4B
TEXAS 35, KANSAS 7
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sophomore receiver Dezmon Briscoe pulls in a catch that bounced off a Texas cornerback's helmet against his own helmet for his longest catch of the day at 26 yards, which also led to Kansas' only touchdown. Briscoe put up 9 catches for a total of 115 yards but failed to get into the endzone Saturday afternoon.
FOOTBALL WRAPUP
INJURIES STIFLE KANSAS ATTACK
Hawks' biggest scorers sidelined
BY TAYLOR BERN
tbern@kansan.com
Kansas entered Saturday's game bruised and battered from last week's loss at Nebraska. Quarterback Todd Reesing was healthy enough to practice only on Thursday and the wear and tear was also evident with wide receiver Kerry Meier.
In the first quarter, running back Jake Sharp's injury damaged the offense even further.
Commentators on Fox Sports Network said the injury was to Sharp's ribs, but coach Mark Mangino didn't address any specifics during the postgame press conference. The Salina junior managed just 10 yards on four carries before trotting off to the locker room during the second quarter for a medical examination.
Things weren't any better for Meier, who gingerly jogged off the field after catching a pass on the first play of the game. He returned later and tried to tough it out, but Kansas' leader in receptions missed a lot of time and caught just four passes for 32 yards.
The dual absences left a giant hole in the Jayhawk offense.
"It obviously changed the game plan a little bit with Jake and Kerry not being in there," Reesing said.
"We never really got a run game established. When you have to throw the ball that much with no run game to fall back on, it gets kind of tough."
Minus Sharp's final tally of 13 yards, the Jayhawks rushed for just 34 yards. Even worse, backup Angus Quigley coughed up two fumbles.
Midway through the second quarter, Texas safety Blake Gideon forced the ball from Quigley's grasp and Deon Beasley recovered for the Longhorns. The play would have been a Kansas first down.
Then late in the third quarter, Quigley just dropped the ball and again the Horns recovered it. Two plays later, Colt McCoy threw a 36-yard touchdown to put Texas up by the final score of 35-7.
"I think if you get in the game as a backup, the least you can do is hold onto the football." Mangino said. "You might not rush for 100 yards and that's fine, but we've got to be smarter and more sound fundamentally when we're in the game."
Mangino said he didn't know how long Sharp's injury would keep him out. He refused to use injuries as an excuse for the loss.
"We're not going to sit around and talk about why we didn't play better on offense because of who
was hurt," Mangino said. "We've got other guys and they're on scholarship. We've got to be able to move on, and we've got to be able to make plays."
Wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe stepped up with nine receptions for 115 yards — including the catch of the year — but Mangino said one player wasn't enough.
Reeing completed 25 of 50 passes for 258 yards and one touchdown. It was the third time this season that he's thrown at least 50 times.
"Part of our game plan was to throw the ball a lot and throw a lot of short passes." Reesing said. "But we still needed to get a little bit more out of the run game and not turn the ball over with some fumbles."
Kansas' postgame press conference was light on players because most were still tending to their wounds.
Mangino said the game was the most frustrating offensive performance of the season.
"It it just wasn't smooth, it wasn't in sync and it wasn't hitting on all cylinders," Mangino said. "It just wasn't the type of offense that we like to play here."
Edited by Adam Mowder
FOOTBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
ranking into arguably the biggest game in school history against Missouri. Now, they are just trying to beat the Tigers to guarantee a trip to a lower-tier bowl game.
And it happened in a way on Saturday that not many would have predicted. After getting shredded for huge numbers against Texas Tech, Oklahoma and even Nebraska, the KU defense looked like the dominating unit that made it one of the best in the nation in 2007.
They held Heisman Trophy candidate Colt McCoy to just 255 yards passing and stopped the high-powered Texas offense on four of six possessions in the first half. But while the defense showed up to play for one of the few times this season, the KU offense surprisingly struggled.
The offense accumulated a season-low 305 yards and scored just seven points. They converted only six of 16 third-down attempts and failed three times on fourth downs, the biggest killers coming in the first half when they to convert fourth-down tries of just one and two yards.
"Our offense did not capitalize on the opportunities that our defense gave us," coach Mark Mangino said. "We squandered a good defensive effort today."
Mangino went as far as calling it the most frustrating performance of the season on offense for a team that entered the game 21st in the nation in scoring offense at more than 34 points per game.
"That would be a fair assessment." Mangino said. "We just didn't exercise well in a lot of areas. It wasn't smooth, it wasn't in sync. It wasn't hitting on all cylinders. It wasn't the type of offense that we like to play here."
Part of the problem on offense came because of injuries to two of the Jayhawks' biggest weapons, running back Jake Sharp and wide receiver Kerry Meier.
Sharp appeared to injure his rib cage during the second quarter and called it a day shortly after trying to return after halftime. Meier seemed to injure his hamstring or quad on the team's first drive of the game and was used sparingly the rest of the way.
Sharp's replacement, Angus Quigley, fumbled twice and gave Texas prime field position on both occasions. As a team, the Jayhawks ran for just 47 yards, but most of those came from Jocques Crawford late in the game with the score out of reach.
"Yeah, this year the schedule is more difficult and the challenges are greater," Mangino said. "But I'm not going to make any excuses. We showed up, we played as hard as we could we played as tough as we could, our kids gave great effort every week out and here's the result."
The result is a 6-5 football team that now has to somehow regroup before playing rival Missouri in two weeks at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.
"We would always like to win more games than we have," Rivera said. "But there's only one thing left for us to do and that's to go out and play this last game the best we can. It's a little disappointing that we didn't win as many or didn't do all these big things, but we can go out and play this last game and end on a good note."
For Kansas, playing for pride is about all they have left.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Senior wide receiver Dexton Fields celebrates after catching Kansas' only touchdown during Saturday's game. Fields and the rest of the Kansas seniors played their last home game Saturday.
Texas running back Vondrell McGee scamper thir
Texas 35. Kansas 7
Kansas (6-5, 3-4 Big 12) Texas (10-1, 6-1 Big 12)
Total Yards 305 421
First Downs 18 25
Rushing Yards 47 166
Passing Yards 255 258
Time of Possession 27:47 32:13
Kansas Texas
Rushing ATT YDS AVG. TD Rushing AT
Jocques Crawford 7 42 6.0 0 Colt McCoy 16
Angus Quigley 5 28 5.6 0 Foswhitt Whittaker 13
Passing COMP/ATT YDS TD INT Passing CO
Todd Reesing 25/50 258 1 0 Colt McCoy 24
Receiving No. YDS TD Receiving No.
Dezmon Briscoe 9 115 0 Quan Cosby 6
Jonathan Wilson 8 93 0 Foswhitt Whittaker 5
Kerry Meier 4 32 0
UP TO 30%
TOUCHDOW TUESDAY
*Discount is available in store or online at kubookstores.com and does not apply to electronics, textbooks, consumables placed 12 a.m. 11:59 p.m. CST on tuesdays (following a RU football game will see the discounted price) on the floor.
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