SPORTS
SOCCER WINS ONE LOSES ONE IN BIG 12
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Jayhawks start season strong, split the weekend against Texas Tech and Colorado. SOCCER | 8B
CROSS COUNTRY TEAMS COMPETE AT JAMBOREE
The women's team finishes fourth overall and the men's team ends the day at seventh place. CROSS COUNTRY 18B
WWW.KANSAN.COM
MONDAY,OCTOBER 6,2008
COMMENTARY
PAGE 1B
Sharp's doubters silenced
A MES, Iowa — Maybe everyone was wrong.
Mark Mangino was. The Kansas coach didn't think junior running back Jake Sharp was ready to be his team's primary running back this season, nor did anyone else.
Sharp proved otherwise in a 35-33 victory against Iowa State at Jack Trice Stadium Saturday. He rushed for 81 yards
— the most of any Jayhawk running back this season. He scored two touchdowns and recorded 107 receiving yards.
More importantly, Sharp had a career- high 19 carries. He ran angry. He ran hard
"I like the way he ran the ball today. I like the way he caught the ball. I liked the way he blocked," Mangino said. "He played his tail off."
THE COMEBACK KIDS
All the while. Sharp waited. Sharp, the Kansas high school legend who averaged nearly six yards per carry on 168 carries during his first two years as a lajhaye, almost felt like an afterthought.
He didn't touch the ball until the final possession in the Jayhawks' last game. He only received one carry in the Jayhawks' disastrous first half Saturday, where the Cyclones jumped out to a 20-0 lead.
— junior Angus Quigley — into featured running backs.
Then, it happened. The forgotten Sharp broke out and made sure Kansas didn't leave the Hawkeye State without a victory.
Junior running back Jake Sharp struggles under the weight of ISU's Micheal O'Connell during Saturday's game in Ames, Iowa. The Jayhawks came from a 2-0 first half deficit to defeat the Cyclones 35-33.
He snuck out of the Kansas backfield and ran a route down the sideline on the Jayhawks' second offensive play of the third quarter. Junior quarterback Todd Reesing saw him and delivered the ball. Not even an actual cyclone could have caught Sharp. He used a jolt of speed to go 67 yards for a touchdown to make the score 20-7.
Sharp, however, showed more than quickness in the game. He used pure power to thrust himself into the end zone from the two yard line to make the score 28-20 with nine minutes remaining.
He flexed both of his arms and yelled after the touchdown. Sharp was only green skin and dirty teeth away from becoming the Incredible Hulk.
"I never shy away from carrying the football as many times as I can get it," Sharp said. "I don't think any running back would. I don't think my teammates or my coaches really doubted my toughness."
And this guy supposedly wasn't capable of running the ball enough to be Kansas' starting running back? Sharp said he never thought that way.
But they did. Sharp has to truly know they did. From moments after the spring football game in April when Crawford declared he "liked his chances" to get carries at Kansas to a few weeks ago when Mangino said Sharp couldn't carry the load — he had internal doubters.
The Jayhawk offense found its way back onto the field less than two minutes later for more of the same. Reeing dumped Sharp a shovel pass and he exploded through a collapsing hole near the line of scrimmage, broke an arm tackle and went 42 yards downfield — setting up Kansas' next touchdown. 20-14.
Sharp denied it, but perhaps he should have listened to Mangino's post-game press conference when he detailed his thoughts.
"We never, ever intended him to be a guy to carry the load here," Mangino said. "He's a guy that's supposed to get 10 carries a game, throw him a couple of passes — he's a changeup guy."
Mangino he has since changed his mind. How could he not after Sharp's performance against Iowa State? He kept the jayhaws from getting off to a disastrous start in conference play.
Edited by Rachel Burchfield
Maybe Sharp was the right guy all along.
"He wants to prove he can do the job," Mangino said, "and everything he did today leads me to believe he can."
Hawks squeak by Cyclones 35-33
Alison Richardson/KANSAN
BY B.J. RAINS
rains@kansan.com
Not only did the Cyclones' uniforms match the Trojans' — they played like them, too.
AMES, Iowa — For two quarters, it looked more like Kansas was playing at USC than at Iowa State.
ISU dominated every facet of the game and used a loud and enthusiastic near-capacity crowd to take a commanding 20-0 halftime lead that left the Jayhawks wondering what the heck was going on.
"It was just atrocious," quarterback Todd Reesing said. "We couldn't get anything going."
But instead of chewing out his players and letting them know how poorly they played, coach Mark Mangino instead decided to use his halftime call to calmly rally his troops and keep their spirits up.
"The last thing kids want to be told is that they are doing a lousy job when they know it," Mangino said. "I said 'listen, we played very poorly. We can't play any worse. I mean let's face it, we played very poor football in the first half — but we can win this game. If you believe in each other like I think you do, then we will be OK."
And if it looked like Kansas was playing USC in the first half, it looked more like Iowa State was playing the New York Giants in the second half.
Maybe it was Mangino's pep talk. Maybe it was Jake Sharp's emergence. Or maybe it was Todd "Sparky" Reesing once again refusing to let his team lose. Whatever it was, it worked.
Kansas scored 35 points in the game's final 30 minutes and pulled off the third greatest comeback in school history, a 35-33 victory that improved the Jayhawks to 1-4 overall and 1-0 in Big 12 play.
"Night and day." Reesing said of the two halves.
Kansas couldn't have started the game any worse if they had tried. After three straight three and outs, Jocques Crawford fumbled to give the ball to Iowa State near midfield. Raymond Brown then bumped into Daymond Patterson as he attempted to catch a punt, causing another fumble that the Cyclones recovered once again.
And when it looked like it really couldn't get any worse, Reesing was intercepted by ISU's Leonard Johnson late in the second quarter to send Kansas into the locker room with the team's biggest deficit of the season and an 0-1 start in conference play staring the squad right in the face.
"That first half was probably the worst collective half I have been a part of since I have been here." Reesing said.
If the first half was one of his worst,
than the second half had to be one of his best. Reeasing finished 18-26 for 319 yards and three touchdowns on the game, but almost all of those numbers came in the second half.
Jake Sharp, who was banished to the dog house recently for unproductive play, led the comebreak in his best game of the season. He streaked down the left sideline and scored on a 67-yard pass play from Reesing to get them on board on the Jayhawks' first possession of the second
half.
Then, after the Kansas defense held serve again, Sharp took a shovel pass from Reesing for 43 yards to set up a 1-yard Angus Quigley touchdown run that made it 20-14.
Sharp broke out for 186 yards of offense on the day, including 107 through the air on just three catches.
"We went in at halftime and Coach was real positive," Reesing said. "He was saying we just have to come out and take it
one play at a time and turn things around. When we came out in the second half, we just started clicking on all cylinders. We showed what we can do when we are all on the same page."
Mangino made two gutsy fourth down calls on the Jayhawk's next drive, electing to go for it on fourth and three before again going for it on fourth and seven from the 23 yard line. The latter of the two
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 4B
VOLLEYBALL
Victory against Red Raiders ends losing streak
BY JOSH BOWE jbowe@kansan.com
At times it was not pretty for the Jayhawks. In fact, it looked downright ugly.
But for coach Ray Bechard, a win is a win, as Kansas picked up its second Big 12 victory on Saturday night, winning against Texas Tech in four sets.
"There's times on the road that you don't technically play as clean as you'd like to," Bechard said, "but you grind it out a little bit."
For Kansas, coming off a three-game losing streak, the victory was a welcome sight. Although those three teams were all ranked, the Jayhawks were slipping in the Big 12 standings, and it looked as if the Red Raiders, with a 0-5 Big 12 record heading into that match, would be an easy team to defeat.
"They are a quality team," Bechard said of Texas Tech. "They'll just have a hard time in this conference, just like all of us do."
But as Bechard knows better than anyone, there are no easy victories, especially in the Big 12.
Both teams failed to reach a 200 hitting efficiency and both had at least 25 hitting errors, the teams' struggling offenses making it difficult for either side to gain momentum. But the difference was Kansas had a player like sophomore outside hitter Karina Garlington.
Even after suffering an ankle sprain that helped shut her out in the first set — the first time she has not recorded a kill in a set all season — Garlington finished
with a match-high 18 kills. Garlington put the burden on her shoulders during Kansas' tough stretches in the third and fourth sets.
"When there was chaos all around, and we threw the ball up high, Karina was there to take good swings." Bechard said.
But the Jayhawks scrapped back, with the help of some Red Raider errors, to cut the lead to four at 17-21. Then it was all Garlington. From that point of the set, Garlington dominated the Red Raiders with four kills to help the Jayhawks climb back and take the set 25-23.
The Hawks needed all the good swings they could get in a crucial third set. With the match tied at one game apiece, the Jayhawks looked incredibly flat to open the set. Kansas fell down 1-8 to start the match.
Garlington was not alone in her superb efforts. Freshman outside hitter Allison Mayfield stepped into the match with some unexpected big minutes to finish with 10 kills, and senior outside hitter Savannah Noyes collected 13 kills with a .500 hitting percentage.
Set four was no easier. There were 11 ties and five lead changes before Kansas, once again led by Garlington with eight kills in the set, put away the victory, winning 25-22.
Noyes has led the Jayhawks in hitting percentage since Big 12 play started.
"Savannah kind of took it upon herself on a number of occasions to make big plays for us," Bechard said. "I think she senses that her team needs her, and she's come through."
Noves, however, offered a more modest response for her success during Big 12 play.
notes
Why Kansas won: In the end, the Jayhawks made the plays down the stretch, winning sets three and four when the teams were tied with one set each. Sophomore Karina Garlington provided the offense with 18 kills, a match high.
Inside the Match: Kansas defeats Texas Tech (25-19, 17-25, 25-23. 25-22)
Individual Match Highs:
Individual Match Rights
Kills
Kansas: Karina Garlington, 18
Texas Tech: Caroline Courtney,
Amanda Dowdy, 10
Blocks
Kansas: Natalie Uhart, 4
Texas Tech: Becca Baldwin, 4
Digs
Kansas: Melissa Manda, 19
Texas Tech: Jenn Harrell, 23
"Nicole (Tate) just gets me the ball, and I try to put it down," Noyes said.
"We definitely needed this one." Noyes said. "The next few games in October
Noyes said she hoped this victory would be a springboard for the rest of the season. Kansas plays unranked teams for the rest of the month.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Redshirt junior setter Katie Martinich prepares a serve against Texas Tech during Saturday's match in Lubbock, Texas.
that we play are ones that we can definitely win, so any road game win is pretty huge."
— Edited by Adam Mowder
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