Around the Net: Spring Game -- April 15

KU's Spring Football Schedule is Announced

Kansas is set to start spring practice on March 14 and will hold the annual spring game at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 15. Two other practices will be open to the public -- March 16 and April 4.

From the Boards

Nationalchamps.net is listing a home-and-home football series with Duke in 2009 and 2010. Kansas would travel to Duke in 2009 and the Blue Devils would visit Lawrence the following year. The grid also serves as a reminder about our challenging road trip to South Florida in 2008. Maybe that'll help us prepare for our rotation back to Texas, Tech and OU.

Check out the Big 12 Coaches as South Park characters from the gridiron board. Posted by gspot15 -- there are more conferences in the thread.

That's Right, Dollar Signs

Perkin's War

With the ten-point bonus for early renewal on football season tickets offered by the Kansas Athletic Department this week, I can't help but admire Lew Perkin's ability to find new ways to generate revenue. It's killing me in the wallet, but deep-down you know this is the only way we can compete with the monster budgets of the big four-Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Nebraska. Big deal, you say. Those people are going to renew no matter what. Maybe, but for the average guy with a pair of season tickets teetering on the brink of buying an extra pair of tickets to add a few friends or family to the game-day experience, the 20-point incentive might push them to pull the trigger. Or in my case, maybe you can change the mind of a guy who has four tickets and was thinking of scaling back to two or three due to the inevitable increase with the eight-game package (season tickets are now $275, it wasn't that long ago that they were $150). Now, I'm looking at the 20-point bonus and thinking, hey we can swing an extra pair.

It's another shrewd move by Perkins to boost season ticket sales and increase overall revenue just right after throwing another million dollars into the pot with the Arrowhead deal. Again, it's not real comfortable to cough up the extra cash, but I'm glad we have Lew in there driving this thing and going to war with the big boys. We're not quite where we want to be in football on the field, but it's clear that Perkins is going to get there one way or another. That's quite a change from the old KU attitude. Consider the following, excerpted from last year's KC Star article:

"We were doing just fine," Frederick said of the Big Eight days. "All of the Big Eight schools … we all had a niche thing we were good in and everyone was comfortable with that. Then suddenly the game changed."

Man, I'm glad that attitude is gone. One thing that gets lost when KU fans debate whether or not Mark Mangino can get the job done is that he was hired after coming off a stint as the offensive coordinator for a national championship team. That alone makes a statement about where we want to go with our football program. Of course, Mangino was not hired by Perkins but he delivered his message when he signed Mangino to the controversial $1.5 million/year contract. The theme is pretty clear -- KU is serious about building a football program and 6-6 is not good enough for anyone.

Lew's already made some headway by boosting the athletic department budget from $27 million to approximately $40 million in his first three years. As the numbers below suggest, there's work to be done, but with deals like the Arrowhead move, Perkins is chipping away at the gap.

Budget In Millions
$74.4 -- Texas
$62.9 -- Oklahoma
$57.4 -- Texas A&M
$55.8 -- Nebraska
$46.4 -- Missouri
$45.6 -- Texas Tech
$40.0 -- Kansas
$36.6 -- Colorado
$35.9 -- Oklahoma State
$33.5 -- Kansas State
$31.1 -- Baylor
$28.1 -- Iowa State

Source: 2005-2006 EADA Reports

Haverkamp Likes Georgia

Former Lineman Takes A Few Shots at KU and Reagan

I'm not too wild about the tone of former KU lineman Scott Haverkamp's comments in this article on Topix.

"For whatever reason, I didn't think that I was really getting the fair shot I deserved for playing time,' Haverkamp said. 'I thought it was best for me to go find a new home for me to play football, so I decided to go to a JUCO."

Haverkamp tranferred to Butler County after two years with the Jayhawks. I'd love to hear John Reagan's side of the story on this particular player. Especially considering how Haverkamp was paraphrased in this part of the article:

"He credits Butler coach Troy Morrell for helping him improve his blocking technique and lower his pad level, making him into a better lineman than he had been as a Jayhawk."

Of course, sometimes things just don't work out, but it'll be interesting to see how his career goes at Georgia. Despite the apparent negative attitude toward KU, I wish him good luck as a Kansas guy and a former Jayhawk.

Arrowhead Talk Won't Die

Moving the KU/Missouri Game

As reported in the KC Star earlier this week, KU and Mizzou are still talking about the possibility of moving the Border War to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, MO. Here's a list of items to consider. I'll update this for those who want to make additions through the comments functions.

Pros

• $$$
• Big-time atmosphere appeals to the players/good for recruiting
• Students may be in KC over Thanksgiving weekend anyway

Cons

• It's in Missouri
• No home-field advantage
• Alcohol plus 40k of each fan base is a recipe for disaster
• College football belongs on campus
• The Arrowhead staff made it pretty clear that they hate KU fans last time we were there

Fambrough Street and The Search

Catching Up On Recent News Stories

Fambrough Street
The LJ-World had a recent article on a KU student that is organizing an effort to get all of or a portion of Missouri Street renamed in honor of Don Fambrough. Hey, I'm hardcore -- this isn't even a debate. I'm on board with Fambrough Avenue.

Searching For The OC
Mark Mangino gave some insight into the offensive coordinator situation in another LJ-World article on Friday:

“Making the correct decision is more important than making a hasty decision,” Mangino said, “so I’m making sure that everything is well thought-out.”

In other words, it looks like it'll be a while before we have a replacement and it sounds like the resignation was a little bit of surprise for the staff. Still, the tone of the article indicates that they are taking a careful look at the offensive approach and that should be a good thing.

Sweating the New OC

Time Keeps On Tickin'

The early speculation that offensive coordinator Nick Quartaro was forced out seems a little more off target each day that passes with no announcement of a replacement. For fans looking for improvement, that could be bad news. Lew Perkins has certainly demonstrated the financial ability to attract a solid replacement, but if the staff is scrambling for candidates ... well, color me concerned. Just a little bit of improvement on the offensive side of the ball should net us about two more wins per year. Even though I'm not in the "Nick Q makes bad play calls club", no one can argue that KU has had trouble making the plays on offense at critical junctures in the game. In my opinion, sometimes that was the play call and other times it was a failure to execute properly. Whatever the reason, KU needs improvement. Nick's offensive units were productive over the years (excluding first half 2005) when you check out the numbers. Now we need to be productive when the game is on the line. Good luck on the hire.