2007 KU Football -- End of Regular Season Report

With four eight twelve games down and as a follow-up the 1/3 season report and 2/3 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
3/3: The entire D got toasted pretty good at Arrowhead, but AT is still popping up on All-American lists. Mission accomplished.

--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
3/3: KU averaged 46,784 for 2007 with advance sellouts against Nebraska and Iowa State. Are we ready to sell out non-con games?

--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 (A&M) 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

3/3: Not quite to that level. We have to replace James McClinton but most of these guys will be back for 2008. Improvement is likely.

--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.
3/3: Had a rough game against Mizzou in the first half, but again demonstrated that he's never out of it. Fought hard to get KU a shot at the end. Plus, 32 touchdown passes versus 6 INTs! I remember saying in 2005 if we could have had Bill Whittemore with that defense that we would've had a serious contender ... Reesing proved that theory to be true.

--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.
3/3: 44 receptions, 380 yards and four TDs. He could hit 50 with a good game in Miami. To be fair, I did think he would get 14 games this year, but we obviously missed out on the Big 12 Championship.

--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.
3/3: Ed started to play a little more conservatively in the final games, but with Reesing limping around can you really blame him? A truly impressive performance.

--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
3/3: This seemed to improve in the final third mainly because it didn't come up.

--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
3/3: No one noticed when Anthony Collins missed the Iowa State game, but the line wasn't quite as effective against Missouri in the first half.

--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
3/3: 59th in average pass yards given up. Nebraska and Mizzou toasted us. Expect more improvement next year.

--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.
3/3: One more year to become a true threat at wide receiver. Led the Big 12 in kick return average.

--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.
3/3: He never did rip the big one, but he was solid. With the experience Jake aquired, KU fans again feel like we'll be able to transition after graduating another great running back. 788 yards and 7 TDs for the 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.
3/3: 994 yards and 9 TDs to date. He wasn't going to make the 18 TD goal, but the 1300 yards would have been in the ballpark if we could have added that Big 12 Championship game.

--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.
3/3: We may never know the real numbers. No matter what, it felt like 50/50 and that is a failure on the part of our fan base. The experience was not enjoyable for the KU fans that attended. Getting 40k back next year will take a nifty trick by Lew Perkins and the KU marketing department. By the way, it didn't work out well giving Chiefs' fans first crack at tickets.

--14 wins
1/3: Still on target
2/3: As expected, 8-0
3/3: So close. Next year, when we open with 11 wins, we won't have to hear about our schedule.