4B
SPORTS
FOOTBALL
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2008
Offensive lineman tries to fill Anthony Collins' big shoes
BY B.J. RAINS rains@kansan.com
When Ed Warinner first traveled to Painesville, Ohio, and visited Harvey High School to meet with Jeff Spikes, the Illinois offensive line coach was decked out in Illini orange.
Spikes liked what Warinner had to say and was intrigued about possibly playing for him .
"Then, for like a month, I didn't hear from him." Spikes said.
So the 6-foot, 6, 314-pound Spikes decided to visit a few other schools and fell in love with Akron. As Spikes pondered whether Akron was the right place for him, his phone rang.
It was Warinner, who apologized for not contacting him for so long and told him that he was in the process of becoming a coach at Kansas. He then told Spikes that they had a scholarship to offer and wanted to know if held consider being a lajawhack.
"He said he wanted me to come here," Spikes said. "I came to a visit, I liked what I saw, I talked to my family and discussed it, and ended up being here. It was a blessing for me in disguise. God wanted me to end up here, and he led me to a wonderful place."
Wartiner's first as offensive coordinator at Kansas — and watched and learned from one of the best offensive tackles in Kansas history in first team All-American Anthony Collins.
Spikes was a redshirt last season
Collins is now in the NFL and it's Spikes' job to try to replace him.
"I always expected to be in a position to help my team, but it came faster than I thought."
"People play their best when they play against the best," Mangino said. "Jeff is not going to back down
was confident that Spikes could handle the test.
"I always expected to be in a position to help my team, but it came faster than I thought."
JEFF SPIKES Kansas offensive lineman
Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Jeff Spikes (74) plays in Saturday's game against Louisiana Tech. Spikes was recruited by Ed Warinner to replace 2008 graduate Anthony Collins.
Spikes said of his starting spot as a redshirt freshman. "But at the same time, I'm pretty prepared to step in and do what I need to do to help my team win."
That will certainly be tougher Friday when he lines up against First-Team All-American defensive end George Selvie of South Florida, who led the nation in tackles for a loss last season and was second in sacks.
from anybody.
We have a lot of respect for Selvie, I think he's outstanding.
But jeff is going to compete."
He has yet to record a sack and has only one tackle for a loss through the first two games of 2008 because of constant double- and even triple-teaming by opponents. Kansas coach Mark Mangino said he didn't know how much they would focus on Selwie because he
The 6-foot-4,
2 4 2 - p ound
Selvie had 5.5
sacks and 9.5
tackles for a
Jon Goering/KANSAN
loss at this point last season, but he told reporters in Tampa last week that the bottom line was the number of wins in the win column and not his personal statistics.
"It's been frustrating. Getting sacks is a big thing for me," Selvie said. "But I learned the last couple of games it really doesn't matter how many I get as long as we win. When teams show extra attention to me, other people are getting opportunities and making big plays. The bottom line: We are winning."
In front of a national audience on ESPN2, Spikes will get the chance to line up and play in one of the biggest games of his career in only his second year in
college. Had he not put his faith in Ed Warinner, everything would be different.
"He was honest and told me what it was going to be like," Spikes said
of Warinner. "Most coaches probably won't be real with you. I felt like he was a good person that I could trust in."
another record-breaking season in 2008. Todd Reesing and Jayhawk fans everywhere are glad he did.
And as Kansas looks to have
NFL
- Edited by Kelsey Hayes
Rivers tones down his talk
BY PAT GRAHAM ASSOCIATED PRESS
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Philip Rivers swears his jawing is just in jest. The San Diego Chargers quarterback doesn't mean anything mean-spirited by his smack talking. He simply can't help his mouth.
Rivers expect Sunday in Denver?
"All in fun," he said Wednesday. "Nothing I can't go home and tell your mom about or your wife about, that you'd really be ashamed of."
So, what kind of reception does
"I imagine it will be real pleas ant." he cracked.
Rivers had an animated exchange with Jay Cutler last December, shouting at the Broncos quarterback after Cutler threw an incomplete pass on fourth down toward the end of the Chargers' 23-3 win.
Pleasantly icv.
"You always expect it to be hostile and it always is going to (be in) Denver," Rivers said. "I'm sure it'll be a little more revved up for this one."
Cutler has no beef with Rivers, downplaying any animosity that may exist between the two.
in high school and every game I ever played in the backyard, if you filmed every practice out here, we have a lot of fun. There's no profanity or anything derogatory that's just demeaning of an individual that's being said out there. It's all in fun."
"He doesn't play defense. I'm not worried about him," Cutler said.
"I see it as I play the game with a lot of emotion," Rivers said. "If you follow me around for every game at N.C. State and every game
Rivers can't help gabbing. He loves to talk, even jabbering with Indianapolis fans shortly after the Chargers eliminated the Colts in a playoff game last season.
Some of the Broncos players were upset by Rivers' antics at the time. But that has quieted down, in part due to the fact the Chargers have outscored Denver 64-6 in the last two meetings.
The Broncos aren't in a position to do too much talking.
Braves discourage Colorado's aspirations
MLB
"To the victor the spoils — something like that," receiver Brandon Stokley said. "They beat us up twice last year so they can talk all they want. Until we get the edge on them, it's hard to say anything."
ies 9-5 on Wednesday night.
Chipper Jones homered for the Braves, who won it with a five-run seventh after the Rockies scored four in the top half to tie the game.
ATLANTA — Kelly Johnson homered twice, James Parr pitched six more scoreless innings and the Atlanta Braves overcame a shaky bullden to deal another blow to Colorado's fading playoff hopes, beating the Rock-
Parr extended his scoreless streak to 12 innings since coming up from the minors and left with a 4-0 lead. But all his good work was quickly undone by Atlanta's hapless bullpen.
The Rockies' relievers were just as bad. Johnson, who homered in the first, led off the bottom half of the seventh with a towering drive just inside the right-field foul pole against Luis Vizcaino (1-1). Jones followed with the 407th homer of his career, and Vizcaino was yanked without getting an out after Brian McCann doubled.
Associated Press
SOCCER (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
way Clifton plays forward. Her game relies heavily on attacking and beating defenders one on one. But the level of defenders in high school doesn't quite compare to those in college.
"A lot of it during preseason was just confidence," Francis said. "A lot of Kortney's game is based on getting the ball and running at people. When that's part of your game, you're going to lose the ball."
Perhaps the best teachers are within the confines of her own team. Facing the likes of 2006 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Estelle Johnson and sophomore Lauren Jackson every day during practice, Clifton improved through trial by fire.
After four games, Clifton is the second-highest scorer on the Jayhawks with three goals, while also having an assist. The only player she trails? Fellow freshman forward Emily Cressey, who's scored four goals.
The two have combined to give the Jayhawks an effective one-two punch early in their KU careers.
"They're both good players so playing with other good players is usually pretty easy," Francis said. "It's nice that they both having some success this early."
FOOTBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
My chief concern has been that
Edited by Kelsey Hayes
Mangino may be modest in his expectations, but tomorrow night's game - 7 p.m., ESPN2 - will be much of the nation's first look at Kansas football since January's Orange Bowl. A loss would do wonders in discrediting the Jayhawks in the minds of many who don't respect them much in the first place.
I've been dwelling on Kansas' inept ground game before, during and after most others have focused on it because I have a feeling South Florida will again force offensive coordinator Ed Warinner to abandon the run and dictate that the Jayhawk offense travel exclusively through the air.
one-dimensional offenses typically don't cut it for 3.5 point underdogs on the road in non-conference games against ranked opponents.
It is puzzling why both FIU and Louisiana Tech insisted on focusing much of their defense on the run in Kansas' first two contests, during Todd Reesing to slice and dice them through the air. Maybe they forgot to study the tape on Reesing. Or maybe they knew it was a lost cause to try and stop him.
In an effort to avoid Monday's factual error debacle and restore my credibility, I decided to dive full bore into some heavy research. I
Expect more airing it out from Kansas in Tampa, Fla., tomorrow. I do and I am perfectly fine with it.
began by looking at the ratio of run and pass plays so far by teams in the Top-25 and the top teams in the final 2007 polls.
- Through two games, Kansas has attempted 90 passes to 69 run plays – one of just six AP Top-25 teams to attempt more passes than runs. The usual suspects round out the rest of that group, including two teams Kansas will meet this year. Missouri (five more pass plays) and Texas Tech (57 more pass plays).
- The AP Poll's final 2017 rankings also saw just six teams attempt more pass plays. One of that six was the lone bleism on Kansas' 12-1 season: Missouri, who attempted
52 more pass plays than running plays.
- At the pro level, according to ESPN.com's power rankings, seven of the top 10 teams passed more than ran last week and one team attempted an equal number of both. The last two Super Bowl champs passed 118 and 135 more times than they ran respectively.
Basically, in the NCAA, more teams attempt more runs than passes. But also more teams lose or don't advance to bowl games than do. Only one team wins the national championship while 118 teams do not.
And here's a stat I didn't even look up: championship teams make
it to the big game by scoring more points than their opponents. Duh, right?
Then why are we worried about Kansas' offense?
Because it is imbalanced and they are playing a strong defensive team with a good offense to boot on the road tomorrow.
Yet there is no reason to suspect that when South Florida's All America junior defensive end George Selvie or senior linebacker Tyrone McKenzie stuff a Jayhawk running back that Reesing won't find Dezmon Briscoe or Daymond Patterson for a long touchdown on the ensuing play.
Reeing is by far Kansas' best offensive player. Even if they had a
more balanced offense, I wouldn't expect anyone else to shoulder the load when it matters.
Kansas' backfield may even improve tomorrow. Mangino has said he'll be looking to junior Angus Quigley much earlier - Quigley leads the team in rushing yards (131) and average (6.2) and Jocues Crawford will get another chance at adding to his goal of 2,000 yards. Jake Sharp is clearly a complementary back and Kansas knows this.
Edited by Scott Toland