SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
10
FIRST LOOK AT VIRGINIA TECH
WWW.KANSAN.COM
PAGE 4B
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2007
A FLYING KICK
PAGE 1B
football notebook
TALKIN' ABOUT PRACTICE
Kansas players have received a major respite from the rigors of practice since their final regular season game on Nov. 24. The Jayhawks took part in their first
Mangino
bowl-season practice Sunday and will not practice again until Friday this week. The coaching staff has planned practices for every day this
weekend but has not worked anything out beyond Sunday. Coach Mark Mangino said he would sit down with Director of Football Operations George Matsakis to lay out a practice schedule for the rest of the month.
17,500 TICKETS TO KU
Kansas Athletics Director Lew Perkins said the school would receive a standard allotment of about 17,500 tickets for the Jan.
3 FedEx Orange Bowl. Perkins said the potential number of Jayhawk fans attending the game did not play a part in Kansas earning the Orange Bowl
Perkins
bid and that the Orange Bowl generally reserves about 17,500 seats for each team.
EXTENDED VISIT
Mangino and his Jayhawks officially received their invitation to the Orange Bowl on Monday. Vance Carlton of the Orange Bowl committee visited the University to extend the formal invite and is staying for the rest of the week. Carlton said he could feel the excitement and anticipation in his first day at Kansas Athletics' facilities and that he thought the Jayhawks were a good fit for the Orange Bowl because they lost only one game.
MORE TICKET INFO
Carlton confirmed that Kansas and Virginia Tech had each been allotted 17,500 of the 75,000 seats in Dolphin Stadium. Including the tickets given to each school, the Orange Bowl has sold 70,000 tickets as of Monday. Of the tickets remaining after the schools take their share, previous Orange Bowl ticket holders receive 35,000, and 5,000 are made available for public sale. Bowl officials said the South Florida area has enjoyed a more than $200 million economic boost during the past four years because of the event.
— Asher Fusco
FOOTBALL REPORT CARD
Subject
Todd Reesing flourished in his first full season as a starter. Only a sophomore, Reesing broke school passing records left and right and finished the regular season with the nation's 12th-best passing efficiency mark. Reesing was the subject of a segment on ESPN's "College GameDay" and was squarely in the Heisman hunt before Kansas' loss to Missouri put a damper on his momentum. His improvisational skills outside the pocket and uncanny ability to evade tacklers made for some SportsCenter-worthy highlights, and his 32-6 touchdown-to-interception ratio earned him a spot on the All-Big 12 second team.
One of the reasons Kansas' undersized, gun-slinging quarterback put up such staggering numbers was the quality of the receivers. Senior Marc Henry emerged as one of the Big 12 conference's most dangerous deep threats, junior Dexton Fields became a sure-handed master of the screen pass and freshman Dezmian Boeisco caught seven touchdown passes and hinted at a bright future. Senior tight end Derek Fine played the role of sturdy tight end, never playing with flash but always playing well, and sophomore Kerry Meier became the Jayhawks' most consistent receiver, snaring 24 receptions.
Grade
Heading into the season, one of the Jayhawks' most glaring areas of concern was replacing star running back Jon Cornish. Though senior Brandon McAnderson rarely showed the ability to serve as a feature back in his first three seasons, he broke out for 1,050 rushing yards in 2007 and stepped into Cornish's role with ease. Sophomore Jake Sharp averaged 5.7 yards per carry and provided a nice change-of-pace option, and sophomore Angus Quigley displayed potential in several late-game auditions.
The offensive line, which lost three starters to graduation in the offseason, turned from a question mark to one of the team's strongest units. Junior tackle Anthony Collins is a finalist for the Outland Trophy and senior tackle Cesar Rodriguez earned All-Big 12 honorable mention status. The interior linemen — all first-year starters — proved themselves worthy of starting spots and helped the Jayhawks average five yards per carry and nearly 200 yards per game on the ground.
Until injuries tempered his production late in the season, senior defensive tackle James McClinton was consistently the best performer on the Kansas defense. The All-Big 12 first team selection made 38 tackles and had 2.5 sacks, all while drawing double teams that made life easier for the rest of the Jayhawk defensive linemen. Despite McClinton's dominance, Kansas defensive ends John Larson and Russell Brorsen struggled to put pressure on opposing quarterbacks — most notably against Missouri. Because of McClinton's ability to squeeze his way through double teams to find the ballcarrier, the Jayhawks have allowed just 91 rushing yards per game.
The Jayhawks had all the right pieces at linebacker in 2006 but rarely displayed consistency at the position. Turns out the trick was putting those pieces in the right places to be productive. Junior linebackers Joe Mortensen and Mike Rivera swapped positions before the season and benefited immediately from the shift. Mortensen is about to break the 100-tackle mark and Rivera became one of the Big 12's most feared heavy-hitters. Junior outside linebacker James Holt could be the least-hyped of the bunch, but he proved his worth as a fleet-footed tackling machine by the end of the season.
Junior cornerback Aqib Talib is a special player. But Kansas' 119th-place 2006 pass defense proved one special player do secondary make. Kansas added a few steady players around Talib in 2007 and enjoyed a much more productive season in pass coverage. Freshman cornerback Chris Harris earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honors for his tackling skills, junior cornerback Kendrick Harper played well when he was healthy and sophomore safety Darrell Stuckey returned from an injury last season to become one of the Big 12's most consistent defenders. The Jayhawks most improved player may be sophomore safety Justin Thornton. Thornton had trouble as a starter last year but tied Talib for the team lead in interceptions with four this season.
Junior kick returner Marcus Herford enjoyed an outstanding season, winning the All- Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year award and finishing eighth in the nation in yards per kick return. Unfortunately for Kansas, the rest of the special teams play wasn't nearly as strong. Senior kicker Scott Webb showed decent accuracy most of the season (71 percent) but wilted under the pressure of the national spotlight, missing two field goals against Missouri. Senior punter Kyle Tucker's performance was uneven at best; backup quarterback and wide receiver Kerry Meier replaced him as punter on four occasions. Punt returns were nightmarish for the Jayhawks in 2007. After sophomore wide receiver Raimond Pendleton inexplicably forgot how to field punts at midseason, sophomore cornerback Anthony Webb took his job and didn't fare any better, averaging less than one yard per return.
in his five years with the Jayhawks, and 2007 was no different. Young made the necessary adjustments to vault his defense into the upper echelon of the conference and the nation.
ansas coach Mark Mangino has done wonders for his resume during the last four months: In August, the there were whispers in the media about his lack of job security. At the end of November he was named Big 12 Coach of the Year. Mangino has done an excellent job keeping his players grounded despite their meteoric rise to the top of the college football ranks. He kept the team focused on "saving wood" all season. Along with Mangino, Kansas' coordinators deserve quite a bit of credit for the 11-1 regular season. Offensive coordinator Ed Warner put together a banner year in his first at Kansas, designing and running the sixth-best offense in the country. Defensive coordinator Bill Young has never fielded a poor defensive unit years with the Jayhaws, and 2007 was no different. Young made the necessary personnel and scheme
COACHING
》 BASKETBALL
Teahan brings style to traditionally ugly mop-up minutes
The last few minutes of a blowout can often be a tedious, sloppy display of floor burns, bobbled rebounds and hurried shots that zoom several feet away from the rim.
BY MARK DENT
mdent@kansan.com
Not when Conner Teahan plays for your team.
Teahan, a walk-on freshman guard, has added flavor to mop-up time this season with his sweet outside stroke. He's made an absurd eight for 10 three-pointers in limited minutes and has made three in a game on two occasions.
Freshman center Cole Aldrich is never surprised when he sees a Teahan shot rotate perfectly out of his hands and into the net.
"He's a real pure shooter," Aldrich said. "We know that if we get the ball inside and his guy digs on us, we can kick it out and he's going to hit it. It's real fun playing with him because we know he's going to hit that shot."
Years and years of practice helped that shot develop. Whenever Teahan felt stressed
from school or just wanted to escape for awhile, hed step outside to the half-court in the backyard of his Leawood home. There, he spent many nights homing his shot and playing against his older brother, Kyle.
The shot made him a good high school player, but he didn't become a big Division I prospect until later in his career when he added more to his game. Teahan started to use his 6-foot-5, hardened-by-four-years-of-football frame to back down opponents and develop inside moves. He became a legitimate inside and outside threat.
"I always liked shooting the three just because it becomes a huge deal in games to make three-pointers, so I always used to work on it," Teahan said. "I feel like I can shoot it from anywhere."
Kyle was four years older and several inches taller than Teahan. Teahan's best way to challenge his brother? Shoot from the outside.
During his senior year at Rockhurst High School, Teahan averaged 25 points and eight rebounds per game while leading his team to a state runner-up in Missouri. He was named the Missouri Gatorade Player of the
Year for the second straight season and won the DiRenna Award, an award given to the top basketball player in Kansas City.
Area schools such as Wichita State, Kansas State and Missouri showed interest in Teahan, but Teahan had been a KU fan all his life. The choice was easy. He wanted to walk on at Kansas.
"I've always watched KU and loved KU since I was a little kid" he said shortly after he made his decision. "They made me feel like I was welcome and could be a contributor down the road."
Teahan said he worked on his shot 10 times harder than he ever had while preparing for his freshman season. As well as he's been shooting the ball this year, Teahan has only been playing toward the end of blow-outs. He didn't play a minute in big games against Arizona and Southern California.
To get consistent playing time, Teahan said he needed to add more to his all-around game. He said he had been working hard on his defense and ballhandling. Even if Teahan's game improves significantly, Kansas coach Bill Self said it was unlikely Teahan's role will
Teahan's time will likely come in the future. Self said Teahan would almost definitely be in the rotation in the coming years.
For now, fans will have to settle with enjoying the beauty of Teahan's shot during the end of blowouts.
“it's one of those things where I want to do what's best for the team and that probably means playing those guys,” Teahan said.
increase too much because of the depth at the guard position. Senior guard Rodrick Stewart, junior guard Mario Chalmers, junior guard Brandon Rush, sophomore guard Sherron Collins and freshman guard Tyrel Reed, when they're healthy, all play ahead of him. That's fine with Teahan.
"When the ball leaves his hand," Self said, "it looks as good as anybody in our program."
Conner Teahan's smooth shot garnered attention from a few Division schools, but he only wanted to show it off at Kansas. The guard, regulated to cleanup duty so far this season, has hit eight of 10 three-point shots.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
1
+