4B THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23. 2005
FOOTBALL
More than statistics
BY DANIEL BERK
dberk@kansan.com
KANSAN SENIOR SPORTSWITTER
Expectations are high for Nick Reid. It's been that way before the 2005 season.
The senior linebacker from Derby had a solid season last year and was named preseason First Team All-Big 12 by the coaches before the start of this season.
Reid was one of only three players in the Big 12 Conference to have more than 100 tackles last season. This year, Reid has 39 tackles in three games and is on pace for more tackles than the 109 he had last season.
Reid leads the KU defense in tackles, forced fumbles and tackles for loss. This past weekend against Louisiana Tech, Reid had his best game of date. He had 14 total tackles, four tackles for loss and a sack.
"Nick Reid is just solid. He gets it done every game for us," Kansas football coach Mark
Mangino said after the victory against Louisiana Tech.
The Louisiana Tech game was a good game not just for Reid personally, but for the entire defensive unit. Reid led the defense, which had four takeaways, eight sacks and 15 tackles for loss.
Reid said the defense still had a lot of room for improvement before conference play.
Before the start of the season this year, the team chose Reid as one of its five captains. Junior center David Ochoa is one of the other team captains. He said even though he wasn't on defense with Reid, he knew Reid's value to the team.
"It's a great feeling to be 3-0 and know we still have so much to improve on," Reid said. "We are all having fun out there — we just want to go out and make plays."
"The way he plays is the way a lot of us try to play." Ochoa said. "He is a constant team leader and a constant team player. He never complains about anything. He just goes out and does his job."
Reid helped the defense become one of the best units in the conference last season. The team led the Big 12 in takeaways with 27 and also a Big 12 best 19 interceptions. The defense also posted numbers that topped the Kansas record books.
Reid entered the season 12th in all-time total tackles in school history. Now, he is in fourth place with 354 tackles and, barring an injury, will most likely finish second all-time. Second place is currently 403 tackles.
He also ranks in the top ten in career sacks and is eight alltime for tackles in a single season.
Reid said he didn't pay attention to any of the statistics or accolades. When asked if there is anything better then a quarterback sack, Reid said there was one thing: "Hitting someone when they aren't looking."
— Edited by Patrick Ross
Senior linebacker Nick Reid makes one of his team-high eight solo tackles during the game against Louisiana Tech last Saturday. The football team has this weekend off and will prepare for a game against Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, October 1.
Justin O'Neal/KANSAN
Team stranded by new storm
HURRICANE RITA
AP SPORTS WRITER
BY RALPH D. RUSSO
With Tulane's plight fresh in their minds, University of Houston officials told the football team to pack for a lengthy trip with Hurricane Rita bearing down on the Texas Gulf Coast.
The Cougars were ready to go but unsure early yesterday where they were headed and how they would be getting there.
The second hurricane in less than a month has college sports teams scrambling again to rearrange schedules — and in some cases — to relocate teams. No. 3 LSU had its home opener delayed for the third time, when the Southeastern Conference decided to push back the Tigers'
game against No. 10 Tennessee two days to Monday night.
Houston's initial plan was to bus the football team, coaches and support staff — about 125 people — to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, about a six-hour drive in normal conditions, far longer with much of southeast Texas fleeing the likely destination of a powerful hurricane.
That plan fell through late Wednesday night when the state would not authorize the team's move to the base, according to Houston athletic director Dave Maggard.
And then the Cougars lost their ride when the bus company informed them that they had no drivers for the five buses the
school hired, Maggard said.
"It's left us in a real quandary." Maggard said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press yesterday.
After having no luck finding a charter plane to take the Cougars to Tulsa, Okla., where they play football next Saturday, the team decided to bus it the nearly 500 miles to Tulsa.
Maggard couldn't find any buses in Texas — "That has been amazing to me," he said last night — but secured four in Tulsa. The Cougars expected to be on the road Friday morning.
As for the team, Rita is about to provide some serious bonding time.
"Maybe this will pull every body together." Maggard said.
BOXING
Boxer dies from in-ring blows
BY TIM DAHLBERG THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS — Boxer Leavander Johnson died yesterday from injuries sustained five days earlier in a lightweight title fight with Jesus Chavez.
The 35-year-old died at University Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized since being injured in the fight Saturday night at the MGM Grand hotel-casino.
A hospital spokeswoman said Johnson was pronounced dead at 4:23 p.m.
Johnson was put in a medically induced coma after undergoing brain surgery less than an hour after his fight with Chavez.
Doctors were initially unsure he would make it through the night, but the next day expressed cautious optimism after tests showed improvement in brain function.
A hospital spokeswoman said Johnson was pronounced dead at 4:23 p.m.
Johnson was defending the IBF title he won in June against Chavez, but took a' beating in the fight before finally being stopped by a flurry of punches in the 11th round.
He walked away from the ring, but on the way to the dressing room began showing signs of an injury. He was rushed to UMC, where neurosurgeon William Smith operated on him to
relieve pressure from a subdural hematoma, or bleeding on the brain.
His death follows the July 2 death of Mexican boxer Martin Sanchez, who died a day after he was knocked out by Rustam Nugaev of Russia in a super lightweight fight in Las Vegas.
That death was the fifth in the ring since 1994 in the city.
Before Sanchez died, two other fighters suffered brain injuries but survived after fights this year in Las Vegas.
Sigma Delta Tau would like to welcome
Tali Friedman
Gina Goldman
Marni Green
Dena Hart
Elena Hermanson
Melanie Holzband
Lauren Krumholz
Heather Levin
Jamie Levy
Jessica Levy
Sarah Mann
Stephanie Meyer
Jacquelyn Miller Tara Rotramel
Rachel Silvestain Becca Sparling
Diana Spathis
Katie Speicher
ΣΔT
Caitlin Tew
Becky Wasserman
Stephanie Wubbenhorst
Taly Yeyni
Alex Ziskind
Heather Zwick
and wish you the best of luck this year
jayhawk
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