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Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
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WWW.KANSAN.COM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2009
Rowers remember hard loss Team was taking the lead before it was thrown off by restart. Rowing |9A
FOOTBALL
Junior defensive end Jake Laptad breaks through to the Colorado quarterback for a safety during the 2008 regular season. This season Kansas hopes to cure its pass rush problems with the addition of Quinitin Woods, junior college trainee.
Weston White/KANSAN
Defense looks to attack passer
Slowing the spread lies in the execution of the pass rush
Maybe you stood in the stands, screaming, prodding and hoping for a stop that never really came. First down. Second down. Third down. Repeat.
BY JAYSON JENKS
jijenks@kansan.com
Maybe you were in Memorial Stadium that day last season when Texas Tech rolled into Lawrence touting the best receiver and the best offense in the Big 12.
Maybe, and most likely, you remember the masterfully orchestrated art of passing put on by Graham Harrell, Michael Crabtree and seemingly every other skill player listed on the Red Raiders' roster.
The lesson woven into the game's fabrics, the one you witt-
nessed on the field? No pass rush equals no ability to slow the spread.
After a 63-21 dismantling and after taking the field to an empty-looking stadium in the fourth quarter on Oct. 25, 2008 it's a concept both you and the Jayhawks understand well.
"One thing in this league, I'm a firm believer that to be a good defense, you have to be able to get pressure without blitzing people," an assistant coach in the Big 12 South said. "And KU was an example where a lot of times they had to blitz people to get pressure.
"They didn't have enough down lineman on the edge to get pressure by themselves. When they did that, they put themselves in some tough situations in the secondary"
There's little argument that having an adequate pass rush without blitzing is a key ingredient to experiencing success in the Big 12. But creating a definition for that success is far more difficult.
Sure, interceptions and sacks often reflect the productivity of a team's pass rush. But a pass rush can also simply disrupt timing, force incomplete passes and prevent big plays. And there's no statistic to mark such occurrences.
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Coach Mark Mangino's squad lacked many of those eye-test qualities last season when Kansas
ranked 10th in pass defense in the Big 12. The Jayhawks surrendered 273.6 yards per game through the air.
"A d-line is nothing without a secondary. If the secondary can't cover for at
"You can chase a rabbit all day. It doesn't mean you're going to catch it eventually."
least three to five seconds, the quarterback can get the ball off every time," senior safety Darrrell Stuckey said. "And a secondary is nothing without a d-line and a pass rush. Nobody can cover anybody for seven seconds.
Without a natural pass rusher off the edge last season, the Jayhawks were often forced to blitz to create pressure — a trend that often left them vulnerable against the Big 12's pass-heavy attacks.
"When you can put pressure on the quaterback like that, it really forces the other guys to step up more."
MARK MANGINO Kansas coach
But Mangino said there is room for optimism with Kansas' 2009 defensive unit.
Junior college transfer Quintin Woods enters as a player expected to help cure Kansas' pass rush alliment immediately. Woods,
a 6-foot-5, 230-pound defensive end, will share time with junior Jake Laptad and senior Maxwell Onyegbule.
"Filling that pass-rushing position was a priority for us and Quintin really caught our eye."
Mangino said. "When you can put pressure on the quarterback like that, it really forces the other guys to step up more. It was very important that we have that element on our team."
Here's a slightly different perspective.
Oklahoma State offensive lineman Russell Okung is a man well versed on the troubles of slowing a pass rush. Okung is a preseason All-American candidate and a large contributor for one of the most potent and feared offenses in the Big 12.
And when Okung and the rest of the Cowboys notice an opposing defense blitzing in order to create pressure, they don' t blink.
"To me, when you blitz you're pretty much telling the other team, 'I can't stop you playing my base defense so this is what I'm going to have to do.' Okung
SEEFOOTBALL ON PAGE 8A
CROSS COUNTRY
Challenging course creates a bond for runners
Just north of Lawrence there is a Kansas Athletics site that rivals Allen Fieldhouse in tradition and distinction.
sanderson@kansan.com
BY SAMANTHA ANDERSON
Whether it is because of the monstrous hills, the lush forest complete with two covered bridges or the life-size cutouts of past Kansas runners frozen in the same pose for years, Rim Rock Farm is one of most memorable courses in the Midwest.
When one runner meets another in this part of the country, a question commonly asked is whether one has been to Rim Rock, often beginning a dialogue about a memorable race the athletes participated in at Rim Rock Farm.
The runners at Kansas are lucky enough to call this landmark in the running world home.
"I remember it took quite a while to build, you know. The kids came out there with rakes and shovels and we had a buldozer and it took a long while to put it together, but all the time you just knew that in the end that everyone was going to love it," Timmons said.
influential cross country coaches in school history, is the man behind Rim Rock Farm. In 1974 he bought the land that became the Farm.
Bob Timmons, one of the most
Willis, who ran cross country as a sophomore in 1975, was not able to compete on the course because it wasn't finished before the end of her cross country career. She has
"I remember hearing that he bought a wonderful farm north of Lawrence," Willis said.
Former Kansas runner Sheree Willis recalled the beginning of Rim Rock's creation.
Weston White/KANSAN
Runners compete at a cross country meet held at Rim Rock Farm north of Lawrence. Rim Rock is the Kansas team's home course and host several events each season.
COMMENTARY
Give small football schools a chance
I think there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll. I think there is no way that Michael Jordan stepped away from the game he loved in his prime to pick up a sport he didn't know or play.
But the most active conspiracy out there is the one facing the non-BCS quality football programs: the Utahs, the Boise States and the TCUs.
There's no Zapruder film, but the evidence is in the preseason polls. Pollspeak.com, a website that has logged every week's college football poll since 1998, did a report comparing the preseason and postseason rankings of every team.
And the results are shocking.
They defeated two Top-15 opponents at the end of the season and moved up one spot in the BCS standings. One spot. Why? The big dog BCS teams sitting in front of them had a huge leg up because they started the season ranked so high.
I realize Utah simply did not have the talent that Florida or Oklahoma did. But talented teams sometimes don't win.
And yet, they continue to be under-ranked.
During the BCS era (1998-present), the highest a non-BCS team has ever been ranked in the either preseason poll is No. 14, this year's Boise State Broncos. And yet, a non-BCS team ended up lower than No. 15 in the postseason poll just once. Non-BCS schools keep exceeding expectations time and time again.
Take a look at last year's Utah Utes. Returning a stellar dual-threat QB, Utah looked good in the preseason, but apparently not good enough; they couldn't crack the Top 25 in either poll.
And sure, strength of schedule is a factor. However, you can't grade someone's strength of schedule in the preseason when no one's played a game yet.
I'm not sure where the conspiracy lies. All I know is this: teams from non-BCS conferences have no chance to climb their way to the top of the polls. Florida might go undefeated this year, but so could Utah, BYU, TCU, Kansas, Navy or Florida International.
But they simply couldn't climb the polls enough.
Then the season started.
Utah took down No. 24 Michigan in the Big House to open the season and didn't look back. They defeated Oregon State a week after the Beavers topped USC. They squeaked by No. 11 TCU and destroyed No. 14 BYU. 12 wins. Zero losses.
So NCAA, let's eliminate the preseason polls completely. Put out the first poll in October. We'll have less to talk about right now, but more to debate later.
Give the smaller programs a fighting chance of achieving their dreams.
Edited by Tim Burgess
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