College football notes and quotes while wondering if Kansas University will ever be mentioned in the same breath with the BCS …
- Only one Big 12 head football coach, Kansas State’s Bill Snyder, missed the conference’s Media Day, and only one head coach missed the Big Ten Media Day. Minnesota’s Glen Mason, who was recovering from minor surgery, sent offensive coordinator Mitch Browning in his stead. Browning and running backs coach Vic Adamle, incidentally, are the lone holdovers from the staff Mason had during his nine-year stint at KU (1988-96). …
- Speaking of Minnesota, Gophers officials will have a problem if baseball’s Twins make the American League playoffs. Both the Twins and the Gophers call the Metrodome home, and UM games with Michigan Oct. 11 and Oct. 18 against Michigan State are in limbo because those dates are reserved for Twins’ playoff games. …
- In a preseason poll of Mountain West Conference media, Wyoming was picked to finish last in the eight-team league, San Diego State seventh and UNLV sixth. Curiously, all three were on Kansas’ original 2003 schedule. The Jayhawks still have UNLV and Wyoming, but KU officials bought their way out of a trip to SDSU to add a home date with Jacksonville (Ala.) State. In case you’re wondering, Colorado State was the media pick to win the Mountain West, followed by New Mexico, Air Force, BYU and Utah. …
- Two head football coaches of major universities in Texas were born in Kansas. Can you name them? Answer later. …
- Tom Hayes, the answer to a KU football trivia question because he was the Jayhawks’ head coach for the last three games of the 2001 season, is the
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owner of Tanner’s Bar and Grill, a watering hole and food trough scheduled to open soon near 15th and Wakarusa. …
- All the other members of deposed head coach Terry Allen’s last staff are still in college coaching, including Allen, who is associate head coach at Iowa State. Rip Scherer, Allen’s offensive coordinator, has the same job at Southern Mississippi after sitting out the 2002 season. Two of Allen’s aides, Clint Bowen and Travis Jones, remained at Kansas. Bowen is still here, but Jones left for LSU after the 2002 season. The other former Allen aides were Clarence James (SMU), Sam Pittman (Northern Illinois), Johnny Barr (Texas Tech), Jay Johnson (Southern Miss), Tim Burke (Indiana State) and Rob Bolks (Northern Iowa). …
- Few would argue Colorado has the toughest non-conference schedule in the Big 12. The Buffaloes will meet Colorado State in Denver, UCLA and Washington State in Boulder and Florida State in Tallahassee. …
- Talking about oft-injured quarterback Jason White, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said: “He’s had a lot of bad luck. He’s due for some good luck.” Mark Mangino could have easily uttered the same words about Bill Whittemore. …
- By the way, if Whittemore hadn’t transferred to Kansas, he would still be playing against Jacksonville State this fall. Jax State will meet Tennessee-Martin a couple of weeks after the Gamecocks come to Lawrence Sept. 20. Whittemore began his college career at UT-Martin. …
- Quiz answer: Dennis Franchione, first-year head coach at Texas A&M, was born in Girard and played at Pittsburg State. Gary Patterson, now in his third year at TCU, was born in Larned and went to Kansas State. …
- Don’t go to Evanston, Ill., during the next couple of weeks hoping to watch Northwestern University’s preseason practice. For the 12th straight year, the Wildcats have headed north to Kenosha, Wis., to work out for two weeks at Wisconsin-Parkside. …
- Joel Klatt, a 21-year-old who played three seasons of minor league baseball, is Colorado’s oldest quarterback. “He’s the only one in that room who shaves,” CU coach Gary Barnett quipped. …
- Practically the entire North Carolina men’s basketball staff coached at Kansas last year, but did you know the Tar Heels’ football program has a former KU aide, too? Jim Webster, who worked under Bud Moore in the 1970s, is Carolina’s assistant head coach and special teams coordinator. …
- Rick Abernethy, the Kansas reserve linebacker who was “The 12th Man” in the Jayhawks’ 1969 Orange Bowl game against Penn State, has resigned as head coach at Kansas City Wyandotte after undergoing hip replacement surgery.
