What caught my eye at Wednesday's practice: Oct. 31

Posted by Matt Tait October 31, 2012 at 5:48 p.m.

KU's offensive line runs through a tough workout with O-Line coach Tim Grunhard at the start of Wednesday's practice. by Matt Tait

Although Downtown Lawrence was packed with Trick-or-Treaters on my evening drive back from KU football practice, there were none to be found around the grounds at Kansas University’s Memorial Stadium.

Good thing, too.

KU’s coaches kicked things off with a little extra juice today at practice, yelling a little louder, pushing a little harder and cracking the whip with a little more intensity.

The most notable area, at least from where I stood, where the coaches had a little extra fire was in the corner with the offensive linemen, where O-Line coach Tim Grunhard roared through the opening part of practice with his group.

The first team looked to be made up of Tanner Hawkinson at left tackle, Damon Martin at left guard, Trevor Marrongelli at center, Randall Dent at right guard and Aslam Sterling at right tackle. No surprise there.

Regardless of whether it was the first unit or the second unit, though, Grunhard put them to work.

“Throw your hands and play some football,” he said as they worked on point-of-attack drills.

“What good is it here if you’re not gonna do it in the game,” he added after a round of particularly explosive blocking.

It’s clear that even though the Jayhawks have done well in the run game lately, Grunhard expects them to do even better and he’s leaning on his offensive linemen to make that happen.

While Grunhard’s demeanor would’ve made for a pretty scary Halloween costume in itself, there was a small touch of today’s holiday at practice. The Jayhawks kicked things off by listening to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” during warm-ups.

Here’s a quick look at a few other things that caught my eye.

• Since I spent most of my time around the O-Line today, I took an extra long look at Sterling, whom KU coach Charlie Weis said earlier this week has reshaped his body as much as anyone on the team during the past several months. It shows. Sterling looks much quicker on his feet now and much trimmer. Losing the 30-40 pounds also has allowed him to be more explosive at the snap. Hopes are high for Sterling, especially for next season, and I think these final four games will be as big for him as any player on the roster.

• Senior defensive end Toben Opurum and red-shirt freshman linebacker Jake Love both were at practice Wednesday, good news for the Jayhawks who lost both starters on the same play late in the loss against Texas. Weis said earlier this week that he expected those two, along with wide receiver Daymond Patterson, would be available this weekend at Baylor, and it looks as if things are on track for that to hold true.

• Finally, the Coach Weis song of the day was “Badlands” by Bruce Springsteen.

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SEsco10 6 months, 3 weeks ago

You forgot Thriller.

jhox 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Matt, I'm just curious how well Toben was moving around? His injury looked pretty serious on Saturday.

VaJay 6 months, 3 weeks ago

As coach Campo has duly received kudos for the great job done shoring up our defense and making it respectible, so should Grunhard & Weis et al, for making solid strides with our offense. The O-Line is making holes in spite of stacked defenses who just dare us to throw the ball. A list of teams with better running backs than ours is a very short list. If we could just throw the ball a little better & get a group of receivers that can get separation - watch out.

In spite of the losses, I've really enjoyed watching the 'Hawks scare the daylights out of ranked teams, & personally can't wait till we catch a break or two & get a win.

Hopefully we'll sneak up on Baylor who probably aren't expecting much from us because its a road game.

AtlJaybird 6 months, 3 weeks ago

ralster 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Baylor vs. KU will be a desperate battle as BOTH teams have zero conference wins to this point. Defenseless Bears vs no-pass, no-kick Jayhawks. But ball-control can eat clock and help the defense. But can the Jayhawk ground game score more than 17pts...?

RockChalkCaliHawk 6 months, 3 weeks ago

We may not have to if we can put together three 10-minute drives...

Reuben_J_Cogburn 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Agree with all comments.

Just like every other week, it's time to see the resolve this coaching staff has installed in its players. Can we stand back up and get right back to it? I've been impressed with what I've seen so far. The season isn't over, and we can still make great strides.

You may have lost hope, KU football fans. But don't lose your pride. Judging by the way these kids have reacted and fought, I don't believe they've lost it just yet either.

Stay the course. Keep the faith............one love, Jerry Wonder.

KGphoto 6 months, 3 weeks ago

"The first team looked to be made up of Tanner Hawkinson at left tackle, Damon Martin at left guard, Trevor Marrongelli at center, Randall Dent at right guard and Aslam Sterling at right tackle. No surprise there."

That IS surprising to me. Is there any official reason being given for Martin over Zlatnik at LG? I guessed it was Weis pushing his buttons, but from what I could see, Zlatnik was pretty good against Texas. Wouldn't it be better to get Martin work at RG where we are weaker? If he's good enough to supplant Z, surely he's good enough to supplant Randall Dent.

Did I miss something? This one is really bugging me.

raprichard 6 months, 3 weeks ago

I'm curious about that, too, KG. Matt, any thoughts?

hawk316 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Count me in as another who is puzzled by this. If the thinking is to put the best players on the field, and Martin is really that good, wouldn't it make sense to move him or Zlatnik to RG? Or has Dent improved that much? Matt, could you scope this out for us?

KGphoto 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Okay, so I do have another theory. Actually I had suggested this before, but not here so...

Zlatnik is good enough he doesn't need as much practice to go 100% on game day. Weis is thinking of next year and he wants to give Martin as much time as possible to prepare to replace Z.

Also, now that we are running and running and running and chewing up the time of possession, perhaps he wants more guys to rotate in. However this doesn't explain why he isn't grooming the next left tackle to replace Hawk, or to give Hawk a spell during extended snaps, or Admire to spell Trevor for that matter.

raprichard 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Matt, quick question...Why does the team practice on the stadium field when there are two practice fields with all the equipment, film towers, and potentially more room, right next to the stadium? Does it vary by the day of the week? Were they there to pump in crowd noise through the PA system?

Thanks for all the updates during the week. I love reading about what is going on during practices (even if it is just the beginning). Keep up the good work!

PSM 6 months, 3 weeks ago

someone should make Coach Weis a mixtape-just so he knows there are other artists besides the Boss and Bon Jovi. I love Bruce Springsteen though.

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