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Monday, April 16, 2007

Spring stings!

No Jayhawk spared from full contact

By Ryan Wood

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Joe Mortensen even let up a little bit. But as Kansas University quarterback Kerry Meier was about to glide out of bounds during the spring game Sunday, Mortensen put a shoulder into him and spun him around almost a full revolution.

Welcome to a full-contact scrimmage - finally.

KU's spring game, for the first half, was a no-holding-back battle where even the quarterbacks were fair game for a lick or two. Both Meier and Todd Reesing left unscathed, though Mortensen's shot on Meier could've made anyone a little woozy.

The Blue team, primarily projected starters, destroyed the White team, 48-0, at Memorial Stadium.

Meier and Reesing alternated between Blue and White Sunday.

Mortensen, an inside linebacker, stayed on the Blue, and his meeting with Meier near the KU sideline put many of the estimated 8,200 fans in attendance on edge.

"I got a little talk from coach," Mortensen said with a smile. "It's weird that quarterbacks are live. We've got to be smart, because we need No. 10 out there."

Audio clips

2007 April 15 Spring Game

Adjustment aside, both the defenders and the quarterbacks felt letting the tackling happen is good toward the team's overall development. Mortensen thought the defense benefited because "it gives us a real look," while Meier and Reesing agreed that getting as close to game situation as possible can only help.

"The quarterbacks have worn the regular game jerseys during every scrimmage this spring. It wasn't just today," KU coach Mark Mangino said. "You want to know how they're going to maintain their poise when they're going to get popped here and there. There's always the risk for injury, but that wouldn't be anything new with our quarterback position."

Meier's combined totals on the two teams was 13-of-27 passing for 204 yards and two touchdowns. Reesing had 10 completions in 20 attempts for 171 yards and one touchdown. Only Meier threw an interception.

"Heated competition," Mangino said when asked of the status of the quarterback race. "And a good one."

Photo Gallery

Spring Game

The one's-versus-two's format quickly led to a lopsided game. Senior receiver Marcus Henry had no equal lining up against him, hauling in six catches for 150 yards with touchdown receptions of 56, 29 and 38 yards.

Coupled with an interception return for a score by Darrell Stuckey and two rushing scores by Brandon McAnderson, the blue team led 45-0 at halftime.

The clock ran continuously in the second half, and allowed for only a Scott Webb field goal in the third quarter. The game lasted just more than two hours, but it was enough to reach the coaching staff's goal.

"We wanted to get over 100 snaps, and we did," Mangino said. "We felt like that would be adequate considering this is our third consecutive day practicing."

Sunday's scrimmage was the last of 15 practices for the Jayhawks that started just about a month ago. Individual workouts and summer conditioning will fill the next four months until summer camp opens up.

Impressive crowd of 8,200 shows for Spring Game

Though the KU football coaching staff may be no closer to naming a starting QB than before the Spring Game began, at least they have a better idea of how the team plays together in a game-type situation.

By then, the quarterbacks might be off-limits completely with the season looming so close. But as it stands now, they're good for a hit or too - even if the defense remained careful.

"You don't want to blast your own quarterback," Stuckey said. "You don't want to make that highlight. This one's not going to SportsCenter. This one's just going to the film room."

KU football Spring Game

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Comments

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

what a great pre-game atmosphere, the parking lots were packed, people were grillin' and chilin'!

Hurry up, football season!

April 16, 2007 at 6:03 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

ttoulouse (anonymous) says...

Not to take anything from how good Marcus Henry is, but it reads as if our secondary was still getting burned on Sunday (and forgive me, but I wasn't there). Any defensive highlights? Will somebody PLEASE stand up?

April 16, 2007 at 6:36 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

leikness (anonymous) says...

I believe they were playing against the 2nd team D.

April 16, 2007 at 9:18 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

Correct, i think this year it was Ones vs Twos on both sides, whereas in years' past it was more mixed (i think)

so the KU Defensive Ones shut out the Offensive Twos ... that can't be all bad.

There was a INT returned for a touchdown, so that's a good sign for the defense!

April 16, 2007 at 9:25 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

Here's a shot of the crowd to give you an any of the attendance ... 8,200 is being reported, I can believe that, the parking lots were indeed PACKED!

http://beakem.org/images/2007-crowd-s...

April 16, 2007 at 9:34 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bmcmich1 (anonymous) says...

Wow, anything over 5,000 for our spring game is fantastic. It shows that this program is going in the right direction from a fanbase standpoint; now it's up to the players and coaching staff to deliver on the field, and it looks like that is going to happen. That's great news! Rock Chalk Jayhawk Football!

April 16, 2007 at 10:44 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

kylecisnum1 (anonymous) says...

anyone know how jake sharp did? dont u think it would be better to have the first offense go against the first defense. idk but to me that just seems like it woulda been better. woulda like to see talib line up against henry.

April 16, 2007 at 10:45 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

if memory serves me correctly, there were 3,000 folks in 2005 (my first spring game)l I'm fairly certain there were 5,000 last year (tried to find it in the LJW archives) and up to 8,000 this year ...

I think this event should easily attract 10,000 next year with a successful season!

[also the band was back this year, i think they were absent last spring!]

***

Jake Sharp looked super fast!

April 16, 2007 at 11:29 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

guesswho (anonymous) says...

Looks like the crowd for a regular season game during, the 2000 season, maybe?

Go 'Hawks!

April 16, 2007 at 4:38 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

KURUSH1530 (anonymous) says...

wow..I hate to say it, but seems as if we're going to struggle again this year. I'll still be excited about the games though.

April 16, 2007 at 4:43 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

JBurtin (anonymous) says...

I don't see where you're coming from kurush1530. Elaborate if you happen to read this.

I know it's always hard to judge how good your team is when it's going against itself, but I think most signs are positive.

For instance, our absolute biggest weakness last year was our pass defense and it looks as if it has been shored up this year. Anthony Webb got burned a lot last year as a true freshman, but did develop and improve as the year went on. Therefore I thought that Juco transfer Kendrick Harper was probably just going to add depth to a thin cornerback position. The fact that Harper played on the first team and Webb got bumped to second means that we now have a cornerback to play across from Talib that is better than Webb was even at the end of the year last year. That's two good starters and at least one experienced backup.

The safety spots look good as well. Darrel Stuckey missed most of last season at free safety due to a preseason injury, but was incredible when he returned, and the addition of four-star juco transfer Patrick Resby should add some great competition at the strong safety spot.

We had injury problems at Linebacker as well. Two of our fastest outside guys (James Holt and Brandon Duncan) were hampered by injuries last year, meaning we had to fill the outside spots with bigger but slower guys. We got beat alot on the short pass because the quick linebackers weren't available to cover the passing lanes.

I don't know whether our pass rush will be any better this year, but at least we should have a secondary that can better handle the pressure.

On offense we have lost Jon Cornish to graduation but Jake Sharp is incredibly fast and other players like him have shown to be very effective at the college level (ala Quentin Griffin and Darren Sproles). He looked great last year and I have no reason to believe he will be anything less than great now. Brandon McAnderson also looks good at the fullback spot and put in a couple of touchdowns in the game. He should be a good option for those hard "between the tackles" yards that we need to be able to get in the red zone.

Other than that, our line looks big, our receivers are talented, and we have two great quarterbacks at our disposal.

All in all, our starters allowed 0 points and scored 48 on both offense and defense in a shortened game. I know it is against lesser competition, but what else can you ask them to do?

My conclusion is that I think we certainly have the pieces in place to put wins in place of a couple of those close losses that we had last year, and should be in position to go bowling.

April 16, 2007 at 6:16 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

truefan (anonymous) says...

I agree JBurtin. I think the team looked great. It would have been interesting to see the first team O go agains the first team D to see if the pass defense has really been fixed. The white team line got used yesterday and I don't think it was a real game situation because it was all experience vs. inexperience. I would have liked to see experience vs. experience so that I could get a better idea. Other than that, I think the team looked great. I don't care who they put in at quarterback because they all (including Lawrence) looked great. I think we should not only go bowling, but get a legitimate bowl game...not BCS, but legitimate.

April 16, 2007 at 7:57 p.m. ( | suggest removal )