State of the Union

Could this be our starting Running back this year

2010-05-24T14:07:00.001-05:00

small window into KU football recruting for 2011

2010-05-17T15:21:00.002-05:00

Here's a brief compilation of how many guys KU will be taking at certain positions, I think they'll take 1 and maybe 2 QB's if they get the right guys, but I can't confirm that, the numbers below are what recruits have been told by the staff

RB - done
LB - 2 (1 more with Love already in the fold)
WR - 1 or none
Safety - 2
OL- 4

Rock Chalk

Motivation for Senior Night

2010-03-01T17:50:00.001-06:00

Saw this while taking a leak in Lawrence today

Bad photo-"fuck kstate"

Rock Chalk

Baseball team- updated

2010-02-22T19:31:00.001-06:00

Rough start- lost 1st game of a DH at eastern michigan - they are
playing w/out Tony Thompson but did take the second game for the split.

Rock Chalk

Guess who got bombed out of her mind in Lawrence?

2010-02-20T23:13:00.002-06:00

Even Barry Henson wanted to know the date of the wedding.

Rock Chalk

Really?

2010-02-17T20:24:00.001-06:00

Pretty sure Clemente wants to suck my cock. Nice win against the skers- dick sniff.

Rock Chalk
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Quick football hits

2010-02-16T15:22:00.003-06:00

The names on the back of the jersey are being replaced with a Jayhawk and the stripe on the helmet is going to be removed.

Rock Chalk

Respect

2010-02-09T13:36:00.001-06:00

From Pat Forde- espn.com (normally a douche- mizz guy)

Anyway, this rumination led to a Minutes Media Poll of sports writers who do their work in the college towns of America. The Minutes asked writers who cover the six major conferences to name the best and worst towns in their respective leagues -- and the best and worst basketball towns. (There can be a distinct difference.)

The results are as follows, with anonymous quotes from the respondents. Feel free to get outraged on behalf of your school's town if it does not get sufficient praise and adoration -- but remember, this is the work of more than 50 writers, not just the opinion of The Minutes:

Best Basketball Town: Lawrence (10).
Comment: "Lawrence is clearly the class of the Big 12 in hoops, the only one to win an NCAA title since the league was formed. Before KU won as a Big Eight team in 1988, the last titles belonged to Kansas in 1952 and Oklahoma State, twice in the 1940s when, I believe, they were playing three-on-three at each end, no crossing midcourt. As for Allen Fieldhouse, it's like a museum, maybe one that is haunted. I always think a famous dead guy is going reach out and shake my hand."
Also receiving votes: None. Lawrence was the lone unanimous pick in the entire survey.

Rock Chalk

Closer look at the recruiting class

2010-02-05T18:30:00.000-06:00

Quin Meachem- QB- will compete for the starting spot, but so will Kale Pick and Jordan Webb.
Meachum threw some good balls but not anything that'll get you going crazy.

James Sims- RB- a complete back that can run power and speed and catch the ball out of the backfield. Think Opurum except quicker and with better top end speed. A complete back. He'll make a name for himself at some point on the hill.

Brandon Bourbon- RB- freaky athletic. Complete package and should play early, a big get for the late in the game. The only problem I see w/ Bourbon and Sims is that I know Opurum will play early and I think Rell Lewis will too as well as Deshaun Sands has impressed in practice- so there's a lot of competition there.

Brian Maura-WR- in the mix from day 1 to be the KR, which is major position of need. Should contribute at WR as well maybe as a sophomore. Doesn't having blazing speed but he ran away from people in Dade county football down in Miami so he's pretty fast.

Keeston Terry- WR- he is the same size Briscoe was when he got to Mt. Oread and has a similar game. Very shifty with the ball in his hands but doesn't appear to have that crazy speed. I think he gives you too many options with the ball in his hands but I could COULD see him as a safety.

Ricki Herrod Jr- WR- from Texass, will need a RS year, played for a team that didn't pass much but he was the MVP at a Nike combine last summer and is very gifted. Has good size and speed and can go up and get the ball, same with Maura.

Andrew Turzilli- WR- from NJ, all his film was jump balls has good height obviously, hard to tell much from a guy getting jump balls against HS dudes, unless its spectacular like Briscoe's was.

Trent Smiley- TE- top 20 at his position and the best TE in the state of Texas. Can absolutely clean people with his blocks and plays like a flexed out TE. If Chuck Long plays 2 TE's next year, Smiley will likely play and be the heir apparent to Tim Biere, very good pickup by the staff.

Chad Kolumber- OL- played tackle in HS, will probably move down to a guard, doesn't have the footwork to play tackle, but showed he can drive people back, which is perfect for a guard. Regarded a project, but he won't need to play early anyway.
Turner Gill did say he wanted to get more OL in this class but Kolumber is the only one the landed. Look for them to go big on OL next year, I could see them taking as many as 5 but more likely 4.

Keba Agostinho- DE- played inside and out in HS, coaches think he'll get to 290, which means he'll be used as a speed rusher inside. Gets off the ball very quickly and looks to be a good pickup for the D.

JaQwaylan Arps- DE- slow, not very impressive film at the DE spot at least to me. He played OT in HS and I could see him getting moved over to that side of the ball or moving down to DT, but I don't see him being a DE.

Pat Lewandowski- DE- blew his ACL before his JR year began so he really flew under the radar. He can play and once he puts some weight on he looks like a SDE. This is the best DE in the class and the most likely to stay at the position.

Jeremiah Edwards- DT- 6-1 308 lbs and he erupts off the ball. I like his game a lot- he reminds me of a bigger James McClinton. Should be a player down the road.

Jimmy Mundine- OLB- teammate of JaQwaylan Arps that has been told he'll play TE. I didn't think much of his TE film but LJ thought it was great, so we'll have to see, I liked him at LB a lot.

Ed Fink- LB- tough smart kid, don't remember much from his film, but since we sucked at LB last year he's got a chance just based on position.

Jake Farley- LB- played safety in HS, son of a coach, his dad was assistant under Mason.
He played up in a LB position even though he was a safety and he played QB in HS, this is guy I didn't think I would like, but his film was good. I think offers an upgrade at LB but might need to add some weight to see the field as a FR. Reminds me of Kevin Kane if Kane wad fast enough to play OLB

Ray Mitchell- S/CB- teammate of James Sims, didn't do much for me.

Dexter McDonald- CB- from rockhurst, didn't do a ton for me and in his film which is supposed to be all great plays he misplayed a ball that he could have jumped the route and gone to the house. Mizz had him for a bit and then Illinois and then he ended up at KU so he must have something that I didn't see on film, so we'll see.

Rock Chalk
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Recruiting wrap up was fun- for all the wrong reasons

2010-02-05T08:35:00.004-06:00

Good times meeting TG and some photo OP's. I think this class is good all things considered, I saw a couple of good players on film, but nothing that got me super excited and the defensive side of the ball was neglected in a big way, not on purpose I'm sure it just so happened that way.

Rock Chalk

Big day for KU

2010-02-02T21:55:00.000-06:00

Michigan st is getting smacked in the mouth as we speak and I'm pretty sure that Sherron and everybody is watching it and getting that extra boost for their big road game tomorrow and that's good news for Jayhawk fans.

Remember you win jewelry by winning on the road.

Football signing day hopefully has a couple pleasant surprises tomorrow as well but for the most part will hopefully be boring, all verbals become signees and we move forward as a program.

Rock Chalk
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Great week- even bigger week ahead

2010-01-31T20:47:00.000-06:00

So let's see what happened this last week.
We smacked missery on Monday and then took care of biz in the Hawktagon of KU winning.

While Bill Self was winning games, Cole was coming back to his former awesome self and Sherron Collins was making another case for being in the rafters, TG was killing it in a big big way.

First TG announced that he personally will be speaking at multiple recruiting roundups across the state, which is a lot more than Mangino ever did plus its great for fan support and season ticket sales.

Then TG took a 3star CB from mizz and a 4star RB. TG and staff also picked up a 3star DE from Houston and appear to be one of the favorites to land a massive OL from Chicago. All things considered he couldn't have done a better job of hiring a staff and getting some good recruits late in the game.
Kudos to TG.

Let's hope we get a couple more wins on the hardwood and TG can snag one more surprise by Wednesday.

Rock Chalk
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So far a great week in KU land

2010-01-29T08:26:00.003-06:00

And a bad one for Missery fan- first they got kicked in the mouth by KU in hoops then we stole one of their cornerbacks, Dexter McDonald a 3Star CB from Cockhurst in KC.

This is a good move for multiple reasons, one being in good at Rockhurst never hurts as they have D1 talent every year, KU needed a CB after losing Dave Clark and we stole from missery.
(kudos to LJ for the lead on this one)

Also late last night with less than a week until signing day KU dipped into Houston to get a DE recruit, 6-3 250, might slide down the line, but also fills a need with talent, which this close to signing day is very hard to do unless you are the elite of the elite.

If TG and company can snag one more OL or another surprise commit this class all things considered will be strong and next year watch out, there's a lot of great RB's in Texas and this staff will go get one.

But all that really matters is doing work this Saturday and getting a big W.
My take- no way Sherron lets us lose, Cole is playing better, we have more depth and Brady is an upgrade over TT.

Also- here's some stalker info I lifted from some dude on Phog - little player insight for you gridiron heads- My comments in red

Spoke with Toben and his leg is healed up to the point where he can do light weight workouts, but he says there is still some mild lingering pain. he's also up about 15 pounds, all upper body, mostly muscle as that's all he could lift the past 2 months. He;s noticeably bigger than he was last year and even prior to winter break. Hope he's healthy, although I see Rell Lewis playing a much bigger role and wouldn't be surprised if James Sims plays as a true frosh

Kevin Young and Quintin Woods were giving each other hell in the computer lab about weight, Young says he is up to "240 solid and Woods said he is up to 235. Young was busting his chops about "you're supposed to be 250 by now dog!" Hopefully between these two dudes one of them can go hit the QB, if Laptad improves a little bit and these guys step up, that will help the D a lot. Also need Jamal Greene to stay out of trouble and on the field he is our best pass rushing threat at DT

Dedeaux said the offense is going to run quite a bit more 2-TE sets and that competition for the other TE spot has been "fierce". (I'm assuming Biere has one locked up). This guy assumes Biere has one locked up? Biere is a fucking stud, that catch against Mizz, huge- guy is a player, hope and bet he gets used more this year and winds up playing for pay someday

Steve Foster has moved back to Fullback. Good

Lastly, a couple guys I spoke to said Prinz Kande is going to be a stud, he was stellar on scout team and his individual workouts have been increasingly impressive. Duh, Kande was the jewel of the recruiting class last year and how he didn't play over Strozier is beyond me. Kande and Lubbock Smith is a sweet safety tandem, I'll take those 2 any day, through McDoogs out there a bit too and that's a really good defensive backfield

Rock Chalk

Football happenings -EDITED 1/20/10

2010-01-12T22:04:00.002-06:00

Dave Clark apparently is too stupid to get his paperwork right and therefore the 4 star shutdown corner will not be attending KU. Just another shot to the balls of the KU football program.

Prize jewel of the class, Geneo Grissom a FREAK DE from Hutch is going to OU now, so if you are counting at home that's the top 2 kids that we had that are now leaving and both a huge positions of need and both on the defensive side of the ball.

With conference play starting for the hoops squad there's still a lot happening on the gridiron as signing day is about 3 weeks away.

Leach locking that kid in the closet has given KU a chance a a big OL (currently KU has ZERO pledges from OL) and a stud corner.

Now Kiffin is leaving Rocky Top for USC, which has given KU a sizeable advantage to land a 4star safety commit. This kid will not qualify, so KU has backed off.

I was kind of upset that our kicker commit, Justin Castor, because I thought he would upgrade our special teams and we might be able to get a touchback on KO's. I guess here's to Branmuffin having a great offseason.

There are 2 very big weekends left for the staff, this weekend and the weekend of the 29 (the last weekend before national signing day on February 3rd).

There's a couple of key parts that still need to be locked up , OL, DE, DT and LB, so we'll see what happens.
The staff did an okay job last weekend, in the fact that they got some bodies, including an OL, LB and DE.

Lewandowski at DE from BV could be a nice sleeper and contribute down the road, the OL is a prospect, and I don't know enough about the LB commit that we stole from SMU.

The WR, Brian Maura from Dade County, gansta FL, is a burner at WR and KR, took 4 kickoffs to the HOUSE last year, so I like that pick up very much and I think this might also be a sign that either Keeston Terry or Bradley McDougald could be getting a lot of time at safety, but we'll see.

And hopefully the basketball squad will find their winning ways again to make it a more enjoyable ride to signing day.
Rock Chalk
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Thoughts

2010-01-11T18:37:00.000-06:00

Watching the Bill Self show and I feel worse about our squad.

Sherron in that game was enormous, just HUGE, but hey "that's his shit!"

And a big problem is screens, both defending them and setting/using them.
I just really hope Self gets through to these guys, there's so much talent on this squad it would be a shame to see them fall short of their ultimate goals because some of the sophmore class doesn't understand one of the most basic facets of the game.

We'll see what happens this week, because now we're playing for jewelry.
Going for that 6th ring
Win the final 6
And playing for the 6 letters on the front

Rock Chalk
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Shitty weekend ends shitty

2010-01-10T18:02:00.000-06:00

I didn't watch the second half but I have a pretty good idea of what happened.
We have a point guard who loves to score (collins) he prolly took some shitty shots.

Why?

Well we have center who struggles to score and a 2 guard (TT) who can't shoot and makes some the fucking stupidest turnovers ever (see 1st half, shitty passes and traveling) so that would make a competitive senior take some stupid or forced shots.

Then there is the Morris twins, honestly- Fuck those guys.
They are beyond stupid, mentally soft and they foul and miss bunnies that's what they do.
Oh big deal Marcus posterized some dude.
That dude plays for Pitt St (see not D1 and not even a basketball school at that)
Then Markieef is weak too, nice turnover when the little white dude pushed you out of bounds, pussy. Good thing they have a lot of tats so we all can know how tough they are when in reality they are soft.

This team is not as good as last years team and that should worry some people.
Cole has regressed offensively, boards and D he is good.
Brady has regressed.
TT has shown minimal if any improvement.
Kieef is the same as last year
Marcus is better but very inconsistent and he is flat in front (see has no dick)

So even though we have a stud FR it doesn't really seem to matter that much.

I knew temple wasn't that good and poof looks like I was right because you don't lose to the Vols when they have 6 dudes on scholly and their big guy gets 3 whistles in the 1st half.
You win that game if you're a top 20 team, let alone what everyone thinks we are.

Rock Chalk
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Secondary just beefed up

2009-12-30T15:47:00.000-06:00

Some good news after the turd of a game by the hoops squad last night save Cole.

Dave Clark a stud CB is coming to Kansas, signed this afternoon.
He was wavering a little bit after the fat man got booted but he'll be on campus in a couple of weeks and if healthy he'll be a starter at CB and a damn good oneat that.

TG needs to lock up Geneo Grissom and Keeston Terry and all will be well, well and a beating of temple.

Rock Chalk
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Lunchtime thoughts

2009-12-29T11:34:00.000-06:00

Looks like Gill wasn't jacking around about using a FB because they just offered one from Texas. And as far as I'm concerned this is awesome news, it'd be real nice on 2nd and 3rd and short if we just ran the ball right up someone's ass.
That'd be nice.

TG's staff is also shaping up nicely and today Rivals.com reported that he had hired the former S&C coach at Iowa State, who was an assistant at Texas for 9 years to be an assistant at KU with the S&C program.
The whole staff should be released in the coming days.

Over on the hoops side, Cole, I thought looked a lot better against sans the fouls and that's damn good news.
Hawks will be tested this weekend and next at Temple and Tennessee and those are the games that get you ready for March when it really matters.
Thinking bout doing some end of the decade and year stuff.

Rock Chalk

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Football staff and hoops

2009-12-23T20:41:00.000-06:00

Now that TG has hired Reggie Mitchell from Illinois and Darrell Wyatt from So Miss its pretty clear that KU football should be able to recruit.

I'm still on the fence about the TG hiring but he's off to a good start, let's see how recruiting ends up and what the win column looks like this time next year.

Hoops is in the first week of November-

With Pajamas coming back and the health of Cole being lackluster, the squad is just starting to mesh.
The positives are that Brady Drunken Car already looks pretty solid and TT is playing like foreign car.

The fact that Self's elves are undefeated is not surprising, the margin of victories isn't either. And the silly thing is that they will be way better once a couple of things happen.

1- cole is able to breathe like a normal human, I mean dude had 10-10-5 in 22 minutes and hardly ever got the rock- that's AA stuff right there.
2- roles are more defined, with BDC coming back and the talented T-rob on the front line the roles are a bit ambiguous but Self will get that figured out in the next 2 weeks and we'll be rolling.

Have a merry christmas
Rock Chalk
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X and Pierce

2009-12-23T13:51:00.000-06:00

http://www.lostlettermen.com/2009/12/now-then-xavier-henry-paul-pierce-are-birds-of-a-feather/

Actually some good news

2009-12-22T11:16:00.003-06:00

So far TG has hired 4 guys, some dude from Buffalo, Chuck Long as OC, Torbush at DC and now Reggie Mitchell as RB coach and recruiting coordinator.

Other than the buffalo dude, who I know nothing about, the other 3 are pretty strong hires, guys that can recruit their balls off, so TG gets a little love here.

Rock Chalk

More super news

2009-12-19T16:20:00.000-06:00

Trayvon Henry, former OU LB recruit who verbally committed to KU in the fall was the prize jewel of the LB class.
And in case you missed every game this season, KU's LB's were horrid, slow and out of position, save Huldon Tharp.

Well anyway, Henry got caught with a piece at school, got arrested and hasn't been contacted by the new staff, so he's probably out.

Super news.

Rock Chalk
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Gridiron looking for hope

2009-12-18T21:27:00.000-06:00

Well so am I.

TG has been on the scene for less than a week and we have already lost our only OL recruit who was highly toughted to boot.

So that leaves us with ZERO OL guys with less than 2 months til signing day.

What a mess this is. I figured there would be some attrition but this is maddening. Especially considering the immense talent that just graduated or declared for the draft.

Let's dominate in AFH

Rock Chalk
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TG era begins- judgement being withheld

2009-12-14T07:57:00.003-06:00

Right off the bat, I hate this hire. But the more I think about it maybe I hate(d) it because I thought we were going to get Harbaugh and then shit was going to get really real.

Obviously that didn't happen and now we are stuck with a guy that has been described by some, LJ, as the "black terry allen"

So help me god if that is the case, we're all screwed.

A little bit of time has passed since the news broke and here's where we're at now.

So far TG has done the following- Hired 2 former HC's to be O&D coordinators. Chuck Long, has some good ties to Texas and Oklahoma so that should be good. And while I don't know a lot about Torbush, other than he has a sweet porn stache he seems like a good hire.
Torbush and Long have already started to get after it on the recruiting trail so that's good since there is no bowl game to prepare (drinks battery acid) they should have oodles of time.

We know that there will only be one guy from Buffalo which is good, as far as I'm concerned.

No one on the current staff has been retained, which is kind of upsetting and gives me the impression that this recruiting class could go to hell in a hand basket pretty quick.

I though Gill's presser was great, really warmed me up to the guy, then he didn't retain any staff and I thought well what the flip.
TG has said he will have all of the staff except one in place by Jesus's B-day Bonanza, so I'm going to wait and see who he hires before I weigh in on that, but as of now it doesn't look good.

Dave Clark, top rated corner and Geneo Grissom, freak DE from Hutch, need to be relocked up ASAMFP. If that happens I'll start to feel a little bit better about the class. And while one class won't make or break you if this class shits the bed, we're in trouble.
KU football fan is fickle so one more year of us getting our brains beat in and Memorial will be used more for basketball celebrations than winning football games.

Let's give the guy some time and see what happens, as difficult as that is. There will be a lot of change between now and spring ball with kids transferring, Max Oneygbule probably not getting another year of eligibility and losing and gain recruits plus filling a staff. Right now we just have no idea.

Rock Chalk

Updates- some clarity?

2009-12-10T07:52:00.002-06:00

It looks like this is going to come down to Turner Gill and Skip Holtz, so it better be Holtz if that is the case, I'm hoping that its someone else besides these two guys but I don't believe it will be. I know there is some chatter about Butch Jones but he ain't coming here.

Ed Warriner interviewed for the HC job at Akron- he didn't get it.
I like EW, hope he stays, but realize some assistant coaches are gonna leave.

Bill Miller is out there for DC at Louisville, he won't get that gig.
Keeping Miller- way more important than Warriner, just from a recruiting standpoint, and I think Miller is coaching a position (defense and LB's) that we need more help in than on the O.

Bowen is going to get a lot of looks for DB coach at some serious places- let's hope like hell he winds up doing that KU. He's not a DC and that's fine but he can recruit and we need that, check this.

KU's best OL verbal commit, has visits set up to 5 schools now, including Kansas, so we very well could lose him.

KU's best DE prospect and in state 4 star stud, Geneo Grissom is going to visit LSU, another great thing for us.

Lew did send every committed recruit a letter tell them that their scholly will still be here. But in the meantime, KU's lone QB commit, Jacoby Walker, is looking around, if he leaves, we'll have 2 QB's on scholly, Kale Pick and Jordan Webb as you'll remember that Christian Matthews was moved to WR.

KU's best CB, who would start from DAY 1, Dave Clark, is a JUCO so he is signing very soon, and if we don't have a coach, he'll go somewhere else, everybody wants this guy.

So its getting very ugly and since Lew was at the UCONN-UK game at MSG last night, I doubt we have a presser today so we're looking at Friday at the earliest, but most likely this is going to drag into next week, hope Lew's patience pays off.

Rock Chalk

Coach drama- UPDATED 12/8/9

2009-12-07T12:16:00.003-06:00

First off, congrats to the hoops squad for putting it on UCLA.

At a later date we'll do a season recap for football, but we're looking at coaches now-

What do I want in a coach?
Someone that can recruit their balls off. I'm talking about bringing in playmakers on both sides of the ball.
One the biggest problems with the latest installment of KU football was that we couldn't turn teams over and we didn't have that guy on offense that when he got a crease you did, oh my god I might shit my pants dance, so we need that.

So being that Kansas is located directly in the middle of the world per google, we need to recruit locally and in Texass and Oklahoma, we should not for the most part be worried about coasts.

We need someone that is a little zany after the snore that Mangino was, yep we sawed all that wood and it got us at hope with our families during the holidays.

Here's a list of guys being tossed around and what I think of them- agree or disagree with me-

Charlie Strong has a presser to be the next coach at Louisville tomorrow, so he is officially out and Houston Nutt backed out today as well, so there goes 2 guys that would have me excited for the future of KU football, the rest are below.

Randy Edsall- HC Uconn- he got a guy killed at a campus party and he has a losing record in conference in the big east, which as a conference is the hoops equivalent to C-USA. Plus he's from UCONN where Lew was and its a pussy hire, tells the fans you aren't trying. Still no word on whether or not he has interviewed

Skip Holtz - HC East Carolina - was hired at UCONN by Lew, so again a pussy move. Plus he has no ties here locally so his recruiting would not be good unless he dire some amazing assistant hiring or retaining. Plus ECU hasn't really done anything that makes my pants snug and make me think he would have a shot to get us to the next level, so he's out too. Suposedly has or had an interview with LP.

Turner Gill- HC Buffalo- best thing he ever did was prove that in the land of corn the forward pass is a new thing by botching that 2 pt conversion. He's a bible beater and while that's all fine and dandy, that isn't going to fly in lawrence so he's out too. Has interviewed, has me worried sick that he will be the coach, like fetal position crying worried.

Jim Harbaugh - HC Standford - Yes please, no need to explain, whatever it takes to get the guy that's what you do. He'll get that Gridiron club built and he'll run the ball when we're up 3 on our rivals with a bowl birth at stake and less than 3 minutes remaining, but everyone one do that, right? Looking less likely to go to ND, which can only help KU. He won't want to show up Gerhart in his quest for the Heisman on Saturday so we probably won't here anything on him until next week, so a presser gets announced this week, that means it ain't JH.

Tommy Tubbervill and Phillip Fullmer are broadcasting right now, but both are available and both have good track records, however neither has local connections or Texas connections.
These guys might be a poor man's Harbaugh and an older version at that. The would bring stout D and a power running game, which might sound boring after the aerial attack of the last couple of years, but you know what's fun? WINNING and D and running the ball wins games, ask Herm Edwards, kidding.
Also these guys have the same agent as Houston Nutt, so the agent, Jimmy Sexton, might have been trying to make the KU job sexier for his other clients, whatever is clever.

Larry Fedora from So Miss- wants the job and has a lot of connections to Texas, so he might not be bad as a back up plan. He has not been contacted by KU, so that'll make it kind of hard.

I'm not including Kevin Sumlin from Houston on here because if he gets hired my brain will implode

There are others for sure, so let's see what happens.
Rock Chalk

Forget football

2009-11-20T08:37:00.001-06:00

I have no idea what is happening in this Mangino saga, I thought he'd be done by now. There's rumors everywhere such as----

Pres conference today (friday) at 1pm- false
he'll be fired as soon as he gets back from austin - maybe
he'll quit due to health reason after the season - maybe

Who the hell knows and frankly I really don't even care at this point, I just want something to happen one way or another. My guess, his days are numbered, but no one really knows.
Mangino is and always has been a dick, so this isn't anything new, maybe if he would stop intercepting play calls from Warriner we might be bowl eligible and less people would care that he allegedly hit a defensive back in the throat twice before the colorado game.

Get ready for a blowout in Austin and then a blowout on Wednesday and Friday of the good variety.
Rock Chalk

Changes

2009-11-07T22:06:00.002-06:00

You'll notice that cute little picture about winning the Big 12 North has been removed, since that ain't happening. I wonder if they will remove it from the football complex, I hope so, no need to remind the team everyday that we had expectations that may or may not have been reasonable.

SO, I've been looking at schedules and other worthless materials, and I think KU still has a shot at a bowl, albeit a really shitty one, but they need that extra month of practice, especially since we will lose a QB, 2 WR's a RB and our stud Safety.

The best chances for those are against MU and NU. Will it happen, I don't know. But here's an actual conversation I had recently that might shed a little light on my take.

Before the OU game, I said if they don't win this game, I'm getting ready for basketball and Dan told me, "fuck basketball, well at least until a little later and then unfuck basketball"
First off, using the word, unfuck, is awesome.

I'm thinking this season is over and I'm really curious to see what happens, but I'm still rooting for them to make a bowl, I just won't be attending.

Rock Chalk

time to take a break?

2009-10-26T07:46:00.002-05:00

From Bowl Predictions? I think so, since some are now projecting KU to not even make a bowl. Pretty sure if we started 5-0 and we did, and then throw a shit burger up and finish 5-7, it'll be a pretty wild off-season and selling those Gridiron packages will get difficult.

Not a lot to say from the weekend, except someone and not deservedly KU has a legitimate shot of winning the north. Although, I wish they would focus on the task at hand, winning each week instead of looking at the North standings and trying to rationalize losses, that's a pussy move.

The D has gotten better, I don't think they are that good, but they have gotten better.

The O is brutal and the play calling gets a failing grade as well. And don't even get me started on Mangino saying that he wouldn't play Sharp until he was 100%, well Mangino, you just said he isn't 100% but you're playing him anyway, good move.

Tough games from here on out.

Rock Chalk

Updated stats with some national perspective

2009-10-18T11:01:00.004-05:00

TR5- Now has 9,561 yards passing, and since we had negative rushing yards against cu, look for Todd to pass even more and he now has 83 passing TD's as well. That's 15 passing TD's on the year for those of you scoring at home, half way to 30, with over half of his games left, just saying.

He is 4th in the nation in total passing yards and averaging an even 330 yards per game.

Briscoe - With 8 catches (only 1 in the first half) he now has 173 catches and is still behind Kerry Meier. He also added 1 TD catch to his total to his all time record and added 154 yards to his total. He was averaging 126 yards a game this year so he improved that total as well and is now averaging 134.2 yards per game, which is good for #1 in the nation.

KM - had 11 catches and now is standing at 178 in his career and he put a little distance between himself and Dez. He was awesome on the drive at the end of the 1st half and capped it with a TD.

Is tied for second in the nation in total catches this year with 54 and 2 by himself with 9 receptions per game.

It'll get you going

2009-10-17T08:35:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I spent one of the few days I take off from work every year to enjoy something unlike anything else, basketball practice. (we'll have pics and video up within the week)

It was really crazy in Allen last night and I thought for sure that people had left doors open because it was awful windy in there but then I realized it that it was just the walls and the halls breathing tradition and boy were they breathing.
I had the opportunity to tour the donor atrium, the new practice facility, the renovated hall of athletics and the rest of the renovated lower concourse of Allen and it was special.

Only on Naismith drive can you take a place with some much tradition add all the bells and whistles you could possibly want and still keep it the same imposing barn.

The court is the exact same as last year, save the posting of the 5th Big 12 Title in a row in the rafters but outside of that is different but in a way that it still feels like it always has, like home.

If last night was any indication this is going to be a wild winter and spring in the Phog. We arrived at about 10:30AM, 7 hours before doors open to camp out and check out all the amenities. Well, some wise asses beat us there, there was a guy who got there at 3:45AM, that over 14 hours before doors open and that's what makes KU the best place to play, coach and watch basketball at as Larry Brown once said.

Onto the scrimmage and some player notes. First let me share an interesting story from my travel buddy, Piotr.
While at the new Johnny's on 6th street, he saw Self, Ballard, Manning, Hinson, Cole, Sherron, Tyshawn and recruits Royce Wooldrige (already committed) and the crown jewel of the 2010 class, Harrison Barnes.
Barnes mother and sister were there as well, both of whom he is very close to and Self was working them like it was his job, Self walked out of the place with his arm around Barnes sister and was telling Shirley Barnes (mom) how much they were alike and to top it off they got a standing ovation upon their exit. You can't make that up.
According to the Polak, all the players were really friendly and were really hamming it up with Harrison.

The scrimmage was great, there is so much talent out there its disturbing, it really is.
Sherron looks the best he's ever looked. The whole team just looks bigger stronger and faster. Maybe I missed something but Tyshawn was really quick last night a lot quicker than last year and that's frighting. Tyshawn played without any type of wrap or brace from his beating of Anthony Davis, which I guess would make Tyshawn just leave every wide receiver from Northern Colorado since they all beat Davis as well.

Jeff Withey is a space filler on the interior and while he didn't show many offensive moves, his D will be an asset to this club at semester. He can simply alter shots, and if the twins foul like they did last year will need Withey to put some minutes up, unless -

Thomas Robinson plays like he did last night, he is a stud, point plankin or point blank if you prefer. T-rob is athletic and he does go and go and go. He showed a nice jumper last night and some good moves on the block while also being able to get to the tin from the perimeter a bit. One of the nicest plays of last night was him hustling back on D to swat a shot from Withey, a hustle play in a game where D was scarce.

Releford was high scorer for the losing Red team, but I didn't put a lot of stock into his performance just because I saw him play last year. Now if he comes out in the exhibition game and does what he did at Late Night, namely, hit open shots and get to the cup, he'll probably factor into the rotation a bit more. For now, with me, he's on a wait and see basis.

CJ Henry-
During the whole recruiting saga I really was worried that he was going to be a bad apple, but after last night I couldn't be anymore wrong. After the seniors finished their skit and all the players had retreated to the locker room, CJ was the only one waiting in the tunnel to dole out some high 5's to Sherron and Mario Little.
During introductions, CJ was first and he pretended to hit a baseball before running out which was a nice touch.
CJ's game was okay, he is athletic and I think in spurts he wouldn't hurt the team and might even make a play or two but he is by no means a star.

Markieef showed a little stroke from beyond the arch last night and was active. He didn't stand out to me on anything else minus his shooting, but the type of game that was played last night was a guards game and the centers and 4's rarely stand out in any way.

His brother, Marcus, however did stand out, with some nice mid-range game and deep shooting. Marcus was in much better shape than last year and he looks like he is ready to take the next step and be a major player for this team. In the summer he was all the rage and some of that has certainly carried over to the season.
I still think that he will be used in a Julian Wright type role, where Self will say he's better suited for the 3 but he'll play the 4 out of necessity, but I think Marcus can score from the 3 spot but can he guard will be the bigger question. Last year he shut down Brackins from iowa st in one game but was lame on D beside that time, so we'll see.

X-
He looked nervous and tense but once he got a sweat going he looked better. He has a smooth shot and can get to the rack whenever and however he wants. He effectively used his right and left hand to get penetration and broke down people in the half court and drew a foul in the open court.
He'll be great in pick and roll and in iso plays. I have to remind myself that he is still just a freshmen but he is built like a man, much the same with T-rob, so its hard to keep that in perspective at times. As with all of Self's guys it'll depend on how they guard but X is such a prolific scorer that he'll see minutes regardless and with his athletic ability he should be able to guard based on talent alone.

I'm really looking forward to the season, its going to be a banner year in the Phog. Now lets go take care of business tonight on the gridiron.

Rock Chalk

Some thoughts

2009-10-11T12:02:00.000-05:00

Re-watching the game and here's some things I noticed-

Our O-line- they cleared some people in the running game, it was great to watch.

There was a play early in the game where Toben ran off tackle to the left. They had put Spikes and Hawkinson both on the left side and there was a nice little hole for him to run through.

Toben reminds me of Clark Green. A lot

I have no idea what the deal is with our kick off return team, but switching back and forth between McDougald and Briscoe is stupid. Pick a guy and go with it. I prefer McDougald, he's too big of a playmaker to not have the ball in his hands more often and since the blocking generally sucks it seems better to have a freshmen get killed than a Junior All American.

TR5 missed a couple throws that he normally doesn't, but he was and is pretty stealth, the TD passes to Briscoe were nothing short of legendary.

I talked with Tim Biere right before the season started and he said that they were going to involve him in the passing game more, since he missed 2 games with a concussion we haven't seen that yet.
But yesterday we flexed him out wide early and he leaked out for 2 other catches. And no one wants to tackle him. Its nice to see the offense getting more complex every week and having a TE is a new dimension we haven't had since 07.

Kerry Meier.
He is just on a whole different level. 16 catches and with any luck he'd have had 17 or 18. Two weeks ago he sets a career in yards with 141 then yesterday he sets a new high mark with 142.
He is everything that is right about KU football. If you don't love KM then you suck at life.

Rock Chalk

And no I didn't watch any of the game when we we're on D, didn't need to see Thorton miss tackles, Stuckey let guys get extra yards, Patterson not know where the ball is, our LB's have no freaking clue what they are doing, Wheeler miss tackles like its going out of style, etc etc.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

a whole mess of stat facts

2009-10-10T18:38:00.004-05:00

Most importantly, we are 5-0, maybe we shouldn't be but we are. With missery, wisconsin, auburn and one of LSU and Florida losing there will be less than 10 undefeated teams going into week 7, and KU is one of them.

Let's look at the culprits-

TR5-
Moved past Brad Smith for 6th in the Big 12 in passing yards and also passed Joel Klatt and Josh Freeman for 7th in the Big 12 in passing attempts.

Todd went over the 9,000 yard marker today by throwing for a career high of 442 yards and now has 9,157 for his career.

Todd's 4 TD passes give him 13 TD passes on the year and 81 for his career with a couple more solid performances like that he should he able to break 100. With 81 for his career he is currently tied with Eli Manning, Drew Brees and Heisman winner Jason White.

Briscoe-
with 12 receptions he now has 165 in his career, good enough to pass Mark Simmons for #1 all time in receptions. (for now)

Briscoe who already is the all time leader in TD receptions added 2 to his total.

Dez needed 33 yards to pass Willie Vaughn for most receiving yards all time at KU, he racked up 186 and now has 2,420 and no one is really even that close to him.

KM-
Set a KU record with 16 receptions against Iowa State,breaking the record he shared with Dez Briscoe.

The 16 catches also vaulted KM to first place in all time receptions with 167, 2 ahead of Briscoe. As I have stated previously, I would love for Kerry to win this battle.

KM now has 15 TD's in his converted career and with 2 more he'll be tied for second place and with 3 more he'll hold that spot all by his lonesome. He isn't catching Briscoe but that's okay.

In a stat that I have neglected and totally missed, KM is shooting up another record list at KU, total yards. KM through the Iowa State game has 3,820 total yards via passing, rushing and receiving this puts him 12 yards behind Bobby Douglas for 10th all time and 21 yards behind June Henley for 9th place.
With about another 200 yards he will pass Dylen Smith for 8th place all time and after that he's got a ways to go, but just another fantastic stat for KM.

D needs to get a lot better.

Rock Chalk

Big 12 about to change in the next 10 days

2009-10-07T20:14:00.002-05:00

Conference plays kicks off in full force tomorrow with the corn v. the slavers.

Let's bang through everything-
KU will feel good on the 18th of October if all of the following things happen -

KU beats the clones and buffs- This is the most important thing that can happen

the corn lose to missery

missery loses to ok state

corn lose to T tech

Sharpie gets healthy (he won't play this weekend against iowa st)

bonus event -
ou beats texass

Some other things that have changed the landscape of the conference-

Dez Bryant being ruled ineligible is a big blow to Ok st, hopefully they can beat Mizz on the 17th, other than that I think this news is going to allow them to drop a game they aren't supposed to.
Ok St is in front of KU in most bowl projections so this would help KU in getting to a better bowl game.

Misc-
Bryant being ruled ineligible should really strengthen the campaigns of Briscoe and Kerry Meier to be first team all conference receivers. Ryan Broyles for OU being out doesn't hurt either.

Oh hell let's look at who will factor in that mix-
Jordan Shipley - UT
He'll put up some stupid numbers as Colt McCoy's boy toy

Baylor, Iowa St, NU and CU - have nobody that will factor into the first team chat for all conference WR

OU doesn't really have anybody either with Broyles being out and a line that is struggling

Brandon Banks is a long shot from K-sucks, he's got 3rd team written all over him

Leong from Tech has a chance if he blows up but I don't think he's got it in him

Danario Alexander from Missery could be in the discussion as a deep threat and a lighter schedule from the south

A&M doesn't really have the QB to get the ball to a guy to make him an elite WR

Unless Dex Bryant only misses 1 game, he's going to be out of the discussion as well

So it really does appear to be a 3 horse race for the 2 spots between Shipley, Briscoe and Meier. Briscoe and Meier could split some votes so look for Shipley to take one spot and Briscoe will have the yards and TD's to take the other spot, Kerry will be a 2nd team all conference pick but have 1st team talent.
that was fun to write.

Looking forward to KU coming out strong this weekend.

Rock Chalk

Additional stat facts

2009-10-05T15:54:00.000-05:00

QB Todd Reesing (8,715) needs 85 passing yards to move ahead of Brad Smith of Missouri for sixth on the Big 12 career passing yardage list.

Reesing (1,108) needs 18 pass attempts to pass Joel Klatt of Colorado (1,125) for eighth and 44 to pass Josh Freeman of Kansas State for seventh on the Big 12 career pass attempts list.

Scroll down for more.

Rock Chalk

Bowl prediction fun

2009-10-04T17:31:00.003-05:00

Another week and more random projections

CBS sportsline-

KU v Mich St - Alamo Bowl - San Antonio

ESPN-

KU v Boise State - Fiesta Bowl - Beautiful Tempe, AZ

KU v. Oregon - Sun Bowl - Piece of shit El Paso, TX

Sports Illustrated - Stuart Mandel***

KU v. Boise State - Fiesta Bowl - The home of the LIbrary

College Football News -

KU v. Michigan State - Insight Bowl - Tempe

Rock Chalk

*** Mandel said that the Fiesta will want to try and take a Big 12 team and since Texas will likely be playing in the BCS Championship game, they would look at KU since he projects us to be a 10 win team and they won't want a rematch of Oregon - Boise St.

Fine by me, don't care how it happens, just hope it does

Boring ass weekend

2009-10-02T14:06:00.002-05:00

Below are the standings so far or lack there of and my thoughts on what would help KU this weekend

Big 12 Standings
Team Conference Overall

North Division

Kansas - 0-0 4-0
Get Sharp healthy and reevaluate the 3rd down rush package. I like Steven Foster a lot but he isn't cutting it anymore in the 3rd down package, I'm hoping that Woods figures it out and gets in on the fun, or they could go with Laptad, Oneygbule, Wheeler and Richard Johnson jr, that'd be a good package.

We did everything we wanted to do in the non-con, went 4-0 and found our weaknesses, Mangino will get it solved, but we need Sharp back, by CU hopefully but for OU for sure, Opurum can't do it all and I don't think they like Lewis (he might not be back from knee surgery yet)

Missouri - see nebraska
0-0 4-0

Iowa St. - play k-suck, they should win and let's hope they do, because that will put K-sucks dim bowl hope on life support
0-0 3-1

Nebraska - gayest team ever
0-0 3-1

Kansas St. - they need to lose, this will be the same for every week unless they want to beat mizz or NU
0-0 2-2

Colorado - its not even the weekend and they have already lost
0-0 1-3

South Division

Texas - they are going to play for all the marbles, let's just be honest
1-0 4-0

Texas A&M - play arkansas, they need to get kicked in the teeth, them getting bowl eligible isn't going to help us at all
0-0 3-0

Oklahoma St. 0-0 3-1 - I think they'll be our biggest challenger for the Cotton Bowl so I'd like to see them struggle against the south and beat up on the north

Baylor 0-0 2-1 - no robert griffin, means no shot at anything fun coming from waco

Oklahoma 0-0 2-1 - there's 2 schools of thought on OU, if they beat Miami, that will make the Big 12 look good and it will give OU a better shot of making the BCS, if OU makes the BCS, then KU is looking at the Cotton, Holiday or Alamo bowl, all 3 would be good for us. If OU doesn't make a BCS and the conference only gets one team in the BCS, then we're looking at some shitburger of a game like the Sun Bowl or the Insight Bowl again, lame.

Texas Tech 0-1 2-2 - I can see them losing to OU, Texas and Ok St, if KU can go to Lubbock and jam on them, they'll be 6-6 at the best and it'd be nice to see them not make a bowl this year, but the best thing they could do for KU is to get beat by KU and beat NU, that'd be a big help

TR5 poll

2009-09-29T16:23:00.003-05:00

For the 4 of you that voted that TR5 would have less than 30 TD's this year, first I hope you are wrong and secondly here is why I think you will be wrong.

KU has a guaranteed 8 more games, most likely 9 with a bowl game and a shot at 10 more games with an appearance in the Big 12 Championship game.

TR5 has 9 TD's.

So you think in the remaining games he will have 20 TD's or fewer.

That seems a little silly, since he still has games against the weak D of Iowa St, K-St, Mizz and CU plus NU's pass defense isn't anything to get all happy about.

Plus add the fact that in games against the teams from the south, OU, texass and tech, he'll be gunning a bit, so he should average more than 2 TD's per game.

I hope you are wrong and he blows up, but I get where you were voting from since he hasn't looked like the normal TR5 lately.

Getting Sharpie back should help and the bye week can't hurt. Look for him to go on a nice little run here.

Rock Chalk

Stat facts

2009-09-26T20:22:00.002-05:00

Well Non-con is over and we're 4-0.

Here's where some of our friends stand as they prepare for conference play in 2 weeks-

TR5-
Now has 8,716 passing yards and 77 passing TD's. He should easily get to 10K in yards but he needs to be really strong in the next 2 games to get to 100 TD's. The best thing that could happen for him is for KU to WTN and get that extra game.

KM -
now has 151 receptions for his career, he is 4 behind Mark Simmons for 1st place all time (Briscoe has 153 currently as well)
Kerry has caught 3 TD's on the young season which gives the QB turned WR 13 TD catches for his career and that has lifted him to a tie with Marcus "Mute" Henry at 7th all time. If he can get to 17 TD's this year he'll be tied for 2nd all time with Willie Vaughn and Bruce Adams.

Kerry also has a new career high for yards receiving in a game with his ballerific 141 yard effort against Southern Miss

Dez Briscoe-
As was mentioned he has 153 receptions during his time on Mt Oread, 3 receptions against Iowa State and he'll hold most receptions all time and most TD catches all time (23 and counting)

Briscoe is close to the all time receiving yards record as well, he currently has corralled 2,234 yards and needs 33 yards to be the all time leader and pass Willie Vaughn.

Hopefully Briscoe and KM continue to be studly and push each other for the all time receptions record, I'd prefer that Meier gets it and hopefully its after they have both accumulated over 100 catches a piece this year.

Jake Laptad-
has 4.5 sacks in 2009 and had the only sack against Southern Miss. Laptad stands at 14.5 sacks for his career and passed Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Nick Reid for 9th all time. He is half a sack behind David McMillian and one sack behind Kyle Moore for 7th all time.

I'd really like to see Jake get maybe 8 more sacks which would put him in 2nd place all time and 1.5 sacks behind Algie Atkinson for the all time mark.

Bye week-
Let's hope Sharpie gets well, Mangino said in the post game that he would play against Iowa State, and that Reesing finds the magic that has eluded him this year.

The D needs to figure out how to get pressure against good competition and Steven Foster at DE on the 3rd down rush package is not working out. The best thing that could happen for this squad is that super freak Quinton Woods turns it on in practice and become that guy, because I like Laptad and Oneygbule in those sets and Wheeler is getting good pressure too.

This time 3 weeks from now we'll have a lot better idea of this team and its ceiling.

Rock Chalk

family turmoil

2009-09-25T17:28:00.002-05:00

I've gotten a lot of questions about the hullabalou on the hill and I have really had no desire to talk about it, but here's what happened and what I think about it.

Tyshawn was fucking some chick, who has been described to be a pretty cute but not turn your dick into a baseball bat, hot, then said chick started fucking Anthony Davis, yes the pass interference king.

So some chick with some serious judgement of talent issues made one of our stud basketball players beat up some shitty cornerback.

This shit happens all the time at a lot places, but this is easily the most public instance, I blame the journal world and that fat turd Keegan.

How will it affect recruiting? Will it affect recruiting?
Who knows, if we don't get someone because of this, then we don't need them, adversity is part of life.
Sure Self and Mangino might have to work a little bit harder, but the reality of it is, that kids want to play basketball at KU and kids see the opportunities that Mangino has afforded kids in the past to play early.

We're close to playing in our third straight bowl game, we have an annual game in a NFL stadium, we've got a top 20 program that we are playing in the non con the next two years and some of the best facilities in all of college football, so I think Mangino will be fine bringing kids in.

Self is a stud recruiter, we are the core of college basketball and while you can't take things for granted, Self and his assistants work harder than anybody, so they won't slow down.

Tyshawn will probably get suspended for some meaningless games early on and it help Elijah and CJ get their feet wet, its a blessing in disguise.

Football game tomorrow-

SO Miss is the best team we have played yet, they have an explosive offense.

So what?

We have an explosive offense, we have a D that is getting better all the time. If the front 4 keeps getting better we'll be fine.
I think Reesing, Meier and Stuckey are going to be on a warpath to prove that the scuffle is behind them and they are ready to move forward and get ready to Win the North.

Anyone who thinks that this little skirmish of a few morons is going to impede the goals of many, is a flat moron.

I'm sure if Kerry Meier thought that one little fuck up could stop them from being successful he wouldn't have done extra running on his own, he wouldn't have given into some of the normal temptations of college, like late night eating, I've got sources, so I can assure at a little after 11, The Fighting Mangino's are going to come out like some hungry wolves.

Look for a big game from TR5, KM and the rest of the gang.

Rock Chalk

Tomorrow prediction

2009-09-25T13:20:00.001-05:00

TR5 = 4TD's, just feel really good about this happening

Rock Chalk

No new stat facts this week

2009-09-21T08:08:00.002-05:00

Hopefully on Saturday night we'll be reporting that Briscoe has become the all time leading receiver in both yards and receptions.
Needs 6 receptions I believe and 97 yards.

For those of you voting in the TR TD sweepstakes -
He has 6 on the year with at least 9 games left and as many as 11.
If he averages 2 a game he'll be under 30. My guess is he starts to pick it up a bit in the next 3 weeks and gets 32 even for an even 100 on the career. Passing yards are okay for now.

Rock Chalk

More bowl prediction fun

2009-09-20T21:09:00.001-05:00

Cotton Bowl- Mark Shalback ESPN
Kansas vs. LSU

Sun Bowl- Bruce Feldman ESPN
Kansas vs. UCLA

Holiday Bowl - CBS Sports
Kansas vs. USC

Alamo Bowl- don't remember
Kansas vs. Purdue

Insight Bowl - Fox Sports

Kansas vs. Michigan St

Rock Chalk

Please vote

2009-09-17T09:08:00.001-05:00

http://www.voteobrien.org/login.asp?verify=QuIGTvewOlkNdPTk

Davey O'Brien award voting. The fan vote makes up a percentage of the actual vote, Todd should be way higher, you have to register but then you can vote everyday.
Do it, help Todd win and get KU football more exposure.

More exposure = More wins

Rock Chalk

Way too early bowl predictions

2009-09-14T07:48:00.002-05:00

Brut Sun(Pac-10 vs. Big 12/Big East/Notre Dame) - (espn)
Oregon State vs. Kansas

Pacific Life Holiday(Pac-10 vs. Big 12) (espn)
Oregon State vs. Kansas

Holiday Dec. 30 San Diego, Calif. ESPN 8 p.m. (cbs)
Pac-10 No. 2 vs. Big 12 No. 3
California vs. Kansas

Insight Bowl December 31, Tempe AZ, 5:30 pm, NFL Network (college football news)
Iowa v. Kansas

Stat facts - week 2

2009-09-13T07:25:00.002-05:00

Jake Sharp had back to back 100 yard games and now has 8 for his career, which puts him in 7th place all time at KU for 100 yard games, if he keeps it rolling against Puke next weekend he'll tie Clark Green for 6th place with 9 career 100 yard games.

Sharp is clearly a stud.

With 227 yards rushing through 2 games, Sharp now has 2,037 yards in his career good for 10th all time on the KU rushing list, next up John Cornish with 2,245 and LT Levine with 2,248 yards.

Sharp has 3 rushing TD's this year so far and that has put him in a tie with David Winbush for 5th all time with 22. With 2 more rushing TD's Sharp can move past Chip Hilleary and Brandon McAnderson for 3rd place all by his lonesome.

Kerry Meier had a pretty ho hum game last night but his 4 receptions gave him 9 on the year and also tied him with Willie Vaughn for 3rd on the all time receptions list.

Dezmon Briscoe with 8 grabs now has 143 in his career and is only 12 shy of tying Mark Simmons atop the KU record books.

Dez's 154 yards receiving gave him 2,057 yards in his career, good enough for 3rd all time as he passed Richard Estell from the early 80's. He is 104 yards away from tying Mark Simmons for 2nd all time.

Briscoe also is now tied with Willie Vaughn for most 100 yard receiving games with 8.

Briscoe's 100 yard effort last night also marked the 5th straight time his went over the century mark, besting the record he already owned of 4. Here's to hoping this winds up at 17.

Jacob Branstetter, even though he was a huge douche last night by missing those FG's, he did make his 60th straight PAT, which ties his with Dan Eichloff for the all time KU record.

Justin Thorton snagged his first INT of the year and the 8th in his career, at 8 he is tied for 10th all time at KU and with one more he'll be tied with Charles Gordon for 9th all time.

Hopefully Reesing can get it together because right now throwing for 100TD's is looking really grim.

Rock Chalk

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-09-11T13:27:00.002-05:00

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its been over 9 months since KU played a football game so I stoked for the season to start tomorrow. No more wondering how the young guys will look or how many records KM and Briscoe will break now we finally get to see.
This shit is better than christmas, finally football starts tomorrow.

Welcome to the season.

Rock Chalk

Stat facts

2009-09-07T21:59:00.000-05:00

Kerry Meier had the 6th 100 yard game of his short career at WR and moved into a tie for third most 100 yard games in KU history.

Kerry's 5 receptions moved him into a tie with Dexton Fields for number 5 all time receptions.

Jake Laptad had the first multi sack game of his career. He now has 12 sacks during his tenure at KU which puts him into at tie with Charlton Keith for 10th all time.

Jake Sharp's 100 plus yard performance on the ground was the 7th of his career. That puts him into a tie with John Riggins for 7th most career 100 yard games.
The record is 17 games by Tony Sands and if Jake can get that then we should be very happy in January.

Todd's 2 rushing TD's was a first for him in a game. His 79 yards rushing were more than any game last year.

Rock Chalk
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

exhibition game thoughts

2009-09-06T00:40:00.002-05:00

This was an exhibition game, make no mistake about it, the real games start next week.

Guys who need their heads examined-
Anthony Davis - 3 or 4 PI calls, really and let some guys catch some balls in front of him. Yes he's fast but he played with the mental toughness of a drunk guy on viagra trying to break a dry spell at 2AM

Justin Thorton- Him biffing that punt coverage at the 1 yard line, he should have been shot dead right there, what a waste. Instead of having a chance for a safety we gave UNC some breathing room and then they scored. This is the same doofus that got suspended for the Insight Bowl which meant that I had to watch Kendrick Harper get burnt like me in the sun, idiot.

Jonathon Wilson- Catch the ball with you hands not your body, you learn that in pop warner, moron. You were miserable and if you don't figure it out you are going to be the next Brian Murph, one good game and a good spring game, and a disappointment the rest of the time. Wicked horrid game from the guy

Big ups-
KM- 115 yards, ho hum blocked a guy in the dick and sent him to the sidelines which sprung TR5 for a first down. Guy is a stud

Chris Harris - was a man. made tackles, was big in the run game, didn't make any mistakes, forced a fumble. Guy looked real good.

The halftime interview with the HOT sideline reporter and Bill Self - I felt like I was watching porn on cable - WOW, I thought my TV might melt with all that heat. I'm sure she's gonna be sore in the morning after Self ruled her world.

Jake Sharp- Didn't try to do too much, ran strong and had a nice little stat line, he's going to have a good year. 1,200 yards- mark it down

Kale Pick and Toben Opurum- Both looked great at the end, KP is very fast and will add a wrinkle to the O in due time. Toben is the thunder to Sharp's lighting, he'll be getting more reps and getting them sooner, hits holes quick and is a load to bring down and has a lot of wiggle for a big guy

TR5-
WOW. What the hell do you say about him, he's making magic on the field, he get's the most exciting 6 yards in football with his feet, didn't try to do too much. Its going to be a very sad day when he takes that blue uniform off for the last time.

Rock Chalk

WTN

2009-08-30T21:26:00.000-05:00

If you don't wake up every morning and get excited then you have no soul and I hope bad things happen to you.

Rock Chalk

Season starts in 13 days
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

2009-08-28T15:37:00.001-05:00

http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2009/08/27/heisman-watch-edition-l-town-keep-it-chilla-edition/

Bitches wearing T-rees cream coat, classic

Briscoe is P2?

2009-08-28T08:58:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking about this for about a week.
Does anybody else think that their careers are similar? Just off the top of my head I remember getting frustrated with with Paul Pierce as a frosh and Briscoe for dropping balls in his rookie campaign.
Then as sophomores both had bigs years and Pierce could have gone pro and we all pretty much realized that Briscoe was going to be gone after his Jr. year.

While both were solid as frosh they both improved a lot into their sophomore years and Pierce was crazy good his jr year much like we are expecting from Dez.

Am I on to something here or do I have way too much free time.

Briscoe
YEAR REC YDS AVG LNG TD ATT YDS AVG LNG TD FUM LST
2007 42 496 11.8 34 7 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0
2008 92 1407 15.3 69 15 2 18 9.0 13 0 0 0

PP G MIN FG FGA 3P3PA FT FTA REB PF AST TO BLK STL PTS
95-96 Kansas 34 862 143 341 35 115 83 137 180 82 61 80 27 44 404
96-97 Kansas 36 1013 215 441 33 71 124 173 243 98 77 108 28 61 587
97-98 Kansas 38 1155 287 559 40 118 163 221 253 89 98 110 43 42 777
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------TOTALS 108 3030 645 1341 108 304 370 531 676 269 236 298 98 147 1768

I love trophies

2009-08-28T08:45:00.001-05:00

Thanks for your support

2009-08-20T15:18:00.002-05:00

By countlessly clicking on ads, my ad account has been disabled and I will not make any $$ from this blog or be paid for any money earned.

Its actually quite funny.

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Rock Chalk

football team starting to take shape

2009-08-19T19:14:00.002-05:00

You'll remember at the start of the month we had a quote from a member of the football team talking about how true frosh Bradley McDougald was much further along than Dezmon Briscoe was when he arrived on Mt Oread.
Well, today Mangino backed that statement up saying he will play at WR and on special teams (could this mean he is the KOR- could be and I hope it is)

Also of note Senior Justin Thorton has been moved back to safety and that means a couple of things.
1- The corners are coming along very nicely, Daymond Patterson has one slot all locked up and Anthony Davis was the talk of the first open practice and was running with the first team. Mangino also mentioned true FR Tyler Patmon (the first commit of the 2009 class) was playing well at CB.
2- There is a possibility that Prinz Kande could redshirt, which could be a very good thing, but Mangino will put the best players on the field regardless of class.
3- Phillip Strozier just got pushed to a back up role and that's okay because I like our safeties best when its Stuckey and Thorton.

Vernon Brooks is looking good (so stop worrying about him- he missed 2 days of practice last week to deal with a family emergency, maybe he doesn't start the season opener but he will be a main cog once the games get more important)

Julian Jones an undersized LB recruit that could blow people up never made it to campus. Does that suck, yeah a little bit, I though he'd be a good ball player but if he shows up maybe we don't get Brooks and this also gives us one more scholly for the 2010 class where we are off to a great start and have already turned down guys that we would have drooled over a couple of years ago.

Mangino said the O line is looking better and they have had "a very good camp, I'm encouraged"

Cites Jeff Wheeler as a guy who is having the best camp he's ever had and the "light has gone on" also said that Oneygbule and Laptad are having good camps- (YAY DE PLAY)

Its pretty clear that Mangino has a boner for Tharp.

I really like how Mangino hasn't tipped his hand about moving KM to WR full time, one it keeps Pick and the others in check and it also gives teams a chance to underestimate KM at WR, which means 100 catches this year.

Rock Chalk

Check out all the new helmets in the KU room

2009-08-19T08:27:00.002-05:00

Get ready for the Xavier era

2009-08-18T18:54:00.002-05:00

Did you hear this guy today? He is awesome.

Some dumb reporter - What's your necklace all about?
X- its a warrior deal, I'm a freaking warrior I'll eat defenders and kill a cat. Kellen Winslow isn't a soldier but I'm a warrior.

Some other dumb reporter- What's your favorite place to eat?
X- Henry T's, they have bomb quesadilla, I go there sometimes with RB and we pick up chicks and crush beers and talk about how airtight my game is.

Pee on reporter- What do you think of college?
X- "I'm looking forward to meeting new people and trying new things" That's an actual quote, you know he means, he wants to meet a whole gang of chicks and do stuff with them that he could have even dreamed of doing if he was at Memphis.
Remember X, KU girls are the craziest.

Rock Chalk

People with beards love winning National Championships

2009-08-18T09:59:00.000-05:00

Pretty exciting that Self doesn't have time for shaving, probably because he's trying to figure out how we won't win a game by 30.

Rock Chalk

2010 PG recruiting

2009-08-16T12:55:00.000-05:00

For the longest time KU fans thought that Ray McCollum would be just like Elijah Johnson, a guy that was always a KU lean and it was just a matter of time before he pulled the trigger for the Jayhawks.

Well, that no longer appears to be the case. While at a national tournament McCollum told reporters he was still interested in KU but that KU just wasn't pursuing him as hard as they had been.
McCollum is a top 50-60 prospect.

So why would the coaches allegedly stop pursuing a PG like Ray?

Two reasons.

1- they like what they got at the PG spot in 2010, whether that is Tyshawn coming back for his Junior campaign or CJ Henry really is as good as his dad Carl says he is.
The only other option at the 1 is Elijah Johnson, but he has always seemed like a combo guard to me as opposed to a true point.

Or and I think and hope this is more likely

2- you think you can get someone better than a top 50 kid, an elite talent at the point.
Whether it be Josh Selby, Joe Jackson, Brandon Knight or Corey Joseph.

So that's a lot of guys that appear to be higher on the board for KU coaches and if that is the real reason for them supposedly backing off of McCollum then KU's PG future appears to be very bright.

Knight is a stud, the #1 overall prospect in the country and based on how freakishly good SF Harrison Barnes is, Knight must be other worldly.

Joseph is from Canada and has a brother playing at Minnesota.

Jackson is smaller, shorter than 6 Ft, but can get to the tin whenever he wants and is lighting quick.

Selby is the #2 rated PG by most and can play. He just re-opened his recruitment so its still unclear what he's thinking but KU is in the mix.

When you can lay off of a talent like McCollum then you must be sitting pretty with returning talent or future stars.

Rock Chalk
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Links and 3 fearles predictions

2009-08-15T08:29:00.003-05:00

2 quick notes on the recruiting front-
Football recruit Dave Clark from Indy Juco (or community college) tore his ACL and will miss this entire year (first reported by Jeremy Crabtree of Rivals.com) but this will likely scare away other teams that would have tried to pursue him, the negative is that he would of been very likely a 5 Star recruit when it was all said and done.
He will be in Lawrence next year and have 3 to play 3 so that is a MAJOR bonus for us.

In hoops Adriene Payne a top 20 guy and a 5 star Center has an in home visit scheduled with KU for the 14th of September.

http://www.kuathletics.com/view.gal?id=51436 (updated photos of Allen Field House construction)
They got a lot of work to do since Late Night is 2 months from tomorrow, but you Lew will make sure it is done or heads will roll, I'd guess they'll be done even before then so the team can start working out and they can show recruits the Phog (In home visits can start the 9th- so official visits aren't far behind that)

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4398914&name=katz_andy
Andy Katz on Player of the Year candidates. I for one really do believe Cole has a great shot at getting this, if he has developed more of a post game his PPG should go up and his boards and blocks should be steady too, playing for a highly ranked team won't hurt him either.

Since its 3 weeks until the start of the football season, here are 3 fearless predictions for the 3 phases of the game-

Offense -
1- Jake Sharp will rush for over 1,100 yards and have total yards (rushing and receiving) of over 1,500
2- TR5 will have less than 10 Ints this year and none in the non conference- he'll throw for another 3,000 yards and at least 34 TD's
3- Tim Biere will catch a lot more passes this year (less than 10 last year- i think 6 or 7) put him down for 25 this year at minimum

Defense-
1- Jake Laptad will have more than 10 sacks this and these 3 players will total 25 sacks - Laptad, Quinton Woods, Maxwell Onyegbule
2- Daymond Patterson will get his first career interception- after switching to corner midway last year he will be fully acclimated and will get the first pick 6 of the year
3- Our rushing defense will be in the top 15 in the country, watch

Special teams-
1- opposing teams average field position will be 3 to 5 yards worse than it was last year. Bransetter had to of gotten stronger in the off season so the length and hang time on his kicks should be better and we've never had the type of athletes we have this year so the coverage will be better. Mostly Mangino isn't going to let what happened last year happen again, he'll have it fixed.
2- Briscoe should return more kicks this year, but someone else will step up and be that return guy. After Marcus Hereford had an Eric Chenowith like collapse next year this will be something that will be improved as well.
3- Alonso Rojas will once again come up big in a big game by pinning opponents and this year it will lead to 3 safeties.

There you have it, if I'm right on all of those, its going to be a good year.

History Awaits
Rock Chalk

Defense jersey

2009-08-14T12:52:00.002-05:00

Thanks to everyone who voted and the votes show that Stuckey is the pick pretty unanimously.

However, I think I can make a strong argument for Daymond Patterson.

So here's what happens, KU has the ball and by some random act of god or when God decides to show mercy on our opponents he makes us punt. So at that point just throw on the defense jersey and get ready for a 3 and out, so no big deal there.

But when we stop someone and they have to tempt fate by kicking to our jitterbug of a PR I'll have a Stuckey jersey on (Rivera and Talib the past couple of years) it doesn't make much sense.

So if I go with Patterson then when we get a three and out, I just keep the jersey on and then when he takes it to the house, I look cool and I don't have to change my jersey as often.

That's reasonable, plus I have a super man crush on Patterson and almost got his jersey last year, so I'm open to comments this probably won't be decided for a couple more weeks.

Rock Chalk

just a couple more weeks

2009-08-13T21:01:00.002-05:00

While I was jogging (walking) after work this evening I heard a local high school band practicing which means football season is almost here.

Here's a couple of things that I doubt we'll see from KU this year but I would really like to see.

1- 4 QB set (Reesing, KM, Steward and Pick)
Put two of them out wide, KM and Steward are both WR's now anyway and then one as the QB and the other as a RB.
Why do I want to see this, I don't know it seems like trickeration would be at an all time high and it gives the D another look.
Another reason I like this is because I think Pick can really run and it sets up some wildcat type formation and direct snaps.
A variation of this would be to have Pick come in and then split TR5 out wide, and then let Pick throw it or run some option read, give the D one more thing to be cognisant of and see what happens.

2- I Formation
Why, I think our center and guards are going to be a lot better than they were last year and running the ball of the gut should be easier, especially if you throw in a FB.
Maybe I'm reaching a bit here, but with the advent of the spread all D's are trying to get smaller and quicker at all positions so playing a little smash mouth could be effective.
Like the above idea it shows the D something different and gets some different personnel in.

3- Everybody at Memorial Stadium on September 5th.

Rock Chalk

Hoops recruiting starting to take shape with football sprinkles

2009-08-13T08:02:00.001-05:00

First and foremost, before anyone freaks out, Vernon Brooks is back on campus and will practice today, great news for the linebacking squad. (rivals.com)

Highly rated PG prospect (5th best PG - 18th overall per Rivals.com) Joe Jackson while small in size under 6-0" has a big game and is now down to KU, Memphis (he's from Memphis) and Tenn.

Self has said he wants a point guard in this class (2010) so this would be a huge get for the Hawks.

PG Josh Selby (#7 overall per Rivals.com) and PF Terrance Jones (#15) both appear to have a good amount of interest in KU.

SG Doron Lamb (#19 overall) has already visited UK and will visit KU and OU. He went to the same HS, Rice in Brooklyn, as KU National Champion, Russell Robinson. I really like Self's chances with this guy.

2010 commit Royce Wooldrige will be in Lawrence for Late Night in the Phog along with 2011 Guard Josiah Turner from California

2011 stud (#7 overall) SG Brad Beal from St Louis is considering visiting for Late Night as well.

2012 stud Perry Ellis from Wichita (generally regarded as the top ranked player in the class if not top 2) will be visiting Memphis for their Late Night where his sister plays on the women's team. I'm not going to read much into this because they no longer have Cal and he's a BIG KU lean.

JP Tokoto, who impressed at KU's Elite Camp and received an offer is schedule to attend Late Night. KU has been rumored to be the team to beat for this stud.

Over in football land-
Justin McCay a machine from Meige who plays WR and LB has apparently committed to OU. KU's chances of getting him were minimal so now they can concentrate on other targets and if he plays LB at OU it will help KU with Trayvon Henry the 15th best LB in the class of 2010 from Oklahoma.

Theshiver.com reported that Martize Barr a WR from Washington, DC is scheduled to visit KU in September sometime and he is planning on committing on his visit (assuming the coaches allow him to and he isn't too far down their board) he also said that he believes his HS teammate Avery Williams (RB or ATH) could commit with him that weekend.
I like Williams a lot more than I like Barr, but I don't know anything about Barr.
I do believe Williams is not the first option for the coaches at RB so we'll see if anything happens from this.

More Media day fun and knowledge

2009-08-11T20:01:00.003-05:00

A little copy and paste from Jesse Newell of LJW's media day coverage, my notes in ( )

For anyone who is in a hurry, here's a Cliff Notes version of what Mangino had to say.

• The linebacking position still needs a lot of work and still needs a lot of attention. Some of the young guys are putting heat on the veterans. (this is going to have to be monitored constantly and hopefully the 3 best guys are out there whether they're 5th year seniors or true frosh)

• One or two of the freshmen receivers will probably be in the rotation this fall. (McDougald is one and I'd be surprised if another one was out there, although if DJ Beshears who played WR in HS is returning KO's then he very well could be in the 2nd or 3rd string WR)

• The team has a chance to be really good and deep at the running-back position. (yep- agreed)

• The Jayhawks will have more than five quality offensive linemen. (great to hear)

• Defensive lineman Duane Zlatnik has made lots of improvement, and Mangino is hoping that he will be in the rotation to help the team. (sounds really god he is very big and very athletic, I'll never forget his HS highlight reel when he was catching bubble screens, it was unreal)

• On linebacker Angus Quigley: “His growth at that position has not been nearly as fast as I’d like for it to be.”

• On the switch to offensive tackle for Darius Parish: “Darius had offensive line written all over him from Day 1.” (well hopefully he can contribute, don't be surprised if he somehow ends up starting at RT and Spikes gets moved over to RG, that would be one big ass side on the right)

Mangino said the team didn't have the defensive line depth to move Parish to O-line last year, but the coach thinks Parish has found a home at offensive tackle.

• On junior-college linebacker Vernon Brooks: “I can’t tell you what impact, if any at all, that he’ll have.” Brooks left camp today to attend to a family emergency, and the coach said he didn't know when the linebacker would be back. (thoughts and prayers with his family, especially if our LB's are not doing so hot, we need him more than ever)

• Junior-college defensive end Quintin Woods is not just a pass-rush guy, but he can also be a good run-stopper, too. He still needs to get stronger, though.

• The coach said that his teams needed to take the next step and win against the OUs, UTs and Texas Techs of the world. “I didn’t come here to be 6-5, 7-4 every year, and everybody just think that’s good.” (music to my ears, this is the year we get to he next level, dream big win big)

• KU's base defensive set is 4-3 (not a 4-2-5), but the team has modified its nickel package. (we'll see that makes me thing they are going to play 3 safeties instead of 3 CB's- but if the LB's are slow to progress they will have to figure out something)

• On freshman linebacker Huldon Tharp: “He’s going to be out there playing. He has been impressive as a freshman. I think it’s a matter of time before he wins a job. I think we’re just counting the days.”

• Junior linebacker Drew Dudley has done nice things and is improved.

• Linebacker Justin Springer has not gotten a lot of work because of injuries, and the coach can’t tell what he will be able to contribute this year. (needs to get healthy only if for SPT)

• Offensive lineman Ben Lueken had medical considerations, but ultimately decided to leave the program because he wanted a fresh start. (having your teammate run over you in car usually ends in "needs a fresh start")

• On punt returns: Daymond Patterson has looked good, Bradley McDougald also will get a chance.

• Dezmon Briscoe will probably do kickoff returns. The coach wants to keep Dez healthy, but if he’s best guy at the position, the team will need him there. (well let's hope the D doesn't allow many points because I'm not that stoked about him being back there)

• Cornerback Anthony Davis is much improved and is understanding his position better. He's right there battling for a starting position, and there's a good chance he’ll be one of the starting corners. (congrats to him for hitting the books and making grades when a lot of people said he wouldn't. I read today that he was going to get offered by OU, but they didn't want to risk that he would be ineligible so he wound up at KU and it looks like we are lucky to have him, keep up the great work- all I heard was great things about him from today's practice)

• Junior-college running back Daniel Porter has a good attitude and is super serious. He's quick, has good speed, and the coach doesn’t think he will struggle with the transition from junior-college to a Division-I tempo. (need someone to take the load off of Sharp so this is good)

Rock Chalk

Football practice notes

2009-08-11T10:07:00.004-05:00

Below are all tweets from J Brady McCollough with my thoughts in (parentheses) from open practice and media day in Lawrence-

Kerry Meier is still taking reps at QB (this should only be happening for the first 10 days until the staff is certain that Kale Pick can be the backup, then it'll be full time for KM @ WR)

DT Darius Parish is practicing at OT (RT that is which is odd, I had him slated for OG due to his size, but we'll see)

Ed Warinner to frosh RB Toben Opurum: Run faster! (heard a lot of good reports about Daniel Porter lately, so its very possible that Opurum could RS this year which wouldn't be the worst thing ever especially if Porter is capable)

LB Justin Springer not participating in drills, Drew Dudley in with first unit (yawn)

KU showing a pistol formation near the goal line (Imitating anything the Chiefs do is not a recipe for winning but this might be the exception, I'm sure this is Mangino's way of showing all the media there that he isn't showing them anything at all)

KO returners: Briscoe, Patterson, Wilson, McDougald, Stuckey, Beshears (hmmmmm, I would put Beshears ahead of Stuckey in the race and Wilson behind Beshears- I really think this is going to be McDougald or Briscoe with Beshears as a dark horse candidate)

DT Richard Johnson Jr looks really impressive (a quick DT looking good, exciting)

Practice over. Most impressive unknowns: DE Quintin Woods, S Lubbock Smith, WR Bradley McDougald.
(Also heard good things about Anthony Davis at CB, Woods looking good is the most exciting, because we need to get to the QB and hit the QB, its that easy)

Mangino says true freshman LB Huldon Tharp is on his way to starting at LB. Says he doesn't know what he can expect from Justin Springer. (I knew Tharp was going to be good but not this fast, so this is really great news, Mangino and company are making a killing off getting guys who some of the bigger name programs don't pursue because of injuries. Just off the top of my head, John Williams - possible starting LG, Jeff Spikes - started at LT and RT as a RS FR, should be the RT again this year and now Tharp)

Mangino likes RB transfer Daniel Porter, says he is one of fastest players on the team. (best case scenario he proves an able RB and helps with the load of carrying KU to a North division title, worst case scenario, he helps out on special teams, which are always underrated)

Mangino says Angus Quigley hasn't improved as much at LB as he would have liked at this point. (no big shock here, maybe he can help out in the bandit package as I guy that goes headhunting and contrubute on special teams- also maybe this means we shouldn't be as excited about Tharp, maybe Tharp just sucks less than Quigley)

Rock Chalk

Players ready to Win the North

2009-08-10T14:33:00.001-05:00

Received this e-mail from someone more socially connected than I am, all of the following statements are from facebook, whatever that is...

Richard BigTime Johnson Football camp starts today. Lets get it (Beast Mode)

Justin Springer the grind starts tomo!

Aj Dajuiceman Steward a journey of a thousand miles begins wit 1 step. Day 1

Alonso Rojas good successful first day..one step taken towards winning the north...

Rock Chalk

make sure you look good on Gameday

2009-08-09T15:23:00.001-05:00

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Football pratice underway - notes

2009-08-09T14:00:00.002-05:00

The most noteable thing is that Darius Parish has switched from DT to OG. He was in the 330 - 340 pound range last year and now is weighing 314.
This might actually be a really good switch for him, we'll have to wait and see, thankfully Kelting never wound up getting that jersey last year.

This switch (assuming there are no other switches) leaves the OL with better depth than it had a week ago, hopefully this move for Parish was going to happen regardless of the status of Lueken who is no longer with the squad.

Some other notes of interest -
Kerry Meier is still wearing the red jersey, that is reserved for QB's, but in the photos from KUAC he was seen catching balls not throwing them.

Tyrone Sellers, FR DE, looks a lot bigger than I thought he would. I still think he's going to be a RS but his ability to add weight will help the D-line down the line.

Travis Stephens, JR DT, from JUCO was late getting to campus this summer due to grades, but is eligible, on campus and at practice. He is billed as a quick DT in the mold of James McClinton and should offer some pressure from the gut.

Rell Lewis who had knee surgery following the Spring game has a brace on his knee but appears to be going at full speed.

Dezmon Briscoe participated in practice as you probable know, no one has said flat out that he made his grades but my guess is you wouldn't see him out there if he didn't.

Rock Chalk

Twitter shines a light on basketball rotation?

2009-08-07T07:40:00.000-05:00

So lately Marcus Morris joined the Twitter party and has nothing interesting to say.
Well unless you count the fact that he blatantly said he was playing the 3.

While I don't recommend listening to Marcus Morris on anything other than how to get a fatal technical at your biggest rival's pad, let pretend.

So say Marcus plays the 3 and let's say he starts since he has been tearing it this summer and hitting the weights like MJ hits prescription pills.

So your starting 5 is gonna look something like this.
1- Sherron Collins
2- Tyshawn Taylor
3- Marcus Morris
4- Thomas Robinson
5- Cole Aldrich

That's a bizarre looking line up, because Xavier Henry is going to start, there's no two ways about it.

Ok so Xavier Henry starts at the 2 and Tyshawn Taylor sits the bench.

Do you see where I'm going with this, Marcus Morris might get some minutes at the 3 but there is no way he's starting there.

You feel dumber for reading that, so do I.

While his skills are better and he's a lot bigger he appears to be the same mentally soft guy he was last year, oh well.

Football practice starts today.

Rock Chalk
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Saving you $ again

2009-08-06T21:32:00.000-05:00

This blog entry wouldn't be possible without the roomie who graciously picked up the Yahoo!.com/ Rivals College Football Preview mag.

So instead of spending $7 here's what they had to say about our beloved Jayhawks.

Dezmon Briscoe made 1st Team All- American.
Briscoe and Darrell Stuckey glossed the 1st team all Big 12.

TR5 was mentioned as a Heisman candidate, said it depends on how the team fairs.

KU was picked to win the North and then score 63 on OU, with Meier and Reesing each throwing 3 TD passes to each other. (Okay I made up the last part, but that's probably going to happen anyway)

They had KU slotted at #16 overall and projected them to match-up with California in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.

Rock Chalk
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Media guide fun

2009-08-06T11:25:00.000-05:00

The media guide is top tier this year.

The best part is some of the ridiculous quotes from players.
Example-
Todd Reesing's-
favorite website-
Southwest.com
Post college goals- learn to DJ
Football is- "indescribable through the modern english language. No spoken words can illustrate the complete inner satisfaction the sport unveils to those who play"

Really? How can you not love this guy.

Kerry Meier-
Football is-" An ongoing process about being able to operate in the present."

Huh? I love these guys what a bunch of wise asses.

Backup kicker John Millsap-
Football is - "what I kick"

Really.

If I played here's what my answers would be-
Favorite website- 1024mississippi.blogspot.com / rivals.com
Favorite athlete- chipper jones and kerry meier
Favorite activity other than football- (well Briscoe said X-box) eating greasy food and drinking hoppy beer
Post college dream- I'm living it
Football is - History Awaits

Rock Chalk
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

31 days left

2009-08-05T16:19:00.002-05:00

One month from today, I'll be sitting in Memorial Stadium watching warm ups and watching WR's dance in between reps.

Joy.

Here's 5 things I'm looking forward to getting more clarity on between now and kick off.

1- Briscoe's grades.
No Briscoe no North title, pretty simple. Anything is possible but I'll sleep a lot better and lose less hair if he is still on the team.

My prediction- Briscoe will catch 7 balls for 115 yards and 2 TD's in week 1.

2- Back-up RB
Sharp is going to have a bad ass year, I got a real good feeling. This will be the first time that he's the guy and I think him having 1K rushing is a lock.

For the backup I think its a 2 horse race with Daniel Porter and Toben Opurum. My money is on Toben with Rell Lewis being a backup and Deshaun Sands red shirting.

3- Quinton Woods, Jake Laptad & Maxwell Onegybule
These 3 DE's are crucial to our success, so any positive info about them is going to send me into hysteria. Plus when you go to KU game don't you have more fun when we are hitting the QB? You do, me too, lets be friends.

My prediction- Laptad I think is going to be very solid and Max O looked good through the Spring and the tail end of last year. Woods is supposed to be a stud and I don't think the staff brings him in unless he can deliver. I'm beyond stoked about this, trust me its scary.

4- Linebacker
With the switch to the 4-2-5, there is less of an emphasis on LB but I'm looking at this for a different reason.
Mainly I want to hear about the health of Justin Springer, which I have no reason to believe won't be exceptional. Even if Springer doesn't factor into the LB rotation he's a maniac on Special Teams and we need to shore that up in a big way.
Plus I want to know about Quigley, Bandit? And Vernon Brooks is supposed to be the bees knees and if he can really cover a slot receiver or TE that will make our D that much saltier.

5- Season tickets and KR
Hopefully season tickets are at 40K or more, Memorial needs to be packed every week and during the 4th quarter. If you don't want to see TR5's swan song then you're an idiot.

Kick Returner- Who the hell is it going to be, I'll believe its Briscoe when I see it until then I'm thinking its going to be Isiah Barfield or Bradley McDougald, but I have not a clue. Whoever it is it'd be real nice if they could actually return a kick.

What are you guys looking forward to?

We're getting close.

Rock Chalk

the summer and everything you wanted to know

2009-08-03T10:16:00.001-05:00

Since Fall practice is starting here in a matter of days, I thought now would be the perfect time to dish on all the random info I have gathered this summer, its random I know-

Eric McGriff looks good during testing (all players get tested for weight, vertical and other stuff that none of us can do at a high level)

Dezmon Briscoe enjoys pizza and burgers- not sure how he likes them but those are his faves, besides his love for simple food and love for video games, I feel like Briscoe might be my brother from another mother.

Jake Sharp ran stairs so hard the first day (of conditioning) he puked and just kept on going, that kid is a tough SOB

Jonathon Wilson joined the puke party as well. (since then I have heard about a number of other guys puking while training, so we shouldn't be worried that they didn't put the time in this summer)

Kevin Young might factor in the DE rotation, getting to campus in January is really helping him add good weight and get bigger (maybe Mangino was including him when he was discussing the ability of the front 4 to get to the QB- remember Erik Lund thought this guy was too small when he was next to Lund's tailgate)

When Reesing was asked his favorite thing about the team? "We spat up." - TO (that is what the team calls Reesing)

Fb talk: (from early summer)

our defense is underrated. - per mangino

Mangino said that this is the fastest defense we have had.

Wright is going to be awesome, springer is going to be awesome. (this was before we got Vernon Brooks who should start at LB so it makes me feel better that there is additional talent there)

Sands won't play.(I'm assuming that means he's red shirting, so there's one less guy in the KO return equation)

Guy from Ohio (Bradley McDougald) is more advanced than briscoe when he came in.

After TO threw the third interception against tech he was just making up plays and giving fake hand signals and laughing. (What was he supposed to do there was no way our D was stopping that 3 ring circus of an offense)

Hatch will stay at center.

Thorsen doesn't really have the talent.(That is kind of depressing because I was expecting him to factor into the OL rotation at RG and be backup center maybe he provides depth) (KM said that Thorsen was a guy to watch on the OL, so this will be very interesting to monitor in August) because we clearly have conflicting reports, although Meier's quote is more recent than the other statement so I'd lean towards believing that.

John Williams should start over Capra. Coach said Williams is a freak. (maybe its the fact that he weighs 338 pounds and is still quick, sounds freakish to me)- see further down

They are trying to get tim (Biere) the ball more.

Zlatnik is battling for a spot.(At DT, too big to play DE)

Daymond Patterson has gotten crazy good. And was the talk of the town in conditioning drills, guy can fly.

The team likes home games just as much as road games (probably because most of our football fans suck and leave at halftime or don't show up because the game is at 11AM, lame)

Players not looking forward to traveling to UTEP (can't blame them)

The offense won't change when TR5 leaves, but will include more read option assuming KP starts because he is a running threat, the same could be said for Matthews if he were to stay at QB and win the job.

Based on some reports I think the possibility of Christian Matthews moving to WR (from QB) is highly possible, and this would explain why the staff has been actively recruiting multiple QB's.

AJ Steward is officially at WR, I have been confused about this for about a year, but there is the truth.

Tanner Hawkinson still hasn't gotten to 290, which what the staff wants him to be at. But he still has about 80 days left to get that weight so not to worry, yet. (he's at 285 as of 6/25)

I'm sure its always been there but the staff is no-nonsense, they have made players come in at 5:30AM on a Saturday to work this off season.

When the players get to the weight room, they are very focused and take lifting very seriously, probably because they are going to seriously rearrange some faces this year. - assistant coach JJ

John Williams is at 310 (as of 7/31) and is competing with Carl Wilson at LG (go ahead and bet your house in Leawood on Williams) Williams started his RS FR year at 340 but says that he's better at 310.

Sal Capra and Trevor Marogeneli are battling it out at RG. (I'm pulling for Marogeneli- because that would give us 5 returning starters on the OL for 2010, and let Capra be the backup at RG and center)

And there's a good possibility that Thorsen is in that mix as well. I gotta good feeling that Capra or Thorsen is going to win out, I'm pulling for anyone but Capra just because I'd prefer to keep the whole line intact for the next 2 years.

I had a chance to spend some time with Tim Biere and he's a beast. Last year he showed that he could block the shit out of some fools so that should be expected again as well as him flexing out some more a la Rucker and Coffman from missery.

He seemed to think he was going to get more receptions this year.

Look for Kerry Meier's role at WR to be a little different, he's going to be playing the position vacated by Dexton Fields, presumably when the TE is flexed out and there are 3 WR's.

On the depth chart that was just released, Briscoe was listed as the #1 KR but don't sell Bradley McDougald short for that spot.

We've heard from multiple people that Daymond Patterson is going to be a special player at KU and unsolicited I was told the same thing, the guy can fly. He just needs a crease to get to the crib on punt returns.

On the depth chart that was released there are not any of the JUCO transfers or freshmen on there, expect that to change big time.

Rock Chalk

KU lands commit # 10 and 11, 12, 13?

2009-07-31T15:03:00.005-05:00

UPDATE-
Zach Bolton, the 86th best player in Texas and the 18th ranked OG just verbally committed to KU.
Out of Houston, TX he's a great pickup for the OL. With Mundine and him officially verballed, that makes 11 known commitments, plus the possibility of all the crap below.

Keeston Terry is also a Jayhawk, Rivals.com just confirmed it this evening. Keeston is a 4 star WR and the highest rated recruit in 2010 for KU.
Keeston's commitment along with Bolton and Mundine makes for 12 commits for KU.

The Hawks are now well over half way to having this class filled and its flush with talent. Great sign of things to come.

KU just received a verbal commit from Jimmay Mundine a LB from Denison, Texass. Mundine received an offer after his performance at the Super Jayhawk camp and was one of the very few to get an offer at that camp.

So he's number 10 on the board. He told Jon Kirby that his teammate Jaqwaylin Arps a DE is going to commit today as well to KU.
So that's makes 11 for all you math majors.

This morning there was a rumor (that has yet to be verified) that Keeston Terry, 4 star WR, has decommited from Nebraska and is going to join KU and follow in his fathers footsteps.

SO that would be 12.

Jatshaun Beachum is on campus currently and he is load of a boy who is said to be favoring KU, and hopefully he'll be lucky number 13.

Rock Chalk

p.s. - tell your buddies to sign up as followers, I'd like to have a lot of people on board when we start the season.

And the summer goodie bag is coming on Monday

K-sucks is dumb

2009-07-31T11:29:00.002-05:00

This is an e-mail I got from one of the loyal blog readers-

Carson Coffman is guaranteeing K-State will “surpass” six wins this year. See it here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/ncaa/07/29/big.12.notebook.ap/index.html

I looked at their schedule, and I see 5 wins… maybe.

(this was sent to me before one of their actually decent / good OL guys was knocked out for the season, whoops)

See this is the thing I'm talking about for Friday fun day, fan bases and other players making a complete ass out of themselves. All the while we just keep our mouths shut and win games.

Being in the cellar sure is going to make it hard to recruit there.

Rock Chalk

Just something to think about

2009-07-30T13:23:00.001-05:00

(This is a microcosm of what happens when I'm left at home by myself)

January 2nd.

That's the day of the Alamo Bowl and the Cotton Bowl.

The hoops squad will also be doing some teabagging that day in Philly on Temple and there's also a 60% chance that the Morris twins will do something stupid.

So there's a bit of a quandary if TR5 and troops play in the cotton bowl its going to be blackberry overload.
The cotton bowl kicks off at 3PM CST and the hoops game tips off at 2:30 or 4PM, I believe it depends on how much Vitale's stomach needs to be pumped after the Duke game.

The Alamo Bowl is that night, which means I can get hammered in San Antonio watching X and buddies smoke Temple and then watch the Fighting Mangino's lay out some rum dum Big Televen team.

Just in case you hadn't thought about it yet but don't spend too much time thinking about it because this football season is going to be Roses.

Rock Chalk

I like my QB to PARTY

2009-07-30T08:12:00.005-05:00

Apparently Todd went to some WT party, and who wouldn't, and he owned the party, straight dominated it, here's some proof.
While K-sucks fans might say he's "gay" I say he just rolled your first round draft pick 3 times, so maybe by "gay" they mean totally bad ass.

Rock Chalk

KU lands commit #9

2009-07-29T14:15:00.002-05:00

Jon Kirby at Rivals.com just broke the news that Justin Castor a 6-5 kicker from Colorado has given a verbal commitment to the Fighting Manginos!

He was being recruited by Metamucil in Manhattan, Colorado and Stanford.

Don't know much about him, but with the small number of scholarships it seems real weird that they would offer and take a kicker, but maybe Bransetter isn't getting it done like they would like (cue banging head into desk) and they believe this tall person is the answer.

After doing some reading it seems like he kicked the snot out of the ball at the KU kicking camp (I didn't know they had one either, so don't feel bad) and Mangino and crew made him a high priority, so if the staff wants him then I want him and if he can consistently kick it threw the back of the end zone, color me excited.

Rock Chalk

Xavier Henry is in LAWRENCE!!!!!!!!

2009-07-28T20:12:00.002-05:00

At the rec.
"he's all ripped" per my source playing pickup ball with one of the twins, juneman, releford, tyshawn.

SO eat it, only going to get that info here.

Rock Chalk

Mangino press video

2009-07-28T20:07:00.001-05:00

Videos and more

2009-07-28T14:07:00.005-05:00

Kerry Meier- like Thorson as a guy to watch on the OL (possibly solidify the RG spot which would also mean in 2010 we would have all 5 starters back) and also said "I confident he'll be here" when discussing Dez Briscoe. (rivals.com- who had the best coverage easily, even though kusports.com put up these easy to copy youtubes)

Bowl games in successive seasons for the first time was an achievement but it’s not Kansas’ destination, Coach Mark Mangino said.

“It means we’re going in the right direction,” Mangino said. “We’re getting better all the time, but to be very honest we’re not where we want to be. We want to be a team that competes for championships year in and year out in the Big 12 and we’re not there yet.

“You have to beat the best in our league. You have to start doing that.”
(thanks kc star)

Interview with Mangino

2009-07-28T13:06:00.004-05:00

(no reason for KM photo other than that's what 100 catches looks like)

An Interview With:

KANSAS COACH MARK MANGINO

PETER IRWIN: Coach Mark Mangino from Kansas University has joined us. Coach, your thoughts about the summer and the upcoming season.

COACH MANGINO: Thank you. We've had a good off-season. Spring ball has gone very well for us. Able to get some work in some key spots that we need to develop.

You know, according to our strength coach, he's really excited about the way the summer has gone. Great enthusiasm. All of our scholarship players and most of our walk-ons have stayed in Lawrence and participate in the program.

He's very excited about what's taking place. Thursday is the last workout, and then the players will go home for a week. And we'll get back on August the 6th and begin training camp. We're looking forward to it. A lot of enthusiasm and great expectations that we have as coaches and as players for this year's team. We're looking forward to it.

PETER IRWIN: Coach, thank you.

Questions?

Q. Mark, the quick look on Kansas is great offense, suspect defense. Is that an accurate look? And if not, what are we missing?

COACH MANGINO: Well, just like everything else, there's speculation that's what it will be. I think we'll have a chance to have a pretty good offense, no question about that. But I think our defense will be better than a lot of folks outside of our program think. I like what we're doing. I think our defensive line has a chance to be pretty good. I think for the first time in a long time, I think we will have some natural pass rushers that can help put pressure on the quarterback, which is something that we've lacked. We're going to have some new linebackers.

But three years ago we lost all of our linebackers, and things worked out. I think they're probably more athletic maybe than the kids that were working at linebacker, maybe in the past, when you talk top to bottom.

The secondary for us will return a great player in Darrell Stuckey. We have a veteran guy that can play two positions in Justin Thornton, can play corner or safety for you. Daymond Patterson returns, after playing as a true freshman at corner.

We have Phillip Strozier, who's been a nickelback for us for a long time. Chris Harris.

So I think the only area that's going to be a little bit inexperienced is the linebackers. But we've been down this road before, and I feel really good about the approach those kids have taken, and I feel really comfortable with Bill Miller coaching them as well.

Q. Obviously, when you recruited Todd back in high school, there weren't a lot of people that were looking at him. I just wonder if you could talk about how far he's come and the development he's made since he's been in your program over the course of his career there.

COACH MANGINO: Sure. Todd -- you know, Todd was overlooked by most programs.

There's no question. But he's a case in point where some kids would pout about that and feel bad for themselves and say, you know, they got a bad break in life. He and his dad jumped in a car and went and visited schools that had an interest in him, and he was selling himself. He did a good job of selling himself to me because, when he showed up and I met him for the first time in our office in the summer of 2003, '4 -- I can't even remember.

Anyhow, he was still a senior in high school.

He really had this swagger about him. When he shook my hand, he looked me right in the eye. He is full of energy. He was intelligent. He could speak on subjects other than just football.

And he had a bounce in his step.

I've told this story before. He went on a campus tour with one of our administrative staffers.

So the coaches came down to my office to ask me what I thought of him because I'd already watched the tape. And I can almost quote, I said, he's small. He's really small. But I like him. And if we can get him, let's get him. Let's squeeze him a little bit.

I just liked him. There was just something about him that he had -- he exuded confidence,and he just -- he was just like a stick of dynamite.
As Paul Harvey says, you know the rest of the story.

Q. Following up on that, can you talk specifically about how much he has meant, the kinds of things he's done over the last few years, and how important he is this year.

COACH MANGINO:

Well, when we started out at KU, when I first arrived, we had a good college quarterback by the name of Bill Whittemore, who did some really good things for us. He was a little bigger than Todd but not much.

But he was able to give us a little bit of a jump start when we were really bad. But then he had some injuries and wasn't able to finish one of the seasons. And after that, we kind of just went on a merry-go-round, injury after injury.

I can't even tell you. I asked Mike Strauss one time to see how many quarterbacks started for us during that period, and we still can't nail down how many different guys.

I do remember this: We played a wide receiver that never played a down of college football in his life at quarterback and played him in Lincoln, Nebraska, against Nebraska. It was the closest thing to coaching suicide that you can imagine. But we didn't have anybody left. It was just one of those things. We didn't have stability at the quarterback position.

What Todd has brought to us is stability at that position, and not only stability but excellence.

He has gotten better every year because he works at it. He studies tape. He takes his time away from the game field seriously when he's in meeting rooms and when he's on the practice field.

He's been able to spark our offense. He's been able to ad lib at times, which is good once in a while. Sometimes he likes to ad lib a lot, and we have to pull him back in. We have to reel him back in a little bit.

But that's what makes him unique, you know, the idea that he believes in himself and that he can make plays when there's not one. Kind of really reflects his personality; that he always thinks he can overcome. He always wants to prove the opposition wrong. Those traits have served him well.

But he is an important part of our team.

He's brought stability and excellence to a position that must be good.

As I said earlier today, the quarterback is the chauffeur. If you don't have a chauffeur, the car doesn't move. He's the guy that makes it roll.

Q. Been talking to some former players, Coach. They said that toughness is something that you pride your teams on having. How much emphasis do you place on having a tough team, and why is that such an important part of the program?

COACH MANGINO: Well, I can't say that I set out every day to do things to make them tougher. I think it's a mindset and it's a mentality.

The second part of your question, why is it important? Football is a tough game. If you're not tough mentally and physically, you can't play this game. It's for tough, competitive people.

And also, having coached other schools in the conference before I went to Kansas, the label on Kansas was they weren't very tough. So if I was going to be the coach at Kansas, I was used to being around tough football teams, we were going to have to be tougher. You don't ask the kids to be tougher. It's not that you shout and holler and tell them they've got to be tougher and get after them. No, you hold them to a high standard. You finish every drill.You finish every play. When you think you don't have anything else, you're able to give a little bit more.

When things are tough in a tight game, the guy that's mentally tough will stand up and make plays. The guys that pull themselves out of drills because they're tired, you don't want them on the field at the end of the game when it's third and one, fourth and one. You can't win with it. And our kids, they meet those high standards, and it helps develop toughness. Plus we like to recruit tough kids. Sometimes we fail in that area, but we like kids that love to play this game.

I think if you love to play football, the toughness is there. That's why we get kids that love to play the game.

Q. Mark, can you talk a little about the transition for Angus Quigley, the linebacker, and how he's adjusted to that. Do you feel like he's comfortable and found a home?

COACH MANGINO: Randy, Angus is a very talented young man. But it's my job as a coach to put talented kids in positions on the field that they have the greatest chance of having success.

We've used Angus at running back quite a bit, and, you know, if Angus was playing Division II or Division III, he would be a really good running back because he's big and strong and can probably just muscle people. But at this level he really doesn't fit the mold we're looking for for a running back. But he's talented.

You know, we're talking a guy that's 6'3",230, runs very well, and we just felt like, hey, maybe a linebacker position might suit him. Now, we threw him in there. We threw him to the wolves, so to speak, because we only have so much time to get ready. But it seemed in spring ball that every day he got a little better, he learned more and more, he gained confidence, and I think he will help us at that position, I do.

He wanted to do it. I think he saw the running back situation, and he hadn't had much success at it, so he was anxious to tackle a new challenge too. And he's taken it on with a very good attitude and wanting to be a good linebacker for us.

PETER IRWIN: Coach, they're going to let

you off. Best of luck for the season.

Media Day highlights and tidbits

2009-07-28T12:45:00.003-05:00

(some video of KU recruit Daniel Porter who is eligible for kickoff in 5 weeks)

All of the following quotes are from Rivals.com, KUsports.com or somewhere else--

Darrell Stuckey -
Said that the O getting all the attention is going to make the D play with a chip on their collective shoulders. - rivals.com

Oklahoma junior defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, on Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing:

"He's a really good player. We have so many good quarterbacks in the Big 12 that it just gets frustrating. He is small, and you may think because he's so small that he can't make plays, but that guy can play, for real. Sometimes, I feel bad for him because he is so small. It was rough because I couldn't see him. He was hiding."

Mangino about Todd Reesing, his quarterback:
"The quarterback is the chauffeur. If you don't have a chauffeur, the car doesn't move."

Random Mangino quotes:
"I think our defense will be better than a lot of folks outside our program think."
And:
"I think for the first time in a long time, we will have some natural pass rushers." (I'll have more on these 2 quotes later in a special summer recap blog)

12:45 p.m. update: By Dugan Arnett -kusports.com
Former Missouri quarterback and current Washington Redskin Chase Daniel has wandered into the lobby of the Westin. He's just kind of hanging out, wearing some cargo shorts. Just living the dream. (what a tool, hey remember how your last 2 Big 12 games went... oh yeah you lost to superior QB's- what a turd)

From Mangino on a sampler platter of topics -
On Dezmon Briscoe's return from suspension: "I anticipate that he will (be there when practice starts in August). He has work to do (academically), and he's not the only one. There's several players that have work to do. And I tell them, 'It's pretty simple: You get your work done, you're with us in August. You don't get your work done, you're not. And we don't cry about it, and we don't feel bad about it — we go to the next player But I don't anticipate any issues."

On the status on Ben Lueken, who was hospitalized following an incident outside of Jayhawker Towers this spring, forcing him to miss the Spring Game: "His status is still up in the air. We're still visiting with Ben and his family and medical people, our staff. We really don't know just yet how that's going to play out."

On Tanner Hawkinson's development after a switch from tight end to left tackle: "Over the years, I've kind of made a living taking tight ends and making them tackles. Some of them have made a lot of money. Adrian Jones and Todd Weiner. I can go on and on about that. When I think of those guys and I think about (Hawkinson), he's the same type of guy. He's real athletic. He weighed in the other day at 284, 285 (he was listed at 230 pounds out of high school). He's a good kid, and he's done everything we asked him to do to get ready for that position."

On receiver Kerry Meier's potential switch to full-time receiver: "I haven't (made a decision yet), but I'm going to do that rather quickly. We're going to get into training camp and we're going to go about a week or 10 days and study that pretty carefully. If we feel good about Kale (Pick, projected No. 2 quarterback) and Jordan (Webb, projected No. 3 quarterback), then we're going to go ahead and make him a full-time receiver."

Mangino on 810AM
Blah blah blah - I love Todd I would buy Todd flowers and take him to a nice dinner. The TR5 lovefest from Mangino is classic, unreal.
Says he's more valuable to his team than any other player in the country and has no idea why TR doesn't get more love from the media.
You gotta love how he doesn't come out and say it but secretly loves all the doubters, I think its a fair assumption to say this is going to be one mean team.

And finally on Briscoe "I think he'll be fine but just like anyone else we'll move on"

Rock Chalk

The new field is AMAZING

2009-07-27T13:26:00.002-05:00

Props to Matt K for sending these to me, GREAT STUFF.

Practice starts in 8 days

Rock Chalk

What's the deal with Royce Woolridge

2009-07-26T18:08:00.002-05:00

Royce was the first player to commit to KU after the National Championship in 2008 and he gave his verbal pledge before the start of his Junior year.
So you're thinking, what a stud, what a can't miss prospect.
Add the fact that his dad, Orlando, used to play in the league and that he was told he could grow to as tall as 6-8, and you had every right to be excited.

Kurtis Townsend watched him play last summer and he just went off, dropping 40 and 50 point games like it was his job and then he missed some time on the AAU circuit and he hasn't really done anything worth blogging about.

Is this a case of expectations being too high or is this a case of him simply under delivering?

Well, I think its a case of under delivering.
Sure he was state player of the year in Arizona his junior year, not a hot bed for hoops talent by any means, and he led them to a state title.

But since then he has dropped in the Rivals rankings to a weak #96.
Every report from every tourney he plays in is very blah. He scored 20 points blah hit a couple 3's blah etc.

While in Lawrence he couldn't hit a 3 to save his life at the Jayhawk invitational.

So where does that him?
Is this class of 2010 just that outstanding that there are 95 better players than him or is it that he leveled off / peaked too soon?

I think there is a lot of talent in the class of 2010, but not as much as 2009, with Royce it appears he has plateaued.

I've sat around and thought of all the reasons why his numbers aren't more eye popping.
Is he the only weapon on his team and everybody just doubles him and gets the ball out of his hands?
No, some guy from his squad just got offered by 3 teams in one day due to his play this last week in Vegas highlighted by an offer from Indiana.

So with that out of the question it seems like our expectations of Royce need to be adjusted and when he hits campus, if he even makes it, Brady and Tyrel will be seniors, and maybe Royce is the next 4 year guy that is a spot up shooter?
Who knows, maybe I'm wrong and he gets to campus and starts going against Elijah Johnson and other talents in the back court and his game gets sharper.

With this in mind should we be concerned about other young guys that have been offered, like guys from the 2012 class?
I'm not worried about it, I think Royce is the exception to recruiting early and not the rule.

Rock Chalk

Season Tickets arrive!!!

2009-07-24T12:32:00.000-05:00

Its Christmas in July!

Rock Chalk
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Friday fun day

2009-07-24T08:07:00.000-05:00

New turf - edit w/ picture

2009-07-23T22:20:00.001-05:00

Obviously this is less effective without pictures but I'll work on that. (see above- hard to tell but that's all we have for now)
You'll remember that you heard it hear first that the new turf at Todd Reesing's Adult Playground having a much larger Jayhawk.

My sources- kid sister- have informed me that the end zones are going to be Blue.
Why is that important?

Because that is going to be the new permanent residence of Jake Sharp and Kerry Meier.

Rock Chalk
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

The media is dumb

2009-07-23T17:04:00.002-05:00

Below is Nebraska's conference football schedule, since they are going to win the North with their new unproven QB I just just I'd share with everyone the biggest piece of crap ever. Go Big Red.
(forcefully jams knife into neck)

Thu, Oct 08
Missouri * at Columbia, Mo.

Sat, Oct 17
Texas Tech * (they'll lose this game, even if it is in Lincoln, I really don't see them winning this game, no matter how good Nebraska's D is, their offense will not be able to run with T-Tech not this early in the season)

Sat, Oct 24
Iowa State *

Sat, Oct 31
Baylor * at Waco, Texas (They'll lose this game too, on the road in Waco, the David Koresh followers will be all jacked up and Robert Griffin is no joke)

Sat, Nov 07
Oklahoma * (In lincoln or not, they could play this game Cancun for all I care, this is going to be a BLOWOUT)

Sat, Nov 14
Kansas * at Lawrence, Kan. (Eat it sker fans, Lawrence has been unkind to you. I just heard yesterday that this is going to be Blue Out 2, and the last time we rolled a Blue out, we dropp 76 on you and didn't even blink. Senior day for TR5, KM, Stuckey and Sharp and a couple others from Kansas, plus this will be Briscoe's last game in Lawrence, you're getting your ass whipped)

Sat, Nov 21
Kansas State *

Fri, Nov 27
Colorado * at Boulder (this is kind of a toss up)

That's 4 losses, go find me 4 losses on KU's slate, I'll be here waiting.

Rock Chalk

Baseball might be pretty damn good next year

2009-07-23T16:44:00.002-05:00

http://www.kuathletics.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/072309aaa.html

Looks like 2 of KU's guys playing summer ball made some random All Star team, both are putting up sick numbers especially Blankeship, who's a lefty pitcher, and you can never have enough pitching.

Rock Chalk

Basketball schedule is released

2009-07-22T13:27:00.002-05:00

I have a couple issues with this schedule, most notably that once again the Big 12 has done our biggest rival a huge favor by scheduling the KU @ MU game for the last game of the season.
I'm so mad I don't even want to look or know how many times it has happened in the last couple of years but I know its been more times than MU has had to play in Lawrence on Senior Day. Whatever, I hate the Big 12 its a mess of a conference and whoever can look me straight in the face and tell me that their scheduling doesn't blow is a really good liar.

See below for the mass amount of victories.

Rock Chalk

Nov. 3
Fort Hays State (Exhibition) Lawrence

Nov. 10
Pittsburg State (Exhibition) Lawrence

Nov. 13
Hofstra Lawrence

Nov. 17
Memphis St. Louis, Mo.

Nov. 19
TBA Lawrence

Nov. 23
TBA Lawrence

Nov. 27
TBA Lawrence

Dec. 2
Alcorn State Lawrence

Dec. 6
UCLA Los Angeles, Calif.

Dec. 9
Radford Lawrence

Dec. 12
La Salle Kansas City, Mo. (Sprint Center)

Dec. 19
Michigan Lawrence

Dec. 22
California Lawrence

Dec. 29
Belmont Lawrence

Jan. 2
Temple Philadelphia, Pa.

Jan. 5
Cornell Lawrence

Jan. 9
Tennessee Knoxville, Tenn.

Jan. 13
Nebraska Lincoln, Neb. 8 p.m. (ESPN2)

Jan. 16
Texas Tech Lawrence 12:30 p.m. (Big 12)

Jan. 20
Baylor Lawrence 8 p.m. (ESPN2)

Jan. 23
Iowa State Ames, Iowa 3 p.m. (ESPN)

Jan. 25
Missouri Lawrence 8 p.m. (ESPN) - BIG MONDAY

Jan. 30
Kansas State Manhattan 6 p.m. (ESPN)

Feb. 3
Colorado Boulder, Colo. 8 p.m. (ESPN2)

Feb. 6
Nebraska Lawrence 5 p.m. (ESPNU)

Feb. 8
Texas Austin, Texas 8 p.m. (ESPN) - BIG MONDAY

Feb. 13
Iowa State Lawrence 7 p.m. (ESPNU)

Feb. 15
Texas A&M College Station, Texas 8 p.m. (ESPN) - BIG MONDAY

Feb. 20
Colorado Lawrence 3 p.m. (Big 12)

Feb. 22
Oklahoma Lawrence 8 p.m. (ESPN) - BIG MONDAY

Feb. 27
Oklahoma State Stillwater, Okla. 3 p.m. (CBS)

March 3
Kansas State Lawrence 7 p.m. (Big 12) - SENIOR NIGHT

March 6
Missouri
Columbia, Mo. 1 p.m. (CBS)

What's new with Harrison Barnes?

2009-07-21T20:21:00.003-05:00

KU's number one target did was interview by multiple internet recruiting sites recently and has said that he will cut his list to 5 some time in August and then will have all 5 of the schools conduct in home visits and then take official visits.

I figure KU will be one of the five along with Duke and possibly some of the following Minnesota, Iowa St (he's from Ames and his mom works there in the music department) and then maybe Stanford. Kid is wicked smart so he is going to factor in education when making a decision.

Harrison is also going to be the HS diarist for SLAM magazine, his column is not available online, but since I subscribe to that mag, I'll report it all here.

Xavier Henry did the same thing for SLAM last year and in his last entry he had the following to say about Barnes, "I heard who they got doing the diary next season, and I've actually played with him once or twice- this kid's good."

So X thinks he's good, so that's good, but we already knew he was a stud.
In Barnes first entry he talked about how he will never be as physically imposing as Lebron so he has started to mold his game after Kobe because he feels that he can score like Kobe.
While growing up his mom taped every Michael Jordan game and he would watch them and use that as a template for his game.

I'd love nothing more than to see Harrison in a KU uniform in about 15 months, let's hope that happens.

Rock Chalk

2010 Point Guard recruiting

2009-07-20T18:32:00.002-05:00

some new news developed since the last recruiting blog so here's where we are in terms of PG's-

Brandon Knight - #1 overall player according to Rivals.com
Minimal interest in KU, but he also isn't really saying anything so who knows, I say there's about a zero chance he ends up at KU

Josh Selby- #2 ranked PG , 7 overall- rivals.com
He had been committed to Bruce Pearl for the last 10 months but has now decommitted . According to his mom (via rivals.com) she (the mom) contacted Bill Self and there is some genuine interest there. So that's good, this is so new we'll have to monitor it and see what comes of it if anything.

Ray McCallum-
Was long considered a KU lean but he either is being more guarded with his comments, KU has backed off of him or he is going to play for his dad at Detroit. I'm not sure which one it is but I don't feel as good about KU landing him as I did say 6 months ago.

Corey Joesph- #12 overall -rivals.com
this is the guy I think ends up in the Crimson and the Blue and a top 15 kid is nothing to sneeze at, I'd be very happy if he wound up at KU and there seems to be a a lot of interest from him in KU.

In other recruiting news-
Harrison Barnes has been selected by SLAM magazine to be the high school diarist this year. Last year Xavier Henry held that title down. I'll have more on this later this week.

Rock Chalk

Going up against some great talent

2009-07-20T14:01:00.003-05:00

Dicki V has been releasing his Roll Royce teams and from teams 2-7 there are a multitude of guys that KU will see this year.

The Hawks will play in 11 games where there is someone from one of these teams opposite KU.

And the best thing about this is, the fact that it appears that Cole and Sherron are both on the first team as they should be.

With as good as this team is supposed to be playing elite talent like this will suit them well as they prepare for the tourney.

Rock Chalk

Karma?

2009-07-20T11:35:00.001-05:00

The same guy that made a game winning field goal against KU falls 35 feet from an amusement ride?
Sounds like Karma to me, and since he's not dead I think we can make fun of him.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/31994308/ns/sports-college_football/

Rock Chalk

2010 hoops recruiting- the week that was

2009-07-18T09:30:00.002-05:00

Before we get started, I'm happy to report that Jeff Withey no longer has his left thumb bandaged, so he's probably back lifting and working on his game. (thanks to Moosh for the scoop)

As the summer evaluation period heats up we'll continue to get lots of little tidbits and learn of new KU targets all the time, here's what this week brought us...

We already know that KU has a verbal commitment from top 100 player, Royce Wooldridge a guard from Arizona.

Fabricio de Melo a 5 star center from Florida is getting the hot and heavy treatment from Bill Self and Danny Manning.
This is the first I have heard of him so obviously KU is getting in a little late, but they at least have a chance with Melo and the last time we got a highly regarded center from Florida with with an unconventional name it turned out pretty well.

Harrison Barnes- the grand prize of the 2010 class- who many believe will ultimately decide between KU and Puke.
According to Draftexpress.com the "scuttlebutt" is that Barnes leader is KU.
The kid is an absolute stud and a great kid, hopefully Self can get him on campus because he truly is a special player.

Corey Jospeh, the 3rd best PG in the class per rivals.com, is going to take a visit to KU at some point. Joseph is from Canada but will be playing his senior year at Findlay prep, the same school that Avery Bradley attended last year.
Its a must that Self gets a point guard in this class and Joseph is right at the top of my list and I think a likely get as opposed to Brandan Knight who doesn't seem to be interested in KU, maybe he hates hot chicks and partying?

Doron Lamb, from the NYC, has already visited UK and will visit KU some time in August, which I would think would be an unofficial and then hopefully we could get him back for an official visit, maybe Late Night.
A 5 star shooting guard and the possibility to keep a NYC pipeline open is very enticing, especially with possible departures of Tyshawn and Xavier.

It'll be really interesting to see how this class ends up, its so early now, its hard to tell. We know that Barnes is the top priority and a PG and big guy are needs as well.

Rock Chalk

Weekend laughter

2009-07-18T00:00:00.000-05:00

Please e-mail me if you have any stories that make our rivals look stupid or other programs look stupid- ie-
A mizzou fan has a broken down car, presumably b/c they are poor.

You saw a K-st fan with a rat tail, etc.

E-mail me at-
ryanbauer9@gmail.com

I'm going to do this every Friday.

For this week-
I went o Starbucks to get coffee for a client and while walking in I saw a Saab or some dumbass car with a Kentucky sticker on the rear window.

And so I said this guy is a tool, turns out he was in front of me in line and he order some chilled drinked with whip cream, THAT HE DRANK himself, what a LOSER.

So that was awesome.

Because if you aren't a Jayhawk you're a moron.

Rock Chalk

Looking forward to y'alls e-mails and I'll post them all on Friday each week.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

This is new and exciting

2009-07-16T21:46:00.000-05:00

Over the past week or so KU football recruiting has hit some uncharrtered territory.

First of all they got the RB that was at the very top of their board in James Sims and before that they got one of their top TE prospects in Robert Smiley.

Having 8 verbal commits in mid July is something new and the best part about it is that they are getting some of their most coveted targets and they aren't just taking anybody.

Recently we have heard of 3 HS players publicly declare that they have committed to KU only to be turned down.
First there is Carey Fortson who is a decent receiver out of Texass.
Then you have a solid safety in Isaac Umesi who also has not been allowed to commit.
And then the most random was some kid named Jones out of Memphis committing and I've never even heard of him.

Now I think Umesi still could be a Jayhawk and Fortson has an outside chance, but with only 16-17 schollys to give out the coaches are being very selective.

So there's 8 on board now and Donovan Vestal, DE, seems like its only a matter of time before he pulls the trigger.

Its a very good time to be Jayhawk fan and it appears its only getting better.

Rock Chalk
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Big Monday schedule released

2009-07-16T11:16:00.005-05:00

(I actually can't read because we only have 2 road games and 2 home games- oh well I still meant everything I said below)

Ok so this why I never route for Big 12 teams in anything, ever. I hate it when people tell me its good for the conference, really you know what would be good for the conference is if it wasn't run by a bunch of morons.

Just like damn near every year, KU is on Big Monday 4 times (that's half of the games for Big Monday) so while that's great exposure 2 of them, are road games. Students and fans are always all jacked up for Big Monday and for KU so combining seems like a real subtle way of jamming it right up our asses. Only I think it really does help us for the tourney run.

Well guess what Big 12, your conference sucks, you're lucky we are still in it, especially considering we are the only program (except for Iowa St, thanks to Matt K for pointing that out- and the clones have either both OU and UT at home or both on the road, ouch)that plays UT and OU in football both for 2 years in a row, look it up, and this year we're going to just kick the shit out of everyone, so go ahead and send that trophy to Lawrence and we'll put it with the last 5 in row we have won.
thanks for your time.

Rock Chalk

2010 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Schedule On ESPN’s Big MondayAll games televised on ESPN and available on ESPN360.com
Date Game Time (CT)
January 11
Oklahoma State at Oklahoma 8:00 p.m.

January 18
Texas at Kansas State 8:00 p.m.

January 25
Missouri at Kansas 8:00 p.m.

February 1
Texas at Oklahoma State 8:00 p.m.

February 8
Kansas at Texas 8:00 p.m.

February 15
Kansas at Texas A&M 8:00 p.m.

February 22
Oklahoma at Kansas 8:00 p.m.

March 1
Oklahoma at Texas 8:00 p.m.

This is why I love Briscoe

2009-07-16T07:47:00.002-05:00

Some guy ran into him and posted this on Phog

"Ran into him at GameStop picking up the NCAA 2010 at midnight. Pretty cool guy actually. Told him I expect big things from him and the team this year. He replied with, "think bigger".

1- Briscoe loves football video games as do I
2- Briscoe is embracing the ability to go to midnight releases, try doing that and supporting litigation, ain't happening
3- He's cocky and is shooting for the stars

I like it, now just make sure your academically eligible.

Rock Chalk