2007 KU Football -- 2/3 Season Report

With four eight games down and as a follow-up the 1/3 season report, it's time to once again check in on my 2007 Wish List published back in July.

--As hyped as he is, it'd be refreshing to see Aqib Talib actually exceed expectations
1/3: Done
2/3: Double-check

--A full house for opening day
1/3: 46,815. Let's call that about 93% of the goal and award an A-
2/3: Roughly 43k for the Baylor game, but I think the weather had a little to do with that

--The front seven rises to the level of the 2005 crew
2/3: Starting to believe -- Jeff Wheeler looked a little like Charlton Keith on that pressure of McGee that nearly resulted in a James McClinton INT. Plus:

“I think it rivals what we had in 2005,” Mangino said. “We probably have an edge on that group. So yeah, I’d say it’s the best.”
LJW Link

--Kerry Meier or Todd Reesing make me forget all about Bill Whittemore
1/3: 5 is one more than 4, right? So far so good, but the Rocket is still young and the Brentwood Bomber was pretty damn good. Looks like the season TD record is going down though. Record = 18. Reesing is currently at 11.
2/3: The most impressive thing about Todd is that he's complimenting that gunslinger attitude with smart play. He's taking a few more sacks than he used to but he's not making the critical turnovers. With this offfense, you just need to live to move on to the next down. Spread the ball around to your weapons.

--Derek Fine catches 60 balls
1/3: It projects to be 56 right now over 14 games. The seven reception effort against FIU helped, but we're going to need a little extra effort. There have been a few dropped balls.
2/3: Fine has 30 catches for 279 yards and three TDs which projects out to 52 catches. He's dropping at least one pass per game. Still a great tool for the offense, but he can improve. During the stretch would be a great time.

--Ed Warriner makes the exact right play call on every down
1/3: Check
2/3: Other than the first series of each game -- check.

--We don't go for the two-point conversion ever (excepting of course for the win against Texas in the Big 12 Championship game)
1/3: Grade-F
2/3: Grade-Triple dog F

--The offensive line doesn't have to go through the usual 7-8 game growth process and is dominant for all 12 games
1/3: So far, very good. Looking forward to testing this against the Wild Felines on 10/6
2/3: One of the main reasons we are 8-0

--Pass defense goes from the bottom D1 to top 10 in the nation
1/3: No problem
2/3: Fully recovered from the loss of Charles Gordon and looking prepared to send Talib to the NFL without wrecking the 2008 crew

--Marcus Herford plays to his talent level and KU uses him all over the field
1/3: It looks like Kerry Meier is filling this role. A nice kick return for TD for Marcus though.
2/3: This is adjusted to "become a solid wideout." The kick returns are enough though. He's a threat to score each return.

--Jake Sharp -- at least one TD per game 30 yards out or more
1/3: Well, he's got three TDs, so let's just revise this to one TD per game. I think he can make up the one TD deficit
2/3: Jake's got six TDs on the year, but his partner has another nine. The combo backfield rocks. I'd still like to see Jake rip one about 60 yards this year.

--Marcus Henry -- 18 TDs, 1300 yards
1/3: Hmm, it's only projecting out to seven TDs at this point. Perhaps, he's saving it up for conference play. However, the current 98.25 ypg gets you 1,375 yards for 14 games
2/3: He's got three TDs. I don't think he's going to make it. He's got 585 yards so he may need a breakout game to get to 1,000.

--50,000 plus Jayhawk fans wearing blue at Arrowhead
1/3: We'll probably need an impartial KSU attendance expert to stop by and make the call, but it looks pretty good so far.
2/3: The latest rumor is that they split the KU/MU fans on the fifties. If true, that is a severe mistake. Also, interested to see how it worked out with the Chiefs season ticket holders getting first crack. If KU season ticket holders don't have seats as good as they have at Memorial, the experiment will end in 2008.

--14 wins
1/3: Still on target
2/3: As expected, 8-0