THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2008
NSAN 2008
TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2008
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fact of the day
— FlUsports.com
Kansas' week one opponent, Florida International, finished 1-11 last season. The Golden Panthers lost their first 11 games of 2007 before beating North Texas 38-19 in their last game of the season.
trivia of the day
A; 2002. The Golden Panthers finished 5-6 during their inaugural season.
Q. What year did Florida Inter-
national University begin its
college football program?
Soccer coach follows Mangino's lead
Easier non-conference schedules lead to success; football fans should step-up manners
University of Kansas football coach Mark Mangino laid out a simple lesson plan during last year's 12-1 romp of a season: Play weak competition, win games, haul in coaching awards. It seems one of his colleagues was taking notes.
After struggling through last year's lackluster campaign marred by tough opponents and inconsistent offense, Kansas soccer drew inspiration from Mangino in designing its 2008 slate.
Instead of traveling to Hawaii and facing powerhouses such as Portland and California, Kansas scheduled less prominent programs such as the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Loyola-Chicago. Kansas coach Mark Francis said he hoped his team could add a few victories
to its resume in non-conference play before jumping into Big 12 Conference play.
"We've got to have more wins on the board," Francis said. "Our non-conference schedule this year is still tough, but there's definitely games in there we can win."
Going light on the early-season challenges certainly worked out well for Mangino, who built his team's confidence with blowout victories against Florida International and Southeastern
Louisiana. By the time Todd Reesing and friends reached the Big 12 schedule, they were on a roll, a 6-6 team transformed into a 12-1 gugnault.
Kansas soccer could use a similar turnaround. The Jayhawks went 2-8-1 in the non-conference season, and couldn't find their way to the NCAA Tournament despite a third-placed finish in the Big 12.
In fairness, Francis didn't keep his team's schedule completely vanilla: Kansas defeated No. 20 Purdue 3-0 last Friday. The Boilermakers are rebuilding after a 20-2-3 season, but any victory over a ranked team is a good one for the Jayhawks.
SPEAKING OF CUPCAKES...
The big question heading into week one of the football season isn't whether Kansas will defeat Florida International (1-11 last season, including a 55-3 throttling at Kansas), but whether anyone will stick around until the game's conclusion.
The buzz surrounding Jayhawk
football is at fever pitch. The quarterback, Todd Reesing, is a bigger regional celeb than any of the basketball players — excluding Sherron Collins — and the Athletics Department is planting trees around practice fields in a desperate scramble to keep onlookers at a distance. This isn't the Terry Allen era.
Despite the hubbub, Kansas football fans — mainly students
have become more famous for early exits and embarrassing goalpost shenanigans than for transforming Memorial Stadium into an ear-shattering, earthmoving, lion's door of hostility.
Come Saturday, Reesing will turn in a few memorable plays, junior running back Jocques Crawford will most likely shine in his debut, and Joe Mortensen will lay the wood to a few unlucky Golden Panthers.
The football team will do its part. Will the fans follow suit?
Former Kansas baseball player
FORMER JAYHAWK MISSES HOMECOMING
smell the coffee
It's part blog, part column,
part pop culture free for
all. It's The Morning Brew.
Have a question, concern or
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athletics?
Chime in by sending an e-mail to morningbrew@kansan.com.
Travis Metcalf was three days away from a homecoming of sorts. Metcalf, an infielder in the Texas Rangers organization, was recalled from Triple-A on Aug. 1 and stayed with the big league club for three weeks. But Ranger infielder Hank Blaylock came off the disabled list on Friday, and the Rangers optioned Metcalf back to Triple-A. Too bad for Metcalf. The Rangers begin a three-game series with the Kansas City Royals tonight at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., but Metcalf, a Manhattan native, will miss out on the festivities.
- Edited by Becka Cremer
Nadal proves he's No.1
Rafael Nadal of Spain keeps his eye on the ball during his match with Bjorn Jupon of Germany at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York Monday. Nadal, playing for the first time as the No. 1-ranked tennis player in the world, beat Thau in three straight sets.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pick games. Beat the Kansan staff. Get your name in the paper.
This week's games:
1. #20 Illinois at #6 Missouri
2. Washington at #21 Oregon
3. #24 Alabama at #9 Clemson
4. #18 Tennessee at UCLA
5. Appalachian State at #7 LSU
6. Oklahoma State at Washington State
7. Syracuse at Northwestern
8. Michigan State at California
9. Idaho at Arizona
10. TCU at New Mexico
11. #18 Tennessee at UCLA (with score)
E-mail:
Name:
E-mail:
Year in school:
Hometown:
Rules:
1) Only KU students are eligible.
2) Give your name, e-mail, year in school and hometown.
3) Beat the best prognosticator at the Kansan and get your name in the paper.
4) Beat all your peers and get your picture and picks in the paper next to the Kansan staff.
5) To break ties, pick the score of the designated game.
Either submit your picks to KickTheKansan@kansan.com or to the Kansan business office, located at the West side of Stauffer-Flint Hall, which is between Wescoe Hall and Watson Library.
between Wescoe Hall and Watson Library.
SPORTS
9-year-old 'too good' to play youth baseball
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player — too good, it turns out. The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.
Officials for the three-year-old league, which has eight teams and about 100 players, said they will disband Jericho's team, redistributing its players among other squads, and offered to refund $50 sign-up fees to anyone who asks for it. They say Jericho's coach,
Wilfred Vidro, has resigned.
"He's never hurt any one," Vidro said. "He's on target all the time. How can you punish a kid for being too good?"
But Vidro says he didn't quit and the team refuses to disband. Players and parents held a protest at the league's field on Saturday urging the league to let Jericho pitch.
NEW YORK — Olympic champions Rafael Nadal and Elena Dementieva showed their mettle at the U.S. Open, overcoming early challenges to win Monday in the start of what's expected to be a wide-open tournament.
The controversy bothers Jericho, who says he misses pitching.
Olympic tennis champs win at U.S. Open
Former champs Lindsay Davi
enport and Svetlana Kuznetsova also opened with straight-sets victories. Many of the stars like to hurry through the first round; it takes seven wins for the title, and any rest is welcome.
Playing for the first time as the world No. 1, Nadal swatted his very first shot wide against No. 136 Bjorn Phau. The Wimbledon and French Open champ was two
points from dropping the first set when he surged and, despite needing to bandage a nasty blister, won 7-6 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Nadal got much more of a test from the German qualifier than many anticipated, and shook his head near the end of a match that lasted nearly 3 hours.
Associated Press
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