You’ve got to start somewhere, and the 2005 season might’ve put Kansas and their head coach Mark Mangino on the map, or at the very least, it warned future opponents that the Kansas Jayhawks weren’t pushovers anymore.
That 2005 season was a success by any standard, but at KU, a team that had only made one bowl game since 1995 (and it required a win over a division two school to even qualify), the 2005 season felt like a coming out party. That party culminated with the destruction of Houston in the Fort Worth Bowl.
The game started off in spectacular fashion for the Jayhawks as Brian Murph returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter.