Volume 125 Issue 17
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
kansan.com
If you're curious to know why Gharie Weis was hired at Kansas, it has little to do with this season's record and everything to do with Monday night.
COMMENTARY
In Monday's final hours, Andrew Bolton verbally committed to Kansas according to Rivals. com. Bolton, a 6-foot-3, 280-pound defensive end, currently plays for Hinds Community College in Mississippi and is a big time talent — big enough to receive scholarship offers from Iowa and LSU while being recruited by Alabama and Ohio State.
Weis a boon for football recruiting
You see, Weis was not hired for what he may be able to do this season. Hell, no coach could have cleaned up Turner Gill's mess in one season. Kansas may not win another game in 2012, but you can be sure they will improve and continue to do so.
And hey, this week is already a win.
Edited by Sarah McCabe
In the football universe, Alabama, LSU and Ohio State are equivalent to planets, while Kansas is merely one of many meteors hoping to defy odds and cause damage when it inevitably hurdles into one of the few planets.
This is the kind of caliber player at whom Kansas has never truly had a chance. This is why Charlie Weis was brought in.
Senior quarterback Dayne Crist gets tackled as he tries to get the ball into the end zone to score a touchdown during the Sept. 15 game against Texas Christian. The Javahays lost 6-20. Kansas scored no touchdown and had two field goals.
It's the one pitch Weis has that the top schools can not sell.
Bolton wanted to play for Weis, more than Nick Saban. More than Les Miles. More than Urban Mever.
If Weis and Campo can get a player on campus, they can get him to sign. It's as simple as that, which is a very exciting prospect for Kansas football.
To be fair, Weis isn't the only factor in Bolton's recruitment. The Jayhawk's linebackers coach DeMontie Cross was the lead recruiter for Bolton and should receive a bundle of the credit as well.
So Cross, Weis and the other assistants managed to pull off something that Kansas never does and pluck a top southern player out of the south. How?
And then there's this pitch Kansas can sell to recruits that Alabama can't. 'That LSU can't.' And neither can Ohio State.
Even getting Bolton to visit was a victory for the Jayhawks, and the victory helped them win the war that was Bolton's recruitment. It's rare for top prospects to even give Lawrence a chance, but with names like Weis and defensive coordinator Dave Campo in charge, the visits will come, and Lawrence does the rest.
It is no stretch to say that Bolton will be in Lawrence this summer because he will be able to play in the fall, especially as a JUCO transfer who has a limited number of years left in his college career.
Still, Weis hired Cross, a former Missouri football star, who clearly has had an impact on this team.
Playing time.
ASHLEIGH LEE/KANSAN
AGGRESSIVE EXPANSION
THE ARSENAL GROWS
Halfback Tony Pierson and running back James Sims will provide the Jayhawks with more offensive options
BLAKE SCHUSTER
bschuster@kansan.com
Tony Pierson hadn't caught a football since high school, but heading into the game against Texas Christian last Saturday, he knew that would change — he just didn't know when.
Nearing the end of the first quarter, an anxious Pierson got his answer. TCU scored its first touchdown of the day and coach Charlie Weis responded by calling his X-factor play for Kansas.
Pierson lined up in the backfield but moved swiftly across the line once the ball was snapped. Quickly, quarterback Dayne Crist had an open receiver just past the Horned Frog's defensive line, and he tossed the ball, Pierson's seldom-used hands were there to meet it. With the ball cradled safely in his arm and two blockers ahead of him, Pierson darted up the field for a 16-yard gain.
It was the first of six catches the sophomore would have against TCU, and while he missed out on a third consecutive 100-yard rushing game, he managed to pick up 99 yards receiving.
It was the last thing TCU coach Garv Patterson was expecting.
"They changed their whole game plan," Patterson said. "They didn't run one route progression that they ran the last two ball-games."
Weis rejoiced in his sneakily effective scheme after the defeat, but nixed any thought of Pierson making more catches down the road.
Or perhaps he just needed a day or two to think about it.
On Tuesday, the Kansas offensive coordinator wasn't taking any options on the table — especially with the return of running back James Sims from a three-game DUI suspension.
"He's got good ball skills and good route running ability for a running back," Weis said of Pierson. "I've shifted him out into the slot, and he's run corner routes that he's got open and caught. He's come out of the backfield and run
It surely won't catch Northern Illinois coach Dave Doeren off guard this Saturday, but Pierson's catching ability opens up options for another backfield threat: the returning Sims.
a wheel route for about another 25 vards. 1 kind of like that."
Last season against NIU, Sims sparked a 14-point Jayhawk comeback with 159 total yards and two touchdowns. With the Huskies defense returning nearly all of its
starters from last season, there couldn't have been a more favorable opponent for Sims to make his 2012 debut against.
"He knows how well he did against them last year," running backs coach Reggie Mitchell said. "James is very confident."
That isn't to say Pierson will be losing any touches. Weis and Mitchell had planned on giving Pierson about 15 touchs a game since fall camp, and Mitchell said
that's still the plan — but that didn't include catches.
As long as he gets a chance to make plays, Pierson could care less if he's getting the ball in the backfield or the open field.
"It doesn't matter," Pierson said. "I played wide out in high school, so it's natural. As long as the ball comes to me."
— Edited by Christy Khamphilay
Junior middle blocker Caroline Jarmoc talks strategy with junior erter Erin McNorton during the match against the Woymong Cowirts on Sent. 8, Kansas defeated Woymong 3-0 sets, scoring 15-13, 25-21 and 25-18.
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN
VOLLEYBALL
Jarmoc makes a family out of a team
GEOFFREY CALVERT
gcalvert@kansan.com
Caroline Jarmoc hadn't seen her sister, Patricia, in two years, because of her sister's career playing professional volleyball in Portugal. So when assist coach Laura "Bird" Kuhn told Jarmoc she needed to arrive early for the Jayhawks' match against Tulsa on Aug. 31, she didn't think much of it.
"Bird called me into the team room, just saying that she wanted to have a middles (middle blockers) meeting or something that she made up," jarmoc said. "I was talking, and then the team room door opened and in walked my sister. I was completely shocked."
Jarmoc, a redshirt junior middle blocker, is originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Her mom, Zofia, also came to Lawrence for the Tulsa match. This made it the first time in two years Jarmoc's mom had seen her play for Kansas and the only time for her sister.
Jarmoc comes from a family of volleyball players. Besides herself and her sister, Jarmoc's brother, Thomas, has played left side hitter for a team in Brussels, Belgium for the past three years. Her parents still live in Canada, so all five family members are rarely together.
Although she doesn't remember the last time her whole family sat down together for a meal, she said it hasn't hurt her bond with her family.
"Distance doesn't really make us any less close," Jarmoc said. "It's something you have to accept as you get older, that you're not
Jarmoc said she only gets back to Canada about twice a year, but she has another family member on the volleyball team in senior middle blocker Tayler Toilefle. She and Jarmoc play the same position, came to Kansas together in the fall of 2009 and were assigned to be roommates their freshman year
going to be this same unit of five everyday. We're obviously distracted with our own things on a regular basis, but it's really nice when we get back together and get to see each other"
Tolefree said she gained respect for Jarmoc during their freshman year because she took a redshirt year but still worked hard in practice, even though she
wasn't going to play. Tolefree said they both helped each other get through that year, even though they have opposite personalities. "She was kind of eccentric, not
She was kind of or really the style that I used to," Tolefree said. "She has a very blunt personality, but she's also secretly compassionate." Coach Ray Bechard said he thought Jarmoc might enter the jayhawks' lineup immediately, her
Bechard said Jarmoc wasn't in very good shape during camp — her late graduation cost her preseason time with the lajhawks — but that she became a more mature
"I don't know if I've ever seen a redshirt year impact a kid more just from a maturation process."
RAY BECHARD Volleyball Head Coach
freshman year. However, Jarmoc's high school graduation wasn't until the end of June, so she wasn't able to move to Lawrence for that summer.
maturation process and getting stronger and faster", Bechard said.
Part of jarmoc's maturation during her first season involved
---
adjusting to American volleyball rules. Although volleyball in Canada and the United States is similar, there were some rules Jarmoc had to get used to. "The biggest one was when the ball can touch the ceiling and you can play on," Jarmoc said.
The other, more comical, adjustment was a cultural one. Toleflec said that instead of saying, "take a test," Jarmoc says she "wrote her exam." Jarmoc said it was another phrase that got her the most good-natured grief.
"I remember when I first came, and when I didn't understand something the coach said or I didn't hear what he said, instead of saying 'What?' I'd say 'Sorry?' because I didn't hear it," Jarmoc said. "Coach B made fun of me for like a year, he was always like 'Sorry, sorry, sorry'"
While Jarmoc may have had a hard time understanding Bechard, she said many people have a hard time understanding Jarmoc and Tolefree's relationship. Although they are still as dissimilar as they were when they met, Jarmoc said their critical thinking and approaches to different situations is what makes them so compatible.
"That's a concept to me that I still can't understand."
"We have a very unique relationship that people have a hard time explaining, and even our teammates now still can't really fathom how our dynamic works." Jarmoc said. "We're just like a power couple that we just go around and dominate aspects of life together."
— Edited by Christy Khamphilay