USD Football 1993

n,e KU o.ffeme took flight with Chip Hilleary calling the shots.

of whom were in their 30s, would usher in the new genera- tion of Kansas football. ''We knew that we were not very talented and we would not be very good," Mason pointed out before his maiden journey in 1988. "But, we could play hard and give an unbelievable effort." Mason was right about not being very good: the Jayhawks suffered through a miserable 1-10 season, their worst since 1978. In six of the 11 games their opponents scored more than 50 points. Nebraska, Oklahoma and Barry Sanders-led Oklahoma State each scored 63 points. As a point of reference, that same year, the National Champion KU basketba ll team, wh ich beat Oklahoma in the Finals, gave up an average of 71 points in eight games against these three teams. Kansas' one win came against rival and equally awful (0-11) Kansas State. Mason knew what he had to do- recruit better athletes. But how? "What comes first, the chicken or the egg? When you get better players you start to win; however, it's hard to get better players until you start win- ning," said Mason. ''We had to sell the University of Kansas for what it is-a great academic institution and hope ou r footbal l program would get turned around and begin winning." Whil e hoping for improvemen t on the recruiting front, Mason and staff were implementing a program of teamwork and accountability. "We established guidelines for our program. There would be no tourists in our program. There would be no free rides. Everybody would be expect- ed to pull his own weight," said Mason. ''We then set the tone of our program, picking out the strongest member of the team, setting him out front and expecting everyone else to catch up. "Finally, everyone connected with our program would make a big time

State, where he served as a graduate assistant for a year. Following stints at Allegheny State (1973), Ball State, where he was defensive line coach (1 974), Iowa State (1 975-76) and Illinois (1977), he came back to his alma mater. For the next eight years, Mason assisted Hayes and then Earle Bruce, first as offensive line coach then as offensive coordinator. By 1986 Mason was ready to be head man. Kent State gave him the opportunity. In his first season, the Golden Flash went 5-6, but his 5-3 conference mark, good for a second-place conference finish, so impressed his peers that he was voted the 1986 Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year. The following season they finished 7- 4, including a 31-17 win over Kansas. Kansas must have liked what it saw, because after the '87 season Mason was Lawrence-bound. "I had visited KU on a number of occasions," he said. "I have always been impressed by the beautiful set- ting. It was as pretty a campus as I had ever seen." Mason, who took over on December 30, 1987, may have liked what he saw on the Kansas campus, but, as foot- ball coach, he couldn't have much cared for what he saw on the field. The flightless Jayhawks had lost 14 straight conference games, and had but one winning season and one break- even season over the previous 10 years. As a result, football in Lawrence was on the brink of extinction. "Many peop le thought that KU should give up football, that it was a hopeless cause," Mason remembered. But Glen Mason thought otherwise, and went to work, slowly but surely rebuilding the Jayhawk program. To install his system, Mason needed a staff as gung-ho as he. So Mason took five of his assistants, who already knew his system, from Kent State with him. This group of young coaches, all

investment. I firm ly believe that when people invest quite a bit, they will fight awfully hard not to give up." Mason's second team was young, with 41 freshmen and 30 sophomores on the roster. What these players lacked in experience, they made up with determination. With freshmen

like offen- sive line- man Keith Loneker, quar t er- back Chip H i l l eary, linebacker Hassan Bailey and

I feel that ifyott have any aspirations oftak- ing your program to the next level, then you mmt also take yottr competition to the next le,,el. - Glen Mason

Prop. 48 defensive tackle Dana Stubblefield, as well as sophomore tailback Tony Sands, there were play- ers whom the rest of the team could look to and try to catch up with. That 1989 season saw the Jayhawks improve to 4-7, including a win over Mason's former school Kent State and a wild 46-44 triumph at Missouri. In the Missouri game, Kansas scored 33 second-half points, then stopped Missouri on the potential game-tying two-point conversion. They had invested too much to give up. Kansas anxiously looked forward to better things in 1990. Better things came in 1990. They went 3-7-1. But this was not a case of one step forward and two steps back. Quite the opposite. Kansas had played one of t h e nation's toughest schedules, including five teams that played in New Year's Day bowls and combined