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Junior safety Fish Smithson was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team.
Four Kansas football players honored in Big 12 postseason awards
The Big 12 released its post-season awards for the 2015 football season. While schools like Oklahoma, Baylor and Oklahoma State took home many honors, a few Jayhawks were honored.
Junior safety Fish Smithson was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team.
DEREK SKILLETT
@derek_skillett
Smithson led the Jayhawks with 111 total tackles, which also ranked him at No. 15 in the country in the total tackles category. Smithson's 87 solo tackles, including an average of 7.9 solo stops per game, led the nation.
The Jayhawks also received three All-Big 12 Honorable Mention players: senior defensive end Ben Goodman, sophomore tight end Ben Johnson and junior fullback Michael Zunica.
As one of the leaders of the Jayhawk defense, Goodman proved to be one of Kansas' best pass rushers. Goodman led the defense with 5.5 sacks and 9.5 tackles-for-loss. He also ranked seventh on the team with 34 total tackles.
In his sophomore season, Johnson became one of the more reliable tight ends for the Jayhawks. He recorded 13 receptions for 115 yards and no touchdowns, managing to average 8.85 yards per reception.
Zunica, while he didn't receive the same amount of production as many of the key offensive pieces for the Jayhawks, succeeded as an effective blocker and a key asset on special teams. Zunica recorded one tackle during the 2015 season.
While the Jayhawks failed to secure a win this season, there is plenty of talent on the roster. With many young players getting a lot of valuable game experience, it may not be long before they start to produce big-time stats and help the Jayhawks get back to respectability on the field.
- Edited by Dani Malakoff
Kansas volleyball receives awards from the AVCA
AMIE JUST
@Amie_Just
Postseason awards continue to rack up for the No. 9 Kansas Jayhawks. On Tuesday, the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) released its regional awards. Kansas is in the AVCA's Midwest Region.
Four Jayhawks were named to the AVCA All-Midwest Team.
Coach Ray Bechard was selected as AVCA All-Midwest Coach of the Year. This is the third time over the past
four years Bechard earned a regional coach of the year award. He won the award in 2012 and 2013.
Three Kansas players
Three Kansas players sophomore setter Ainise Havili, sophomore right side hitter Kelsie Payne and junior middle blocker Tayler Soucie
were selected to the AVCA All-Midwest First Team. Kansas had the most players named to the All-Midwest Team. Missouri State had two of its players make the cut. Other Big 12 players who made the cut included Kansas State's Katie Brand and Iowa State's Caitlin Nolan. Iowa
State's Jess Schaben made the AVCA All-Midwest Second Team and won the Freshman of the Year award for the region.
This is Havili's second time being tabbed to the team.
Eight Jayhawks, counting Havili, Payne and Soucie, have been slated to an AVCA All-Regional team. They join the ranks of Chelsea Albers, Caroline Jarmoc, Josi Lima, Sara McClinton and Erin McNorton.
Havili is the third player in the history of the Kansas program to be slated to an All-Regional first team twice.
ZOE LARSON/KANSAN
Taylor Soucie and Ainise Havili throw their hands up after a point won. Havili, Kelsie Payne and Tayler Soucie were all selected to the AVCA All-Midwest First Team.
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Hardy: They may have similar beginnings, but KU volleyball and football have diverged
Both wear crimson and blue and the word Kansas across their chests. Both are fall sports, which often times leak into the winter months. Both have gone through tumultuous years — one of them is enduring just that — but also years of national success.
CHRISTIAN HARDY
@ByHardy
The football team, which went 0-12 under new head coach David Beaty, is in a mode of rebuilding, with some hope of a formidable product on the field on the horizon. The Jayhawks' season ended with no postseason play at 0-12.
The Kansas volleyball and football teams are similar. Yet, when awards were dished out this past week, as the regular season wound down, it painted an entirely different picture: The two programs are in entirely opposite states as it stands today.
This year was a low point in Kansas football history.
The volleyball squad, under coach Ray Bechard, started the season 19-0 — the longest winning streak and best start in the team's history. For the third year in a row, the team finished second in the Big 12, and for the second time in three years, the Jayhawks are going to the Sweet 16.
This year has been the peak of Kansas volleyball's 40-year history.
Three volleyball players — sophomores Ainise Havili and Kelsie Payne and junior Tayler Souci — were all named to the All-Big 12 first team. Those same three were five of the players named to the AVCA Midwest Region team.
On the football side of things,
Beaty's team picked up no All-Big 12 first team honors.
Though each team had one player on the All-Big 12 second
team, the coaching awards, which Bechard has swept thus far, made it clear. Bechard's team has evolved since he arrived in 1998. In the four years before his arrival, Kansas never went over .500. He's gone .500 or better in 14 of his 18 seasons since, and he has led the Jayhawks to two Sweet 16 appearances — the only two in Kansas volleyball history.
Seemingly everyone in the Kansas football program is fully supporting Beaty and his staff after the winless season. Yet he appears years and years away from any coach-of-the-year consideration, which Bechard got a taste of this year. From the looks of it now, he could be another year away from a win, and he's certainly got some rebuilding to do before a postseason
appearance
"Each day we're going to move closer to being a Big 12 championship team,
and I think that's important that they understand what that means each and every day so they're challenged."
RAY BECHARD
Volleyball Coach
Beachard went through that too, though. It was his sixth season when he finally broke into the NCAA tournament, and it wasn't until last year that Beachard finally won two games and advanced to the Sweet 16. Beachard talked this season about the team's "essential intent" win a Big 12 Championship and make it to the Elite 8.
"Each day we're going to move closer to being a Big 12 championship team, and I think that's important that they understand what that means each and every day so they're challenged," Bechard said. "We've had to stop
practice a few times and say,
'Are you training like a Big 12
Champion right now? Are you
training like a team that wants to
be in the Elite 8?'
one of those can be accom plished this weekend. The other is still on the horizon, as Bechard is still riding in the coat-tails of Texas volleyball. Bechard, while he wasn't making NCAA tournament appearances, was making progress. Jayhawk fans should hope it's the same for Beaty and Kansas football. Slowly, Beaty should be able to bring in wins and get to .500. After all, Bechard was 5-15 in the Big 12 in his first season and below .500 on the year. But he built a culture that was strong enough to bring in recruits, keep those recruits, and he continued to build off of them to get to the point the team is today.
With building blocks like junior safety Fish Smithson, who led the Big 12 in tackles with 111, and freshman quarterback Ryan Willis and a handful of young targets for him to build rapport with, Beaty has a few players with whom he can move the program forward. He has installed his own version of "essential intent," which, for now, is not about winning games (though that's certainly important) but rather "earning it."
While the two programs seem to be in stark contrast now, who's to say they can't be similar in the near future? After all, Bechard and his players know it can be done — they're only one game away from achieving the goals that Bechard set for the team at the beginning of the season.
"We would have definitely had an unprecedented season if we made it to the Elite 8," said sophomore setter Ainise Havili. "It would definitely make a statement about the program and how far we've come."
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