., as a senior after regular starter Frank Seurer dislocated his elbow in the regular-season finale against Missouri. His former Emporia High School teammate Russ Bastin, a junior wide receiver that season, also played in the game, a 10-0 loss to Mississippi State, and became a team captain for the Jayhawks the next season.
More recently, former Emporia High standouts Luke Arndt and John Kosko, both walk-ons on the 2005 KU team, got a taste of both the bowl experience and what it’s like to play for Mangino. Neither got into a game during their abbreviated time on the KU roster, but both traveled with the team to the 2005 Fort Worth Bowl, which KU won in a 42-13 romp over Houston.
Smith remembers the ’81 team’s time in Birmingham as a fun experience. He said if he had to do it over again, he’d make sure he and his teammates were more focused on the game itself, and not the enticing fun and festivities surrounding it.
“We had a great time,” he said. “The bowl setup is a great reward for having a good season, and they treat the teams very well. We, obviously, had not been to one at KU; that was my fifth year there.
“So yeah, it was a lot of fun. We probably had too much fun and didn’t focus enough on the game.”
Smith freely admits he “didn’t play very well.” He completed just 8 of 22 passes for 61 yards and was intercepted twice. The Jayhawks were behind from the beginning after a fumbled opening kickoff that coach Don Fambrough said set the tone for the game. Mississippi State shut out KU for the only time in its bowl history, leaving the Jayhawks with an 8-4 record.
Bastin, who now lives in Wichita, also counts the Hall of Fame Bowl as a good experience.
“You think about going to a bowl game, you think about, ‘Whoa, man, I’ve gotta practice another month,” he said. “But boy, once you get there and play, even though things didn’t go the greatest for us that game, it was something that I’ll never forget.”
Smith thinks the confidence KU built this year with an advantageous schedule and the play of sophomore quarterback Todd Reesing, have been the differences between this season and last year’s 6-6 record.
“That makes all the difference in the world in college football, and really any level of football, if you have a quarterback who can make plays like Reesing’s been able to do this year,” he said.
Bastin said he wrote Mangino a letter after his first year, a 2-10 season in 2002, telling him how impressed he was with the fundamentals and perseverance the Jayhawks showed on the field. He was impressed when Mangino took the time to write back.
“I never dreamed that I would live long enough to see them win 11 games and possibly 12,” Bastin said. “It’s been really great, and (you) wake up and think, ‘How can this be true?’”
Arndt, a cornerback, and Kosko, a safety, both were on the roster during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Arndt redshirted his freshman year, then was a medical redshirt in 2005 after tearing a knee ligament. He’s in his last year as a student at KU, where he’ll get his biology degree. Kosko came back home and played for Emporia State until injuries and ilness set him back this season; he’s now concentrating on general studies at ESU and plans on going to culinary school after college.
Both have fond memories of the Fort Worth Bowl despite never getting on the field.
“That was a blast,” Kosko said. “You got to go down there like a week before, stayed in a real nice hotel, had all the meals paid for, basically.”
If both had been able to stay with the program, and Arndt hadn’t blown out his knee, he and Kosko would both be juniors on this year’s team.
“Of course, I’d like to be a part of it, but that’s not the way it worked out,” Arndt said. “But it’s been fun to see, because everybody’s getting real excited about football, which hasn’t really happened so much the last several years. ... I think that’ll show, too, when you see how many people show up at the Orange Bowl. Everybody I’ve talked to is going. I’m not going to make it, but almost everybody I’ve talked to is going to go.”
While on the roster, Arndt and Kosko both said they could see that Mangino and his staff were potentially developing a powerhouse team.
“They’re very organized,” Arndt said. “They work very hard. They put in a lot of hours; they’re very efficient with those hours. They’re constantly doing stuff to get better.”
Kansas’ low-ranking strength of schedule has been an easy target all season for opposing fans and college football pundits. But Arndt, among others, doesn’t buy that that’s why KU was so successful.
“You can only play the people on your schedule, and we did that,” he said. “Teams that were deemed weak — like Central Michigan, they won the MAC — we also beat them by 50 points. And any time you’re in the Big 12, Big 12 play is always tough.”
Arndt and Kosko both believe, from playing under Mangino, that he has what it takes to keep the program near the top of the college football world.
“I think it’ll stabilize and be a solid program,” Arndt said. “Only time will tell. Lots of teams have one great season and don’t back it up in subsequent seasons. But I think (having) a true football program is being able to do it year in and year out, and I think we can do that.”
“He’s been bowl-eligible for four years now,” Kosko said of Mangino. “I definitely think he has what it takes, and he knows what he’s doing. I’ve seen him in person coach, so I know that he has what it takes, and he’ll keep bringing in more players.”
It’s natural that Jayhawk alumni might be inclined to pick KU in Thursday’s game. However, Kosko’s prediction is unusually bold.
“I think the ACC is a weak conference, and I think that it will be like 40-17 KU,” he said. “I don’t think Virginia Tech is very good. They have a decent defense, but I think they’re overrated. The media in the east hypes those big schools, and that’s how they get so much recognition. ...
“I think it’s going to be 42-14 or something like that.”