Kansas takes huge step forward in proving itself

MIAMI -- Kansas Coach Mark Mangino sounded almost defiant in deriding the so-called experts who had shown his team so little respect before its Orange Bowl matchup against the Virginia Tech Hokies.

“Kansas’ offense against Virginia Tech’s defense. That was the theme for a month,” Mangino said. “Probably a good marketing tool.

“I said the mistake being made was not to recognize our defensive play.”

Kansas’ defense was at least the equal of its offense Thursday, providing the boost the Jayhawks needed to record their first Bowl Championship Series victory.

There were plenty of nervous moments for the Jayhawks at Dolphin Stadium, and neither side could claim this was a classic of precision and execution.

But Kansas withstood Virginia Tech’s ground push in the second half and held on for a 24-21 victory, padding its record to 12-1 and making Mangino seem like a visionary.

He had said, when he took over before the 2002 season, that this would not be easy but that he would work as hard as necessary and recruit as hard as necessary and do what it took to change perceptions of Kansas as a basketball school that dabbled in football. He took a huge step forward in leading the Jayhawks past the Hokies (11-3) in a game that was a bit ragged but dotted with big plays at crucial times.

Cornerback Aqib Talib, who ran an interception back 60 yards for Kansas’ first touchdown and was voted the game’s most valuable player, said the Jayhawks’ victory should silence the critics who mocked Kansas’ soft schedule.

“They got to say we played somebody now,” he said in the midst of the Jayhawks’ raucous on-field celebration.

They played a dogged team, a team nearing the end of an emotionally taxing season that began a few months after a Virginia Tech student had shot 32 others on the Blacksburg, Va., campus last spring.

Football players had taken it upon themselves to try to bring the campus together, to bring joy to a place that had known such unspeakable sorrow. For most of the season they served as a rallying point for students, faculty and alumni, and they felt almost guilty that they could not win one more game.

“Right now, I’m feeling real low and disappointed,” quarterback Sean Glennon said. “It’s heartbreaking to put so much into a game like this and lose.

“Once the dust settles and we can think about it, we’ll realize it was an amazing experience. I think we helped the Virginia Tech community.”

Hokies Coach Frank Beamer agreed.

“I feel like the Hokie nation is closer together and more caring than ever before,” he said. “I’m just sorry we couldn’t finish it off.”

Virginia Tech played gallantly in the second half, but not efficiently.

Early in the fourth quarter, after Virginia Tech had cut Kansas’ lead to 17-14, Kansas safety Justin Thornton intercepted a pass that Glennon had intended for Harper and returned it 30 yards to the two-yard line. Quarterback Todd Reesing then took the ball in himself, helping the Jayhawks build a 24-14 lead.

The Hokies, drawing energy from their orange-and-maroon-clad fans, pressed furiously and scored again with three minutes left, when Glennon fired a 20-yard touchdown pass to Harper. The extra point cut the Jayhawks’ lead to 24-21, but Kansas held onto the ball and used up as much of the clock as possible.

“The game just didn’t fit right,” Beamer said. “It was one of those games where you have something going and then something happens.”

In this game, a little bit of everything happened.

Kansas built a 17-0 lead with 7:03 left in the second quarter, thanks to Talib’s interception return, a 32-yard field goal by Scott Webb and a 13-yard pass play from Reesing to Marcus Henry. The Jayhawks’ dominance stunned the heavily pro-Hokie crowd and the Hokies seemed to have few answers.

They did solve their problems on the ground when Beamer allowed Branden Ore to play after keeping the junior tailback on the bench for the first quarter as punishment for having been late to a practice last week.

Ore carried the ball 11 times on the 13-play drive that produced their first touchdown. He ran one yard into the end zone with 1:24 left in the half, and the extra point cut Kansas’ lead to 17-7.

Early in the third quarter, the Hokies struck again. Eddie Royal fielded a Kansas punt and cut to his right, drawing the defense toward him. But he pitched the ball to his left, to Harper, who ran to the end zone while the crowd roared. The extra point cut Kansas’ lead to 17-14.

The Hokies had a chance to pull even on their next possession, but Jud Dunleavy’s 25-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Jayhawks linebacker Joe Mortensen.

“The blocked field goal, I think that was big,” Beamer said, glumly.

“You can’t expect to win a BCS game if you don’t win the turnover battle,” Glennon said.

The Jayhawks won the biggest battles Thursday, though Mangino said he wasn’t surprised.

“I’d have been a fool to tell you before the season that I thought we were going to have a chance to be ranked in the top five in the country at the end of the year and win the Orange Bowl,” he said. “But there is something special about this team that I knew there was something good that was going to happen.”

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.