SPORTS
BIG 12 TAKES ON BIG EAST
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SANDY HARTMAN
Three conference teams take on Big East squads after Kansas played South Florida last week. BIG 12 NOTEBOOK |4B
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Athlete Q&A
Find out more about sophomore runner Dan Van Orsdel. CROSS COUNTRY | 8B
COMMENTARY
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008
Saturday's game will prove little
PAGE1B
The Athletics Department should have reconsidered scheduling its annual Family Day festivities for Saturday's football game against Sam Houston State.
The drubbing that is about to ensue in 48 hours will be far from family-friendly. Any parents accompanied by their kids will have some consoling to do after their little ones witness several dozen mangled Bearkat bodies strewn about. Think Mickey Mouse being mauled to death by a tiger at Disney World.
— Edited by Scott R. Toland
On the subject of scheduling, perhaps coach Mark Mangino should have reconsidered scheduling Sam Houston State altogether. The team's division (I-AA) has more A's than an average report card. Vegas won't even post a line on this game.
So what does Sam Houston State have going for them? Well, they are a Texas college football team ... but you'll probably find a few high school teams that wouldn't mind them on their schedules. Their quarterback, senior Rhett Bomar, is a more prolific car salesman than passer, as you may recall from his Oklahoma days.
Maybe it would have worked as the second or third game of the season before the trip to South Florida, but now's not the time for playing pitch and catch against a hapless opponent. Why schedule a team from Texas while Phi Kappa Psi's touch football team is available right here on campus?
Parental Discretion is advised Saturday. If you are willing to subject your kids to a slaughter of this proportion, might as well hand them a copy of today's Sex on the Hill mag while you're at it.
The rest of Kansas' wide receivers may find themselves joining Kerry Meier at the top of the nation's receiving stat sheet come Saturday night. The McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden tickets would like to point out the inexperience of Sam Houston State's secondary. Hell, Kansas may even establish the run Saturday.
To make this mismatch worse, Hurricane Ike forced Sam Houston State to cancel last weekend's game against Prairie View A&M, meaning the last time they played was Aug. 28 - against Division II East Central Oklahoma.
Now they travel to Lawrence nearly a month later, having resumed practice only two days ago, to face a team with a prolific pass attack and a taste for beating up on lesser opponents.
Kansas 87, Sam Houston State 3.
FOOTBALL
Judging by Saturday's actual score – which might not be that far off – you'll think Sherron Collins is on the field, not Todd Reesing. So why I am so down on the scheduling of this game? Won't it be fun to watch Reesing and Co's numbers climb every other minute?
It's not just an issue of scheduling this team, but what this game means as Kansas' non-conference sendoff into Big 12 play.
After dropping a heartbreaker at South Florida, Kansas started practicing with a new vigor and determination. That's just fine, but Saturday can't exactly be a statement game nor can it be redemption for last week's loss.
Kansas learned a lot about itself in South Florida. Reesing needs more than one second of protection from his offensive line, the running backs need more than to run straight into a defensive line and the defense must stop plays before they start on the ground or through the air.
Scheduling can be a gamble sometimes. Mangino made a gamble lining up South Florida on the road early in the season. It paid off in terms of exposure and one hell of a football game.
Sure Kansas is going to look like football gods Saturday. They're going to look unstoppable. They might score as much as Missouri does. Just hope that the lessons learned Sept. 12 are not forgotten by Oct. 4 - the kickoff of Big 12 play for the Jayhawks.
He made an even bigger gamble enlisting Sam Houston State to come to town the next week to be embarrassed a la Britney Spears at the 2007 VMAs.
Senior wide receiver Marcus Herford (13) runs out of the tunnel with teammates before the Louisiana Tech game. Herford has had a slow start to the season this year after being named the Biq 12 Special Teams Player of the Year award. Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
Herford looks to return to form
BY B.J. RAINS
rains@kansan.com
rains@kansan.com
Marcus Herford now knows what it feels like to have a target on his back.
After being voted Big 12Special Teams Player of the Year a season ago by the league's coaches, teams are doing whatever they can to limit Herford's returns. That means directional kicks and short kicks, which have kept Herford's numbers well below average and have given the Jayhawks poor field position.
"Teams have done a great job of preparing for what we do." Herford said. "They are doing different things and we just have to adjust. That's on us. We have to adjust."
Herford averaged 28.6 vards per return
last year but has averaged just 9.3 yards in 2008. His longest return of the season has been only 14 yards.
“It's pretty frustrating looking at my average,” Herford said. “But at the same time, I've gotten pretty much limited opportunities with the type of kicks that have been kicked back there.”
While coach Mark Mangino was quick to point out that teams are indeed mixing up their kicks and making it difficult, he stressed that Herford needed to pick up his game.
"Marcus has to do a better job of hitting it quicker and getting it up field," Mangino said. "He has to be able to adjust to the fact that people are directional kicking and short kicking him."
Even though teams are kicking the ball near the sidelines and doing everything possible to keep Herford from breaking a big return, Mangino has not been pleased with how the unit as a whole has played.
"It should not be that bad." Mangino said. "I don't care how they are kicking the ball or what they are doing, we should be better. We have to get that corrected and we will."
FIELDS' STATUS
Wide receiver Dexton Fields, who has been out since injuring his foot in the first game of the season, practiced on Wednesday but remains day-to-day. It makes sense to keep Fields out with the bye week coming up but Mangino said after Wednesday's practice that there was a chance he could play.
"I don't know," Mangino said. "We will wait up until Saturday probably, but we have to be smart about it."
SELLOUT
KU athletics officials announced on Wednesday that Saturday's game against Sam Houston State has been officially sold out. It is the second sellout of the season and puts the Jayhawks on pace for a record-breaking year of attendance.
"I think it's great," Mangino said of the sellout. "Our kids are loyal. They know that when they come out to see our kids play, they are going to play until the very end and play their tails off. I think our fans appreciate that."
VOLLEYBALL
Edited by Scott R. Toland
Kansas loses hard-fought battle with Buffs
BY JOSH BOWE
jbowe@kansan.com
In a hostile environment, playing against a conference opponent for the first time this season, the layhawks played a thriller of a match. They just weren't too thrilled with the ending.
Kansas fell to Colorado Wednesday night in five sets, losing the fifth set 15-12, after leading 11-9 at one point. It's a heartbreaking loss that hopefully coach Ray Bechard can find some positives andgt ready for an even more formidable Iowa State team on Saturday.
"If you were a neutral observer you saw a really great match," Bechard said. "We had a swing to win the match in game four, and we're up 11-9 in game five, and Colorado made the plays and we didn't."
The Jayhawks fought valiantly all night, even after coming out so flat for the opening set, falling down early 3-0, before craving the deficit to one at 10-9 but that was the closest they came after that first set, losing 25-18.
"It wasn't really anything they were doing in the first set," Bechard said. "We had eight hitting errors and they had one and we lost by seven points."
But the Jayhawks could have rolled over after the disappointing first set, and later falling behind 0-2 at the start of set two, but their persistence showed, and even more so after Kansas was down six with a score of 12-18 and starting a two game match deficit.
But after finishing set two strong in thrilling fashion 28-26, the jayhawks continued the momentum with a commanding 25-15 set three win, and had a chance for the match point with the score 24-23 in set four.
"We had a swing up 24-23, ball on our side of the net, and it just didn't work out." Bechard said, noting freshmen outside hitter Allyson Mavfield's late hitting error.
Then it was a gut wrenching game five
that saw the lajwhaws up 11-9, but then errors and mistakes plagued them for the rest of the set, and for the entire match
Sophomore outside hitter Karina Garlington, a Colorado native, once again set a career high in kills, this time with 24. Garlington however, who also set a career high in kills last season in Boulder, only cares about one stat: wins.
Although there isn't much to be pleased about in general after a loss like this, Bechard pointed toward the positives and said his team will not let this loss carry over into the Iowa State match Saturday afternoon.
"Even though we had some leads, they (Colorado) blocked a couple of balls and scored some easy points," Bechard said. "We got a little disorganized toward the end of that game."
"There's many positives we'll take from it," Bechard said. "There will be no hangover from this physically or mentally tomorrow, we'll get right back to work."
"I mean I played ok," Garlington said. "But 24 kills or two kills, it really doesn't matter unless we win the match, so I can't be too pleased."
With 32 hitting errors the layhawks will be looking forward to working out these problems before Saturday's match, knowing what the game could have been without the mistakes.
"You come out a little better in game one," Bechard said. "And maybe you have an opportunity to close it out in three."
Closing out opponents won't be easy in the conference this year, and finishing is an important tool that Bechard will hope his team picks up over the course of the rest of the season.
"It's going to be typical of how this conference is going to go," Bechard said. "When you have a chance to put your foot on somebody's throat, you better do it."
- Edited by Arthur Hur
Alison Mesinger/CUIndependent.com
Amazon.com/Independent.com
KU'S freshman Nicole Tate (13) sets the ball during the CU vs KU conference opener at Coors Events Center on Wednesday. The Buffalo defies the Jayhawks in the five set match.
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