6B / **SPORTS** / MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
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COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Quarterback inspiration for Tigers
Quarterback Blaine Gabbert rushes past former KU cornerback Justin Thornton during the 2009 Kansas/Missouri game. The Tigers won 41-39.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
Players like for their quarterback to have a quick mind, good legs and a strong arm.
But guts and tenacity also go a long way, especially in the case of Missouri's Blaine Gabbert.
In the fifth game last season, a scrambling Gabbert failed to exceed the strong-armed grasp of Nebraska defensive end Ndamukong Suh, a fate all too familiar to Big 12 quarterbacks and running backs alike.
As Suh grasped Gabbert's jersey and slung him to the turf, he inadvertently sat down on Gabbert's right ankle, with 300-plus pounds of force.
"It looked pretty bad, worse than it really was," says Gabbert, who watched video of the play only once. "Initially I felt something wrong, but my leg was still there. So I was good to go."
Well, yes and no. Shrugging off some advice, Gabbert finished the season without missing a significant down — though robbed of his mobility and inwardly wincing with every plant to pass.
His refusal to buckle to the pain did not go unnoticed.
"It was tough to watch," Tigers tailback Derrick Washington said. "Going out there hurt with a severely sprained ankle shows how much heart and leadership Blaine has.
"Coaches were telling him he had to sit out, but he said, 'No, I'm going out there to help my team.' But it was tough for him, because he was limping around literally. After he would throw a pass, he would limp back to the line to get the (next) play in and it was tough to watch.
"For him to go out there and play like that? I'm with a guy like that, regardless."
During his first season starting, Gabbert met high expectations as the latest in an impressive lineage of Tigers quarterbacks. He passed for 3,593 yards (third-highest Missouri single-season total), 24 touchdowns and nine interceptions in directing the high-risk attack.
The junior enters the season not
only as the leader of a unit that must bear the brunt of the load as the defense rebuilds, but as the inspirational leader as well.
"He's taken control not only of the offense," defensive back Kevin Rutland said, "but he's taken control of this whole team."
Gabbert said the main focus leading into the season is making sure his team stays composed.
"Our team had highs and lows last season," he said.
"What we've worked on is just keeping an even keel throughout the whole season. Not get too up or too down. And that is going to help us in the long run, the maturation we went through last year."
Gabbert can't wait to play healthy again, but he sees the
"But I focused on the little things like stay in the pocket and make better reads, just some of the little things that would make me better in the long run."
"I regained my confidence in myself (in the spring)," he said. "Just knowing that I was able to do things I couldn't do the last half of the season — which was run the football and get outside the pocket and do some things out there."
Gabbert will open the season without his top three receivers from a year ago. Danario Alexander and Jared Perry (who combined for 2,477 receiving yards) are gone, and Jerrell Jackson probably won't play until mid-September after
having a screw implanted at the base of his left thumb to bind a scaphoid bone fracture.
The August depth chart has undergone a recent shuffle with several new faces figuring into the picture. Regardless, Gabbert believes that he saw enough from his receivers during the spring and summer not to be worried.
"We're looking forward to big things from (the receivers)," he said.
"We're just plugging in new guys. We had one of the top offenses (in the Big 12) last year and we're going to be even better this year"
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
Texas excited for new offensive line
AUSTIN, Texas - The master plan, announced during spring drills, calls for fifth-ranked Texas to pound its way into prominence on the college football landscape this season.
Or, at the very least, to balance an offense that leaned heavily on the passing game — and the surgical precision of departed quarterback Colt McCoy — while posting a combined record of 25-2 the past two seasons.
Coach Mack Brown said he envisions an offense "like we had when Ricky Williams was here" in 1998, when the Longhorns averaged 204.2 rushing yards and 266.5 passing yards per game.
But a scan of Texas' available running backs does not uncover a player with Williams' Heisman Trophy credentials. No back on the 2010 roster has rushed for 1,000 yards in his college career, much less in a single season. So the Longhorns plan to rely, for a third consecutive year, on a tailback committee that is long on depth but devoid of any players identified as preseason All-Big 12 candidates.
"We're trying to move people. We want to become dominant in the running game."
KYLE HIX senior offensive tackle
The primary threesome — Tre Newton, Fozzy Whittaker and Cody Johnson — will operate behind an offensive line in which all five starters will be new to their positions. Two of the five, left tackle Kyle Hix and left guard Michael Huey, are returning starters who shifted from one side of the line to the other in spring drills. The remaining starters were backups or were redshirted last season.
Yet offensive coordinator Greg Davis, who has tweaked the blocking schemes and added more twoback sets to the team's arsenal, offered a positive assessment after a recent scrimmage.
"I feel like we'll be a good, solid running team," said Davis, who described last year's rushing attack as "poor" on more than one occasion in 2009. "We're doing some things (schematically) that have helped."
At the top of the list is a plan to run more plays with the quarterback under center, an H-back serving as a lead blocker and the offensive line firing off the ball from a three-point stance, rather than a two-point stance used primarily in passing situations. During
one fall scrimmage, which was closed to the media, Davis said the Longhorns were under center roughly 70 percent of the time, although he predicted the percentage would not be that high for a full season.
Brown said the change in blocking scheme has motivated the offensive linemen, who "really enjoy coming off the ball with the running game."
Hix, an Aledo High School graduate, agreed. Among the offensive linemen, Hix said: "The mind-set is completely different than it was last year. ... We're not just trying to get on people. We're trying to move people. We want to become dominant in the running game."
BASEBALL
So, how is that working?
"The comfort level is there," Hix said. "We're excited for the opportunity to run the ball more. It will help us in the long run if we establish the running game. We're excited for the Rice game to go out and do that."
Royals win 6-2 over Cleveland Indians, pull ahead two games
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CLEVELAND — Kila Kaaiuh hit a go-ahead double in the seventh inning to help Bruce Chen and the Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Indians 6-2 Sunday.
Chen (9-7) allowed two runs and six hits over six innings as the Royals avoided a three-game sweep and pulled two games ahead of last-place Cleveland in the AL Central. Kansas City is 5-17 on the road since July 8.
Mike Aviles blooped a one-out single to center off Fausto Carmona (11-13) and scored on Kaiahui's drive into the left-center gap to put the Royals ahead 3-2.
Mitch Maier and Brayan Pena each had two RBIs for Kansas City, which also got a ninth-inning run on a wild throw by shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, his first error in 34 games since July 21.
Joakim Soria struck out the side in the ninth in a non-save situation. The right-hander has 36 saves in 38 chances and a team-
record 28 straight, but had not worked since Wednesday.
Cleveland's final seven batters all struck out.
Jesse Chavez pitched a scoreless seventh, throwing a called third strike past Cleveland pinch-hitter Michael Brantley with runners on second and third to end it. Blake Wood struck out the side in a perfect eighth.
Carmona lost a career-high fifth straight start as the Indians had a three-game winning streak snapped.
Donald came on when first baseman Matt LaPorta left with a strained left hip after a flyball out to end the fourth. LaPorta had arthroscopic surgery on the hip Oct. 14. Donald went to second base as Andy Marte moved from third base to replace LaPorta and Luis Valbuena switched from second to third.
Jason Donald, an injury replacement for Cleveland in the fifth, hit a two-run homer in the sixth to tie it at 2.
Chen walked two and struck out four, bouncing back from a bad outing Monday in Detroit in which he walked five and gave up five runs over 4 1-3 innings in a 12-3 loss. The left-hander is 3-0 this year against Cleveland.
Brayan Pena hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to put Kansas City ahead in the fourth. Maier followed with another sac fly for a 2-0 lead.
Carmona gave up three runs and six hits over 6 2-3 innings. The right-hander, an AL All-Star, is 0-5 with a 5.97 ERA in five starts since beating the Boston Red Sox, 6-5 on Aug. 2. Carmona dropped four straight starts from May 22 to June 7, then went 7-3. He has a decision in 19 consecutive starts, going 7-12 since pitching 6 2-3 innings May 17 in an 11-inning loss at Tampa Bay.
Maier hit his fifth homer in the eighth off Tony Sipp. Pena had an RBI single in the ninth against Hector Ambriz.
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