2008 KU Football Wish/To Do List

I sold the team a little short by posting a 2007 KU Football Wish List last year. Seems foolish now to call it a wish list, since it was clearly just a to do list. What are the targets for 2008? Read on.

• Big 12 Championship
• Charles Gordon is avenged on November 15, 2008
  
• A full house for opening day (borrowed from 2007)
• The team properly channels the nationwide "just a scheduling fluke" media campaign and comes into the season with the exact right amount of focused anger/adrenaline
• Clint Bowen solves the spread offense
• Maxwell Onyegbule gets to Chase Daniel ... every down.
• Mike Rivera gets to Chase Daniel ... every down.
• RJ Jr and Darius Parish erase my fond memories of James McClinton
• Todd Reesing 2008 exceed TR 2007
• Dexton Fields and Dezmon Briscoe both go over 1,000
• Ed Warriner blows my mind by staying ahead of the Big 12 with further innovation to last year's scheme
• Find a confident punt returner that can be a threat
• Jeff Spikes lives up to the hype
• Marcus Herford becomes a legitimate Big 12 wide receiver threat (last chance man)
• Jake Sharp -- 80 yard TD run at any point in the conference season or in the state of Florida
• 40,000 plus Jayhawk fans wearing blue at Arrowhead (adjusted down from 50k for our "home" game last year)
• 60,000 plus Jayhawk fans wearing blue at Arrowhead one week later
• 14 wins

Memo to Google: Bleacher Report Is Not Real News

It's time for someone to put a bullet in the "Open Source Sports Network." The internet has given everyone a voice. Fantastic. What have we learned? I liked most of those people a lot better when they were silent. Thank you Lisa for revealing the secret to the 2007 Jayhawk football campaign:

"But if you dig a little deeper, it looks like the Jayhawks' record was a product of the system—the system of cupcake scheduling."

Congratulations, you are our one-millionth customer! What do you win? Probably a job writing for ESPN.

How about a national like Pete Fiutak doing the occasional drive by on your team acting as some sort of authority? Even a casual KU football fan had to bail on Fiutak halfway through this inaccurate, illogical mess. Great scott, the typical KSU or Mizzou fan could probably spot the issues in this one.

Maybe you're asking -- how does this low-life "KU blogger" come off taking a swipe at Fox Sports and someone like Lisa Horne that's probably just trying to make a name in the sports media world? I guess in this sense -- most of the guys out here blogging the teams are fans. We're throwing out our take, maybe putting some charts or stats analysis together and taking the occasional photo (or mashing up the occasional PhotoShop piece). We'll lob a few bombs at our rivals, but the reality is we're at the games and we know our teams. When we're on, you'll get a fresh angle that is based on experience from the game environment. From the nationals, you get a superficial view from outer space and everyone is supposed to act all charged up that the sports machine has turned an eye toward our little football program.

Final summation -- actually I'm not sure, but it appears as though the Hawk Digest editor is grumpy. In fact, I've listened to a whole off-season of KU football bashing and I'm feeling like it may be time to take up the fight. Stay tuned to see how much longer I can keep my cool.

By the way, if you want to lower your IQ, read through the comments on the Horne article.

Update on Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 11:17AM by DJ Goodwin

By the way Pete, I saw it coming: http://hawkdigest.squarespace.com/hawk-digest-kansas-football/2007-wish-list-for-ku-football.html

Aqib Talib saw it coming -- expected 10 wins

Mangino said he'd like to win all twelve.

Todd Reesing On College Football Live Next Week

From the Awful Announcing blog:

http://awfulannouncing.blogspot.com/2008/07/espns-college-football-live-returns.html

"ESPN’s College Football Live, a weekday afternoon studio show dedicated to college football which debuted last year, will return Monday, July 21, and will now be aired year-round. Brent Musburger will host the first two shows live from ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn.

"... guests starting next week including but limited to: Jim Tressel, ABobby Petrino, Bobby Bowden, Les Miles, Rich Rodriguez, Pete Carroll, Phil Fulmer, Mark Richt, Tim Tebow, Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell, Pitt RB LeSean McCoy and Kansas QB Todd Reesing."

Ryan is No Longer Sawing Wood

So I guess I don't have to feel bad about my Sawin' Wood shirt anymore. All "evidence" points to a Ryan Wood exit from the LJW.

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=172&f=2485&t=2689266

The replacement:

http://www2.kusports.com/staff/dugan_arnett/

http://journalism.missouri.edu/news/2006/03-24-hearst-winner.html

This is gonna be fun.

Update on Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 03:49PM by DJ Goodwin

Official word on Ryan Wood -- he left the LJW in late May and is working at www.active.com and living in San Diego.

The Interweb Is Your Friend

Catching up on the world wide web, I've got a friend who has started up a blog following the KC Royals. He's a damn good writer and a die-hard fan, so if baseball is your scene you should check it out at:
http://tangledupinroyalblue.blogspot.com/

I ran into another blog on the Buffs this summer. It'll be up on the Big 12 Portal page soon:
http://theralphiereport.blogspot.com/

A few new friends have stopped by as well and you'll now find both on the front page blog roll. First there is the http://hottytoddyblog.blogspot.com/ site covering Ole Miss and then http://deathrattlesports.com/ which covers it all.

Stay gold.

Nathan Scheelhaase Signing Open Thread

Click comments to get in

Updated Recruiting List: Kevin Young and Tyrone Sellers Added

With the Nathan Scheelhaase announcement scheduled for 6:00 p.m. tonight on Metro Sports, I thought I better get the recruiting list updated. It's been a great "unexpected" problem to have this year -- trying to keep up with the summer signings.

2009 Kansas Football Recruits - Verbal Commitments

OFFENSE
Hdr/PS       Player/Location/Ht/Wt/40/Signed
35.0-QB -- Christian Matthews/Arlington, TX -- 6-3/180/4.6 -- 6/20/2008
22.5-QB -- Jordan Webb/Union, MO -- 6-0/204 -- 4/12/2008

28.0-RB -- Deshaun Sands/Coconut Creek, FL -- 5-9/175/4.5 -- 4/10/2008

21.5-OL -- Gavin Howard/Owasso, OK -- 6-5/260 -- 6/23/08
29.3-OL -- Riley Spencer/Hesston, KS -- 6-6/265/5.1 -- 6/22/08
21.5-OL -- Ty Cloud/Flower Mound, TX -- 6-4/285 -- 6/18/08

DEFENSE
Hdr/PS      Player/Location/Ht/Wt/40/Signed
31.3-DE -- Kevin Young/Olathe, KS -- 6-4/227/4.78 -- 7/6/2008 
28.8-DE -- Tyrone Sellers/McCook, NE -- 6-4/215/4.57 -- 7/2/2008
 
29.0-LB -- Ernest Norman/Euless, TX -- 5-11/220/4.58 -- 5/27/2008

36.6-DB -- Dexter Linton/Arlington,TX -- 6-0/180 -- 6/20/2008
34.9-DB -- Darian Kelly/Girard, KS -- 6-2/195/4.5 -- 6/5/2008
30.8-DB -- Prinz Kande/Euless, TS -- 5-11/182/4.5 -- 6/2/2008
14.5-DB --Tyler Patmon/Cedar Park,TX -- 5-11/180 -- 4/17/2008

Hdr = Hawk Digest Rating

Mangino Ranks at #16

Saw this on the Huddle. Here's a list of the highest paid college football coaches:

http://www.coacheshotseat.com/SalariesContracts.htm

Outstanding: Mark Mangino Through 2012!

The deal is basically $2.3 million per year through 2012 with a $1.5 million bonus if he stays through 2012. I'd like to know more about buyout clauses and all that, but initially it's looking like the right move for both KU football and Mark Mangino.

http://kuathletics.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/071508aaa.html

Larry Wins?

All the headlines state that KU won, but I'm thinking maybe Larry Sinks is feeling pretty good that roughly 150 of his shirts passed the trademark test including the one that the University really hates -- "Muck Fizzou."

As an amateur t-shirt seller myself (sawin' wood, dollar signs), I was watching this one pretty closely hoping for a clear cut verdict. I'd still like to see a master list of the shirts that didn't make it because, "Our Coach Can Eat Your Coach" as infringement but "Our Coach Beat Anorexia" as okay provides zero clarity for me.

Maybe this quiz at the Cap-Journal will help: http://app.cjonline.com/quiz/ku_v_joecollege.php

Anyway, chalk one up for creativity and now we know -- the University of Kansas cannot exclusively trademark the state's name.

Back in the Game: Todd Reesing Spring Game 2008

Just to let you know I'm back in the game -- here's a photo from the 2008 spring scrimmage. Photo provided by www.annependleton.com

By the way, I'm always on the lookout for quality KU football photos to post. Contact me if you have photos you'd like to donate.

KU Football Uniform From the Adidas Dumpster?

Got this from the Huddle. Hopefully, it was just some reject at Adidas that they decided to market to high school teams. Now, if you'll excuse me, I feel a little queazy.