Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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FRESH PICK
Starting quarterback unveiled
Gill chooses Kale Pick to replace Todd Reesing in starting position
BY NICOLAS ROESLER AND COREY THIRODEFAUX
nroesler@kansan.com
cthibodeaux@kansan.com
The Jayhawks finally have some clarity for the upcoming football season.
Coach Turner Gill said his Thursday media availability would be longer because he had some announcements. One of those involved the main offseason question mark: who will replace Todd Reesing at quarterback?
"Kale Pick is definitely the guy who has earned the position," Gill said of his choice.
This is only four days after saying that he did not have a timetable for determining the leading arm.
The decision was made yesterday after a summer and
Webb
fall camp that has been silent when it came to naming a starting lineup. The news from camp all preseason was that every position was up for grabs until now.
"That was my goal coming into camp, not turning the ball over and taking care of business."
KALE PICK
Starting quarterback
Pick's ability to make plays for himself elevated him past Webb, who turned the ball over in a couple drills during the battle for the start job, according to Gill.
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
"I definitely had a smile when I received the news," Pick said. "I'm excited, and I think we're going to have a good team this year."
and Pick up to this point in camp. Players and coaches failed to come up with significant differences between the two quarterbacks until recently.
For Gill, Pick won the iob with
ball security and the intangibles that coaches look for in quarterbacks, ousting Jordan Webb.
"That was my goal coming into camp, not turning the ball over and taking care of business." Pick said.
Along with Pick'spromotion, senior Angus Quigley got the head running back position, making the offensive picture a bit clearer.
Practice repetitions at quarterback were split up evenly between Webb
Sophomore quarterback Pick said he didn't want to come to Kansas unless he had a chance to start. And although he has now accomplished that goal, he said he can't be satisfied at this point.
"I just have to keep pushing my teammates, and that will just make
our team better," Pick said.
Sophomore quarterback Kale Pick was announced as the starter Thursday. Pick beat out Jordan Webb for the spot after Webb failed to make plays in practice and turned over the ball.
Pick's teammates have noticed the leadership abilities that have come to light during this fall camp. They have been adamant that they don't care who takes the helm but will support anyone who does.
Even though Pick isn't one of the team captains, the team is still looking to him to lead it.
"He's definitely been taking command on the offense," senior cornerback Chris Harris said. "The quarterback is the automatic leader, so we'll expect him to lead too."
Webb wasn't available for comment Thursday, but not even Pick was speaking to his teammate he beat out for the starting job.
"I'm giving him his space." Pick said.
- Edited by Abby Davenport
FOOTBALL
Opurum leaves offense behind, becomes linebacker
BY TIM DWYER
tdywer@kansan.com
During a fall practice, sophomore quarterback Kale Pick hands off the ball to Toben Opurum. Opurum is switching to defense this season.
It's difficult to lose a leading rusher in the shuffle when he's switching to the defensive side of the ball. But it's not impossible
— just announce the replacement of the school's all-time passing leader in the same five minutes.
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
It may have been overshadowed by coach Turner Gill's announcement of Kale Pick as the starting quarterback, but Toben Opurum - who leads all returning Jayhawks in career rushing yards - moving to linebacker will have a significant effect on the team as well.
"I'm sure his head's spinning," said Angus Quigley, senior captain and running back. "You know, yesterday he's a running back, today he's a linebacker."
For starters, the move all but solidifies Quigley — a running back turned linebacker turned running back himself — as Kansas' top rusher. Quigley, a sixth-year senior, has been on top of the depth chart since spring practice and shows no signs of losing that spot.
"Toben's a pretty fast learner. He didn't look bad today," Quigley said. "I feel like Toben, he's already got the size."
Quigley said Opurum was more attuned to being a linebacker than he was, citing his failed position switch last season.
Quigley said that with the physical aspects of the position down pat, Opurum's greatest struggles would come with the mental side of the game, starting with things that seem as simple as tackling.
Justin Springer, senior linebacker and one of the team's five captains, said he was happy to have a little extra depth behind the trio that includes him. Steven Johnson and Drew Dudley.
"You have to learn to tackle," Quigley said. "I'm sure it's been a long time since he's ever made a tackle."
"All we can base it off of is how does he compare to other guys on ability." Gill said.
"We need more, because were getting tired in practice," Springer said. "We got nobody."
Gill said the staff would evaluate Opurum's progress at linebacker, a position of dire need for Kansas since Huldon Tharp's season-ending injury, and determine whether or not to redshirt the sophomore.
Pass coverage, as opposed to pass catching, will be another
COMMENTARY
"It's always easier to run a route, where you know where you're going to go." Quigley said, "than cover a route, where you
Quigley said held offer up what help he could with his experience transitioning from running back to linebacker.
facet of the defense Opurum needs to learn.
.
have no idea what the guy across from you is going to do"
"It can get frustrating," he said. "I know there were days over there when I got frustrated."
Springer cited Opurum's football instincts as the main reason he could succeed, and Quigley said his maturity would help ease the transition. Both said they expected Opurum to excel at his new position.
"Just because he's new over there," Quigley said, "doesn't mean he has to be a backup."
Edited by Dana Meredith
C.J. Henry loses out by leaving KU early
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
No offense,but you're crazy.
What are you doing, C.J.
Henry?
Do you think there's a better opportunity out there for you? Do you think, as a 24-year-old sophomore, that the path to further your basketball career really lies in taking another year off?
No offense, but you're crazy. It's too bad, really. I'm the kind of guy who doesn't root against too many people (the Cleveland Browns excluded) and I admit
Henry
that I enjoyed pulling for the meandering kind of success story that Henry could have been. He was a first-round draft pick in baseball but flopped in
And although the injury bug seems to have a particular affection for the unfortunate Henry, he showed some promise at Kansas as a combo guard with a silky outside stroke on the rare occasions when he was healthy.
That idea was largely helped along by C.J.'s father Carl telling the Kansas City Star that C.J. was just as good as Sherron Collins. Collins, if you've already forgotten, is the winningest player in Jayhawk history. It also didn't help that the most lasting image of C.J. Henry was his, as my friend Tully Corcoran of the Topeka Capital-Journal superbly put it, "disaffected num-chewing."
an injury-marred four-year run in the minors. He sat a year at Memphis - again, injury - then transferred to Kansas to be closer to family, something I have first-hand experience with.
He hit 52.4 percent of his threes albeit in an admittedly small sample size with only 21 attempts, and demonstrated a high basketball savvy by taking good care of the ball - something that cannot be said about Tyshawn Taylor and Josh Selby, who will be the primarily handlers for Kansas this year. (Side note: It should make fans nervous that both Taylor and Selby are notorious for turnovers.)
Perhaps Henry did feel that the Jayhawks were lucky to have him, that they owed him something that he had not yet earned. Perhaps he didn't win a starting job he thought he should have had, or didn't think he would get the minutes he wanted immediately.
Instead, his one-year reign at Kansas will be most notable for the turmoil surrounding his brother's recruitment - and, by association, his own commitment to the Jayhawks - and the perception that his family believed Kansas was lucky to have the Henry brothers, rather than the other way around.
Henry would not have started. He probably would have been the fourth or fifth guard in the rotation. But he would have, I think, played meaningful minutes for the Jayhawks this season and, in the two years after that, perhaps developed into a starter by his, senior year or, at the very least, a player in Bill Self's major-minutes rotation
But that's shortsighted on his part, if it is indeed the case. C.J. Henry was lucky to have the Jayhawks. And he's giving it away
Edited by Dana Meredith