Scott McClurg/Journal-World PhotoMark Mangino put on a happy face Saturday night, raining — no pun intended — bouquet after bouquet after bouquet on his players.
“We took another step toward our goal,” the Kansas University football coach gushed following the Jayhawks’ soggy 28-20 loss to Northwestern at Memorial Stadium.
Depends on who’s measuring, I guess. Certainly, not many teams make a positive step — even a baby step — by losing at home to a team that had one of the worst defenses in the country last season.
Whatever spin you put on the Jayhawks’ season opener, the bottom line is Kansas scored only one offensive touchdown against a club with a swinging-gate defense.
“Their defense is improved,” Mangino noted, “but I thought we didn’t do a good job of pitching and catching.”
Mainly pitching.
Quarterback Bill Whittemore didn’t look like the Bill Whittemore who finished fourth in the Big 12 Conference in total offense last season despite playing in only nine games.
Mangino blamed Whittemore’s woes on rust — no, not rust caused by Saturday night’s persistent rain — but on the fact the senior signal-caller hadn’t played since going down with a knee injury with three contests still remaining in the 2002 season.
“He didn’t have a good first half, but he hasn’t played in a long time,” Mangino said. “He’s the last guy I’m worried about.”
For his part, Whittemore admitted he had difficulty throwing in the wet conditions.
“I’ve got to take the blame for a bunch of bad balls,” he said. “I think the rain hampered me a little bit. I had a terrible throwing game.”
Whittemore, who completed just 12 of 28 passes, conceded he has had difficulty throwing a wet ball in the past.
“It’s something I need to work on,” he said. “But it’s hard to work on when it doesn’t rain for two months and then we have a downpour.”
No doubt Whittemore would have put up better numbers if the field and the ball had been dry, but another factor may be at work here. Whittemore enjoyed most of his success last year while scrambling, but Mangino has stated flatly he doesn’t want his QB to run as much this year.
Sure enough, on Saturday night, Whittemore carried just four times for only seven yards. Time and again, on occasions when he did roll out and appeared to have a wide-open field in front of him, Whittemore threw the ball instead of tucking it away and taking off.
Perhaps it’s just a coincidence the Jayhawks’ only offensive TD — a 74-yard pass to Mark Simmons — came off a busted play that started with Whittemore rolling to his right, then reversing field and hitting Simmons with about a 10-yard pass that the sophomore wide receiver converted into a TD by running against the grain (and receiving a terrific block from running back Clark Green).
When Whittemore wasn’t rolling out, when he stayed in the pocket, he didn’t throw with the same accuracy. Was it the rain? Or was he having difficulty adjusting to a new style — for him — of quarterbacking?
“I felt a little uncomfortable back in the pocket,” Whittemore stated, “but no excuses. We’re trying to stay in the pocket a little more.”
The obvious reason for Mangino to change Whittemore from a rollout quarterback to a stand-up QB is to reduce his chances of injury. Yet Whittemore tweaked a knee late in the first half after merely handing the ball off to Green.
At the time, Whittemore had to leave. He didn’t return until the start of the second half and he was limping slightly then. The limp eventually went away and Whittemore reported afterward the ailing knee felt fine.
All in all, the knee was hardly a factor. He threw better after he hurt it than he did before the injury.
In the big picture, though, seeing Whittemore under rein in the rain made me wonder if Kansas can reach its goal of at least a six-win season by turning a two-dimensional quarterback into a one-dimensional one.
Mangino stressed he has “no plans to change anything,” but with 11 games remaining …well, you know what they say about best-laid plans.
Hear Mark: Post-game remarks
WIBW video: KU stopped by Northwestern
Box score