The Corinth Square Pep Rally last night in Prairie Village provided a taste of what the 2008 football season will bring. This is what I saw:
- A crowd easily double the size of the 2007 event
- A focused, passionate and efficient Mark Mangino
- Annoying Missouri fans with big flags lurking on the perimeter like celebrity stalkers
For die-hard KU football fans, it's great to see the kind of crowd that showed up last night. We always knew that if you built a program fans would jump on board. It's very satisfying to see that come together.
As mentioned above, Mangino kept his speech fairly short, but I felt an intensity behind his words that measures much higher than other times I've heard him speak. I've always felt he's pretty passionate when he talks about KU football, but last night I sensed something else. I'd like to think that he's listened to off-season media campaign to discount the 2007 Jayhawks and taken offense. In years past, when people would trash the Hawks he'd certainly stand up for his team, but maybe the program wasn't quite at a level where he was 100% certain that he could silence the critics on the field. Now he has the players, the coaching staff, the facilities and the fan base to unleash hell on the world of college football.
Wow, that got a little out of hand. No more gladiator movies for me. Anyway, that's what I'd like to think as we approach the season.
On a lighter note, I enjoyed his reference to the marching band utilizing the new practice fields and the potential that the KSU band might have been monitoring their practice.
The "Mizzou Bus" that was driving up and down Mission confirms that the MU obsession with KU has reached an all-time high. It's both amusing and disturbing. I'm not exactly sure what they are after. I know you really, really, really, really, really wanted Kansas to be a slave state, but it may be time to let go of that. We're sorry we didn't want to be in your club, but some things just were not meant to be.
A reserved parking spot at Johnny's -- these guys get all of the perks