Volume 125 Issue 50
kansan.com
Monday, November 19, 2012
COMMENTARY
Seniors deserve our recognition
One victory this season could easily be five, and the resiliency and ability to compete was always there. The seniors never gave up.
Thank you, seniors. Be proud of your years of hard work for the program and the University.
Four years ago, the Kansas football seniors arrived on campus. The players immediately bonded as bewildered freshmen and built a brotherhood with teammates. They watched the then-seniors play their last football game at Memorial Stadium.
Edited by Christy Khamphilay
On Saturday, those same players walked onto the field and played their last home football game. Despite nontraditional black uniforms and a strong first quarter, Kansas lost 51-23 to Iowa State.
Yes, the record stands at 1-10 on the season with only one game left, but this senior class deserves major recognition for the many bumps in the road.
Instead, most stayed and continued to fight for the University.
Most of these seniors arrived in 2009, playing for former coach Mark Mangino. Shortly after, Mangino was fired, and coach Turner Gill stepped onto the scene for two short years. And after Gill's firing, Charlie Weis is now at the helm.
The seniors may not have the best record at Kansas, but the things that they do should be noted. Whether it's battling back from a season injury or adjusting to coaches, these seniors have put in the time and work to represent the University.
SENIOR SEND-OFF
All of those coaching changes made it difficult on these players. The seniors easily could have transferred to a different university or quit.
If coaching changes weren't enough, some players switched positions. Wide receiver Kale Pick switched to quarterback. Defensive end Toben Opurum bulked up for his new position after being a running back. Safety Bradley McDougald flipped to defense after being a wide receiver.
There are many more players with switches, but those players all could have left. Instead, they continued to fight.
Even injuries hurt these seniors along the way. Offensive lineman Trevor Marrongelli suffered a season-ending leg injury during his sophomore year. Wide receiver Daymond Patterson played against McNeese State and didn't play for the rest of last season.
Offensive lineman Tanner Hawkinson set a Kansas record with his 47th consecutive start. He also tied the Kansas all-time start record of 47. Wide receiver D.J. Beshears passed the 2,000-yard mark for career kick return yards with 2,059, which is second all-time. Beshears only needs 17 yards to break the career record.
Still, after the scrapes, strained muscles and broken bones, they continued to push through the pain.
Most of these players barely have 10 or more victories in their four-to-five-year tenure. In the Big 12, some players only have two conference victories.
Though the win-loss column might be awful, this senior class succeeded in different ways.
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN
CYCLONE WARNING
Sophomore cornerback JaCorey Shepherd deflects the ball thrown by Iowa State during the match against Iowa State Cyclones Saturday night Nov. 17 at Memorial Stadium. Kansas fell to Iowa State 51-23.
Bowl-hungry Cyclones dominate Jayhawks with simple strategy on Senior Night
BLAKE SCHUSTER
bschuster@kansan.com
It was supposed to be the game where the Kansas football program turned the corner.
After all, Kansas coach Charlie Weis had offered to buy tickets for any student that didn't have one. And the Jayhawks had just come so close to beating a ranked Texas Tech team on the road. And it was senior night. This had to be the moment where it all clicked for the Jayhawks, didn't it?
It would have been poetry to beat the school that Kansas topped in 2009 to start a 5-0 record—the last win before the program crumbled.
Instead, Iowa State cruised to a 51-23 victory. The Cyclones couldn't have been less phased by the crowd of 41,608 at Memorial Stadium or the black on black uniforms that Weis surprised the team and fans with. We may never see those uniforms again.
"Going out early and feeling all that emotion and getting ready to run out on the field, there was definitely a lot of adrenaline, for the first time all year," left tackle Tanner Hawkinson said.
The Cyclones were trying anything to get there. Starting quarterback Steele Jantz, who had been inconsistent all year, was yanked early in the first quarter after he fumbled on ISU's first possession and went three and out on his second drive.
What the Jayhawks weren't ready for was a 5-5 Iowa State team desperate to reach a bowl game — a win against Kansas assured one.
Taking over for Jantz was Sam Richardson, a freshman who had yet to throw a pass all year and was low enough on the depth chart that Weis didn't even spend anytime preparing for him. Weis later said that he should have.
All Richardson did was complete
23 of 27 passes for 250 yards and
"They were more simple than they've been on tape," Weis said. "They'd been quite exotic in the last bunch of weeks with formations. They just lined up and went right after us and did it very well."
Perhaps that was the biggest difference between the two teams on Saturday. Iowa State was scarily simple, and Kansas was catastrophically complex.
four touchdowns.
The Jayhawks had five different players take snaps: starting quarterback Michael Cummings, relegated back-up quarterback Dayne Crist, running backs Tony Pierson and James Sims and wide receiver Kale Pick who was recruited as a quarterback. None of them sufficiently paid off.
"We had enough confidence that Iowa State would try to load up front," Weis said of putting Crist back in. "The next thing we're going to have to do is try to throw behind them."
Sims snapped his school record-setting streak of six straight games with a hundred yards rushing finishing with just 81. Crist found 156 yards and a touchdown through the air, but only completed 9 of 20 passes with an interception. And Tony Pierson's speed was only showcased on one play, a 55-yard run that was supposed to be a flea flicker until Pierson found a seam and ran straight up the middle untouched to the end zone.
And Richardson? He was firing bombs left and right, picking apart a defense that had been solid for Kansas the vast majority of the season.
Yet it wasn't being down 38-17 at halftime that sunk the layhawks; it was the next Iowa State score after it, a 51-yard field goal that had no trouble getting past the uprights.
"It's the small things like that," safety Bradley McDougald said. "Special teams count, so when a guy walks up and punches in a
4
51-yarder, their team takes notice of that and gives them energy we didn't need them to have"
It became a shootout no Jayhawk wanted to be a part of. This Kansas team is built on running the ball and playing bend-dont-break defense.
"We are not a 51-point offense." Weis said. "I thought it would be in the 20s. I thought they were going to run it, and we were going to run it. I didn't come to the game expecting to throw the ball 25 times."
And the fans, the ones that Weis had worked so hard to get to jump onto the bandwagon of a 1-9 team, they were gone by halftime and may not be coming back until there's a legitimate reason to.
"If I was a fan I wouldn't come either," McDougald said. "All we know is we're going to get things right and come back to work."
Edited by Brittney Haynes
MEN'S BASKETBALL
ASHLEIGH LEE/KANSAN
Senior center Jeff Wittley dunks the ball during Thursday's game against Chattanooga in Allen Fieldhouse where the Jayhawks won 69-55.
Jayhawks plan to develop offense
ETHAN PADWAY
When the Kansas men's basketball team tips off against Washington State in the CBE classic at 9 tonight, it will face — for the second time this season -- the challenge of guarding an opposing team with size in the front court.
epadway@kansan.com
The last time the Jayhaws experienced this was in Atlanta against Michigan State on Nov. 13, and the game was the team's first loss. While Washington State won't be as physical down low as the Spartans were, they will still play tough.
"Their standing height is real big, but they're all pretty skilled," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "They can all step away from the basket. Their wings are pretty big. They run an offense that's very similar to what Frank ran at K-State."
Senior center Jeff Withey has found it more difficult to score without Thomas Robinson with him in the paint. Opposing teams are now able to key in on him, and this elmi-
With Withey's talents better suited for the defensive side of the floor, the offense can't get away with the same strategy they had last season.
"Jeff is never going to be a guy you just throw it to and have him go get 20" Self said. "That's not who he is; that's not who he was last year. He's a guy that needs angles and make free throws and can get to the free throw line."
nates many easy baskets that Withey got down low last season.
But scoring hasn't come very easily to the young jayhawks, and at times, the offense has fallen stagnant.
"We're not getting anything out of
To jump-start the offense, Self wants his team to run the court more. However, the team is playing slower than it have in previous years.
By playing slow, the Jayhawks lose out on the chance to get easy fast-break baskets.
"Offensively, we're going a lot slower than in years past because so many new guys don't know the plays like the veterans, we can run them in our sleep," Withey said.
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In the second half of Kansas game against Chattanooga on Thursday, the team started using a hard-nosed approach to defense in order to get turnovers and run the floor.
our secondary break." Self said. "The only thing we're getting anything out of is we're running off our defense. If that's true, then it's fine, but let's guard, let's pressure, and let's create havoc like we did in the second half so we get opportunities to score."
The team still has a long way to go, but by running the floor, it can begin to kick-start the offense.
And when the offense starts to flow, the team's chemistry will improve as a result.
"It showed the last game we played," sophomore guard Naadir Tharpe said. "If we run up and down like that, we get easy baskets. That's how we go on our runs, and I think we definitely need to play faster than how we've been playing."
Edited by Nikki Wentling