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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Sept. 11, 1958
Jayhawkers Toughen Up in Drills
YOU GO UP . . .
YOU COME DOWN...
YOU HIT HARD . . .
Football players are a special breed of students. They're really enrolled in the school of hard knocks. Those knocks and bumps have been coming thick and fast the last couple of weeks as players have been working twice daily in preparation for opening day.
For these students, every day is examination day. In the practices Coach Mitchell and his staff stand by ready to point out mistakes. In the games to come, competing teams won't point out the mistakes—they'll go through them. So the Jayhawkers work hard now at exposing and filling in the weak spots.
Over in the upper left, a red-shirted player leaps high to toss a pass over the heads of onrushing defenders. The difficult thing about this play is his getting used to hitting the ground hard when his legs are knocked from under him.
Above, another red-shirt is just a shade faster than the white-shirt blocker. He throws a would-be runner for a loss far behind the line of scrimmage.
And at the left, bodies twist and players groan as the two lines pile up at the beginning of another play. They'll have only a couple of minutes to recover from that hard elbow in the face or that cleated shoe in the stomach. Piling up like this hard and often is what keeps it from hurting in a real game.
A NEW BIG DIPPER? . . .
A red-shirted pass defender jumps half as high as Allen Field House in a graceful, but futile, attempt to knock down the ball which has passed above and beyond his fingers. Coach Jack Mitchell, fourth from right, and four of his assistants watch the action and make decisions.
In the background is a part of the large crowd which has been watching the daily drills. Some 250 persons were ringing the field in last Saturday's scrim-mage.. The only things missing were striped-shirt referees, the band, and the cheerleaders.
Coach's Woe Is Slow Pace
Building the 1958 model of the Jayhawker football team is something like the process involved in making steel. Coach Jack Mitchell, the new foreman, blows the whistle and pours on the heat to make the steel-tough team he hopes will hold together on opening day.
Some of the weaknesses and faults in the team will show up in the daily drills. These can be worked on right away. Other mistakes aren't detected until an actual game-condition scrimmage is held.
In the first game-type session Saturday, Mitchell was both pleased and displeased with the way the plays went.
"I thought our condition was pretty good," he said after the practice. He observed that the blocking and tackling were rough and effective. The team had one week of fall practice.
Can't Dream Speed
"We looked awful slow, though. I guess I try to dream up the speed before we get out here, and the speed just doesn't happen then." He said the slow pace might partly be blamed on the soggy condition of the field.
The first injury of the season was worrying Mitchell Saturday afternoon. Bill Blasi, tackle on a not-too-deep line, was knocked out of action with a broken right hand.
"We're in a heck of a shape if he's out five weeks," Mitchell moaned.
The first and second teams were matched against the third and fourth teams. The white-shirted top players looked strong against the red shirts as seven touchdowns were scored.
"We can't tell how good the team is that way," Mitchell said. "We don't know how tough the competition will be yet."
The players who scored touchdowns were Bobby Marshall, Bill Crank, Homer Floyd, Doyle Schick, John Peppercorn, Larry Martin and Dave Harris. Harris outran the defensive backs on two long runs during the afternoon. One of his scores was called back.
Mitchell said that while the quarterbacking was still "spotty." Crank, Marshall and Duane Morris were doing fair. Earlier last week he also praised the defensive play of the first two.
Passing Not Good
He was still dissatisfied with passing efforts throughout the afternoon. Neither offensive nor defensive passing work was showing up well, he said.
After more daily drills this week, the squad will meet Saturday for another game-type session. Then, the following Saturday, comes the first test, the Horned Frogs of Texas Christian University.
This is how the teams were lined up by Mitchell earlier this week:
Right end -Dale Remsberg, Joe Spreckelmeyer, Bill Zagar, Charlie Thurston.
Right tackle—H. C. Palmer, Bill Blasi, Grant Miller, Stan Kirshman.
C. Pather
Blaisi, Grant Miller, Stan Kirshman.
Right guard—Tom Russell, Dick Rohlf, Rudy Mauser, Ervel Staab.
Center—John Wertzberger, Bill Burnison, Bill Tourtillot, Jerry Brown.
Left guard—Ken Fitch, Joe Spurney, Larry Martin, Ron Claiborne.
Left tackle—John Peppercorn,
Chet Vanatta, Walt Schmidt, Harry
Craig.
Left end—LeWitt Lewis, Sam Simpson, Bill Allen, Hary Jolley.