The LSU - KU Football Rivalry Heats Up

The competition to get on the cover of NCAA 2009 is intense. LSU fans are taking note of the KU Football Facebook club built specifically to vote for Baby Jay to take the video game cover. Check out this article from the LSU student newspaper. 

"The group's numbers (3000) seem low compared to some universities. The Penn State Nittany Lion's group has more than 4,400 members. And the Missouri Tiger's group has more than 6,000 members.

Remson said the biggest competition is the Kansas Jayhawk's group, boasting more than 8,000 members."

Update on Friday, March 7, 2008 at 02:35AM by DJ Goodwin

http://www.easports.com/ncaa09/

Non-Con Schedule Updates

The Kansas Football team announced future dates with both Southern Mississippi and New Mexico State yesterday. The skepticism rolled out slow and steady on the message boards today. Really, after the 2006 season, I'm okay with a soft non-con for the first year of the post-Reesing era. Taking a new QB on the road in game three will be enough of an adventure for me. Didn't enjoy the last on so much. Here's how 2010 looks:

09/04 -- Duke
09/11 -- Rice
09/18 -- @ Southern Mississippi
09/25 -- New Mexico State
10/02 -- Open
10/09 -- @ Baylor
10/16 -- Kansas State
10/23 -- texas A&M
10/30 -- @ Iowa State
11/06 -- Colorado
11/13 -- @Nebraska
11/20 -- Oklahoma State
11/27 -- @Missouri

Micah Brown = The Stanley Kubrick of KU Football Videos

Okay, I know I just posted an Orange Bowl video, but this is a good one and it just came out:

Monday Recycle: Saturday for the Border War -- Open Practice Dates

Saturday Special for Arrowhead War
The KC Star reported last week that the Border War would likely remain on Saturday for 2008. The Big 12 announced a change with Texas A&M/ Texas moving to Thanksgiving Night. I like that move -- pro football on Turkey Day just doesn't do it for me anymore. Keeping KU/MU on Saturday is a no-brainer ... how could you make a change as it was one of the highest rated college football games on TV last season.

ESPN Big 12 Deal
In the same article, the Big 12 and ESPN announced a two-year deal to televise seven Big 12 games per year. The games will be on Thursdays or Saturdays. Saturdays are good, Thursdays ... well, it depends on how your schedule breaks down. Guess I better hold a couple of vacation days in reserve this year.

Open Practices
From KUsports.com -- open spring practices are scheduled for March 14 and April 4. Both practices are at 3:30 p.m. on Friday's on the practice fields next to Hoglund.

NCAA 2009
Voting continues in the contest to get Baby Jay on the cover of NCAA 2009 ... http://www.easports.com/ncaa09/

KU Football Moment of Zen: For Aqib

Since he's had to hear about Jordy Nelson all week ... good reminder from Talib though on the ending of the game.

Mark Mangino vs the South: Points Delta Study

This chart is part of a series examining the points delta per season (points scored minus points allowed) relative to Mark Mangino. The series starts off with the year prior to a coach taking a job. The comparison is the year in the program not by calendar year.

Today, Mark Mangino gets put up against the south division. I'm not sure what I've learned from this one except that OU and Texas have been pretty good under Bob Stoops and Mack Brown. I guess looking at this one and the North chart from last week, I might also add that you need to be wary of a coach that takes a huge drop in year one.

Monday Recycle: Double B to Miami

Bryce Brown to Miami
Rivals has five-star RB Bryce Brown already making a verbal commitment to Miami. I'm not too concerned about the loss as a specific need for KU, but from an overall recruiting perspective, I'd like to fast forward to the point where we can retain a local five-star player. I also need to offer my apologies as we hosted a little roundball watch party on Saturday for the old tailgate crew. They reported this news to me on Saturday and I said no way. Wrong again.

NFL Combine Profiles
Marcus Henry -- "Will be characterized by some as an overachieving one-year wonder playing against really poor Big 12 defenses"
Will the subtle Nebraska bashing ever end?

Aqib Talib -- "Could be more physical at his size"
Maybe, but I saw AT sacrifice himself against RBs in the open field a few times. I was really impressed with the way he tackled in the open field this year. 

Anthony Collins -- "Not a finesse player -- he likes to mix it up and give a strong punch. ... Likes to put his man on the ground"
This is true.

Derek Fine -- "Very good receiver who runs precise routes and does not drop many balls"

James McClinton -- "Flat-out unblockable at times, disrupting the play even if he doesn't make the tackle"
That's what I remember

Anthony Collins Quote From the NFL Combine

AC got a mention in the ESPN NFL Hashmarks blog today:

Kansas tackle Anthony Collins drew relatively little interest from recruiters in part because he played only one year of football in high school. "I thought I could play basketball," he said. "It turns out I couldn't jump worth nothing." Vertical-jump testing for offensive linemen is Friday.

KU Football Moment of Zen -- Orange Bowl Video

Caught a link for this on the gridiron board this morning. Well done.

Mark Mangino vs the North: Points Delta Study

Last summer when it was a little more difficult to see progress for Kansas football program, I put together a series of charts that demonstrated KU's improvement under Mark Mangino. The charts were all relative to Mark Mangino and compared annual team points delta (points scored vs points allowed). One season later and a study like this isn't really necessary. Still, I found the data interesting and thought I'd update it for the year.

Future charts will compare Mangino against the current south coaches and also against former KU coaches. For the North chart I've also included Bill Snyder since he took on a building project similar to Mangino's task. I find it interesting that the Mangino and Snyder chart patterns are similar.

Please note prior year indicates the points delta for that program the year before the coach took over the position. I felt that gave a more valid starting point. Hopefully, it's clear that 1, 2, 3 ... indicate the year in the program relative to each coach.

Joe Semple & Sebelius: Monday Recycle

Offensive lineman Joe Semple (6-4/302) out of Mundelein, Illinois will walk on / it's been discussed on the boards for over a week. Rivals has him as two-star, while Scout ranks him as a one-star. The two profiles vary on his height/weight. Here's an official link confirming the commitment: Daily Herald.

Kathleen Sebelius makes good on her bet / Channel 5 has some video. You gotta love her moxy.

Baby Jay on NCAA 2009 / the message boards were touting this opportunity to vote for Baby Jay to take the cover spot on next summer's version of the college football video game. A little tour around the site indicates that NCAA 2009 will not be available for the old X-Box. Looks like it's time for an upgrade for me. What a waste. There's really nothing wrong with the game play on my old X-Box. I guess it might be time to look into the Wii -- my goal of always being one generation behind on platforms may be fading away. Hey, maybe I should really stick it to Bill Gates and pick up a PlayStation 2 (the new version will be available on that platform).

Update on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 12:27PM by DJ Goodwin

http://www.easports.com/ncaa09/

KU Football Moment of Zen - Scanned Memorabilia

Button purchased at the 2005 Fort Worth Bowl by sister-in-law. I'm not much of a button-wearer, but I did enjoy finding this in my recent treasure excavation. Two years in a new house and I just now found all of my KU football memorabilia. Your weekly Moment of Zen is really going to rock now.