Mayer: KU QB situation unsettling

"When you're playing two quarterbacks, you don't have a quarterback."

Source: The late Paul Christman, former Missouri All-American and Chicago Cardinals star when he visited Lawrence in the early 1950s to do color commentary for a televised Kansas University football game.

His words resurfaced when I was considering how KU coach Mark Mangino and his staff are struggling to determine whether Kerry Meier or Todd Reesing should be their triggerman-of-record. After all they've seen of both guys, they ought to have a reasonable notion which one to install and stick with, barring injury. Why let a pointless controversy develop? Make a choice, establish flow and continuity.

Back to Christman, the first really good ex-jock TV analyst. He cited how the Chicago Bears were trying to decide on George Blanda or Ed Brown while they drifted. Just as quickly, Christman noted that the 1947 Kansas team was the perfect contradiction to his main-man premise.

In the same '47 season when Christman was quarterbacking the Cardinals to the NFL title, Kansas was doing handsomely alternating Red Hogan and Lynne McNutt. Hogan was the better passer, McNutt the better run-game operator. Coach George Sauer got great mileage from their interchangeability - like a share of the Big Six title and the first bowl game (Orange) in school history.

Yet except for that one season, Kansas has never fared too well playing musical quarterbacks.

Everyone has a favorite in the KU quarterback sweepstakes. Many think we haven't seen anywhere near what the bigger Meier can do; others are in love with the talented unpredictability of waterbug Reesing. Until 2007 practice begins, the staff will perpetuate the mystery. But the sooner a decision is made and the 1-2 pattern is settled, the better off the Jayhawks will be.

¢ The NFL and its pension-disability history have been in the news a lot of late, and though the NFL has closed many gaps in recent years, its early support for needy people who made it a cash cow was disgraceful.

Union huckster Gene Upshaw is fiercely defensive, and hall of fame player-coach Mike Ditka is justifiably aggressive about the slights of the past and the need for vast improvement.

Some figures: There are roughly 8,000 retired NFL players; only 317 actually get disability payments. There is wonderment why the NFL plan has spent only $20 million out of a $1.1 billion fund (that's a "b") for disability and pensions. I think a lot of former players and owners were horrible in taking so long to take better care of people who got them where they were - with Super Bowl winner shares going from $15,000 in 1967 to nearly $70,000 now.

A lot of these overpaid and ultra-benefitted modern turkeys never even heard of the Don Hutsons, Sammy Baughs, Chuck Bednariks, George Connorses, Marion Motleys and Bronko Nagurskis who played both ways and paved the way for the great portfolios today's stars enjoy. Many, oh, so many, of those old-timers either suffered or died in dire financial straits because the "new" NFL with its growing riches took so long to help them. Look at ailing tight end John Mackey of the 1960s, who never has been covered the way he deserves. Now it's too late for so many who earned so much better than the NFL and its aloof people provided them.

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homewood (anonymous) says…

Meier or Reesing? Drop Meier, he stares down his receiver every time he throws the ball. Reesing keeps his eyes open and makes plays by finding the open man. I like Meier alot, but Reesing seems to me to be the one who's going to be the real play maker.
June 29, 2007 at 8:36 a.m.
jackhawk (anonymous) says…

Stop worrying about it. The coaches will decide. "Controversy"? Controversies are nothing more than sports writers trying to find something to write about, and also trying to convince themselves and others that they know more than the coaches. Drop it. Go find something important to report on.
June 29, 2007 at 8:53 a.m.
fabio (anonymous) says…

The conference games will decide whether or not this is a successful season so it better be worked out by then. Being a fan of Reesing, I see the first four games as a great oppurtunity to get Reesing some much needed snaps which could benefit greatly us once conference play starts.
June 29, 2007 at 10:13 a.m.
seattlehawk_78 (anonymous) says…

I think Meier has better tools but at times he looks lost in the pocket and that usually results in bad decisions. I believe Reesing has better instinctive skills when it comes to making decisions. Not that I'm comparing the two but when Joe Montana played most people recognized that his arm strength and general athleticism was inferior to a lot of quarterbacks. But he had an innate ability to find open receivers and no one was cooler under pressure.
June 29, 2007 at 11:06 a.m.
prairie_dog (anonymous) says…

Reesing.

But I have a better idea than all of our opinions: why doesn't the LJW get an interview with Warriner and let's ask him?!
June 29, 2007 at 11:42 a.m.
rwood (Ryan Wood) says…

prairie,

I'm assuming you missed it.

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/ju...
June 29, 2007 at 2:42 p.m.
Kirk (anonymous) says…

I USED to think we needed one definite starter, number one QB. And it may be so. But I think going back and forth between Meier and Reesing could take the vanilla out of our offense, mix it up, give us a little juke step and maybe an edge.

On the other hand, if same coaches who declined to run Cornish in the second half against MU are calling the plays, hell - we can't handle 2 qb's.

Steve Spurrier, anyone? (Mangino...ain't.)
June 29, 2007 at 10:09 p.m.
fabio (anonymous) says…

The MU game play calling was questionable. I put that on the offensive coordinator. But, at the same time, he should of been canned long before the MU game.
As well as Cornish was running the ball, I dont know that would of changed who won that particular game. We had other problems that day.
June 29, 2007 at 10:38 p.m.
Kirk (anonymous) says…

I don't think you have to an OC to know that if our running back is averaging 8+ yards per carry in the first half, to go ahead and give him the ball in the second.

I guess the point is -- we've lost a BUNCH of close games under Mangino, whose game decisions and play calling (under his regime) are as creative as swedish meatballs. A 2-QB system can be an asset -- but savvy coaching is a prerequisite, too.
June 30, 2007 at 6:05 a.m.
mushhawk (anonymous) says…

i agree with bill mayer.
mangino always has trouble committing to a QB.
you need to pick 1. make him your QB and stick with it.
neither can develope to their potential, until they know that they're the guy.

meier hasn't developed fully. stick with him. you recruited him to be the future/golden boy/mr sunshine. let him know u'r with him.
June 30, 2007 at 6:17 p.m.
fabio (anonymous) says…

How long do we stick with Meier. Normally, I dont like playing a real good team to open up the season. This year though, we will find out right away if Meier is any better now that he is a sophomore.
Central Michigan won ten games last year and if Meier hasnt improved any from last year it will show right away and we better not wait until halftime to bring in Reesing if thats the case. We all know what happened the last time Meier went up against a Mid-Major Defense . He better be a lot better. If he has 5 turnovers against this team there wont be anything Reesing can do.
June 30, 2007 at 7:07 p.m.
JBurtin (anonymous) says…

I really don't see a problem with not naming a starter yet. They only have a few practices (15 I believe) in the spring to evaluate the guys before it goes into the summer workout session where the coaches aren't allowed to evaluate players.

Let the coaches get into the summer two-a-day practice sessions where they can get a much better look at who has improved the most in the offseason.

I also think that it puts pressure on the guys to do everything they can in the offseason because they know that somebody else wants their job really bad.

I would normally agree with the assessment that if you have two quarterbacks you don't have one, but I have to take issue with that point of view applied to our current situation.

For starters, this isn't Barmann rotating with Swanson rotating with Luke rotating with (insert any other name here) like we've had in the last few years. None of those guys was very good and it really was a case of having no quarterback.

In this case we have two guys that both have shown better potential as freshmen than any of the names I just named did as seniors. Sure Barmann had a bit of a moment in the sun as a freshman against A@M, but their pass defense was one of the worst in the nation that year.

Also, nobody said that we were going to switch them off between offensive series and play them both every game (aka a two QB system). I think that the coaches would like to name a definite starter and play him every game. It's just nice to know that if one of them gets injured or isn't performing well we do have other options.

All in all, looking at the situation I find it hard to find anything negative about having two guys that are both good enough to be our starter instead of four guys that stink and can't generate any offense.
June 30, 2007 at 10:16 p.m.
jhwkfan162515 (anonymous) says…

So why do we have quarterback controversies every year? Two reasons: Number one, because so far, apart from Bill Whittemore, Mark Mangino has not been able to recruit a decent quarterback. And number two, the offensive line has been unable to protect the quarterback on a consistent basis. If these two things could happen, we could be playing for the North Division title and playing in better bowls.
July 1, 2007 at 12:46 p.m.
fabio (anonymous) says…

jhwkfan1625-If you dont think Todd Reesing is a decent QB than I bet you havent seen him play. Meier could be a decent QB before he graduates too. Meiers injuries last year didnt have anything to do with poor protection.
July 1, 2007 at 9:49 p.m.
JBurtin (anonymous) says…

Kerry Meier = #1 recruit in the state of kansas in '05

Todd Reesing = Texas 4A offensive player of the year

I find it hard to believe that anyone would think that these guys are bad football recruits. This is a far cry from recruiting Adam Barmann a few years ago. He came from a 1A eight man football school in Weston Missouri, but with our lousy program he was the best we could get at the time.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the quality of our current players is much better than the quality of the other quarterbacks that have tried to fill the big shoes of Bill Whittemore.

As for the offensive line, when Mangino got here it averaged between 250 and 260, nowhere near big enough. I figured up our current average a few days ago and our likely starting lineup for this year averages around 302.

I repeat, the only reason we have a quarterback controversy this year is because we have good talent to choose from for a change.
July 2, 2007 at 5:20 p.m.

Mayer