Todd Haselhorst and Kendrick Harper Injured

No!

From Ryan Wood's report on this morning's public practice:

"Haselhorst, our medical staff is trying to get him ready for the opener. That remains to be seen," KU coach Mark Mangino said. "We really don't know the severity of Kendrick Harper's injury. We should know something later in the week."

KU Football News Roundup

CMU Wants This One -- LJW

"One thing missing from the Chippewas’ 2006 run, however, was a victory over a BCS-conference team. They went 0-3 against the more heralded conferences, losing to Boston College by seven, Michigan by 24 and Kentucky by nine."

This is a hungry team that wants to put a BCS win on the resume. I think the Hawks better be prepared to play on 9/1.

Glen Mason's New Job -- Woodling (LJW)

"Mason’s Achilles heel never really has been coaching. His primary difficulties arose at alumni gatherings where he often showed no appetite for exchanging pleasantries with the big cigars and their wives, scenarios he won’t have to face in the broadcast booth."

Glen never got that this was part of the deal. It cost him the war against Bill Snyder and Kansas State.

The UTEP Quartback Cam

Can Cause Motion Sickness

This is bad enough. Can you imagine taking a look at the Josh Freeman cam from his trip to Memorial last year? The Todd Reesing cam might be hard to watch as well, but for different reasons.

Call To Action-Border War

It's really time to start concentrating on Central Michigan, but since tickets went on sale to the public this week, I guess we can re-hash the Arrowhead Border War topic a little more, right?

Reading this thread on the Grid today, reminded me that the fans really have the opportunity to eliminate one of the major objections to moving this game. Most KU fans feel there is no way Missouri can beat us in Memorial. It is indeed a law of nature that can only be reversed by bringing in a truly inept coach (see 2001). Therefore, the conclusion is that we've essentially given up a guaranteed win against our most hated rival. Perhaps there is some merit to that. Maybe it's no longer the lock that it would have been in Lawrence. However, if KU can pull 50,000* into Arrowhead it could really start to seem like a friendly environment. Remember, KU fans put together a pretty nice crowd at a neutral site in Fort Worth and that along with an inferior, but decent opponent helped the Hawks to a nice win. So, get your crimson and blue buddies and get out to Arrowhead. There's not much we can do about the other complaints (tradition, Lawrence merchants), but we can certainly be a factor in the outcome of the game.

*How is this possible? 20,000 KU season tickets already sold. 16,000 Chiefs season ticket holders bought in which means 8,000 KU fans. The students will bring another 10,000 to the equation (8000 for pessimists). That's 36-38,000. So, KU fans need to purchase 10-15,000 season tickets to reach the magical 50,000 majority. It really doesn't seem that far away.

New York Attorney General Hot For KU

We were all aware of the NCAA and it's role in college sports, but frankly, I never imagined the attorney general of New York would come after the Jayhawks. It's not really the way to start August practice, but Andrew Cuomo's investigation of universities and student loan provider practices now includes the University of Kansas and the athletic department.

KU is denying any wrongdoing and plans to cooperate. Associate athletic director Jim Marchiony seemed a annoyed with the implied accusation:

“Had they done their homework, they would’ve been able to understand the issues and receive very plausible explanations.”

Almost 40 universities have been named in the investigation which contends that the universities are guiding athletes and students to preferred lenders in exchange for kickbacks. Whatever it is, KU better come out smelling clean on this one. I think the alumni and supporters of KU really had enough of the non-sports related headlines last year.

Reader Mailbag-Jayhawk Network Forum

Feedback is Good

In general, blogs don't get a chance to offer up reader mail/e-mail due to the fact thost most people will provide feedback in the comments. However, I did receive an e-mail from a dedicated reader last month which led to a site improvement. Here are comments from the reader:

"... on your hawkdigest blog, can anyone post a new topic or can I only insert a comment on an existing story?  Just curious, I was
going to post a link on a new subject that didn't really relate to your existing topics, but I'm apparently to computer illiterate to figure out how."

At the time the answer was "no." However, the result was the addition of a sidebar feed of the Jayhawk Network Forum (JNF). This allows anyone to post a story or comment that will appear as a link on the main page. The plan to do this has been on the table for a while as I missed the tagboard function on the old host site.

You can get into the forum by clicking any of the current Jayhawk Network Forum links or by clicking on the link under the Hawk Digest section. Essentially, the JNF acts as a standard message board and I'd love to see some of the many visitors that stop buy post updates on KU and college football news as they occur. Opinions on KU football topics outside of the current blog content are welcome as well. Kansas football news sometimes comes in waves and it can be difficult to catch up. The vision for Hawk Digest and the accompanying Jayhawk Network page is to be a collector of all that data and give KU football fans a single resource for news and jumping off place for Kansas football.

History and Structure
Hawk Digest started last September. Shortly after that I set up a webpage that would better aggregate news feeds in order to simplify the job of "researching" KU football to provide content for Hawk Digest. It had links as well and I thought it was actually useful for all KU football fans. I added a rotating photo, bought a URL and the Jayhawk Network page was born. Shortly thereafter, I added the Jayhawk Network Forum so visitors could comment if needed. Now, the feed for the forum has been linked into Hawk Digest making a nice little circle of KU football content.

Phoggies Critique the New Helmet

Part Two of the Equation

Now that the new jersey has been thoroughly discussed, a new version of the helmet was posted by the MG's Helmet site. The gridiron board is all over it in this thread, which also includes a Photoshop version on an actual player. This is a nice preview, but I think I'll have to reserve judgement until I see it in person.

Willie Pless To the Ring of Honor

Former Linebacker Will Be Honored On Opening Day

Willie Pless was really before my time as a follower of KU football, but we've all heard the stories. Somehow it seems overdue, but this will make a nice ceremony for opening day. We know we'll pull in the mid-forties for the game. It sure would be something for Pless to be honored in front of a full house.

Here's an nice induction video that features several photos of Pless:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4875550109276290211&q=willie+pless&total=1&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Border War History Lesson

What can I say? I should have known the KC Star was behind the whole thing.

"Rumor was that the Kansas City Star and Journal were peeved at KU and MU because they hadn’t been given some game tickets they counted on and put Tebeau up to the double-take to “discipline” the schools. Whatever, Lansdon wasn’t buying it."

For more on this: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/jul/27/mayer_kumu_moved/

No Love From Burnt Orange Nation

A Lot of Work To Do Here

Geez, I take the morning off and the boys at BON take a swipe at Hawk Digest:

"And here we are. I sent out an email to all of the Big 12's most active bloggers, asking them to participate in our own version of a community projection for the Big 12 this season."
--Burnt Orange Nation

You guessed it. Hawk Digest was not invited to participate in the pre-season Blogger Big 12 Predictions for the 2007 football season. Judging from the explosion of traffic this summer, things were going well for Hawk Digest. Yet, as far as we've come, we're still not on the radar at BON. Of course, I suppose when you're pulling 2,000,000 plus hits a year, you probably have better things to do than track down the only blog dedicated to Kansas football. Or, it could be the lack of a contact page here at Hawk Digest. That's been corrected.

Anyway, as for the poll itself, there wasn't too much of a departure from your standard predictions. From the KU perspective, you like seeing Aqib Talib tied for Big 12 defensive player of the year (especially considering there may or may not have been a KU representative in the poll -- Double Extra Point's list of voters contradicts the BON list). Also, on the list of best intra-conference games, a north team doesn't show up until the fifth and final spot with the Nebraska vs Missouri game. Perhaps that's justified considering the north's recent past. Still, the clear lack of interest south of Paola, Kansas for the Border War certainly provides more justification for the Arrowhead experiment.

In the meantime, Hawk Digest has some work to do.

2007 Wish List For KU Football

On the Field Edition

Lew Perkins wants eight wins, but I think we can go for a little more than that:

• As hyped as he is, it'd be refreshing to see Aqib Talib actually exceed expectations
• A full house for opening day
• The front seven rises to the level of the 2005 crew
• Kerry Meier or Todd Reesing make me forget all about Bill Whittemore
• Derek Fine catches 60 balls
• Ed Warriner makes the exact right play call on every down
• We don't go for the two-point conversion ever (excepting of course for the win against Texas in the Big 12 Championship game)
• The offensive line doesn't have to go through the usual 7-8 game growth process and is dominant for all 12 games
• Pass defense goes from the bottom D1 to top 10 in the nation
• Marcus Herford plays to his talent level and KU uses him all over the field
• Jake Sharp -- at least one TD per game 30 yards out or more
• Marcus Henry -- 18 TDs, 1300 yards
• 50,000 plus Jayhawk fans wearing blue at Arrowhead
• 14 wins

The Aqib Talib and Mark Mangino Show: Guest Star-Lew Perkins

Perkins Speaks on Win Goal for 2007

Lew Perkins wasn't afraid to set some specific goals for Mark Mangino and the Jayhawks in 2007. Perkins had two pretty specific quotes from the same Kansas City Star article:

“This is the second full class he’s recruited. I think the way the schedule is set up, our hopes are in that seven-eight (win) range. Am I going to be disappointed if we’re less than that? Yeah.”

“We’ve done all the necessary things we had to do both on the field and off the field. It’s more important now that we start winning games.”

I also caught a little bit of the Soren Petro interview of Mangino. Soren along with others like to indicate that, "Mark Mangino has to win eight games this year." That's actually correct, but I'm not sure if I understand the constant need to re-assert the obvious.* The fact is any coach that is in year six has to win eight games this year. It's not that big of a deal, and it's certainly plausible based on the fact Mangino has amassed some solid talent. From my standpoint, eight wins would be a disappointment.

*Actually, I do understand. It sells newspapers and brings in listeners and that's cool. We all have to make a living.

Aqib Talib Extravaganza

From the KC Star article:

On the Jim Thorpe Award:
“Let’s keep it in the Big 12; it would kind of be like our team,” Talib said. “Aaron Ross won it last year, and I kind of look at it like it’s my turn. I’ll bring it home.”

“We left four wins on the field,” he declared

“I’m up there with all of the best corners in the nation,” Talib said.

“If the Kansas football program is going to be turned around, then this has to be the year,” said Talib, a junior. “With the talent level of this team we have right now and the schedule layout, if it’s going to be turned around, it has to be this year.”

Mark Mangino Quote Machine

From the Lawrence-Journal World:

Is this the year you need to make your move?
“I don’t know if this is the year we need to,” Mangino said, “but I plan on it. I think our players do, too. I don’t know if we need to, but we plan on doing it.”

Would you rather beat K-State or Missouri?
“I’d rather win them all,” Mangino responded, not taking the bait.

“We’re good at home,” Mangino said. “The next step is to get good on the road.”

Aqib Talib:
"He’s a good kid. I think he plays around with the press a little bit. He’s a really smart guy, and sometimes he gives you what you want. He plays that game with you."

On eight wins:
"I was thinking 12."

KU Media Day

Mark Mangino On Close Losses

"The particular situations we might not -- probably shouldn't have been in the call that we were in. There's situations where we had some physical breakdowns by players. Mental breakdowns. Coaching decisions. And we put it all together. We say you know we all share the blame for this thing; let's make it better. We went back and studied how we will handle situations as they arise again. And there's some things on the edge, I don't want to get into all the injuries and stuff. But last year I was pretty close to, what's that guy that can heal people and stuff, I was going to call him up. (Laughter) I see him on TV. Make the blind see and the deaf hear and he can't grow hair on his own head. (Laughter). We were pretty close to calling him up see if he could help us out. But that's behind us, and that's just the way college football goes."

Full interview: http://kuathletics.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/072307aaa.html