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It didn't quite stack up to the Jayhawks' basketball disappointments against mid-major programs in the NCAA tournament. It just felt that way to the football players.
After the turmoil that came with coach Mark Mangino's departure and the arrival of Turner Gill, the Kansas football team hoped to get off to a good start last season. Instead, unheralded North Dakota State from the Football Championship Subdivision walked into town and away with a 6-3 victory.
It was every bit as ugly as the score indicated.
It's also distant memory, at least as far as Gill is concerned.
''All those things are over and done with,'' said the second-year Kansas coach, who is trying to build on a 3-9 record last season. ''We are who we are; we're going to react how we react. And now they understand what we're trying to do offensively, what we're trying to do defensively. I think a lot of things are just familiarity and confidence in what we're trying to get accomplished.
''They know what has happened in the past,'' Gill added. ''We talked about what you can learn from last year and how you are going to change that. More importantly, we're talking about how we already have changed it.''
Kansas opens its season Saturday against another FCS school in McNeese State.
This time, wide receiver Daymond Patterson said, the Jayhawks won't be focused on the name on the front of the jersey or lulled to sleep by the reputation of the opponent.
''It was like a mid-major. No matter if you're the No. 1 team in the nation losing to a mid-major or the last team in Division I, it's losing to a mid-major,'' Patterson said.
Patterson has been through plenty of success and failure in his first three seasons in Lawrence, and in many ways he encapsulates everything the program has gone through.
He was part of an Insight Bowl team that defeated Minnesota 42-21 in 2008, back when the Jayhawks were riding high with Mangino on the sidelines. But they are just 3-16 since defeating Iowa State in October 2009, the slide particularly devastating to the relatively few seniors on the roster.
Sophomore quarterback Jordan Webb, who won the starting job over Quinn Mecham during fall camp, said the Jayhawks may finally be rebounding. There's been an influx of young and energetic players, the veterans are exhibiting leadership that was sorely lacking last season, and everyone is committed to making sure another season doesn't end with a bitter disappointment.
''It really does seem like a long time ago as far as where our team is at now compared to then,'' Webb said, referring to the debacle against North Dakota State.
While Webb said that he hasn't thought much about that game, defensive end Toben Opurum acknowledged that it's on everyone's mind this week.
''No one really likes thinking about it, but we know we don't want that to happen again,'' Opurum said. ''You really can't judge a book by its cover. You can't think of an opponent as less of an opponent because of their conference, you have to respect anybody you play.''
