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KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016
Gracie Williams/KANSAN
Senior quarterback Montell Cozart looks downfield during Kansas football's 2016 spring game. Cozart and other teammates remembered Brandon Bourbon by wearing towels that read "RIP 25."
KU football remembers Brandon Bourbon at spring game
CHRISTIAN HARDY
@Byhardy
@Byhardy
Memorial Stadium was silent before the spring game on Saturday.
The few thousand in attendance stood, hushed, with hats removed. The Kansas football players, outfitted in blue and white jerseys for the game, rested their hands and looked down at the ground.
"Brandon Bourbon," the Kivisto Field jumbotron spelled out in bold white text. "1991-2016."
Less than 24 hours after Bourbon was found dead in Missouri, Kansas football remembered a former Jayhawk the best way they could. Though the running back left Kansas after an injury prior to 2014, many current Kansas players have fond memories of him.
Senior quarterback Montell Cozart played next to Bourbon for two and a half years at Kansas before Bourbon left in 2014 due to injury. During Saturday's game, he wore a white towel on his hip with "RIP 25" etched in Sharpie.
"Yesterday was the worst day, probably of my life in a long time, and I feel like it just kind of carried over a little bit to today," senior quarterback Montell Cozart
said. "I love Brandon, and I'm going to miss him tremendously."
Cozart heard the news through former Kansas linebacker Ben Heeney, who has set up a GoFund-Me page for Bourbon's family to cover funeral costs. Cozart, Heeney and other former players talked about Bourbon together after hearing the news last night.
"Us former players that played with him like Tre' Parmelee and a couple of other guys were talking throughout the day and last night, just reminiscing on having Brandon around, and having us playing with him, on and off the field,"
Cozart said.
When Cozart came to Kansas, a year after Bourbon, Bourbon was one who guided him along. Both Cozart and junior linebacker Joe Dineen — who played running back with Bourbon for a year — say Bourbon mentored them at Kansas.
"He pretty much showed me the ropes; he taught me how to play running back, because I wasn't really familiar with the position," Dineen said. "He just took you under [his] wing. He was just a really good dude."
Though coach David Beaty was not at Kansas when Bourbon played for the team, he talked to the
team prior to the game, including some individuals who were having a hard time dealing with the news before the game.
Beaty, like many Jayhawk fans, went through Saturday's game in the same way so many other new faces on the Kansas roster did: through the memories others had of him.
"It was a rough 24 hour period for our team, and it will continue to be that way," Beaty said. "But it was a healing day, because that's what Brandon would have wanted us to do, was go out there and play Jayhawk football."
For Cozart, though, the
memories which Bourbon left live on, even after he's gone. To Bourbon, along with Heeney and JaCorey Shepherd, welcoming him to Kansas during his freshman year, to being next to him on the field - Cozart plans to keep the memories of Bourbon with him.
"Any time Brandon walks in, you just feel his presence. He was a great guy, a great leader [...] the list goes on and on," Cozart said. "He's still right there with me, in the back of my mind."
- Edited by Sam Davis
Paige Stingley/KANSAN
Freshman pitcher Jackson Goddard pitches the ball during Sunday afternoon's game against the TCU Horned Frogs. The Jayhawks lost 14-6 in the third game of the series against the Progs.
KU baseball loses after fifth-inning meltdown
▶ MATT HOFFMANN
@MattHoffmannUDK
It was going relatively well for Kansas baseball through four innings against No. 6 ranked TCU on Sunday. The team actually led a national power 4-3 and were in position to take the three game series.
TCU put up eight runs in the top half off of six extra-base hits. The inning was so dominant for the Horned Frogs that they sent eight straight hitters to the plate without an out being recorded. In real time, it took roughly 20 minutes for the Jayhawks to record the first out of the fifth.
Then the top of the fifth happened.
"It was a tough inning, there's no doubt about that," Kansas coach Ritch Price said. "We got behind in the count and left some
Price also put it in a much simpler way:"They beat us up really good." The Jayhawks ultimately fell to the Horned Frogs 14-6 in the series finale in Hoglund Ballpark on April 10.
"Hats off to them today, they hit the ball all over the place," senior right fielder Joe Moroney said.
balls high and, man, they are as good as advertised."
It wasn't the long ball that started the Kansas tailspin, it was a double by third baseman Elliot Brazelli. A few batters later TCU centerfielder Dane
That they did. TCU registered 18 hits in the game but it was the six in the fifth that were the most back-breaking.
"It's a credit to them how good of a hitting team they are one through nine," said Moroney.
A compounding issue that set up the massive fifth inning was the inability of freshmen starting pitcher Jackson Goddard to get out of the third inning.
When he left in the top half the bases were loaded. Kansas managed to escape off the shoulders of freshman pitcher Blake Goldsberry but the right-handed pitcher simply didn't have two full innings of relief in him.
TCU wasn't done, shortstop Ryan Merrill then hit a two-run homer in the next at bat and things snowballed from there, silencing the fans in attendance.
Steinhagen hit another double, this time it was a bases-clearing hit to the gap.
"Goddard really struggled with his command and it set the table when
you're starter only gets through the second inning it's really tough," Price said.
Goddard threw 59 pitches but just 28 were strikes. He also allowed seven hits and three runs and now stands with a 4.91 ERA. Goldsberry, on the other hand, threw 35 pitches with 20 strikes and allowed five hits, all coming in the fateful fifth inning.
The Jayhawks were simply never able to recover and any offense they did generate was too little too late as they fell 14-6.
Kansas will be back on the diamond on Wednesday against Nebraska Omaha, first pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Edited by Skylar Rolstad
Updated: Top-ranked recruit Josh Jackson reportedly set to commit Monday
Thursday night, Evan Daniels of Scout.com tweeted that unanimous five-star recruit Josh Jackson told the outlet he'll announce his college decision on either Monday or Wednesday of the next week.
Jackson is the top ranked recruit in the Class of 2016 according to 247sports and Rivals; Scout has him ranked second, while ESPN has him third.
On Friday, USA Today High School Sports reported that the decision will be made on Monday.
Jackson is a 6-foot-8 wing who grew up in Michigan. Right now, he plays for ProLific Prep Academy in Napa, Calif.
The swingman was named co-MVP of the McDonald's All-American Game at the end of March. In the game, he
▶ SCOTT CHASEN
@SChasenKU
At the moment, 68 percent of Scout's recruiting experts that have weighed in predict Jackson will commit to Kansas. Michigan State is a distant second at 18 percent, although, as of Thursday night, Jackson's Wikipedia page actually had him listed as a "Michigan State commit."
Regardless, the official announcement is expected sometime in the next week. Until then, the three schools — Kansas, Michigan State and Arizona — will be left waiting to find out if one of the most talented freshmen in the nation will be calling their school home for the upcoming season.
Currently, the page has him listed as undecided, but people from all three fan bases have been changing it throughout the day.
recorded 19 points, four rebounds and three assists.
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