Jayhawks tame MU's deadly Tiger

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Brad Smith will be facing Colorado this week and not Kansas, so the Missouri star will likely break the NCAA record for career yards rushing by a quarterback.

Smith only needs six yards -- but going into Missouri's game against Kansas and the stout Jayhawk defense, he needed only 43. He also was just 147 yards rushing and 104 passing away from becoming the first major college player to amass 8,000 yards through the air and 4,000 on the ground.

What he got on Saturday -- along with a frustrating 13-3 loss to Missouri's archrivals -- was 38 yards rushing and 147 yards passing.

There's no getting around it: Kansas has Brad Smith's number.

He had a decent game and beat the Jayhawks as a freshman. But the past three years, as he became Missouri's most productive quarterback ever, Kansas has beaten him every time. His rushing totals for those three games are a hard-to-believe 30 yards.

That was quite a comedown from the 480 total yards he'd piled up the week before against a Nebraska defense which obviously had no idea how to deal with Missouri's dual-threat signal-caller.

The Jayhawks had the right idea. They made sure their linemen kept Smith in front of them, careful not to let him get outside and rocket downfield.

"Our defensive line didn't go after him per se but squeezed the pocket in front of him to force him out of the pocket," Kansas coach Mark Mangino said. "On several occasions our ends could have jumped the ball and beaten the tackles. But then you run the risk of him stepping up in the pocket and running.

"I've never been around a defense that executed their game plan exactly the way we set it up. It was nearly flawless."

As a result, the Tigers (5-3 overall, 3-2 Big 12) dropped a full game behind Colorado in the Big 12 North and Kansas (4-4, 1-4) broke a four-game losing skid.

"Brad Smith is the key to their offense," said defensive end Charlton Keith, who had two sacks. "If you contain No. 16, then there's going to be a lot of decision-making weighing on his shoulders."

The Jayhawks also won bragging rights in the border rivalry for a third straight year. Mangino even thought it seemed inappropriate that fans stormed the field to rip down the goal posts.

"We don't need to do that," he said. "We've won this game three years in a row now. We have to act like we've been there before."

For once in this Big 12 season, Kansas' woebegone offense did not drag down the Jayhawks' topflight defense.

Quarterback Jason Swanson was adequate. Running back Clark Green was good. And the offense came up with 298 yards and 13 points.

The two touchdowns constituted 40 percent of Kansas' total so far this Big 12 season. Their 208 yards rushing, led by Green's 125, were their most in any Big 12 game in two years.

Smith's teammates didn't place the blame on him for the loss.

"I think Brad did all he could do," said running back Tony Temple. "But one man can't do too much. We all have to make plays and stay together. Brad's only one person. You can't put it all on one person. It's the coaches, the team. It's everybody."