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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Ryan Wood’s KU football notebook

By Ryan Wood

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Reesing gives Jayhawks stability

Since 2004, finding a stable quarterback has been a challenge for the Jayhawks. But Todd Reesing is making a world of difference.

"Fighting Manginos" in whole new ball game

In 2006 the Kansas football team put itself in position to win week after week, but KU couldn't close. 2007 has been quite the opposite.

Morning homecoming

The Kansas-Nebraska game slated for Nov. 3 will kick off at 11:30 a.m. and be televised by Fox Sports Net, it was announced Monday.

How far that game will reach, though, is to be determined.

ABC is waiting until Sunday to decide which games it wants to broadcast between Texas at Oklahoma State and Texas A&M at Oklahoma. The network may want to air both and has a 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. window to do so.

But if it only wants one, FSN will pick up the other for an 11:30 a.m. kickoff slot and do a "split national" telecast of both that game and the KU-Nebraska game. Fox Sports Midwest (Sunflower Broadband channel 36) will show the Jayhawks no matter what.

Webb honored

KU kicker Scott Webb was named the Big 12 special-teams player of the week for his performance against Colorado.

Webb, a senior, connected on field goals of 48 and 35 yards, the first coming despite a bad snap that caused him to stutter-step. He also converted his only extra-point attempt.

For the season, Webb has hit 11 of 12 field-goal attempts and all 38 of his extra-point attempts.

Why Sparky?

It's always fun to hear the stories behind a nickname, even if they're completely unimpressive.

KU coach Mark Mangino was asked Monday to tell the story again of how quarterback Todd Reesing was given the nickname "Sparky" last year.

"He's a guy that when he's on the practice field, even as a true freshmen, he makes something happen," Mangino responded. "Most of the time it was positive. He did some ad-libbing and would do some things that would be a little off beat, and he'd make a play and make something out of nothing.

"So I just kind of said, 'That guy's kind of a spark plug.' and the next thing you know, we're calling him Sparky."

Pick picks KU

Dodge City High quarterback Kale Pick has orally committed to play at KU, Rivals.com reported Monday night.

The 6-foot-1, 198-pound dual-threat QB committed to Arkansas in May, but changed his mind over the weekend.

Pick, ranked by Rivals as the sixth-best prospect in Kansas, suffered a season-ending injury to his throwing hand in the opening week.

"I just felt comfortable with the coaching staff at Kansas, and I really love the style of play. It was just a matter of me being comfortable with the coaching staff," Pick told Rivals.com.

Pick completed 105 of 190 passes for 1,779 yards, good for 19 touchdowns his junior season. He was intercepted six times.

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Comments

Kirk (anonymous) says...

That's a GREAT sign, to see a prospect change his mind toward Kansas. You really have to chalk it up to this season's success, and all the belief around this team.

October 23, 2007 at 7:13 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

txrockchalk (anonymous) says...

Kirk, my thoughts exactly. It also helps that most of our conference games will be televised this year, with the likely exception being the ISU game.

October 23, 2007 at 8:37 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

klong (anonymous) says...

Webb is a great kicker. I think he will make it in the NFL. He is very consistant and doesn't get rattled easily. Very strong leg. He kicked a 48 yard kick off of one step!

It is a great sign that the kid changed his mind to come here. We should see more and more of this in the coming months.

October 23, 2007 at 10:03 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

dagger108 (anonymous) says...

RW - Thanks for the additional info on Pick's injury. It sounds pretty significant to be season ending. Broken bones heal in less than a season.

50 kicks and only one miss this year. That's phenomenal! Even with the award this week, SW is far to undercover.

I wouldn't write off the ISU game so soon either. They played OU tough last week, so that could make a great storyline the week before the game at Arrowhead. If KU remains unscathed up to that point, there will be loads of national media attention, because there won't be many (any?) other teams like us in the nation. And that from a "BB school" .-)

October 23, 2007 at 10:08 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

justanotherfan (anonymous) says...

dagger108,

broken bones do heal in less than a season, but if he broke his hand and can't grip the football properly (a huge issue since he is a QB) I can understand why he hasn't played. Granted, I do not know what his exact injury was, but I'm speculating that if he broke his hand he probably can't throw.

This is a huge signing for KU. As I have said many times on this board, it is critical for KU to start signing the top D1 prospects in state. After all, we cannot convince top players from Texas, Florida, California and other football rich areas to come play here if we can't convince top players from Dodge City, Liberal, Kansas City, Wichita, Goodland and Coffeyville to come to KU. I'm still disappointed that Arthur Brown (big time LB out of Wichita, #1 rated prospect at his position in the nation, not just the state) decided to drop KU from consideration so early, before we went on our run. Although maybe this fast start has changed his mind a little bit. That would be a huge win for the program to sign him.

But for now, great to hear that we inked Pick after he decided against going to Arkansas. That's a double win for us to come from behind on that.

October 23, 2007 at 11:04 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bmcmich1 (anonymous) says...

A QB named Pick???? I don't know.....

But seriously, great sign. We've got to be #1 recruiting-wise in our own state before we can go elsewhere and get top guys. I hadn't heard much about this guy once the season started and had no idea he had de-committed from arKANSAS, that's great!

Scotty Webb has been au-to-matic this year, it's getting to the point where he is like Elam, Vinatieri, etc... in that it's a complete shock if he misses.

October 23, 2007 at 11:28 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

NavyHawk (anonymous) says...

Scott Webb will make it in the NFL if for no other reason than he has a howitzer of a leg. He consistently kicks the ball into the endzone (and beyond) on kickoffs. That is a HUGE advantage for the defense to be making the other team go 80 yds nearly every time. Long runbacks can be demoralizing for a team's defense, especially after their offense just marched down the field for a go-ahead score!

NFL teams will gladly take a kicker who can make most of his field goals from the 40 in, but is sometimes wide of the mark on longer kicks, if he can keep the other team from being able to get good field position on kickoff returns.

Scott is outstanding on field goals, even better on extra points, and awesome on kickoffs!! People don't realize Scott has been as big a reason why Kansas is 7-0 because he has kept the other teams deep with his kickoffs.

October 23, 2007 at 12:14 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

JBurtin (anonymous) says...

Just wanted to make sure everybody saw what our new Todd Reesing looks like.

This kid is sick!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZuP4c...

October 23, 2007 at 2:41 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

troutsee (anonymous) says...

Awesome. Good work Burtin!

October 23, 2007 at 3:04 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Shocker11 (anonymous) says...

Kyle Pick I hear will be playing Friday at Goddard. He will not be playing QB but will be playing safety instead.

October 23, 2007 at 4:45 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

klong (anonymous) says...

Great video! That kid can do it all. Very strong arm for that age! Great speed too. The future looks bright for these Jayhawks.

October 23, 2007 at 4:45 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

CasperCorps (anonymous) says...

Is he gonna get a chance to play? Reesing will be here for two more years isn't he?

October 23, 2007 at 6:34 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

hawk_bred20 (anonymous) says...

Yeah but surely we can redshirt him. Are his throws just that perfect or are some of those receivers pretty good too? It was kinda hard to tell.
Wouldn't mind picking up a favorite target of his too!

October 23, 2007 at 8:26 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

JBurtin (anonymous) says...

His receivers do look awfully good at the high school level, but are probably not big or fast enough to play D1. He certainly won't be able to throw some of those passes against Big Twelve cornerbacks.

I think his coaches just know that there's no reason not to allow him to thread the needle at the high school level because the corners aren't good enough to make him pay for it.

We won't be asking him to throw the long ball more than he should, and college plays always have dump off man built into them so he isn't forced to throw it into a dangerous situation.

As for him having time to play, most likely he will take a red shirt while Reesing is a junior. Then (if he develops well) he'll likely be the main backup to Reesing in Reesing's senior year. That gives him a chance to start by sophmore year, the same as Reesing. It also opens up Kerry Meier's playbook in his senior year as he will no longer have to be the #2 QB.

We now have huge linemen for the future to protect this kid, with big and fast receivers for him to throw to, two talented tight ends coming in at the same time, and a very talented Running back in Carmon Boyd-Anderson to keep the ground game going. And who knows who we'll pick up over the next couple of years? There's no reason to believe that this team won't just keep getting better!

October 23, 2007 at 10:25 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

CaramelMacchMan (anonymous) says...

KU football on ESPN.com front page!!

I'm dreaming!!!

October 23, 2007 at 11:49 p.m. ( | suggest removal )