Sound and the Fury: South Florida + Rip His (censored) Head Off

Credit: davierae (Flickr CC)

What concerns you most about the matchup with South Florida?
Brian Hanni and David Lawrence tipped me off to this factor. USF is very tall all across the defense -- including the secondary (6-1, 6-4, 6-2, 6-0). Of course, we know that a tall defensive line means -- the o-line has to create lanes for Todd Reesing. However, the bigger concern is that the Bulls could go ahead and stack the box like FIU and LA Tech to stop the run. Those teams fell to KU, but they held the Jayhawks well under their scoring average, so the strategy isn't necessarily a failure.

That leaves the USF secondary matched up in a lot of one-on-one with our talented wide receiver unit. Bigger DBs means more tie-ups at the line. So, as high as I am on our young set of wide receivers, I think their challenge this week will be escaping their cover man in individual matchups. If they can do that, we are good. It'll be a nice test and great experience for the OU game.

Also, consider that USF may be able to slow our running game with just a base defense. Stopping the run is what they do. Oregon went crazy on them last year in the bowl game (353) but prior to that they were only allowing 112 yards on the ground per game (131 ave after Oregon). In our 2006 game with the Bulls, they held us to our second lowest output of the year at 118 yards and our lowest ypc of 3.4. That was of course, the year of Jon Cornish.

Still, I like what Angus Quigley has been doing and I expect improvement in the run game this week. I also think rotating three backs will be good for Jocques Crawford as you sometimes gain perspective from the sideline.

What's your take on the students' profanity laced kickoff cheer?
The lady that sat next to me for the FIU game asked me what the students were chanting. I told her. She seemed pretty offended. I guess it's the profanity, because no one has any problems with the "hit 'em again, harder, harder" cheer. I suppose it's not the best example of sportsmanship out there, but it is college and there is a certain level of rowdiness that all students feel the need to strive for -- I mean D-Day, Otter and Bluto set the bar pretty high. I say it's all in good fun and on occasion in life you'll be exposed to a little profanity from young kids. Try to not to let it bother you.

One thing though, I believe in the tradition of Michigan hockey, the students are supposed to add another line or word to the phrase each year -- sort of a senior class gift.

Why do I have to see a Kansas State Ringtones ad everytime I come to Hawk Digest?
For the love of all that is sacred and holy isn't that about the most disappointing item to see each day as you tune into the only website on Earth dedicated solely to Kansas Jayhawk football. It's a necessary "evil" though. Google ads key off of words in the site and "Kansas" and "football" conjure up the old KSU ringtone ad. Evidently the Wildcat fans are still into buying ringtones. Good for them, we need the revenue here ... hoping to hit 100k this year. NOTE -- You can get Nebraska ringtones on the Big 12 Portal page.