THE UNIVERSITY HARLY KANSAN
MONDAY OCTOBER 15.2007
KU 58-BAYLOR 10
5B
Kerry Meier, sophomore quarterback, and Marcus Henry, senior wide receiver, celebrate Henry's 54-yard touchdown reception during the third quarter of Saturday's game. The Kansas offense gained 447 yards against the Baylor defense.
Lisa Lipovac/KANSAN
Jake Sharp, sophomore running back, finds a hole in the Baylor University defense. Sharp led the Jayhawks in rushing with 18 carries for a total of 111 yards.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Football notes
Game to forget... Blake Szymanski. Baylor's quarterback has enjoyed a promising sophomore campaign in 2007, but he struggled mightily against a staunch Kansas defense. The Jayhawk front seven brought plenty of pressure, and the secondary hung back and intercepted Szymanski three times. At least Szymanski didn't have to endure a full game of punishment - he was benched in the second half.
RAIN DELAY
It isn't every day that a football game is delayed because of inclement weather conditions. In fact, Kansas coach Mark Mangino said he had never been involved in a rain delay like Saturday's in his 40-year coaching career. The game was a day-long endeavor for all involved: originally slated to start at 11:30 a.m., it didn't actually begin until 1:15 p.m. and didn't wrap up until 5:03 p.m. Kansas players filled the downtime with a variety of activities. Senior defensive tackle James McClinton read the Bible, sophomore quarterback Todd Reesing listened to music and sophomore running back Jake Sharp played tic-tac-toe.
Stat of the game... 154. Baylor gained only 154 passing yards Saturday, the fewest the team has posted this season. Entering the game, the Bears were averaging 306 yards per game through the air, thanks to a pass-happy spread offense. Baylor tried to establish a pass presence, but Kansas stymied both short and deep pass attempts.
Game to remember... Jake Sharp. With the Baylor defense playing back on its heels to defend against the Jayhawk aerial attack, Sharp had quite a bit of room to run. The sophomore running back slashed and sprinted his way to 110 rushing yards on 18 carries and only lost yardage on one attempt. Sharp has now rushed for more than 100 yards in three of the Jayhawks' six games this season.
PUNT RETURNS
After struggling Oct. 6 against Kansas State, sophomore wide receiver Raimond Pendleton did not return punts against Baylor. Freshman wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe and sophomore cornerback Anthony Webb filled in and fared well. Briscoe called for a fair catch on the punt he fielded in the first quarter, and Webb eagerly returned four punts for 20 yards. On several of those returns, Webb caught the ball and started running upfield with defenders bearing down on him. But Saturday wasn't completely full of bad news for Pendleton. He lined up as the slot receiver in the second half and caught one pass for five yards.
It was over when...
Sophomore quarterback Todd Reesing found freshman wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe standing wide open in the back of the end zone for six points with 11:06 remaining in the second quarter. The touchdown put Kansas ahead 17-3 and shoved the last scoop of mud on a Baylor team that played uninspired and sloppy football for the rest of the game.
Kansas coaches also made an
PUNTS
Reesing
adjustment on the other side of the punt game. After punting once against Kansas State, Kerry Meier punted three times against Baylor and his
View from press row
punts were not all pooch punts
Meier
John Riggins talks with a family member during a recognition ceremony for the former Kansas running back. Riggins' number 32 became the newest addition to Memorial Stadium's Ring of Honor.
Meier, who punted during his High School career, booted one out of the Kansas end zone in the second quarter. Kansas called on senior punter Kyle Tucker four times Saturday afternoon, but his woes continued as he averaged just 33.5 yards per punt. Mangino said Tucker was merely going through a slump. Todd Reesing also played a role in punt coverage. On one occasion, Reesing lined up on the outside of the
formation as a "gunner" and tried to be the first to the punt returner. Reeing, who is certainly not the prototypical punt coverage specialist, said he enjoyed his new role. "I was sprinting hard, and right before he got tackled I was about to get in there and get my lick but I didn't quite get my chance. They tried to jam me off the line but I got a good release so I got down there and contain-covered, so I think I did my job well," Reeing said with a smile.
Kansas Athletics announced Saturday's attendance as 43,556. The figure mark the second-lowest total in the five home games Kansas has played so far this season but the 15th time in the last 16 home games more than 40,000 fans have purchased tickets. From the press box, the attendance numbers looked a bit lower than the announced total, but fans did a surprisingly good job of filling Memorial Stadium, considering the poor weather conditions, inconvenient rain delay and Fall Break. Only a smattering of fans remained in their seats to see Kansas' last touchdown, which was the first of sophomore running back Angus Quigley's career.
ATTENDENCE
MEIER SHOWS VERSATILITY
Kerry Meier turned in another versatile and exciting performance The sophomore jack-of-all-trades player compiled 25 passing yards, 20 receiving yards, 11 rushing yards, and punted three times. His 2007 totals are as follows: 15-of-19 passing for 130 yards, five receptions for 51 yards, 11 rushes for 60 yards and an average of 32.2 yards per punt on four kicks.
Todd Reesing performed admirably after a rough first quarter, but fell short of 200 passing yards for the first time this season. If Reesing would have broken the 200-yard mark, he would have tied Mike Norseth's school record of six consecutive games with 200-plus passing yards. Despite the end of Reesing's streak, the Kansas offense was firing on all cylinders. The Jayhawks' 58-point performance set a new school record for points scored in a conference game. The previous record was 55 points, set against Kansas State in 1947.
Former Kansas star running back John Riggins took his place in the Ring of Honor during a halftime ceremony. Riggins, who played at Kansas from 1968 to 1970 and led Kansas to the Orange Bowl, became the 15th member of the group. After a college career in which he was named to the all-Big Eight First Team twice, Riggins played in the NFL for 14 seasons, rushed for 11,352 yards and earned a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame.
NOT UP TO PAR
SECONDARY
RIGGINS JOINS RING OF HONOR
Some of the less-heralied members of the Kansas secondary got their chances to shine against Baylor. Of the Jayhawks' four interceptions, three were made by reserves and one by a true freshman. Senior safety Sadiq Muhammed, sophomore safety Justin Thornton and
Muhammed
junior cornerback Gary Green played the roles of unlikely heroes and freshman cornerback Chris Harris continued to emerge as a steady contributor, recording his first career intercept.
Baylor's spread offense forced Kansas to turn to some strange defensive schemes. Sophomore
Wheeler
ODD DEFENSE
defensive end Jeff Wheeler and freshman defensive end Jake Laptad were fixtures of the defensive line on Saturday after playing mainly in third-and-
long situations earlier this season. Wheeler recorded two tackles and Laptad added three tackles and the Jayhawks lone sack. On many plays, Kansas utilized as many as five defensive backs. Thornton, Muhammed and junior cornerback Kendrick Harper filled the extra spots in the defensive backfield and made four combined tackles and two interceptions.
NATIONAL TELEVISION
Kansas' impressive performance against Baylor may have earned the team some exposure to a national audience. Kansas Athletics announced Sunday that this weekend's game at Colorado will be televised on ESPN, Sunflower Broadband channel 33, at 4:45 p.m. Before the Baylor game, television networks had not decided on a schedule for this coming weekend, but the Jayhawks' victory may have helped push the team into a decent time slot on the national stage.
Asher Fusco
12 POWER RANKINGS
Each week, Sports Editor Travis Robinett, football writer Asher Fusco and Big 12 football writer Case Keefer will vote on the Big 12 power rankings.
1. Oklahoma
5. Texas Tech
3T. Missouri
3T. Kansas State
2. Kansas
6. Texas
7. Oklahoma State
8. Colorado
9. Texas A&M
10. Nebraska
11. Baylor
12. Iowa State