Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2009
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PAGE 10A
Weston White/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Senior strong safety Darrell Stuckey lays a hit on Northern Colorado quaterback Bryan Waggener on Sept. 5. Stuckey has recorded 50 tackles in six games this season and is the only secondary to play the same position all season.
Stuckey anchors shuffled defense
Safety Darrell Stuckey leads evolving group of defensive backs
BY JAYSON JENKS
jienks@kansan.com
Senior safety Darrell Stuckey is the last man standing.
He's played alongside freshmen and seniors, Orange Bowl veterans and newcomers as green as can be. He's been on a defense this year that has shut down an explosive UTEP offense one week and then surrendered 36 points against Iowa State a month later.
And most important is this: Stuckey is the only member of Kansas' secondary to remain at the same position throughout each of the season's first six games.
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"I have to work to not put pressure on myself," Stuckey said. "It comes with being a defensive captain and being a defensive leader. You have to know what you need to do every single game and not feel like you're the only person out there. You don't need to make up for someone else's inexperience. When you do that, you end up not doing enough."
After Kansas' defense struggled against Iowa State on Oct. 10, coach Mark Mangino vowed that changes of some degree could be on the horizon. For the secondary, those changes came on Saturday against Colorado.
Redshirt freshman Lubbock Smith made his first start alongside Stuckey at safety and was the third player to fill that role this season. Freshman cornerback DJ Beshears played in his first collegiate game when he replaced sophomore Daymond Patterson after Kansas' first defensive series.
Junior Chris Harris opened the season at nickel back, the fifth defensive back, before moving to cornerback. And senior Justin Thornton played at every spot in the secondary at some point this year.
Those moves are only the latest changes in what has already been reshuffled secondary. Sophomore cornerback Anthony Davis started the season at cornerback but hasn't started since that first game.
"I told our defense for the last couple weeks that we were going "make changes," Mangino said.
"I think they realize now that were going to make changes."
Yet through all the position switches and personnel moves,
mained the backbone of Kansas' defense.
An All-Big 12 First Team selection last year as a junior. Stuckey found his name plastered across award watch lists before this season.
But without many opportunities to make plays — defensive coordinator Clint Bowen said of fenses tended to stay away from Stuckey — he hasn't delivered the "wow" moment most people have come to expect from him as Kansas' biggest defensive playmaker.
"You have to know what you need to do every single game and not feel like you're the only person out there."
"At the beginning of the season the ball wasn't thrown toward me at all." Stuckey said. "They wouldn't even come into the boundary. I felt
DARRELL STUCKEY
Senior safety
like I was useless, and that's when I really got frustrated with not making plays and helping my team."
During Kansas' 34-30 loss to Colorado, Stuckey made 12 tackles and recorded his first interception of the season. He is Kansas' second-leading tackler with 50 tops.
In the week leading up to the Colorado game, though, Stuckey bluntly said that he needed to play better.
"I feel like I'm not playing to
SEE STUCKEY ON PAGE 8A
VOLLEYBALL
Coach Bechard celebrates 900 career victories
BY ZACH GETZ
zgetz@kansan.com
It took five attempts, but the Kansas volleyball team was finally able to give coach Ray Bechard his 900th victory, breaking a fourgame losing streak with a win against Kansas State this weekend.
ple of matches",
sophomore outside hitter Allison Mayfield said. "I think being the K-State match up makes it even more special for him."
"I know we kind of kept put-
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zgetz.
cation he has shown to the sport," Mayfield said. "Getting 900 wins is kind of unfathomable."
In 25 seasons of coaching.
Sophomore setter Nicole Tate said it was exciting to be part of
Bechard has accumulated a 900- 228 record, which includes a 184- 168 record during his 11 years coaching at Kansas.
ting it off a cou-
"It just shows how much dedication he has shown to the sport."
ALLISON MAYFIELD
Sophomore
outside hitter
"It just shows how much dedi-
"It's such a great achievement for him," Tate said. "And to be on the team that gave him that 900th win is an amazing feeling."
Bechard was modest after the game. He was more proud of the team stepping up
such an important game.
and beating a good Kansas State team on the road than earning his 900th victory.
"Nine hundred is good, and that was nice, but to get a road win in
Bechard got his start in coaching when he took a job at Lewis High School in Lewis, a town of fewer than 500 people in southwest Kansas in 1980. The job was supposed to entail being the boy's basketball coach, driver's education teacher and elementary physical education teacher.
Volleyball head coach Ray Bechard marked his 900th career victory this weekend when KU defeated K-State. The victory also ended a four-game losing streak for the Jayhawks.
this league against a good team 3-0 is what we are concentrating on right now." Bechard said. "Today it should be about our team playing extremely well on the road and doing a lot of things we feel we are capable of doing."
"I think it was May or June before I was supposed to start in August, and the superintendent called and said, 'Hey we really need a volleyball coach.' Bechard said. "I said that's unfortunate because that's not me. He called me a week later and said 'Guess what, you're our new volleyball coach.'"
SEEBECHARD ON PAGE 8A
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
COMMENTARY
First-drive offensive goal is vital
There are goals an offense sets for itself in every game. These goals typi-
glitter these goals typically include having a third-down conversion rate higher than 60 percent, rushing for 100 yards and throwing for more than 250 yards. A goal that sets the tone of the game, though, is one that has not often been met this season: scoring on the first drive of a game.
In the first six games of this season, the Kansas offense has scored on its first drive just three times, and failed to against the two Big 12 opponents. Against Iowa State it took two tries, in Colorado it took three.
Now one might say that this goal is asking too much for a team to do week after week, but the purpose of a goal is to challenge, to bring out the best in anybody. Opurum's touchdown on the second drive against Iowa State doesn't look that bad on a stat sheet, but the experience in the stadium told a whole different story.
The goals I mentioned mean a lot to a team that is very proud of its offense. With possibly the best receiving duo in the Big 12, Kerry Meier and Dezmon Briscoe, and a Heisman-watch quarterback, Todd Reesing, the Kansas offense sets the bar high and usually rises to meet those goals. Yet in order for Kansas to win these challenging Big 12 games, the fireworks need to start right as the opening kickoff takes flight.
The Colorado game Saturday really showed the importance of getting off to a good start. A sense of urgency never hit the Kansas offense until it looked up at the score board, behind 24-3, with 2:24 left in the first half. A slow start like this in the future will bring more results like the one we saw Saturday. The confidence that opposing teams gain as they see the high-powered Kansas offense stall carries throughout the game and results in a much tougher battle than anybody might have expected.
Edited by Jacob Muselmann
This confidence could be felt all over Folsom Field in Boulder Saturday while silent Kansas fans withdrew their spirit in the corner of the stands until the second half. But because of the confidence gained in the first half, the Colorado offense was able to put one last touchdown on the board in the fourth quarter, which was enough to give Kansas its first loss.
Iowa State did score on its first drive, as did Duke a couple weeks earlier, which brought the crowd and team out of the recurring fog that has also held back Kansas several times this season. When a crowd sees the away team score first, it usually instills some fear that the game might not go the way they want it to. That fear of taking the audience out of the game is why the goal of scoring on the first drive is so important.
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Roesler at twitter.
com/oresler8.
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