LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Terry Allen, the only coach in Kansas football history to keep his job after four straight losing seasons, could not make it through a fifth.

Vowing to raise the lowly Jayhawks to the top of the Big 12, athletic director Al Bohl announced Sunday that Allen had been dismissed. Defensive coordinator and secondary coach Tom Hayes will be in charge the final three games but has no guarantee beyond that.

Allen, 20-33 at Kansas and increasingly unpopular with alumni, urged everyone to get behind the new coach.

"I'm sorry we were not successful," Allen said, while Bohl and Hayes waited to come to the front of the room and speak.

"We did our best and didn't fulfill what we needed to do. Success in this league is very difficult."

Under intense pressure to deliver a winning season in Bohl's first season as his boss, Allen, 44, faced the NCAA's toughest schedule.

Besides Big 12 powers Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas State and Texas, the Jayhawks also played UCLA. A 51-7 loss to No. 2 Nebraska Saturday night -- after he had already been told he was fired -- left the Jayhawks 2-6, 1-5 in the conference.

"We stumbled early on some things we needed to do. But the reality of the situation is, this is the toughest league in college football," Allen said.

Bohl, who led revivals at Toledo and Fresno State in lesser conferences, said he would tolerate nothing less than championship football.

"I really believe what our objective should be at Kansas is to try to play in that Big 12 championship game," Bohl said. "Because if you play in that game and win it, you'll be playing for the national championship."

Kansas has not won a conference title since it tied for the Big Eight championship in 1968. That was also the last year the Jayhawks beat Nebraska.

"It can be done at Kansas," Bohl said. "It will be done."

Asked how long it might take, Bohl replied, "I want us to get started in the next three games."

Allen's firing came as no surprise to his players.

"That's just the way it goes with the college football business," senior defensive tackle Nate Dwyer said. "It's cut-throat. Either you win or you get fired. That's just the way that is. We knew he was being evaluated every game."

Since Bohl left Fresno State last summer, there has been speculation that he would bring in Bulldogs coach Pat Hill.

Other names that have circulated as possibilities include former Oklahoma State coach Pat Jones, now an assistant with the Miami Dolphins, as well as Gary Darnell of Western Michigan and Bob Pruett of Marshall.

Highly successful while going 75-26 in eight seasons as coach at Division I-AA Northern Iowa, Allen was handed a Kansas program in 1997 severely lacking in talent. He was 5-6 in his first year and followed that with campaigns of 4-7, 5-7 and 4-7.

Perhaps most infuriating to Kansas fans were five straight blowout losses to Kansas State. Alumni also lost patience after Allen was unable to lift the program out of mediocrity even though Kansas invested almost $30 million to upgrade facilities.

Bohl hopes to name a successor shortly after the end of the season. The new coach will benefit from more than a honeymoon period with fans and alumni. In the Big 12's rotation cycle, powerful Oklahoma and Texas will be replaced next year by struggling Baylor and Oklahoma State.

"The schedule changes so dramatically next year, we can hopefully get some momentum going for the program and the players and the institution," Allen said.

Hayes, an assistant for four years with the Washington Redskins after working as an assistant at Oklahoma, said he would not spend the next three weeks campaigning for the job.

"To put it bluntly, I'm not going to get involved in that," he said. "This is not about Tom Hayes. My role is about a three-week season and the players on this team. I'm going to focus on the job at hand.

"But yes, anybody would enjoy the opportunity to be head coach here."

After last year, Allen fired many of the assistant coaches he brought with him from Northern Iowa and revamped his staff, including hiring Hayes.

But as attendance plummeted, so did much-needed football revenue. When two non-revenue sports were dropped last winter, athletic director Bob Frederick came under heavy fire and finally resigned.