Kansas University’s homecoming football game Saturday night against No. 3-ranked Oklahoma will be an opportunity for KU assistant coaches Johnny Barr, Tom Hayes, Clarence James and Sam Pittman to see some old friends. Of course, those friends will be affiliated with the Sooners.
All four of the Kansas coaches spent time walking the OU sidelines, tenures ranging from James’ eight seasons as the wide receivers coach from 1991-98 to Pittman’s two years as the offensive line coach in 1997 and ’98. Both coaches were hired during the offseason to fill the same rolls for the Jayhawks.
Perhaps because of their similar backgrounds, Hayes and Barr have been bonding all season.
“It’s been great,” said Hayes, KU’s assistant head coach/defensive coordinator/secondary coach. “He’s a great friend and more importantly a great coach.”
Hayes and Barr, who was hired in the spring to coach the linebackers, have known each other since former OU coach Gary Gibbs brought in Hayes to be the Sooners’ defensive coordinator/secondary coach prior to the 1991 season.
Barr had been the inside linebackers coach on Gibbs’ staff since the 1989 season.
“I enjoy it a lot,” Barr said of working with Hayes. “He’s not only a really good football coach, but to me he’s a good friend, a good person, a good family man. What else can you ask for?”
Barr, a 1970 Oklahoma graduate, has a storied past with the Sooners. He played for two Big Eight-champion OU teams and was the school’s freshman coach for a year after graduating.
When the Jayhawks needed to find a replacement in the spring for former linebackers coach Mark Farley, who left to take the head coaching job at Northern Iowa, Hayes suggested his longtime friend and colleague.
“It was an easy transition,” KU coach Terry Allen said, “because when Mark got the job at Northern Iowa it was a quick fill. Johnny came in having worked with Tom before and knew what to do. It was a great acquisition and a natural fit.”
The timing of the move Barr wasn’t officially hired until April 4 during the first week of the spring practice session made the familiarity between the two coaches even more important.
“We haven’t missed a beat,” Hayes said. “He just walked in here and he knows exactly kind of the way I think and the way I do things. We worked so well together in Norman that we just took right off.
“I’m thrilled to have him. He’s a very fine football coach and we’re lucky to have him.”
One of their mutual loves is playing golf. Hayes said Barr was the better golfer, but deferred to Allen when asked about their handicaps. KU’s head coach said Hayes and Barr both had 9 handicaps.
“We have a lot in common and we know a lot of the same people,” Hayes said. “We just hit it off as soon as I got to Norman and we’ve had a great friendship ever since.”
Jayhawks honored: Sophomore running back Reggie Duncan and freshman kicker Johnny Beck were among the unprecedented six Big 12 athletes of the week for their roles in KU’s come-from-behind 34-31 double-overtime victory Saturday night in Lubbock, Texas.
Duncan, who shared the offensive player of the week award with Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch, had 38 carries for a career-high 227 yards, the eighth best performance in school history.
Beck, who was honored for special teams along with Missouri senior kicker Brad Hammerich, made four of his five field goals attempts, including the game-winner during the second overtime. The Kansas City Piper product is 9-of-10 on field goals at KU.
“We’re proud of Reggie Duncan and Johnny Beck for their accomplishments,” Allen said. “Reggie obviously had a nice game. Johnny Beck is pretty special. His kick in overtime was very big for the success of our team.”
Looking ahead: Allen briefly addressed the magnitude of the Jayhawks’ victory over the Red Raiders during the weekly Big 12 coaches teleconference Monday morning.
Then he moved on to OU.
“I think we’re probably the only program in the country that scheduled the defending national champions for homecoming,” he quipped. “It is our homecoming and I think it will be a great atmosphere. Hopefully we can have some great weather and duplicate the opportunity we had in the UCLA game.”
Say what?: Allen disputed published quotes from Duncan saying the latter told the former to “get me the football and I’d get it in” during KU’s game-tying two-point conversion.
“I heard that he said that, and I really don’t recall him saying that,” Allen quipped during his weekly Hawk Talk radio program Monday night. “He was doing it so it would not have been very smart to have not given him the ball.”
Also during Hawk Talk, Allen received congratulations and vocal support from several callers including one call from Connecticut and fans told him they hoped he’d be back next season.
“Why don’t we just go out and win six of the next seven games, then we won’t have any speculation about that,” Allen responded. “We’ll just take care of our own business and move forward with it. That would be the best way to take care of it.”