kansan.com
Volume 126 Issue 41
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
COMMENTARY
Tough early schedule hurts Kansas football
The scheduling committee did Kansas football no favors by saving its easiest games for the end of the season.
At Kansas, a reasonable goal for the football team year in and year out is to have momentum going into basketball season. If Jayhawk fans are still interested in football at the time of Kansas' first regular season game at the Phog, then the football team is clearly doing something right. Kansas is undoubtedly a basketball school, but it still stands behind its football team if it is putting a halfway-decent product on the field. Fans are certainly capable of supporting both sports.
The problem is that Jayhawk football has sputtered as basketball season has commenced. The words "at least basketball is starting" have been mutted from Daisy Hill to the Kansas Union and everywhere in between. The football team's poor record has made it difficult for fans to maintain a high level of interest, especially with Andrew Wiggins and the rest of his upstart teammates ready to take the college basketball world by storm.
This brings me to the schedule.
Against Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Baylor and Texas, Kansas was the clear underdog. It was only a marginal underdog against TCU, but that is because TCU unexpectedly lost its starting quarterback Casey Pachall to injury. Consistent with expectations, Kansas lost every one of those games.
This brings me to the schedule.
Instead, Charlie Weis must deal with a losing culture once again. Kansas will likely take the field in front of a sparse crowd against West Virginia. Memorial Stadium will be full for the Kansas State game, but the buzz and electricity in the air won't be near the same.
Kansas could win its final three games and many people wouldn't even notice.
That's what happens when its foot ball program is out of bowl content before November.
However, Kansas' final three football games are all winable, and two of them are at home. West Virginia will stride into Lawrence, followed by an away game at Iowa State and a home game against Kansas State
Its next game is against Oklahoma State in Stillwater. The spread has not been announced, but the Cowboys should be favored by anywhere between 20 and 30 points. If Kansas is unable to pull the incredible upset, the Jayhawks will fall to 2-7 overall with an 0-6 conference record.
If these three games were at or near the beginning of the conference season, Kansas might have sustained enough momentum to keep fans engaged even as basketball season started. Wins beget more wins, and a change of attitude in the locker room could have meant that Kansas would have hung with its tough brethren down South.
That sound you hear in the background is any interest in Kansas football disappearing into the distance.
Three days later, Kansas basketball will play Duke in Chicago. Wiggins will go up against Duke freshman Jabari Parker. Coach Bill Self will attempt to match wits with Coach K in a battle of good versus evil the likes of which haven't been seen since the Joker battled Batman. The storylines are abundant.
TRIAL RUN
EMBRACIN' MASON
With Tharpe out, Mason starts at point guard
Freshman Frank Mason played 18 minutes in the game against Pittsburg State, Tuesday, Oct. 29. Mason will start tonight against Fort Hays State.
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
BLAKE SCHUSTER
bschuster@kansan.com
It has become common for Kansas point guards to find themselves suspended early in the season.
Two years ago, Tyshawn Taylor and Elijah Johnson both sat out the preseason while a freshman, Naadir Tharp, ran the offense.
Nadini Thipple, who will not dress on Tharpe, who will not dress for the Jayhawks' season opener on Friday after breaking an NCAA rule that prohibited him from playing in a summer league game during the offseason. Kansas coach Bill Self will start another freshman, Frank Mason, over the experienced junior in the second exhibition of the year against Fort Hays State.
against it for Mason to play more." Self said of Mason on Monday, "I don't know if it's going to be a lot more than we would have, but we're going to try to get him as many reps as possible."
Mason's increase in minutes for Kansas' preseason finale likely would've happened either way. As the only other true point guard on the jayhawks' roster, it was expected that he would have a big role during the exhibitions.
It really wasn't all that long ago that Self mentioned how impressed he was with Mason, and that he might steal minutes from Tharpe as the season went on, which led to minor speculation that he could take over the starting role.
There are some vast differences between Mason and Tharpe. To begin with, it's hard to replace three years of experience. Then again, Mason brings his own flavor to the lineup.
"Frank is more athletic, freshman guard Wayne Selden said. "He's in a position where he's done a great job of backing up Naadir so I don't think it'll be that much of a
change."
Selden also went on to say that Naadir is a lot more calm out on the floor, while Frank likes to get up and run. The point guard change doesn't matter much to him as Selden said he feels comfortable playing either style of ball.
But that's not to discredit the advantage that comes with playing Bill Self basketball for three years. In the preseason opener Mason saw 18 minutes of playing time, shooting 1-3 from the field for five points, one assist and three turnovers. Tharpe went 3-3 with seven points, nine assists and no turnovers. And Tharpe has been much more vocally active on the floor than in the past.
Self said he hopes the team doesn't miss Tharpe. While the year is still young, Self will find out whether that's true.
Regardless of the reasons for the experiment, senior transfer Tarik Black knows one or two games don't kill team chemistry, but it can help with familiarity.
"The whole season we'll be figuring each other out," Black said. "I played with guys for three years straight back in Memphis and wed still misinterpret things with one another. We're just trying to feel comfortable on the floor."
Two years ago, Tharpe was just trying to get comfortable on the floor while Tyshawn Taylor and Elijah Johnson looked on from the bench. It might've just been a preseason game, but it's one that sticks out to Self.
"Naadir almost got a triple-double" Self said with a smile. "Nine points, nine turnovers and nine assists."
—Edited by Heather Nelson
FOOTBALL
Weis looks to pay more attention to struggling offense
Coach Charlie Weis has seen aspects weakening since the season started. After a 13-35 loss to Texas, Saturday, Weis looks to adjust the offense.
MAX GOODWIN
mgoodwin@kansan.com
Charlie Weis has been able to take a step back and better assess where his team is at on offense lately, while assistants Jeff Blasko and Ron Powlus have taken over a role in calling plays.
Weis has seen some aspects of the offense improve, while other areas continue to require attention.
"Since I've changed my role I've got a lot more involved with the wide receivers, which I will continue to do because I've seen some improvement," Weis said. "I think that this week I'm going to go down there and spend more time with the offensive linemen too."
"You try to establish some chemistry and get the same guys playing together all of the time." Weis said. "But we have not been very efficient up front and we continue to make changes."
For the first four weeks of the season, Weis made more personnel changes on the offensive line than he has at any other point in his coaching career, but has remained consistent with the unit the last four weeks.
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
This week, Weis will once again make some changes to who plays on the offensive line.
He did not specify what those changes will be during a teleconference call with Big 12 media on Monday, though that will likely be answered on Tuesday in his weekly press conference.
Weis is especially concerned with the offensive line changes this week, as the Jayhawks will travel to face Oklahoma State on Saturday, a team with "a pretty salty defensive front," as Weis says.
There are several ways to approach the situation that Weis has mentioned. One is by building chemistry on the line. Another is by changing personnel.
"I think we're going to have our work cut out for us" Weis said.
Weis has attempted both of those so far this season.
"When it comes right down to it, we just have to get the guys playing better." Weis said.
Despite being discontent with
statistically, there hasn't been much of a difference in what Heaps has done in the last two games., against Texas and Baylor, but Weis has noticed an improvement.
the offensive line improvement. Weis has liked what he's seen from quarterback Jake Heaps playing behind the line recently.
"He was close to having really big numbers on the day," Weis said of Heaps against Texas.
As both Weis and quarterbacks
Volu
Weis said that has been the difference the past two weeks.
"I was a little concerned three or four weeks ago about where he was
teams has completed 50.2 percent of his passes on the season, which ranks 117th in the NCAA out of 123 quarterbacks who qualify with at least 14 passes thrown.
coach Ron Powlus said at the beginning of the season, Heaps's strength as a passer is his accuracy, but that has been lacking for most of the season.
heading, because one of his greatest attributes was accuracy and he hadn't been (accurate)." Weis said,
"whereas he's starting to pick that up here in the last few weeks."
Weis has proven that he will attempt to make any changes necessary to improve the offensive production by Kansas, and he continues to do so with four games left on the schedule.
Edited by Sylas May