18B SPORTS
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2009
503 Wisconsin
Daily Specials
Sunday:
Lunch: 45-cent wings
Dinner: 45-cent wings
Drink: $2.50 3 Olive Tomato and Smirnoff Bloody Mary's
Monday:
Lunch: Buffalo Chicken Salad $4.99 Dinner: Chicken Finger Baskets $4.99 Drink: $3 Big Domestic Beers
Tuesday:
Lunch: Pork Tenderloin
Sandwich w/side $4.99
Dinner: $3.50 Burger Baskets
Drink: $2.50 Domestic Bottles
Wednesday:
Lunch: Meatball Grinder $4.99 Dinner: 45-cent wings Drink: $5 2L Domestic Towers, $7.50 3L Dometic Towers
Thursday:
Lunch: Chicken Finger
Wrap w/side $4.99
Dinner: Pasta of the Week
Drink: $7.50 2L Craft Towers,
$10 3L Craft Towers
Friday:
Lunch: Chicken Fried Steak $4.99
Dinner: 1/2 price appetizers
(excluding wings)
Drink: $2.50 Wells and Calls
Saturday:
Quick Yacht Game Menu
Drink Specials run all day Lunch Specials run 11am-5pm Dinner Specials run 5pm-11pm All Specials Subject to Change
Parish learns new position on the fly
FOOTBALL
BY JAYSON JENKS
jienks@kansan.com
Caleb Blakesley and Jamal Greene are the worst. In the locker room before and after practice, the two defensive tackles make sure to remind sophomore Darius Parish that he's different now. That he's no longer one of them.
Essentially, Parish has switched from ally to enemy.
"I've been catching a lot of flak from those guys," Parish said, grinning.
Originally a
Parish
originally defensive tackle, Parish reversed roles and lined up at offensive tackle during Tuesday's practice — a spot he will remain at this season.
Parish sported the number 55 and played at a slimmed down weight of 314 pounds. Last season, as a freshman, Parish wore number 93 and weighed 341 pounds.
Along with the position change,
And as expected the switch has amounted to a somewhat hectic offseason.
"Learning the plays quick, quick, quick is tough because we're moving so fast through camp." Parish said. "Right now I'm just working to get my pass protection down and just learning the plays."
more center Jeremiah Hatch said. "He's doing everything he needs to do. We just need to keep working along with him. Us guys have to help him out."
With little understanding of the offense before the switch, Parish is in catch-up mode early in summer practices. In his free time, Parish said his playbook is not far from his side, and he's also taking notes to better grasp Kansas' offensive schemes.
"As far as footwork and handwork, he's doing everything just like me when I started out," sopho-
Coach Mark Mangino and his staff approached Parish before the start of training camp with a simple sales pitch: Switching to the offensive line would not only better the team, it would also better Parish.
With the defensive line forming a nucleus of reliable options through spring practices, Parish adds more depth on the offensive line without significantly diminishing Kansas' other defensive front.
"Darius had offensive line written all over him from day one. But we didn't have much depth on the defensive line last year so of necessity we had to use him there," Mangino said. "I think he has found a home and I think he will end up being a good football
player for us on the offensive line."
Parish made eight tackles in 12 games last season and earned considerable playing time on the defensive front. But now his mindset shifts to preventing those same disruptive plays he once sought as a defensive tackle.
But he's far from a refined product. Parish said he has three areas in which he needs to improve: technique, stamina and understanding of the offense. From there, he expects to see the playing field behind Kansas' starting offensive tackles.
"Once I get those things going, I think I'll be on the field more rotating with probably Jeff Spikes and Tanner Hawkinson," Parish said. "As long as I get my plays, technique and stamina I think I'll be on the field."
FOOTBALL
- Edited by Tim Burgess
Media day shows preseason potential
Senior quarterback Todd Reesing talks to his teammates before a drill Tuesday morning at the Anderson Family Football Complex. Tuesday's practice was open to the media as the team prepared for its Sept. 5 home opener against Northern Colorado.
FRESHMAN CLOSE TO EARNING STARTING
SPOT
After losing all three starting linebackers from last season, the competition to fill those vacant positions has drawn considerable media and fan interest this off-season.
Coach Mark Mangino hinted that 6-foot-1, 215-pound, Mulvane freshman Huldon Tharp is on the verge of earning one of the available starting spots.
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
Campaign Team
LUEKEN LEFT PROGRAM FOR OWN REASONS
Mangino said Tuesday that sophomore Ben Lueken left the football program to pursue outside opportunities. Mangino said that health concerns with Lueken were taken into consideration but that those concerns weren't the reason for his departure.
"He told me he wanted to do something else," Mangino said. "I'm in favor of him doing that. I think he just wanted to get a fresh start somewhere."
What is known is that Lueken was injured in an incident involving a car in April and that his status with the team was unclear from that point on.
Lueken was involved in an offseason incident with former running back Jocques Crawford, who also left the program before the season started. The details of the case haven't been completely revealed.
OFFENSIVE LINE STILL NOT SET
One of the biggest areas of uncertainty coming into the season is still filled with question
marks.
Sophomore Jeremiah Hatch is a lock at center, while sophomore Jeff Spikes and redshirt freshman Tanner Hawkinson appear to be slotted as starters at the offensive tackle positions.
Mangino said competition is still ongoing.
"I know this; that we are going to have more than five quality offensive linemen," Mangino said. "How is actually plays out, I think we have some time yet."
MEIER LOOKING FOR TRIPLE-DIGIT CATCHES
Senior Kerry Meier acknowl.
edged at Kansas' media day Tuesday that his goal this season was to haul in 100 passes. Meter had 97 catches and 1,045 yards receiving last year.
"I'm somebody that strives to be perfect and I'm nowhere near perfect, but I come out striving to be there," Meier said. "If I should catch 100 balls, you know, great. If Dezmon should catch 100 balls, even better. I'm there to lead this team and take this Jayhawk program where it hasn't been."
JUNIOR COLLEGE TRANSFER MISSING PRACTICE
Mangino said junior Vernon Brooks, a late addition to Kansas'
recruiting class, has temporarily left the team to handle family matters back home.
Brooks was recruited from Blinn College by Oklahoma and Tennessee, among others, but selected Kansas for the chance at early playing time.
"I can't give you a time when he will be back," Mangino said. "He has some family issues that he is tending to, and I just can't tell you what impact or any at all that he would have. The more a new transfer is out of camp, it is very difficult to get into the groove."
— Edited by Lauren Cunningham
Similar teams in the mix for Big 12 south title
BY STEPHEN HAWKINS
Associated Press
IRVING, Texas - While Oklahoma got to play in the Big 12 and BCS championship games last year. Texas and Texas Tech had the same regular season record as the Sooners.
All three were 11-1 overall with a 7-1 mark in the Big 12 South, and each loss was to another team in that trio. The Big 12's fifth tiebreaker — BCS standings — was needed to send the Sooners to the conference title game they won.
All that even though the Sooners lost by 10 points to Texas, which lost at Texas Tech with one second remaining — before the Red Raiders lost by 44 points at Oklahoma.
The tiebreaker formula hasn't changed, yet Texas coach Mack Brown — who didn't like the setup even before last season — said there is an easy way around it for the Longhorns.
"If we had played better at Tech and won the game, we'd have been in the conference championship game," Brown said Wednesday at the Big 12 media days. "A lot of that."
comes from us. We need to learn from that and move on, quit talking about the system and just go play."
The Longhorns, with Heisman Trophy runner-up Colt McCoy back at quarterback, should be in the title mix again this season.
Texas and Oklahoma tied for the top spot in the Big 12 South presecasion poll determined from a media vote. Texas got 17 first-place votes and Oklahoma got the other 15, but both had the same number of poll points.
WHAT ABOUT THE RED RAIDERS?
With quarterback Graham Harrell and receiver Michael Crabtree gone, it could be difficult for Texas Tech to match the Sooners and Longhorns again though coach Mike Leach insists things might not be that much different.
"I don't think it's really that dramatic," Leach said. "A lot's been made out of it, but there was a time when nobody had heard of Harrell and Crabtree too. ... The questions were a little more along the line of, 'How's this Harrell going to be any good?' How's this Crabtree guy?"
The Red Raiders were fourth in the preseason poll, behind Oklahoma State.
Harrell threw an NCAA-record 134 downtowns and finished with consecutive 5,000-yard seasons in which he completed more than 70 percent of his passes. Crabtree caught 97 passes for 1,165 yards and 19 TDs his sophomore season before leaving.
McCoy also pondered leaving early for the NFL, and said "that was definitely a hard decision" based on the draft projections he knew about then and wouldn't discuss Wednesday.
"If Potts is our starter, I know we've got a good one. If someone beats out Potts, I know we have an even better one."
MIKE LEACH Texas Tech coach
"Obviously, the
Now he enters his senior season
only thing Colt wants is to be one second better," Brown said.
with the same kind of expectations Texas had four years ago.
McCoy redshirted in 2005 and got a championship ring when the Young-led Longhorns outlasted USC for the win. But he doesn't wear it because he doesn't feel like he earned it.
"The 2005 team lived up to those expectations," Brown said. "So we feel like that if this team will play up to their ability, they do have a chance to be really good. That's obviously our goal."
Texas Tech was ranked No. 2 after its first 10-0 start in school history before the devastating loss
arm.
in Norman. The Red Raiders later lost to Mississippi in the Cotton Bowl in the last game for Harrell and Crabtree.
Leach said Taylor Potts, who watched Harrell from the sideline the past three seasons, is a bigger guy with a stronger
"He could have started for a lot of teams last year. Could have started for ours except for Graham was ahead of him," Leach said. "If Potts is our starter, I know we've got a good one. If somebody beats out Potts, I know we have an even better one."