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Monday, November 12, 2007

Ryan Wood’s Kansas football notebook

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Dream season continues as 'Hawks drop OSU

The Kansas Jayhawk football team improved to 10-0 after defeating Oklahoma State by a final score of 43-28.

Reader poll

After Week 11, who do you consider to be truly the nation's best college football team?

  • LSU 16% 659 votes
  • Oregon 15% 614 votes
  • Kansas 64% 2605 votes
  • Oklahoma 2% 109 votes
  • Missouri 1% 54 votes
  • West Virginia 0% 11 votes

4052 total votes.

New rankings

Ohio State's loss to Illinois on Saturday shuffled the top of the Bowl Championship Series standings on Sunday to KU's advantage.

The Jayhawks moved up a spot to No. 3 in the rankings, behind only No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Oregon. Kansas is followed by No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 5 Missouri.

Ohio State fell from first to seventh.

The top two teams in the standings at the end of the regular season will play in the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7 in New Orleans.

In addition, Kansas now is ranked No. 4 in all three major polls - the Associated Press, USA Today coaches and Harris Interactive. The Jayhawks received first-place votes in all three, though LSU, Oregon and Oklahoma ranked 1-2-3 across the board.

Resby out

KU strong safety Patrick Resby did not play against Oklahoma State on Saturday because of an undisclosed injury suffered Nov. 3 against Nebraska.

The Jayhawks' depth at the position - specifically Darrell Stuckey, Justin Thornton and Sadiq Muhammed - absorbed Resby's loss, and Kansas beat Oklahoma State, 43-28, in Stillwater, Okla.

The status of Resby, who started KU's first nine games, is uncertain heading into Saturday's contest against Iowa State. If he's not available, Thornton may start, as he did against Oklahoma State.

"He's showed significant improvement," coach Mark Mangino said of Resby, "but we don't know yet, to be quite honest with you."

Other nicks

Several key players were moving with slight limps during Saturday's game, including quarterback Todd Reesing, left tackle Anthony Collins and defensive tackle James McClinton.

McClinton sat out a few snaps during the meat of the game, but for the most part all three played through what troubled them. Mangino said nobody was held out of Sunday's practice.

"It's that time of the year where you're going to get kids nicked up," Mangino said. "You're headed to Week 11, and there's going to be bumps and bruises and twists and things like that.

"I don't foresee, as I sit here, having any major problems this week. That could change, but I don't see it."

Simple speculation

Don't expect an official announcement until Saturday night at the earliest. But the Nov. 24 Kansas-Missouri game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., is shaping up to be a 7 p.m. kickoff.

ABC will choose between Kansas-Missouri and Oklahoma State-Oklahoma for its 7 p.m. window that night, with Fox Sports Net broadcasting the other game at 2:30 p.m.

The ABC announcing crew hinted during the Oklahoma State broadcast that it would be airing the KU-MU game, and it's presumed that the network was waiting until this weekend to see which of the two options had higher stakes.

If Kansas and Missouri win this week, the Border War game will be for the Big 12 North title featuring two teams with a combined 21-1 record. With the Cowboys' loss on Saturday, they dropped to 5-5 and are unlikely to catch Oklahoma in the Big 12 South standings.

But again, official word probably won't come until this weekend.

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Comments

nycjayhawk (anonymous) says...

There is a lot about KU in today's USA Today. Todd Reesing is on the cover of the sports section. For those who love (hate?) the red jerseys, he's in red. He is also mentioned in the Heisman "On fire" section (with Tebow, Brennan, Daniel). In the main article, there's this: "Kansas, however, cannot and should not be denied if it finishes the regular season unbeaten." I also really enjoyed the ads ABC placed in national papers last week, leading up to the KU/OSU game, with a great photo of our defense, a raised KU helmet, and "College Football Lives Here". Keep it up Hawks. Don't overlook a much improved ISU team this week.

November 12, 2007 at 9:18 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bdsnook (anonymous) says...

Has anyone commented on Anthony Webb and his literal gut check Saturday night? I'm pretty sure he got the wind knocked out of him after a late game punt return. I hope he'll be working again this week on learing to wave his arms in the air.

November 12, 2007 at 9:32 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

oldalum (anonymous) says...

I'm more worried about Marcus Henry. After his last TD catch he came out of the game with his left arm hanging from his shoulder, not moving at all. He lit on that shoulder when he came down with the ball, so I hope it was just a temporary thing. They were checking him on the sideline and I never could figure out if he played after that. No one else seems to have asked about him. Did anyone of you notice?

November 12, 2007 at 9:47 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

troutsee (anonymous) says...

Yes, he definitely hurt his left shoulder on that play. I do not know the extent of the injury. Someone else may need to step up against ISU.

November 12, 2007 at 10:16 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

mcrozb (anonymous) says...

As a class of '91 Jayhawk living in Mid- Missouri, whenever I watch KU basketball on TV the "Rock chalk" victory chant coming from the rafters in the last few minutes is so special. hearing it in the last few minutes on ABC at the OSU game was wonderful, it came over on TV very loud, at a road game even !! I never get to go to any games anymore, except in Columbia, which sometimes puts me in danger, but for those who do, keep chanting, it sounds fantastic on TV. Also did anyone notice that Brent Musburger did not once say Kansas Jayhawks?? it was always "Unbeaten Jayhawks or "Unbeaten Kansas" !!! rock chalk from Mid- Missouri !!

November 12, 2007 at 10:43 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

rockchalkblock (anonymous) says...

I think what Kirk was hinting to was College GameDay being in KC on the 24th

November 12, 2007 at 11:25 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

dagger108 (anonymous) says...

The chant at the end of the game is always so sweet, especially when it comes at the end of the game on the road over the TV. (Preceeded by the alma mater and followed by the fight song to begin BB games is among the best of times.) It has been fun to introduce my wife to KU's traditions, and even a part-time Husker (she has a wonderful grasp of who the "home team" is regardless of where the game is played) is impressed.

November 12, 2007 at 11:37 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

dagger108 (anonymous) says...

As for Marcus, we (and ISU coaches) are as likely to find out about him as we were to find out about Resby or anybody else's injuries. There isn't even a $1,200 email to find out.

Seperated shoulders are one of those football injuries that come from driving the upper arm through the shoulder socket, so it could be that. It seemed that he landed a bit too flat to generate the force necessary to seperate the shoulder.

My guess is that he tweaked it. Just jammed the arm into the socket enough to pinch the rotator cuff and such. He's probably already doing just fine. Fortunately, Briscoe, Fields, Meier, ... are all more than capable of filling in - if necessary.

November 12, 2007 at 11:43 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

DerekR25 (anonymous) says...

Henry did come back in. I was worried to death and kept watching to make sure he came back. He was out there on the second and goal pass play after Talib's pick.

November 12, 2007 at 11:57 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bmcmich1 (anonymous) says...

I guess all we can do is speculate, but my guess is that Marcus got a stinger in his shoulder, which can hurt like hell but is not as serious when talking long term damage and sitting out games.

It's pretty evident after Saturday that we have some pretty tough SOBs out there playing for us. Playing hurt is part of football, but any more today you have guys sitting out for things that Jerry Cramer, Jack Ham, and Dick Butkus shrugged off as nothing back in the day. It's a real testament to the grit and toughness of Hot Toddy, AC, Marcus and others that they did not let the fact they were banged up derail their focus. how can you not love these guys???!!!!!

November 12, 2007 at 12:24 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

seattlehawk_78 (anonymous) says...

We've been very fortunate this year when it comes to injuries. Lets hope we haven't pissed off the football gods.

This is the most exciting team since Nolan Cromwell led that wishbone offense in 76. When he went down just before halftime against OU it almost made me cry. Okay I did cry.

November 12, 2007 at 12:24 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

leikness (anonymous) says...

Speaking of injuries, Wood, do you know anything or have any feelings about how McAnderson, Henry, McClinton, Reesing are feeling this week? Just bumps and bruises on Saturday, or something more serious?

November 12, 2007 at 12:57 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

dagger108 (anonymous) says...

Sweet note on the CBS page -

Missouri's Gary Pinkel clinched his first winning conference record in seven seasons at the school. The Tigers are now 5-1 in the Big 12. They had never been better 4-4 in the league in Pinkel's previous six seasons.

Goodness, I was starting to really worry about playing the all dominant tiggers in 2 weeks :-))

November 12, 2007 at 4:06 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

CasperCorps (anonymous) says...

How did KU get two byes in one season? Maybe cause they only had two conference home games? Keep playing our game and we're gonna roll Iowa State.. Rockem Hawks!!

November 13, 2007 at 12:02 a.m. ( | suggest removal )