Kansas has spent the past two weeks preparing to face their intrastate rival this weekend in Kansas State. That in itself presents plenty of challenges. If you haven't noticed, Kansas State happens to be pretty good. Going back to last season, the Wildcats are 14-3 including a 4-0 mark this season with wins over Miami and Oklahoma.

The Jayhawks, meanwhile, have limped to a 1-3 start losing to Rice, Northern Illinois, and TCU.

Hey, nobody said it was going to be easy, Charlie Weis.

The slow start prompted a reality check coming from KU's own student newspaper on Thursday. Normally, this probably isn't a big deal, and the article itself wasn't overly critical. The cover of the paper, however, certainly caused Weis to take notice.

Not that the cover necessarily needs defending, but what were they supposed to do, put a picture of the 2008 Orange Bowl trophy on the front page?

This is a program that has won a combined six games over the past three seasons. And most of those losses weren't just losses, they were the type of losses that stick with you and get a coach fired after only two seasons.

Look no further than this week's opponent who has beaten Kansas by a combined score of 118 to 28 the past two times they've taken the field.  And both games were played on KU's home turf.

Team slammed by our own school newspaper. Amazing! No problem with opponents paper or local media. You deserve what you get! But, not home!

— Coach Charlie Weis (@CoachWeisKansas) October 4, 2012

I personally could care less. You are what are. On the other hand, if I don't support the players good or bad, who will??

— Coach Charlie Weis (@CoachWeisKansas) October 4, 2012

What's the quickest cure for Weis' current problem?  Beat Kansas State.  Heck, if they has beaten Rice and Northern Illinois, things would be different.

Weis knows this.  As he said in his tweet, "You are what you are," and right now what Kansas is, is not a very good football team.  It didn't take a school newspaper cover to tell him that.  The evidence is on the field and likely playing on his TV screen as we speak.