Has any Kansas University student-athlete ever had a rockier year and a half both on and off the field than Mario Kinsey?
Kinsey, who showed promise as a red-shirt freshman quarterback last fall, is officially toast. On the field, he was inconsistent. Off the field well, he was in the headlines too often. In fact, if Kinsey were a cat he would have used at least a handful of lives during his three semesters on Mount Oread.
Kinsey was the classic double-edged sword. His inherent physical tools his strong arm, his mercurial legs kept him in the lineup, but his penchant for doing the wrong thing at the wrong time out of uniform wounded the KU football program’s credibility.
Now Kinsey has been asked to leave, dismissed for violating athletics department policies. To tell the truth, you won’t find a long list of no-nos among those policies, but they are definite no-can-do’s and for Kinsey to be guilty of violating even one of them is to invoke our pity. Kinsey blew a golden opportunity.
Now we’ll never know if Kinsey would have improved under new coach Mark Mangino. A crystal ball won’t help, yet it’s not hard to envision Kinsey as one of the league’s best QBs in 2003 and 2004.
Kinsey won’t be, of course, and once again Kansas is searching for another starting quarterback.
Yes, the Jayhawks still have Zach Dyer, who started five games last fall, but Dyer, while possessed of size and speed, lacks both the quickness and arm strength demanded of a contemporary NCAA Div. I-A quarterback.
Jonas Weatherbie is a wannabe who never will be at this level while Kevin Long, a highly touted 6-foot-5 red-shirt freshman out of Iowa City, Iowa, has been a bust.
KU’s coaching staff held one quarterback out of competition last season. His name is Brian Luke. He’s a 6-foot-5, 215-pounder from Walnut Lake, Calif., who by most reckoning isn’t ready for prime time, but could be with a couple of years of seasoning.
Kansas doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for a quarterback to develop, however, not with new athletics director Al Bohl running the show. Patience is not Bohl’s middle name.
Reportedly, Mangino is already searching for a junior college quarterback. Pickings could be slim. Juco transfers who don’t participate in spring drills, particularly quarterbacks, are doomed to struggle and the talented juco QBs eligible to enroll for spring semesters around the country have mostly been taken off the board.
Dylen Smith, a juco transfer QB from California, couldn’t report to KU until August of 1999, and it showed. Missing spring practice placed him in a never-ending catch-up mode. Then again, Smith also struggled mainly with turnovers during his senior season in 2000 so perhaps he isn’t a good example.
Coaches who say quarterbacks receive too much credit when times are good and too much blame when times are bad didn’t see Smith throw five interceptions and lose two fumbles against Oklahoma during his senior year.
Too, those coaches didn’t see Kinsey complete only 43.6 percent of his passes last fall, the next-to-lowest percentage in the Big 12 Conference.
A quarterback sets the tone. A quarterback instills faith in both the offense and defense. Not that the Jayhawks didn’t believe in Kinsey last fall. They knew he possessed the physical skills to make a big play happen at any time.
As Kinsey matured, it was assumed the intervals between those big plays would decrease in proportion to his repetitions under center. That’s not an unreasonable assumption, but conjecture is all it is.
Perhaps Kinsey would have continued to run around like he was in a marble patch and maybe his strong but spotty arm would have remained more spotty than strong.
That we will never know is the fault of one person a 19-year-old from Waco, Texas and no one else.
Has any Kansas University student-athlete ever had a rockier year and a half both on and off the field than Mario Kinsey?
Kinsey, who showed promise as a red-shirt freshman quarterback last fall, is officially toast. On the field, he was inconsistent. Off the field well, he was in the headlines too often. In fact, if Kinsey were a cat he would have used at least a handful of lives during his three semesters on Mount Oread.
Kinsey was the classic double-edged sword. His inherent physical tools his strong arm, his mercurial legs kept him in the lineup, but his penchant for doing the wrong thing at the wrong time out of uniform wounded the KU football program’s credibility.
Now Kinsey has been asked to leave, dismissed for violating athletics department policies. To tell the truth, you won’t find a long list of no-nos among those policies, but they are definite no-can-do’s and for Kinsey to be guilty of violating even one of them is to invoke our pity. Kinsey blew a golden opportunity.
Now we’ll never know if Kinsey would have improved under new coach Mark Mangino. A crystal ball won’t help, yet it’s not hard to envision Kinsey as one of the league’s best QBs in 2003 and 2004.
Kinsey won’t be, of course, and once again Kansas is searching for another starting quarterback.
Yes, the Jayhawks still have Zach Dyer, who started five games last fall, but Dyer, while possessed of size and speed, lacks both the quickness and arm strength demanded of a contemporary NCAA Div. I-A quarterback.
Jonas Weatherbie is a wannabe who never will be at this level while Kevin Long, a highly touted 6-foot-5 red-shirt freshman out of Iowa City, Iowa, has been a bust.
KU’s coaching staff held one quarterback out of competition last season. His name is Brian Luke. He’s a 6-foot-5, 215-pounder from Walnut Lake, Calif., who by most reckoning isn’t ready for prime time, but could be with a couple of years of seasoning.
Kansas doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for a quarterback to develop, however, not with new athletics director Al Bohl running the show. Patience is not Bohl’s middle name.
Reportedly, Mangino is already searching for a junior college quarterback. Pickings could be slim. Juco transfers who don’t participate in spring drills, particularly quarterbacks, are doomed to struggle and the talented juco QBs eligible to enroll for spring semesters around the country have mostly been taken off the board.
Dylen Smith, a juco transfer QB from California, couldn’t report to KU until August of 1999, and it showed. Missing spring practice placed him in a never-ending catch-up mode. Then again, Smith also struggled mainly with turnovers during his senior season in 2000 so perhaps he isn’t a good example.
Coaches who say quarterbacks receive too much credit when times are good and too much blame when times are bad didn’t see Smith throw five interceptions and lose two fumbles against Oklahoma during his senior year.
Too, those coaches didn’t see Kinsey complete only 43.6 percent of his passes last fall, the next-to-lowest percentage in the Big 12 Conference.
A quarterback sets the tone. A quarterback instills faith in both the offense and defense. Not that the Jayhawks didn’t believe in Kinsey last fall. They knew he possessed the physical skills to make a big play happen at any time.
As Kinsey matured, it was assumed the intervals between those big plays would decrease in proportion to his repetitions under center. That’s not an unreasonable assumption, but conjecture is all it is.
Perhaps Kinsey would have continued to run around like he was in a marble patch and maybe his strong but spotty arm would have remained more spotty than strong.
That we will never know is the fault of one person a 19-year-old from Waco, Texas and no one else.
Has any Kansas University student-athlete ever had a rockier year and a half both on and off the field than Mario Kinsey?
Kinsey, who showed promise as a red-shirt freshman quarterback last fall, is officially toast. On the field, he was inconsistent. Off the field well, he was in the headlines too often. In fact, if Kinsey were a cat he would have used at least a handful of lives during his three semesters on Mount Oread.
Kinsey was the classic double-edged sword. His inherent physical tools his strong arm, his mercurial legs kept him in the lineup, but his penchant for doing the wrong thing at the wrong time out of uniform wounded the KU football program’s credibility.
Now Kinsey has been asked to leave, dismissed for violating athletics department policies. To tell the truth, you won’t find a long list of no-nos among those policies, but they are definite no-can-do’s and for Kinsey to be guilty of violating even one of them is to invoke our pity. Kinsey blew a golden opportunity.
Now we’ll never know if Kinsey would have improved under new coach Mark Mangino. A crystal ball won’t help, yet it’s not hard to envision Kinsey as one of the league’s best QBs in 2003 and 2004.
Kinsey won’t be, of course, and once again Kansas is searching for another starting quarterback.
Yes, the Jayhawks still have Zach Dyer, who started five games last fall, but Dyer, while possessed of size and speed, lacks both the quickness and arm strength demanded of a contemporary NCAA Div. I-A quarterback.
Jonas Weatherbie is a wannabe who never will be at this level while Kevin Long, a highly touted 6-foot-5 red-shirt freshman out of Iowa City, Iowa, has been a bust.
KU’s coaching staff held one quarterback out of competition last season. His name is Brian Luke. He’s a 6-foot-5, 215-pounder from Walnut Lake, Calif., who by most reckoning isn’t ready for prime time, but could be with a couple of years of seasoning.
Kansas doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for a quarterback to develop, however, not with new athletics director Al Bohl running the show. Patience is not Bohl’s middle name.
Reportedly, Mangino is already searching for a junior college quarterback. Pickings could be slim. Juco transfers who don’t participate in spring drills, particularly quarterbacks, are doomed to struggle and the talented juco QBs eligible to enroll for spring semesters around the country have mostly been taken off the board.
Dylen Smith, a juco transfer QB from California, couldn’t report to KU until August of 1999, and it showed. Missing spring practice placed him in a never-ending catch-up mode. Then again, Smith also struggled mainly with turnovers during his senior season in 2000 so perhaps he isn’t a good example.
Coaches who say quarterbacks receive too much credit when times are good and too much blame when times are bad didn’t see Smith throw five interceptions and lose two fumbles against Oklahoma during his senior year.
Too, those coaches didn’t see Kinsey complete only 43.6 percent of his passes last fall, the next-to-lowest percentage in the Big 12 Conference.
A quarterback sets the tone. A quarterback instills faith in both the offense and defense. Not that the Jayhawks didn’t believe in Kinsey last fall. They knew he possessed the physical skills to make a big play happen at any time.
As Kinsey matured, it was assumed the intervals between those big plays would decrease in proportion to his repetitions under center. That’s not an unreasonable assumption, but conjecture is all it is.
Perhaps Kinsey would have continued to run around like he was in a marble patch and maybe his strong but spotty arm would have remained more spotty than strong.
That we will never know is the fault of one person a 19-year-old from Waco, Texas and no one else.
Has any Kansas University student-athlete ever had a rockier year and a half both on and off the field than Mario Kinsey?
Kinsey, who showed promise as a red-shirt freshman quarterback last fall, is officially toast. On the field, he was inconsistent. Off the field well, he was in the headlines too often. In fact, if Kinsey were a cat he would have used at least a handful of lives during his three semesters on Mount Oread.
Kinsey was the classic double-edged sword. His inherent physical tools his strong arm, his mercurial legs kept him in the lineup, but his penchant for doing the wrong thing at the wrong time out of uniform wounded the KU football program’s credibility.
Now Kinsey has been asked to leave, dismissed for violating athletics department policies. To tell the truth, you won’t find a long list of no-nos among those policies, but they are definite no-can-do’s and for Kinsey to be guilty of violating even one of them is to invoke our pity. Kinsey blew a golden opportunity.
Now we’ll never know if Kinsey would have improved under new coach Mark Mangino. A crystal ball won’t help, yet it’s not hard to envision Kinsey as one of the league’s best QBs in 2003 and 2004.
Kinsey won’t be, of course, and once again Kansas is searching for another starting quarterback.
Yes, the Jayhawks still have Zach Dyer, who started five games last fall, but Dyer, while possessed of size and speed, lacks both the quickness and arm strength demanded of a contemporary NCAA Div. I-A quarterback.
Jonas Weatherbie is a wannabe who never will be at this level while Kevin Long, a highly touted 6-foot-5 red-shirt freshman out of Iowa City, Iowa, has been a bust.
KU’s coaching staff held one quarterback out of competition last season. His name is Brian Luke. He’s a 6-foot-5, 215-pounder from Walnut Lake, Calif., who by most reckoning isn’t ready for prime time, but could be with a couple of years of seasoning.
Kansas doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for a quarterback to develop, however, not with new athletics director Al Bohl running the show. Patience is not Bohl’s middle name.
Reportedly, Mangino is already searching for a junior college quarterback. Pickings could be slim. Juco transfers who don’t participate in spring drills, particularly quarterbacks, are doomed to struggle and the talented juco QBs eligible to enroll for spring semesters around the country have mostly been taken off the board.
Dylen Smith, a juco transfer QB from California, couldn’t report to KU until August of 1999, and it showed. Missing spring practice placed him in a never-ending catch-up mode. Then again, Smith also struggled mainly with turnovers during his senior season in 2000 so perhaps he isn’t a good example.
Coaches who say quarterbacks receive too much credit when times are good and too much blame when times are bad didn’t see Smith throw five interceptions and lose two fumbles against Oklahoma during his senior year.
Too, those coaches didn’t see Kinsey complete only 43.6 percent of his passes last fall, the next-to-lowest percentage in the Big 12 Conference.
A quarterback sets the tone. A quarterback instills faith in both the offense and defense. Not that the Jayhawks didn’t believe in Kinsey last fall. They knew he possessed the physical skills to make a big play happen at any time.
As Kinsey matured, it was assumed the intervals between those big plays would decrease in proportion to his repetitions under center. That’s not an unreasonable assumption, but conjecture is all it is.
Perhaps Kinsey would have continued to run around like he was in a marble patch and maybe his strong but spotty arm would have remained more spotty than strong.
That we will never know is the fault of one person a 19-year-old from Waco, Texas and no one else.
