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KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | THURSDAY, SEPT. 8, 2016
Missy Minear/KANSAN
Sophomore linebacker Osase Ogebbor and senior defensive back Bazie Bates IV work together to bring down a Rhode Island receiver on Sept. 3. The Jayhawks beat the Rams 55-6 in their home opener.
Football coaches emphasize 'dirty work'
BRIAN MINI
@brianminimum
Coach David Beaty knows his team needs to play well for a win against Ohio. Most of the time this means a heavy emphasis on an efficient offense, a stout defense and a strong special teams.
Despite these basics,
Beaty stresses one more
thing: dirty work.
"Dirty work is the nonglorifying stuff that doesn't stand out throughout the week," Beaty said on Tuesday.
It shows everywhere, from Beaty's praise of freshman wide receiver Chase Harrell to coaches evaluating offensive
linemen's knock-down blocks.
In this week's media game notes, the offensive line was graded by the coaching staff on their performance against Rhode Island. On Tuesday, Beaty said the offensive line stood out, and, to back that up, they graded well.
Freshman right tackle Hakeem Adeniji, who was forced into a starting role, finished with the line's highest pass protection grade while senior left tackle D'Andre Banks had a team-high five knock-down blocks.
"Hakeem is a very talented young guy," Beaty said. "Very pleased with what he's been doing."
Although Beaty applaudled the offensive line play, there was one other newcomer that grabbed his attention, along with offensive coordinator Rob Likens.
"Chase Harrell, and what he did in the blocking game out wide, man he did some dirty work," Beaty said. "And that's not the work that most people want to do, but it needs to be done on championship ball clubs and that stuff starts to show up."
The 6-foot-4 wide receiver even garnered comparisons to NFL rising star Mike Evans from Beaty. Likens had similar praise when talking about the young wide receiver.
"One of the things I always look for is the character of your football team can be directly correlated to how hard the wide receivers block," he said. "Chase came in later in the game when the score was getting out of hand and he had a couple knock downs."
In a position full of "dirty work," senior backback Michael Zunica was praised by coaches and teammates after his performance against Rhode Island.
"Zunny's one of those people that you don't hear from as much," redshirt junior quarterback Montell Cozart said. "He's always one of the first guys in and the last guys out. He's one
of those detail-oriented guys."
While praising Ohio ahead of Saturday's meeting, Beaty gave a key improvement that Kansas will have to make to be successful again.
"When you lose your focus for just a second, that's when problems happen, and we learned a lot about staying focused," Beatty said.
In terms of what the Jayhawks had to work on against Ohio, Beaty drilled home his philosophy on the importance of dirty work.
This week, Beaty mentioned "loafs," which are plays where "dirty work" could be done, but an opportunity is missed. For
example, jogging instead of running. But it's those opportunities that need to be taken advantage of going forward.
"A loaf is not finishing between the ball carrier and your defender as a receiver on a blocking play. If not, you've got a loaf and those have to have accountability to them," Beaty said. "[Days after wins] don't come free, and you've got to earn them and they're only going to get tougher from here, starting Saturday with Ohio."
Edited by Matt Clough
KU volleyball rolls into next tournament
> CHRISTIAN S. HARDY
@ByHardy
It was almost nine months ago when Kansas volleyball's National Championship hopes ended in Omaha, Neb. On Wednesday, No. 4 Kansas volleyball will travel back to Omaha for the Bluejay Invitational.
Tavler Soucie gets fired up after winning a set against Arkansas. Kansas went on to win the match in five sets.
The invitational will consist of a pair of matches against unranked opponents in Creighton and Chattanooga before returning home for a match against Northern Iowa on Saturday. Creighton is currently unranked, but received 48 votes in the most recent AVCA coaches' poll, which places the Bluejays at No.30.
Kansas will enter as one of 26 teams in the NCAA that is still undefeated. The Jayhawks have won seven straight nonconference tournaments and 21 straight matches against nonconference opponents during the regular season. Kansas hasn't lost a regular season nonconference game since Sept. 19, 2014.
A glance at Kansas'
Kansas will take on Creighton first, as part of
the three-match weekend. Historically, the Jayhawks are 8-1 against the Bluejays. Kansas has won the last two matches against Creighton, including one in 2013 that sent Kansas to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.
Creighton is 2-3, but is much stronger than its record might indicate. The Bluejays were ranked No. 22 before its two losses at the USC Radisson Classic last week. One of Creighton's three overall losses came against No. 24 USC and the other two against Kentucky and Wichita State, both of which registered votes in the most recent AVCA coaches' poll.
Kansas' second match will be against Chattanooga at 6 p.m. on Friday. Kansas leads the series 1-0. Chattanooga is 5-2, but was swept in its only match against a team that registered in the AVCA rankings — Dayton.
TCU will also be at the invitational, but since TCU is in the Big 12, Kansas and TCU won't play against each other until the conference season. Kansas replaced that third game on the schedule with a home duel against Northern Iowa
Northern Iowa will face Kansas on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Horejsi Family Athletics Center. Ahead of their two Friday matches, the Panthers are 3-3 with losses to No.22 Michigan,No. 24 Southern California and No.30 Creighton. But the Panthers also swept No.29 Kentucky in California last week and should come into Horejsi on a three-game win-streak.
of the Missouri Valley Conference.
Kansas volleyball quick hits
- The team remained at No. 4 in the new AVCA rankings despite going 3-0 last week. Texas also remained at No. 3. The Big 12 also had plenty of teams on the verge of cracking the top 25; Kansas State fell in at No. 27, TCU at No. 32, Iowa State at No. 39, and Oklahoma at No. 43.
- Junior outside hitter Madison Rigdon is fourth in the NCAA in aces per set with 14 aces in 19 sets (0.74 per set).
— Kansas is second in opponent's hitting percentage, allowing only 187 kills on 688 tries and 138 errors for a .071 percentage.
- Junior All-American
setter Ainise Havili has a chance to hit 3,000 assists this weekend. She's currently at 2,916 coming into the weekend and averages a career 11.66 assists per set. She would be the seventh
Jayhawk to reach 3,000 career assists.
Senior libero Cassie Wait was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week on Monday after averaging 6.5 digs per set last
weekend in the Kansas Invitational. She also notched her second career 30-dig match with 31 digs in a five-set match against Arkansas on Saturday.
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