Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Monday
August 24,1998
Section:
B
Page 1
Eric Chenowith recounts his European vacation and looks forward to a new season one without Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz. Page 3B
Pro Baseball
The St. Louis Cardinals have no problems with Mark McGwires' use of legal muscle drugs.
Page 1
SEE PAGE 10B
College Football
Ricky Williams, a leading cohtender for the Heisman, is ready to run into the college record books.
SEE PAGE 8B
Contact the Kansan
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Sports Fax: (785) 864-0391
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
It's crunch time
Far left: Senior offensive guard Justin Glasgow blocks a defender in Saturday's scrimmage. Glasgow, voted a team co-captain, has moved from tackle to guard this year and will help to solidify the offensive line. Photo by Dan Elavsky/KANSAN Left: Junior center Chris Enneking shows his watermelon-eating technique. Players and staff were provided watermelon by University alumni after the fall football scrimmage on Saturday. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
Below: Cutting outside, Senior halfback Julius Bruce breaks around defenders for a gain against the first-string defense in Saturday's scrimmage. Photo by Jay Sheperd/KANSAN
Offensive line improving
Players adjusting to coach's changes
By Jodi M. Smith
Kansan Sportswriter
It is not exactly a glory job, and most people do not even know their names.
The quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers get all the credit
— the big yards, their names in the newspapers and their interviews on the 6 o'clock news.
But for every play, somebody in front of those players is making all of that happen. That somebody is the offensive line.
But there are high hopes for this year's offense, and those hopes start with the line.
The Jayhawk offense was ridiculed last season after ranking last among Division I schools in total offense.
If offensive-line coach Walt Klinker were to assess the offensive line on a scale of one to 10, comparing this season with last season, he would have a decisive number in his head.
"I'd say about an eight," Klinker said.
Senior offensive guard Justin Glasgow does not think it is quite that simple.
"I don't know if I can put a number on it." Glasgow said. "Last year, offensively, we were doing a lot of good things at the end of the year. I think this year, we're just kind of building off what we ended up there and trying to progress from where we left off at the end of the season."
Senior left tackle Dan Dercher made an assessment but not as boldly as Klinker.
"From the beginning of last year to now, I think we're a seven, eight times better." Dercher said.
See OFFENSIVE on page 2B
Jason Benavides/KANSAN
Kansas Offensive Lineman
Proiected starters:
left tackle: Dan Dercher 6-6 285 senior*
left guard: Dameon Hunt 6-2 310 junior
Center: Chris Enneking 6-4 280 junior
Right guard: Justin Glasgow 6-6 320 senior
Right guard: Michael Lies 6-2 300 senior
*Dercher partially tore the medial-collateral ligament in his right knee Friday. Backups Justin Hartwig and Bob Smith could replace him, or Michael Lies could move from right tackle and Jerome Parks would become the starter at right tackle.
Saturday scrimmage rough on Jayhawks
Defensive leader others miss game
Kansan Sportswriter
By Jodi M. Smith
It was as close to a game situation as it comes.
The Kansas football team's Saturday morning scrimmage had everything an actual game holds: big plays, not-so-big plays, penalties, great hits and, most undesirably, injuries.
Freshman defensive end Justin Sands and sophomore wide receiver Eric Patterson returned to play. Patterson has a recurring ankle injury.
In a little more than one hour, trainers assisted three jawkaws off the field.
After weeks of competing for the backup quarterback spot, Junior walk-on Jay Alexander partially tore the medial-collateral ligament in one of his knees. Two days earlier, coach Terry Allen had released the
But the third Jayhawk did not return to the field.
Allen said he knew it would not be a good day when his back-up quarterback twisted his knee on a dead play.
depth chart, which named Alexander as junior Zac Wegner's back-up.
In addition to the injuries incurred during the scrimmage, two players did not play Saturday because of existing injuries.
"I'm just glad we didn't play a football game today," he said. "I guess it wasn't meant to be offensively today."
Junior running back Mitch Bowles was side-lined because of a minor ankle injury.
It is possible that Dercher will return to the lineup in time for the Jayhawks' opener against Oklahoma State on Sept. 5.
He was joined on the sideline by senior left tackle Dan Dercher, who also partially tore the medial-collateral ligament in his right knee during Friday's practice.
Dercher, who was switched from defense to offense mid-season last year, provides the offensive line with leadership.
"We lost a little communication today in senior leadership without Dercher in there." Allen said.
The Jayhawks will hold another scrimimage, a walk-through game scrimimage, Friday night at Memorial Stadium.
Senior right tackle Michael Lies forces Junior defensive end Dion Johnson outside during a pass play in Saturday's scrimmage. Photo by Jay Sheepd/KANSAS
Commentary
Virtual world of sports games offers pure joy
This summer, I was introduced to a world where fantasy becomes reality and a land where boyhood dreams take form.
You can explore this world in your own home, on your own time, and you can take this ride whenever you please.
This titillating world offers individuals the opportunity to enhance their abilities, reach goals that before were deemed unattainable and participate in an all-out, full-contact, skin-to-skin melee.
The world is highly addictive, extremely time consuming and powerfully realistic.
This world is not new, but it is extremely improved.
This world is the Sony PlayStation, and my fantasy land exists in the realm of sports video games.
I first became a sports videogame addict in the fourth-grade when I picked up the original Atari system and played a game simply titled Basketball.
The bright glow emulating from the screen and the intense competition between childhood chums immediately struck my fancy. I
Kevin Wilson
finally had found a world to which I could retreat when weather prevented me from playing real sports.
Atari soon became Nintendo, and my love affair flourished. Tecmo Bowl and R.B.I. Baseball provided me and my younger brother, Brian, with hours of entertainment and excitement.
Nintendo opened my eyes to this phenomena and prepared me to venture into the future of sports video games.
Sega elevated sports games to a level of realism that I never had imagined, and I was bewildered by the graphics, game play and actual stats that accompanied my new world.
The Sega Genesis provided me with years of pleasure and uncountable hours of enjoyment. This machine had become my friend and my companion and despite the onslaught of the more powerful systems, I stuck by my old pal.
After three years of prodding, pleading and begging, my parents conceded to the inevitable. On Christmas 1991, my family became the proud owner of the Sega Genesis.
But this all changed the first time I played NBA Live 88 on the PlayStation.
Stat-tracking seasons and the opportunity to create your own players transformed me from a mild-mannered gamer into a full-fledged junky.
Although I was excelling in soccer, basketball and football in the flesh, I was achieving much more on the screen.
I won the Super Bowl with the lowly Atlanta Falcons. I directed a band of former Iowa and Iowa State basketball players to the NBA title. I helped bring the Stanley Cup to Anaheim. I even captured the World Cup with the United States.
Electronic Arts, more commonly known as EA Sports, developed such games as Madden Football, NBA Live, FIFA Soccer and NHL Hockey and pushed the envelope in gaming excellence.
I had seen the other sports games offered on the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64, but not a one of those games had swayed me to abandon my Sega.
But from the opening sequence to the final whistle, I was struck in utter disbelief as to what I saw.
Killer cross-over dribbles, explosive alley-oop dunks and all of the sights and sounds of a real NBA game reverberate through this masterpiece. Players' attributes and appearances mirror reality, and the player-creation option is somewhat erie in its effectiveness.
The user can determine the players' height, weight, hairstyle, skin color and any other talent or attribute imaginable. Average athletes can become superstars and an over-the-hill has-been can regain the step he lost.
However, my Sega was not able to regain its step, and I succumbed to the temptation of the PlayStation.
This summer the Dallas Mavericks, led by a resilient group of Old Chicago employees, ransacked the NBA and finished the regular season with an unprecedented 76-6 record.
When you indulge in the world of sports video games, any sports fantasy, well almost any, is possible. Any record can be broken, any team can be victorious and any title can be won.
The playoffs now are underway, the Mavs hold a 2-0 lead against the Houston Rockets in the first-round, and a date in the finals with the Chicago Bulls is inevitable.
The NBA title is up for grabs and in this world of wonder, anything can happen and anyone can be king.
Wilson is Des Moines, Iowa, senior in Journalism.