KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010 / SPORTS
3B
Jerry Wang/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Junior quarterback Jacob Mose throws a pass during practice. Morse took a redshirt during his first year, and he is now batting for the starting position.
FOOTBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
start of spring practices, including during scrimmages.
"Learning a new offense, it's easy to go seven on seven and be able to think without the defense rushing." Webb said. "But you have the defense rushing. You have to be on your toes. You have to be alert about everything."
During scrimmages, Kansas' quarterbacks still wear the red jersey — a reminder for defenders to avoid contact.
Still, Webb said playing against an actual pass rush would help the inexperienced group of quarterbacks. After all, avoiding defenders is an act that can't be simulated in basic spring passing drills.
"It's a different feeling," Webb said. "It's not like we've never felt it before, but it's not laid back. Some people think the spring might be laid back. But it's full go. They might not hit us, but they're right in our ears if they get to us."
For Gill, the quarterback position seems to be more about managing a team, not strictly the physical characteristics involved with the position. At the beginning of spring practices, Gill said he wanted to watch how each quarterback acted in the huddle.
On Monday, he laid out qualities he searches for in any quarterback.
"If he's able to do all three or four of those things, then you'll have an outstanding quarterback."
"You definitely want a guy that takes care of the football," Gill said. "You definitely want a guy that will be able to make plays, whether with his legs or with his arms. But the main thing is trying to raise the level of play of the guys that are around him.
At this point, though, Kansas' quarterbacks are simply focused on the quarterback battle at hand.
"If anybody gets the lead or if I get the lead. I'm not going to come and stay comfortable with it," Pick said. "That's not the way it should be."
SECONDARY POSSESSES
DEPTH DESPIE LOSS OF
PLAYERS
Before the start of spring practices, two former starters decided they
wanted to open the spring as wide receivers, not defensive backs.
And in the eyes of junior cornerback Chris Harris, it's not a bad thing that Daymond Patterson and DJ. Beshears switched to offense.
"I don't even know how it would be if those two were still at corner because we have eight corners that are already good players." Harris said.
Although spring practice ends on April 24, the Jayhawks still aren't locked into established positions or start lineups.
The Jayhawks lost experienced safeties justin Thornton and Darrell Stuckey to graduation. But Kansas
still returns a handful of players with starting experience.
Sophomores Anthony Davis, Corrigan Powell and Ryan Murphy and junior Calvin Rubles have all played cornerback. Freshman Lubbock Smith started six games last season at safety.
Still, only Harris, who started opposite Aqib Talib in the 2008 Orange Bowl, possesses significant playing time.
"I believe that we have the guys to pick up the load and move forward," junior safety Olaitan Oguntodu said.
— Edited by Allyson Shaw
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Jeff Bzdelik leaves Colorado, named coach at Wake Forest
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Wake Forest's new basketball coach Jeff Bzdelik arrived on campus with endorsements from well-known NBA figures such as Pat Riley, Wes Unseld and Gregg Popovich.
He also brought a college coaching record from Colorado that was worse the last three years than the one posted by Dino
Gaudio, the Demons decoons coach he is replacing. At his introduction Wednesday morning. Bzdelik (pronounced "buzz-DELL"
Bzdelik
ick") and Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman acknowledged that fan reaction to the hire has been mixed at best. Bzdelik hardly has been a household name in North Carolina. An early version of the school's news release announcing his hiring even had his name spelled wrong.
"I believe in everything it stands for," he said. "Great academics. Great integrity. Great people. It's in the ACC, on top of that."
But Wellman predicted that as Wake Forest fans get to know Bzdelik, they would come to love and support him. He has coached at other schools — Air Force, Northwestern and Davidson — with high academic profiles similar to Wake Forest's. During his introductory news conference at Deacon Tower at the school's football stadium, Bzdelik said that if he could pick a school to coach, it would be Wake Forest.
Gaudio, who was promoted to head coach after the death of Skip Prosser, was 61-31 in three
seasons. He reached the second round of the NCAA tournament last month by defeating Texas. The season ended, however, with a 30-point loss to Kentucky in the second round, and one of the reasons Wellman cited for firing Gaudio was his 1-5 postseason record, as well as the team's struggles in February and March.
In comparison, Bzdelik went 4-7 in postseason play over the last five seasons at Air Force and Colorado, including 1-5 in conference tournament games. Wellman said you could not compare the situations at Wake Forest and Colorado, where Bzdelik inherited a 7-20 team and improved it to 15-16 by this season, his third in Boulder, Colo.
"You have to dig deeper than the numbers," Wellman said. "You have to look at where Colorado was three years ago. ... He really had to start over. Their situation was very, very challenging."
He also said that despite concerns that he had hired Bzdelik because of familiarity (Wellman coached baseball at Northwestern when Bzdelik was an assistant there in the 1980s), the two had not been friends or had any contact for years at one point.
Well before Wednesday morning's announcement of his hiring, Bzdelik, 57, had a fondness for the university and a family connection because his daughter Courtney is a student there. Those factors worked in Bzdelik's favor. A phone call that interrupted Wellman and Bzdelik while they were together before the hiring also made a positive impression on Wellman. Bzdelik excused himself to take the call and returned looking troubled.
Wellman asked if something was wrong. The call had been from Dan Nwaelee, who had
played for Bzdelik at Air Force several years ago. Wellman learned that it was the final hour before Nwaelele would be deployed to Afghanistan, and his former coach was one of the people he wanted to talk to.
"That tells you about the relationship he has with his players," Wellman said. "He really is close with his players."
Bzdelik is 111-105 overall in seven seasons as a college coach. As head coach of the Denver Nuggets from 2002 to 2005, he was 73-119. In 2004, Bzdelik became the first coach since the NBA adopted an 82-game schedule to guide a team to the playoffs a year after winning fewer than 20 games.
Before he was hired at Colorado, Bzdelik was 50-16 in two seasons at Air Force. He also was 25-31 from 1986 to 1988 at Maryland-Baltimore County as the team made the transition from Division II to Division I.
He spent 15 seasons as a scout and a coach in the NBA. He worked under Riley with the New York Knicks and Miami Heat, and under Unseld with the Washington Bullets (now the Washington Wizards).
"I've been around the greatest players in the game," Bzdelik said. "I can't say I've been at X amount of Final Fours, but there is nobody (in the ACC) that can say they've been to the NBA playoffs nine times as an assistant and as a head coach. I separate myself in a positive way from a lot of people in that regard."
Bzdelik said he wants his team to attack the rim quickly in transition and spoke proudly of blowout wins over Georgia, Stanford and even Wake Forest by his Air Force teams.
---