KU Game Day: KU vs Minnesota - Insight Bowl

UM wideout Eric Decker in action / credit: BohPhoto (flickr cc)

Ready For Decker?

Series: 3-3
Time: Wednesday, December 31, 5:00 p.m. CT
Venue: Sun Devil Stadium
Location: Tempe, AZ
TV: NFL Network, WDAF 4
Line: KU (-9)

Bowl Records
KU 5-6
UM 5-7

History 
1893 UM 12, KU 6
1896 UM 12, KU 0 (in KC)
1966 KU 16, UM 14
1971 UM 38, KU 20
1972 KU 34, UM 28
1973 KU 34, UM 19

The Scene
All kinds of crazy story lines as KU heads into this bowl match-up. First off, KU is playing in back-to-back bowl games for the first time ever. That won't seem quite as cool if they get upset by a Minnesota team that finished the season with a 55-0 home loss to Iowa. Also, you have Justin Thornton and John Larson out for the game and Jake Sharp recovering from the flu. Did he infect anyone else? Hopefully, he's been hanging out with the Gophers. And finally, what do you think of the Big 12 so far? OSU did not represent the "best division in college football" so well last night, so the mighty Spread 12 is now 1-1 this bowl season thanks to an overtime "skin o' th teeth" win by the Tigers. The Jayhawks are under some serious pressure to not let this snowball start running down the wrong side of the hill. Believe me the Big 10 would love to take a bite out of the Big 12 this year.

The Key
I'm going to have to throw out a few things for this game. Usually, I like to go with pass rush, but I'm thinking the Gophers are going to try to run on us despite the fact that they are a spread team. Can the Jayhawks still play physical football? If they do shut down the UM run game, that brings up key #2. Are we going to get good coverage out of Kendrick Harper and Chris Harris? Obviously, there will be a point when UM will go to leading offensive threat -- wideout Eric Decker. We'll need a good performance by the secondary to keep him in check and that makes for a good opportunity for redemption for both Harper and Harris. On the offensive side of the ball, David Lawrence mentioned this morning that the Gophers play the 3-4. Based on the KSU game, we should like that. If Jake Sharp, doesn't look full speed tonight, it wouldn't be a bad time for Jocques Crawford to have a big game. I fully expect Todd Reesing and his crew to be "on" this evening.

The Motivation
All kinds of motivation. Really, this kicks off the 2009 season and the Jayhawks want to get that rolling now. A division title is realistic, but it won't seem so if the Hawks can't handle a Big 10 middleweight. Another item to consider for KU is the Mangino Era record against non-conference BCS teams (2-4). With Duke on the slate next September, the opportunity to even that record starts tonight.

"I’m kind of disappointed that they’re a spread offense. like to spread out the ball. It’s stuff that we’ve seen all year, nothing too surprising"
--James Holt

Link to Photo | BohPhoto Flickr CC

KU Football Recycle: Time To Get Serious

Okay, we'll take a few days off from the "Mangino's Greatest Hits" series as it's time to focus in on the Gophers. First, we need to catch up on a little news:

TOBEN OPURUM
Denverjhawk at RCT has done it again with another great interview. This time with four-star running back Toben Opurum. Go there now.

FOUR-STAR DE
Hot pot of coffee, folks. Mark Mangino and his staff have put together a great class. While I was celebrating Festivus in central Kansas, Rivals reported that the Jayhawks landed four-star JUCO defensive end Quintin Woods from Bakersfield, CA. Woods is 6-6/245 and runs a 4.65 forty according to the recruiting site. Looks like he choose KU over KSU, Washington St. UTEP and Boise State.

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS
Seriously, Justin Thornton and John Larson are out for the Insight Bowl? C'mon. Throw in the flu for Jake Sharp and I'm wondering what is going on here. All indications are that Sharp will play, but it's still a concern. It's too bad to see a senior like Larson miss his final game. I've always liked this kid and rooted for him. Hopefully, he'll be feeling better soon.

JUSTIN THORNTON EXPANDED THOUGHTS
This one hurts. The Minnesota game is really the start of 2009 and I really think having a big corner like JT is one of the key factors in facing the Spread 12 conference. I'm not sure if the NFL is in his future, but I'd certainly be thinking about it if I was him and I'd be preparing for next year. You get one shot at this, so I'd leave nothing to chance. Of course, that's easy to say sitting in my chair, but sometimes you wish you could give these young guys a visit from the ghost of football future.

MIZZOU REPRESENTS?
That wasn't exactly the emphatic statement we were expecting from a Big 12 vs Big 10 matchup. There are a number of things to comment on, but I'll start with KU better start taking Minnesota a little more seriously. Maybe Mizzou is just an emotional shell after ... well, I don't know what you would call the 2008 campaign for them. Maybe Crouching Tiger, Hidden Quality Wins. Anyway, hopefully OSU can be a little more effective against Oregon. If not, get ready for Big 12 exposure.

THE CHASE DANIEL COMEDY HOUR
It was more like three hours. Seriously, not to pile on Chase Daniel, but something has to have happened. He really looked bad. I didn't see the wind whipping around inside the Alamo Dome, so that probably wasn't the factor on misfiring on virtually every open MU receiver deep. How about running up to the line of scrimmage on third and five and heaving it out of bounds instead of diving for the first? How about the bomb into the stands that got the Mizzou fans booing as Tommy Saunders jogged down the sidelines? If a guy ever played a football game stoned, that's what I think it would look like. Strange, but maybe it was just a case of a senior pressing too hard in his final games.

GARY PINKEL'S GAME MANAGEMENT MASTER CLASS
So, you're approaching the 20-yard line with a little over 30 seconds left and two time outs in a tie game at the end of regulation. You run off 15 seconds just for fun and do two running plays that lose five yards to get to the center of the field for a 44-yard field goal attempt? Hmm. Maybe he was afraid of Chase producing some sort of turnover, but I'm thinking I would have even thrown the ball one more time to get near the fifteen or more. Still, even if I'm running, I would have come up with something a little more serious than an empty backfield Chase Daniel run. By the way, that field goal would have been good from 39. It all ended up okay, but still overtime seemed un-necessary.

NOT MUCH ON THE GOPHERS HERE
Hey, I work cheap. We'll get some real content up for the big game. 

Mangino's Greatest Hits: KU / MU 2005

Link to the KUsports.com Highlights 

This one gets a little lost among some of the other, but the 13-3 win over Missouri in 2005 was key for the season. The week before Jason Swanson got some time in a blowout loss at Colorado. You started to see that KU might finally have a leader at QB and sure enough the Jayhawks were a whole different team against the Tigers. The game ended a four-game losing streak and also introduced us to Aqib Talib as he intercepted a Brad Smith pitch for a huge turnover. His take:

"He kind of pitched it and dude didn't catch it," said Talib

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Mangino's Greatest Hits: KU / MU 2004

Following Charles Gordon Gate the Jayhawks put on their red sox and headed to Columbia as Clark Green ripped through the heart of Mizzou's defense. This game was never close and a lot of people were surprised Pinkel survived this one. This game was available via webcast and this quote came from the Missouri broadcast team shortly after halftime:

"A lot of Missouri fans are now enjoying this one from the parking lot."

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Mangino's Greatest Hits: KU / KSU 2004

K-State fans were blind-sided by this one for some reason. It ended the "Decade of Dominance" and signified and immediate shift in power. K-State squeezed out another win in Manhattan in 2005, but otherwise, it's been all KU. John Randle and Mark Simmons starred in this one as the game ended with Jayhawk fans jumping the fence from the hill to get on the field and snag a goalpost.

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Mangino's Greatest Hits: KU / MU 2003

A daily look at Mark Mangino's greatest wins in chronological order. We start with the 35-14 win over #23 MU in Lawrence.  This was a game that Mizzou fans thought was in the bag. Bill Whittemore, Gabe Toomey and company had other ideas. This one signaled the official start of the Fighting Mangino era.

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Holiday Wishes from Santa Mangino

Oh, Santa Mangino, thy recruiting bounty is plentiful. Please enjoy the updated commit list with Toben Opurum added for your holiday pleasure:

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

RB -- Toben Opurum/Plano, TX -- 6-2/229 -- 12/23/2008
RB -- Deshaun Sands/Coconut Creek, FL -- 5-9/175/4.5 -- 4/10/2008

OL -- Tom Mabry/Althoff, IL -- 6-5/270 --10/13/2008
OL -- Gavin Howard/Owasso, OK -- 6-5/260 -- 6/23/08
OL -- Riley Spencer/Hesston, KS -- 6-6/265/5.1 -- 6/22/08

DEFENSE
PS Player/Location/Ht/Wt/40/Signed
DT -- Travis Stephens/Brenham, TX (JUCO) -- 6-3/265/4.6 -- 12/21/2008

DE -- Jacoby Thomas/Texarkana, TX -- 6-3/223/4.71-- 12/9/2008
DE -- Randall Dent/Grand Prairie, TX-- 6-4/256/4.9 -- 12/7/2008
DE -- Tyrone Sellers/McCook, NE -- 6-4/215/4.57 -- 7/2/2008

LB -- Julian Jones/Lawton, OK -- 6-2/253 -- 10/27/2008
LB -- Huldon Tharp/Mulvane, KS -- 6-0/208/4.65 -- 8/25/2008

DB -- Calvin Rubles/Tyler, TX (JUCO) -- 6-2/180/4.4-- 12/10/2008
DB -- Dexter Linton/Arlington,TX -- 6-0/180 -- 6/20/2008
DB -- Darian Kelly/Girard, KS -- 6-2/195/4.5 -- 6/5/2008
DB -- Prinz Kande/Euless, TS -- 5-11/182/4.5 -- 6/2/2008
DB -- Tyler Patmon/Cedar Park,TX -- 5-11/180 -- 4/17/2008

Note: There's a lot of talk that Travis Stephens will play DE in college and Randall Dent will end up as a DT.

For star rankings, check the Rivals Commit page.

Toben Opurum: Just a Quick Link and Quote

It's Christmas Eve and I already opened my present. It was a Toben Opurum verbal commit. Thank you, Santa Mangino. Here's a Toben quote from the KUsports.com story (via Rivals) plus should check out the MaxPreps page with his junior year stats. There's a video and I think you'll see in his receiving stats that the kid can catch the ball.

“The visit went great. The thing that stood out was how well I meshed with all of the players and coaches. I knew after the visit there was no need to take others. I saw what I needed and knew I could make decision off that.”

Monday Recycle: Travis Stephens Verbal + Website Header

A NEW BANNER
The banner above was created by Phog user Cactii. He's also known to be the brother of single-season rushing record KU legend Jon Cornish. I picked it up at KJIBT a while back and it fits Hawk Digest so nicely, I figure I'll leave it up for a while (11 months or so). By the way adverstisers, that space is available.

JUCO DT FOR KU
The Jayhawks picked up JUCO DT Travis Stephens (6-3/265) who will graduate in May. An interesting move as a lot of fans were expecting a JUCO DE. KUsports.com has more details on Travis here. Full 2009 list:

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

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

OL -- Tom Mabry/Althoff, IL -- 6-5/270 --10/13/2008
OL -- Gavin Howard/Owasso, OK -- 6-5/260 -- 6/23/08
OL -- Riley Spencer/Hesston, KS -- 6-6/265/5.1 -- 6/22/08

DEFENSE
PS Player/Location/Ht/Wt/40/Signed
DT -- Travis Stephens/Brenham, TX (JUCO) -- 6-3/265/4.6 -- 12/21/2008

DE -- Jacoby Thomas/Texarkana, TX -- 6-3/223/4.71-- 12/9/2008
DE -- Randall Dent/Grand Prairie, TX-- 6-4/256/4.9 -- 12/7/2008
DE -- Tyrone Sellers/McCook, NE -- 6-4/215/4.57 -- 7/2/2008

LB -- Julian Jones/Lawton, OK -- 6-2/253 -- 10/27/2008
LB -- Huldon Tharp/Mulvane, KS -- 6-0/208/4.65 -- 8/25/2008

DB -- Calvin Rubles/Tyler, TX (JUCO-SIGNED) -- 6-2/180/4.4-- 12/10/2008
DB -- Dexter Linton/Arlington,TX -- 6-0/180 -- 6/20/2008
DB -- Darian Kelly/Girard, KS -- 6-2/195/4.5 -- 6/5/2008
DB -- Prinz Kande/Euless, TS -- 5-11/182/4.5 -- 6/2/2008
DB -- Tyler Patmon/Cedar Park,TX -- 5-11/180 -- 4/17/2008

Updated 12/22/08

Details available on the free Slant Commit page.

Tales From The Jayhawks Gridiron and Google's Attempt to Scan Every Single Item on Planet Earth

Get Your Read On

Working for what I would consider a mid-major player in the publishing industry, I'm on the frontlines of the whole "print is dead" battle that is coming to a head (read as fistfights) in corporate conference rooms across the landscape. The dire economic environment helps, but another accelerant is the work of Google. Somehow, someway they're going to find a way to get a tiny slice of every bit of content served up on the internet. Okay, how does this relate to KU football? Google books my friend. They're going to scan every piece of print that ever existed. What does that net for Jayhawk football fans? Right now, a really nice read from the "Tales From the Jayhawks Gridiron" book by Mark Stallard via the Google books preview above. If nothing else you get a great read from Bill Whittemore on the 2003 Mizzou win. If you click on the more about this book in the bottom right of the reader, you'll go directly to the Google site and you can open up a larger preview.

College Football and the "Blog"

I don't really read many college football blogs. I keep up with Rock Chalk Talk and KJ-IBT because they also cover my team. Lately, I've been trying to figure out the slick looking "The Shiver" blogsite as well. The only other one is Double Extra Point and sometimes I don't even really feel that my interest in going there has anything to do with football (example -- all of the sudden I have a stronger interest in UK Hockey).

However, lately I've found that I've been reading a lot more Dr. Saturday (aka Matt Hinton and formerly known as SMQ). I don't even really check EDSBS, so why do I keep finding myself at Dr. Saturday's Yahoo/Rivals page? One reason -- he's keeps showing up in my "My Yahoo" featured news module with bizarre headlines like "Girlfriend Tricks Player, Fans."

What's all the hubbub? Evidently, Alabama DT Terrence Cody shares his Facebook password with his girlfriend. Ah, young love. Terrence, I suggest you check out movies such as Double Indemnity, Fatal Attraction, War of the Roses and Intolerable Cruelty. Sharing your life with a partner is a beautiful thing, but there certain things in life a man just can't do -- like let another man ride his Harley or play his Randy Rhoads edition Flying V or share your Facebook password with a woman (under questionable, see also -- admitting you have a Facebook page).

So, why am I so chapped about all of this? Here I am reading "college football news" based on a Facebook page. At some point, I figured Yahoo and Rivals would mature and become more of a legitimate news source. The truth is, this type of gossip and Facebook journalism is what drives internet traffic and the opposite is true. And really, Rivals is based on trading the secrets of high school athletes, so I guess the lack of journalistic growth shouldn't really be a surprise. So, as print/paper media fades (or maybe burns out with this economy), web content has to be updated constantly to even maintain a fraction of what real print revenue generated. So, since real news doesn't actually happen all that often, expect more of a quality digression and the dirty, secondary web stalker feeling that comes with reading stories based on college kids' Facebook pages.

On the upside, if you're ever out of work, a job plan is out there for you. Just start scanning the social media for stories/photos/video and post every hour (the HD plan is actually the same, but only on a daily basis). If you're really good, you may get called up to the bigs.

Podcast with Gopher Football Blog

I was invited to do a podcasts with the hosts of the Gopher Football blog (another football only site) about the upcoming matchup with Minnesota. I don't have a direct link, but if you go to their website, there's a podcast player in the right column. It's top podcast from 12/18/2008. It is also supposed to be available on I-Tunes.