Volume 124 Issue 39
Monday, October 17, 2011
kansan.com
SPECIAL SECTION
Health on the Hill Learn how to maintain your grades, life and well-being.
SEE INSIDE
LIVING UP LATE NIGHT
Special appearance by Victor Ortiz.
Rob Riggle at Late Night PAGE 8B
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2011
PAGE 7
WANT TO LET THE WORLD KNOW HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT KANSAS FOOTBALL?
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FOOTBALL
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN
Jeremiah Hatch leaves the field after Kansas scored only 28 points at Oklahoma State on Saturday. Offensive coordinator Chuck Long will rely on Hatch and the rest of his offensive line to match Oklahoma's high-scoring offense.
Offensive coach recalls history as Oklahoma faces Kansas on Saturday
MIKE VERNON
mvernon@kansan.com
twitter.com/UDK_Fball
Offensive coordinator Chuck Long's coaching career will come full circle this week.
The man behind the Kansas offense was once in charge of the Oklahoma offense for four years and was an integral part for six total. Long coached the quarterbacks at Oklahoma for his first two years and was their offensive coordinator for four. He was part of a championship and two Rose Bowl-winning teams with the Sooners.
And just as Oklahoma — with Long as a coach — beat its opponents down from 1999 to 2005, he knows the same is predicted to happen this weekend.
"What goes around, comes around," Long said.
The dominance he's referring
to stems from the Sooners' 67-11 record during Long's tenure with the program. In 2003, under Long's control, the Sooners set a then Big 12 record, averaging 51.5 points per game.
As a first-hand witness to how Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops helped build and maintain an elite program in Norman, Okla., Long has brought much of what he learned to Kansas.
Long said the main thing he's taken from Stoops is the way he approaches practices and games with the same intensity. He said a tired coach bothers Stoops more than anything, because he wants his coaches to bring energy to the practice field everyday. The offensive staff at Kansas has been doing the same.
COMMENTARY
"It's an interesting week for me, because I know what that staff is
SEE FOOTBALL PAGE 14
Kansas fans: give Turner Gill the chance to coach
Kansas football fans are known for their early exits. But those in the fanbase calling for coach Turner Gill's early exit are misguided.
Gill is in the hot seat in only his second season after back-to-back-to-back humiliating losses. The Jayhawks (2-3) have fielded a historically bad defense and have been torched in the second half in two of their three losses, seemingly indicating an inability to adjust. But even if the Jayhawks drop every game remaining on their schedule, firing Gill after two seasons of adversity would be a big mistake.
There are six million reasons why new athletic director Sheahon Zenger will likely keep Gill at the end of the season; however, even ignoring the financial burden canning Gill would put on the University, there are other reasons
for giving him a full third year.
Most of the Jayhawks' best players are Gill recruits, which is impressive considering he has only been on the job since Dec. 13. 2009. Sophomore running back James Sims has been a stud in the backfield, and his emergence has justified Gill's controversial decision to convert junior Toben Opurum to defensive end last season. Freshman wide receiver JaCorey Shepherd has been sensational, catching eight passes for 218 yards and three touchdowns in only three games. And freshman running back Brandon Bourbon had a breakout game against Texas Tech, rushing 10 times for 101 yards and a touchdown.
Conversely, the biggest disappointments this season have been holdovers recruited by former coach Mark Mangino. Junior safety Bradley McDougal has struggled
mightily since the former wide receiver switched positions. Senior running back Rell Lewis has taken most of the snaps for the Jayhawks out of the wildcat formation and has averaged only 3.7 yards on 15 attempts for zero touchdowns.
What this means is that Gill and his coaching staff are doing their jobs on the recruiting trail. It has not exactly translated on the field, especially on defense, but expecting every player who has been here
longer than Gill to fully buy into his system is naive. Gill is playing with someone else's deck right now, and he deserves three full seasons to reshuffle.
And if three years seems like too long of a leash. Kansas fans need to look no further than the approach taken by their two biggest rivals.
Missouri coach and master
recruiter Gary Pinkel was below
.500 in each of his first two seasons at Missouri, going 4-7 and 5-7, respectively. He rebounded with an 8-5 record his third season. And back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Kansas State coach Bill Snyder went 1-10 his first season and 5-6 in his second. He went 7-4 his third year and now has a football stadium named after him.
Of course, none of this infor motion justifies the Jayhawks'
Hindenburg-like defense this season, but one has to wonder how different the squad would look if defensive coordinator Carl Torbush was not forced to abruptly resign on May 31 due to cancer. Torbush's replacement, Vic Shealy, will probably be the fall guy if the defense keeps getting ravaged, but the early-summer transfer of power had to be hectic for everyone involved.
Gill should not be immune to criticism, especially for some of his questionable game-time decisions. But, considering his contract, his strong recruiting and precedent in the industry, antsy Kansas fans should back off when it comes to calling for his head.
— Edited by Sarah Champ
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN
Jason Phoenix explains different gestures for responses during the demonstrations held by protestors participating in Occupy Lawrence. The local movement has expressed solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. The group is working toward promoting change in local government ordinances.
Kansas, making his home first in Stauffer-Flint Hall — where he sat, forgotten, until 2009 — and then in the University Archives.
It's a symbol of the long-standing connection between the University and its students doing good in Russian and Eastern Europe, said Marc Greenberg, chairman of the Slavic department.
On Wednesday evening, he made another journey, this time to the offices of the department of Slavic languages and literatures in Wescoe Hall, where he'll live for one year in a glass display case.
The "Russian Jayhawk," as the small carving has come to be known, was a gift of gratitude from an unknown Russian prisoner of war to Conrad Hoffman, a Kansas alumnus working with the YMCA in Germany during World War I.
"I want the carving to help draw attention to the things
The YMCA post was "an important non-governmental service performing a moral and social function during the First World War," Greenberg wrote in his article "Hoffman's Hawk."
According to the article, the YMCA worked in prisoner-of-war camps in Germany, providing education and coordinating social and athletic activities for the prisoners. The YMCA also helped prisoners develop trades and hobbies by giving them tools and arranging exhibitions and sales of their artwork.
Hoffman went to Germany in 1915, and it was common for him to receive presents, said the article, from the thankful prisoners who he worked with.
In 1913, Conrad Hoffman became the secretary of the YMCA at the University, leaving his position as a professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin.
CLASSIFIEDS 7B CRYPTOGUIPS 4A SPORTS 18
CROSSWORD 4A DPINION 5A SUDBOK 4A
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