Find all the info you need to be ready for Saturday's big game as the Jayhawks face Louisiana-Monroe
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The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Miami Dolphins in the first game of the NFL season. 5B
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2006 WWW.KANSAN.COM
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
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FOOTBALL
Kansas sets ticket record as game popularity grows
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
Jake Sharp, freshman running back, runs the ball past Northwestern State's Gary Riggs Sept. 2. The team has seen popularity and attendance increase in recent seasons.
Four years ago, Mark Mangino wondered whether people even knew when his football team played.
On the mile-long bus ride from the team's offices at Allen Fieldhouse to Memorial Stadium on gameday, the Kansas football coach often noticed just a sparse crowd of tailgaters surrounding the stadium.
"Our first couple of years here, people would be walking down the street and would wonder if something was going on in the stadium," Mangino said.
How things have changed in just a few short seasons.
Now, that bus ride that used to take less than five minutes takes much longer. As he rode on the team's bus with offensive players to Saturday's game, Mangino couldn'
help noticing the changes in the gameday atmosphere.
gameday and after school. Thousands of fans crowded the tightly packed areas surrounding Campanile Hill. Families grilling pregame meals, father-son football games and jayhawk flags waving high above makeshift tents now are familiar sights on Saturday afternoons in Lawrence.
"That is a 180-degree turn from our first couple seasons," Mangino said.
Suddenly, Kansas football games are an event.
Fueled by the gradual improvement of the program over the last few seasons, Kansas set an all-time season ticket record, selling more than 29,000 tickets for all seven home games. Of those tickets sold, nearly 8,000 belong to students.
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 3B
kansas football notebook
Offensive changes
After a sluggish start to last week's game, Kansas coach Mark Mangino vowed not to be as conservative with his team's offense against Louisiana-Monroe. Redshirt-freshman quarterback Kerry Meier started last week's game handing off the ball to running back Jon Cornish on the team's first possession and threw two incomplements and took a sack on the second series. Despite the slow start, Mangino said the offense wouldn't be dulled down because of Meier's inexperience.
"We're not going to have a vanilla offense just because of Kerry" Mangino said.
He added that Meier has already run all of the plays in his playbook at some point during preseason training camp.
No changes made to special teams
Despite last week's struggles on special teams, Mangino said there would be no changes to the roster. Senior Zack Hood will retain his spot as long snapper for field goals and point-after attempts and redshirt-freshman Kayl Anderson will continue long snapping duties for the punt team.
"His first one wasn't great." Mangino said of Anderson's snap to punter Kyle Tucker. "We've got a lot of confidence in him, he's very good at snapping the ball."
Whitaker ailing
Senior left guard Bob Whitaker, who has battled knee problems for most of his career, has had his playing time scale back. While he still remains the starter, Mangino said he's given Whitaker a few series off each game to help keep Whitaker available.
"Bob's a tough customer," Mangino said. "He's been through a lot here, health-wise, and he just keeps going every day."
Whitaker said he's able to continue to make the moves he needs to on the field, but he occasionally needs to take time off to rest his alling knees. The Mt. Lebanon, Pa., native was named to the preseason All-Big 12 Conference Second team.
Six Jayhawks in NFL
The National Football League opened its season Thursday night and six former Jayhawks are on active rosters. Wide receiver Charles Gordon recently returned from an injury and has begun practicing with the Minnesota Vikings, linebacker Don Davis plays for the New England Patriots and Moran Norris signed a free-agent contract with San Francisco 49ers. Also on NFL rosters are Adrian Jones with the New York Jets and David McMillan with the Cleveland Brown's.
Ryan Schneider
VOLLEYBALL
Big hitters lead Jayhawks to sweep Kansas defeats No.16 BYU to open the Jayhawk Invitational
BY DREW DAVISON
Kansas swept No. 16 Brigham Young on Thursday night in the ideal game to begin one of the toughest stretches of the season.
"We came into tonight needing a win against a real quality opponent," coach Ray Bechard said. "We needed to win to really anchor in some positive thoughts of where we could go this year, and that's a great start tonight."
start congregation.
The Jayhawks defeated the Cougars 30-26, 30-24 and 30-23 at the Horeksi Family Athletics Center. It was the first game of the Jayhawk
Classic, which continues through the weekend.
Bechard said he was impressed with the Jayhawks .437 hitting percentage.
"That's pretty unbelievable against a team that is holding opponents to around
"I don't know about that," Brown said. "It was a great game for Kansas volleyball; every single person played a great game and everyone was on tonight."
Brown had a career-high 25 kills at Texas A&M last season, but that match went five games, making this performance mathematically more impressive. She wouldn't say it was the best performance of her career, though.
said. "The key for her is to continue to play at that level, because that's what we need from her."
"It was a great game for Kansas volleyball; every single person played a great game and every-one was on tonight."
.120 to .125 hitting efficiency," he said.
Emily Brown, junior right side hitter/setter, led Kansas with 20 kills.
But she said she was not expecting Kansas to sweep a top 25 team.
"I knew we were ready to go," she said. "We had a good practice the last couple of days, but you never know what to expect from a great team like
"I told her afterwards I thought it was a great performance," Bechard
EMILY BROWN
Right side hitter/setter
Kansas swept No.15 Texas A&M last season at home, so last night's victory was the highest against a ranked opponent since then.
that."
Brown said the fans also played a part in helping the jeyhawks. There
were 917 fans at the game, even though the Jayhawks do not usually play on Thursdays.
Katie Martincich ended the night with 57 assists, had five kills on six attempts and eight digs.
Freshmen Jayhawks played well against the Cougars.
Brittany Williams, freshman middle blocker, had some notable plays as well.
In game two, she finished the match with a kill.
Williams said she needed to make up for her kill attempt earlier in the match when she was "totally stuffed."
In the final match, she ended the longest volley of the match with a teardrop kill, giving the Jayhawks a 23-16 lead.
Next up, Kansas finishes the Jayhawk Classic at 1 p.m. Saturday against Arkansas. The game is at Horejsi Family Athletic Center, and admission is free with a valid KUID.
"I was trying to end the volley,
Williams said. "End it, right now."
Brigham Young will face Arkansas today at 3 p.m.
Kanss sportswriter Drew Davison can be contacted at ddavison@kanss.com.
Nathan Buhr/KAHSAN
Edited by Erin Wiley
Brittany Williams, freshman middle blocker, spikes the ball at Brightam Young University team member Chelsea Goodman, Juninr outside hitter and Rachel Dyer sophomore middle blocker. Williams has a .474 hitting percentage this season.
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