PAGE 8
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2011
FOOTBALL
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Sophomore running back D.J. Beshears breaks past two Oklahoma State defenders. Beshears and the rest of the football team will take on McNeese State on Saturday.
Prepping for McNeese offense
MIKE VERNON
mvernon@kansan.com
The Kansas Jayhawks have been preparing all week for a battle with McNeese State University's prostyle offense, which has a proven track record against Kansas' defense, this Saturday in Lawrence.
The Cowboys are no ordinary FCS opponents, as they have finished either first or second in the Southland Conference for the past five seasons.
In practice this week, the focus has been on the plays that McNeese State coach Matt Viator will bring to the field. The Cowboys will be putting the pressure on the lajwhaws' defense, with a well-balanced offense, which had loads of success running the ball last year with an average of 153.8
yards a game.
Coach Turner Gill said the linebacker and safety positions' tackling will be particularly important for the Kansas defense come game time.
"They've got some pretty good running backs that we're going to have to tackle well." Gill said. "Their receivers are going to make some plays after the catch. That's
boys' running backs, as the teams' strong positions will be going at it. McMeeese starting running back senior Andre Anderson ran for 906 yards last year with an average of 5.0 yards per carry.
c some pretty g backs that
we're going to have to tackle well."
why I said we're going to have to tackle well, and if we do that, we'll be successful on defense."
TURNER GILL Coach
The linebackers will be paying special attention to the Cow
Kansas senior middle linebacker and lead returning tackler Steven Johnson will be spearheading the campaign to stop the Cowboys' rushing attack.
"They have
some little, quick running backs and an offensive line that is pretty physical," Johnson said.
While the jayhawks will have to worry about stopping the run,
the Cowboys' passing attack is not one to be necled.
Sophomore quarterback Cody Stround started two games last year and played in eight, and McNeese State averaged 188.7 passing yards a game.
With the balanced passing and rushing attack, defensive coordinator Vic Shealy said, the Cowboys' offense is very similar to one you'd see in the NFL on Sundays.
"The route structures are very similar to the west coast, pro-style," Shealy said. "It's just a good, well thought out scheme."
Safety Keeston Terry knows that the Jayhawks' inexperienced secondary will have to stay on their toes all game, because McNeese's frequently mixes up their plays.
"They run a lot of play action," Terry said. "They run a lot of posts and corner routes. It's not we haven't faced in practice from our offense."
McNeese State has gone 39-15 since coach Viator has taken over the program. They have an established system on offense that will pressure the Kansas defense early in the season.
"They going to come in here and try to upset us again, but we make sure we cannot let that happen," Johnson said.
- Edited by Alexandra Esposito
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peals to the Big 12 because TCU proved it could hang with the big boys after defeating Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl last season. On the other hand, TCU moves to the Big East beginning in 2012, which would be a huge hurdle to jump, but the Big 12 would be a much better fit. The travel costs would be significantly less and the competition in the Big 12 is higher quality.
BIG 12 FROM PAGE 10
Boise State made waves when it defeated Oklahoma in overtime of the 2007 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on a statue of liberty play. Since then, it has grown into the underdog media darling. They have proven they can compete against the BCS schools time and time again, including last year when they traveled across the country to defeat Virginia Tech on a "neutral" field in Landover, MD. Boise State brings competitive football, but they just switched to the Mountain West Conference from the Western Athletic Conference. Boise State is also under investigation for athletic violations, which could result in sanctions that might scare away the Big 12 conference.
Rice University is attractive to the Big 12 because of its history with the Old Southwest Conference and maintains its longstanding rivalry with Texas. Rice doesn't have the athletic prestige of some of the other teams on this list, but they do have an endowment of $3.8 billion as of June, 2010, according to the Rice website, and are highly regarded academically.
The other side of the spectrum is much scarier for Kansas fans. If the Big 12 were to dissolve, it would send its members out in a scramble for each to find their
Kansas alone would possibly be tempting to any Big Conference because of its strong basketball program and BCS success as recently as 2008. Kansas is also an AAU accredited school, a distinction that all Big 10 schools held until Nebraska lost its accreditation last summer. If Kansas can separate from Kansas State, it could find its way into one of the power conferences.
own conference. With the SEC expanded to 13 teams, they would undoubtedly be in the search for at least one more.
Kansas is, as of now, stuck to the hip of Kansas State. If they can't separate themselves, they might end up out of the automatic qualifying conferences and stuck in an enlarged Mountain West or Conference-USA. Regardless, should the Big 12 dissolve, the chances of Kansas sticking with both rivals, KSU and Missouri, in the same conference appear to be unlikely.
If the Pac-12 became the Pac-16, the other big conferences would most likely want to keep up. The SEC could extend a bid to Missouri. Missouri has made it known that they have been interested in moving to the Big Ten before Nebraska got the nod. They might jump at the chance to become A&M's opposite in the SEC and save themselves.
Both Albers and McClinton are outside hitters, but Bechard does not see a struggle for clearance on the bench. Both
"I love that Chelsea is with me and knowing she is always going to be there," McClinton said. "With our class, we can just keep building and there's always going to be another person that is going to push me and help the team. We're on the same level and we're ready to bring the team up."
The Pac-12 made it known last year that it wants to expand to 16 teams if possible. Rumors swirled during last summer's conference shuffle that they wanted to try and get Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, and possibly one more team from Texas, either Tech or Baylor.
Edited by Stefanie Penn
McClinton said she is thankful to have someone across the court with a similar background going through all the same freshman aches and pains.
ball is really good there, and clubs are even better. I think that gave us a really smooth transition into coming here and it gave us the best opportunity to come in and play right away as freshmen."
VOLLEYBALL FROM PAGE 10
playing time on the horizon. Both are expected to be on the court
"My mom was my first coach, and the first person that really got me interested in the sport," McClinton said. "I always had someone who knew what they were doing, and if I had questions I could just come home and she would give me answers."
"Not now," McClinton said. "As I've passed into college, she's kind of given the responsibility to the coaches and backed off a bit."
But McClinton is not expecting any pointers from the stands this weekend.
Horejsi Family Athletics Center. They both have family making the trip down from Nebraska this weekend, including McClinton's mother Ruth O'Callaghan, who was a three-time All-American volleyball player during her college career.
when the Jayhawk open their home schedule this Friday in the Jayhawk Invitational at the
MLB
— Edited by Jonathan Shorman
Instead, thanks to two blown eighth-inning leads, Kansas City needs a victory just to split the four-game set with the first-place Tigers.
"We just need to find a way to close out these games," said rookie third baseman Mike Moustakas, who went 1 for 4 in Kansas City's 5-4 loss on Wednesday.
This time, Kansas City led 4-2 going into the eighth, but Blake Wood (5-2) couldn't get the clean inning the Royals needed to hand things over to closer Joakim Soria
Tigers rally late to beat Rovals in series finale
The Kansas City Royals probably should be riding a three-game winning streak into Thursday's series finale against Detroit.
Austin Jackson sparked the winning rally with a leadoff triple for his fourth hit of the game. Ramon Santiago followed with a sacrifice fly.
With one out and Delmom Young on first, Victor Martinez hit a tying double into left-center. Alex Gordon made a diving attempt on the ball but couldn't haul it in.
"Alex made the due until I, and couldn't tell if he got it or not until I saw Melky
"It was a combination of bad pitches by me and good swings by them." Wood said. "I threw Wilson a slider down and, he just dropped the bat head on it."
Alex Avila was intentionally walked before Wilson Betemt hit a liner into the right-field corner to drive in pinchrunner Brennan Boesch, Jeff Francoeur cut down Avila at the plate to end the inning.
The Royals put two runners on in the ninth, but Jose Valverde retired Alcides Escobar for his 40th save in 40 chances.
"I know Blake throws hard, so I was looking for something I could hit," Betemit said. "He threw me a slider, and I put a great swing on it."
The Tigers acquired the journeyman Betemit from the Rovals on July 20.
(Cabrera) running after the ball," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "He covered a lot of ground to even get close to that."
"Every time you lose a one-run game, you hate it," Yost said. "We had a two-run lead and we couldn't hold it in the eighth."
Eric Hosmer had a pair of solo homers for Kansas City, which has dropped four of six. Hosmer connected in the second and the fourth, hitting a drive to right on a 1-2 pitch each time.
"You tell yourself you don't want to go down swinging and I got two pitches that were up," he said. "But good teams find ways to win games in the later innings, and that's what they did."
Kansas City added two more runs in the sixth to take a 4-2 lead. Gordon hit a leadoff single and scored on Cabrera's double.
Associated Press