Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Reesing troubled to miss ZZ Top

Kansas QB to be busy when 'Little ol' band from Texas' plays Miami

By Nathan Reed

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KU football squad worries about long layoff

The Kansas men's and women's basketball teams will play a combined 17 games between November 24th and January 3rd. In that same 40-day period, the KU football team will worry about only one opponent - Virginia Tech.

Kansas University football quarterback Todd Reesing likely will have a few people from his home state of Texas in attendance at the Jan. 3 Orange Bowl in Miami.

But one group of Texans will be the center of attention while the Jayhawks and Virginia Tech aren't on the field.

ZZ Top, the "little ol' band from Texas," is slated to headline the halftime festivities at the Orange Bowl. To his dismay, KU's quarterback won't get to enjoy the salty sounds of his Texas brethren.

"I've been known to listen to some 'Top,'" Reesing said. "But I'm not going to be out there to listen to them. I'll be in the locker room. That's too bad, because that would be an awesome thing to top off a great trip."

Instead, Reesing and his teammates will be busy dealing with the Hokies on that particular night. But leading up to the game, the quarterback will have time to savor the Miami experience as well as everything leading up to it.

"It's been awesome so far," Reesing said. "It's been great walking around town and having people say, 'Hey we got our tickets, and we're going to Miami.' And to see people making plans to go down there and see us in Miami and try to find hotels is great. It's awesome to see that kind of support for the football team."

The Jayhawks will get a week in South Florida and have every opportunity to soak up the sun and smell the Atlantic Ocean. But those times will be mixed with business, of course, and maintaining the balance is something Reesing feels the Jayhawks are prepared for.

"With coach (Mark) Mangino, I doubt there's going to be a whole lot of room for us to get out-of-hand," Reesing said. "At the same time, it's going to be a great experience, and he's going to want us to have fun and take in everything that we've earned and the fun that comes with. But the bottom line is that we're there to win the game, and we're not going to just show up and lollygag around and lose the game."

The schedule leading up to the trip indeed will be business as usual. But since the revealing of the BCS selections, there has been an issue that has had nothing to do with the task at hand.

Reesing has had to answer questions about the Jayhawks' invitation to the Orange Bowl over other more "deserving" teams such as Missouri, KU's rival. Reesing gave a nod to Missouri for its victory against the Jayhawks in Kansas City, Mo., but made no apologies for their bowl destination.

"A lot of people have doubted us all year," Reesing said. "But we don't listen to that or take it to heart. We're a good team. We've won 11 games, and if that's not good enough for some people, then forget them."

While Reesing sounded sure about all things concerning the game and those leading up to it, he did have to pause when asked about whether he would grow his beard out to honor the Texas trio playing at halftime.

"I don't know," he said. "I'm sure I'll have to trim it at some point. But as long as I'm here and it's cold, maybe I'll get to grow it out."

Comments

Mangino_Maniac (anonymous) says...

Who writes the headlines for the LJW? 'Troubled'? Come on...

December 11, 2007 at 10:19 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

distraught, concerned, saddened?

the copy editor probably did it ... I have been trying all morning to think of a witty remark for this story, and frankly ... I'm stumped!

December 11, 2007 at 11:12 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

mcrozb (anonymous) says...

Should read: "Reesing thrilled fellow Texans on the field while he's not." ????????? I'm sure he's seen them before, come on.

December 11, 2007 at 12:02 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

mcrozb (anonymous) says...

Oops, should have had a comma after thrilled? I only got a C in ENG 101

December 11, 2007 at 12:05 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

sm5561 (anonymous) says...

Headlines aside, I'm just glad to see a football article on the front page! Even if it's not really about football.

December 11, 2007 at 12:30 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

bmcmich1 (anonymous) says...

And if it's not about football, I have NO problem with it being about zed zed top. "a haw haw haw haaww..."

December 11, 2007 at 1:32 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

CasperCorps (anonymous) says...

Great headline, I read troubled and thought something was up, but then realized I was duped into reading an article that really meant nothing.

December 11, 2007 at 2:43 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jayhawkr34 (anonymous) says...

zz top is an awesome band, one of my top 3, but they suck live

December 11, 2007 at 3:08 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Mangino_Maniac (anonymous) says...

"Reesing thrilled to be sharing same venue as ZZ Top" would make for a much better, and positive, headline.

Come on LJW... go with the flow, not against it. ;-)

December 11, 2007 at 3:25 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

Texas two-step: Reesing, ZZ Top to share field

December 11, 2007 at 3:29 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Mangino_Maniac (anonymous) says...

Nice one seven. ;-)

December 11, 2007 at 3:31 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

I kinda used to do that for a living ... ;)

December 11, 2007 at 3:35 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

ZZ Top, Double-back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1qyHQ...

December 11, 2007 at 3:52 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

100 (anonymous) says...

LJW Staff: There is a football team/ game to break down. VT is a solid football team. What type of things will KU's team have to prepare for? How is KU doing with injuries? Certainly we might have done a lot better against MU if we had two of our key players able to play. Will they be able to play against VT? Also, did Mangino and his staff learn about the importance of making it to a neutral site on time? What are his feelings (now) on how being late affected the MU game? Again, as happened by accident (traffic jam) at Arrowhead, we can't "show up" literally at the start of the game(running off the bus) while the other team has been there ready for 2 hours. Right? How about a story on the planning for gametime timeliness in Miami? Also, how many tickets are left for KU fans? If we have more to sell, how about a story/ challenge to the KU fan base? Obviously the trip to Miami is harder than Dallas, but we, the fanbase, should stand up and support the football team. Perhaps we need to hear it from the paper. Challenge the KU fan base. Certainly Columbus, OH papers are full of Buckeye headlines and VT papers are full of football articles which translates into ticket sales. Let's give the Jayhawk football team some respect. It has been nearly 30 years since we've been in the Orange Bowl. This is big news. These "leadup" to the game football story lines are important for the fan base, the coaching staff and the team -- believe it or not, by writing them as lead articles, more KU fans will go and the actual outcome of the game could be more fun to watch for us KU people. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!!

December 11, 2007 at 5:22 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

Easy there ...

it is still three weeks until the game!!!

Once finals are finished, perhaps more of the players will be available for interviews and such ...

and we don't want to give too much away, Virginia Tech fans are here on this site, their coaching staff certainly may be as well!

December 11, 2007 at 6:29 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

scootja32 (anonymous) says...

come back tomorrow to find out what jake sharp's top 5 favorite romance novels are.

December 11, 2007 at 6:58 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

100 (anonymous) says...

Re: (sevenyearhawk). You said, "Easy there... it's still three weeks until the game!!!" I guarantee Columbus papers are not waiting 3 weeks to write solid articles on college football. My over-the-top comment was only to get the LJW to get off it's lazy tail and write some good football stories. Would be nice if it has to do with KU but it doesn't have to. Keep us in football mode, that's all I ask. Perhaps you could support this cause instead of thinking we have a big secret to hide. That's 3 weeks for the local paper to get the fan-base pumped up. Let's face it, even if you're in deep denial, we are all still ticked about the MU game. Most of us know, in our hearts, we could still be undefeated. We sucked for the first time this year in the first half, and chose the wrong game. Most of us are a little bit ticked we aren't getting any respect nationally even after a near-come-back win against MU while it's OK for USC to lose at home to Stanford and OU to lose to Texas Tech. Most of us haven't forgotten that we were actually being talked about for the national championship game if #1 and #2 lost the last week of the season. Of course we knew it was a longshot but we were still in the national debate. Suddenly we were punished in the BCS rankings 2 weeks in a row when we should have at least jumped to 4th if not 3rd (and fell again, this time to 8th), while Ohio State did the exact same thing (not play) and jumped to #1. Let's get real. KU football has a lot to prove. Finally, for the first time this season national perception really does count. Most of us don't want to "wait 3 weeks" until good stories come out by the local papers...

December 11, 2007 at 7:45 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

100,
there's
no
doubt
we're
all
excited ...

and
I
really
enjoyed
your
posts
earlier
in
the
season!

But,
I
got
over
the
Border
War
loss
by
11:59 p.m.
the
next
day ...

So,
relax
and
try
using
your
return
key!

Thank
you ...
:D

p.s.
I
expect
the
Browneyes
of
an
Ohio
State
to
lose
by
three
touchdowns!!!

December 11, 2007 at 8:09 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Jayhawk86 (anonymous) says...

Yeah, we better rush on over to the VTech site to see all the news. This is all the news for the day at Hokiesports.com. Man, how can we possibly keep up. First fb article since the 7th btw.

http://www.hokiesports.com/football/r...

December 11, 2007 at 10:17 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

DarthJayhawk (anonymous) says...

When all you have is lemons, you have to make lemonade. There just isn't a lot to write about during this span of time. Since we haven't had a wait this long for a bowl game in recent memory, we don't know what to expect as far as coverage of our team goes. This is certainly no worse than the article telling us that Cole Aldrich is goofy and likes dill pickles on his pizza. Plus, there is a lot more going on in basketball right now, which makes the article on Cole all the more pointless.

December 12, 2007 at 10:05 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sm5561 (anonymous) says...

hokiesports.com is the athletic depts site, check out the Roanoke Times instead (www.roanoke.com/sports/vtfootball). Not a lot there, but there is one article "Mixed emotions for Hokies", in which they say "Of course, they knew Kansas ... wasn't going to the big [championship] game".

December 12, 2007 at 12:14 p.m. ( | suggest removal )