Kansas City, Mo. ? Virtual Kansas football coach Mark Mangino stayed true to the words the real-life Mangino uttered earlier in the week — this time, however, the virtual Jayhawks might have been better off had their coach used a faster trigger-finger.
Mangino stuck by virtual starting quarterback Brian Luke, just as the tangible Mangino said he would.
While Luke started the game with decent success, he certainly didn’t finish the contest, nor lead did he lead the virtual Jayhawks to a victory over virtual Oklahoma at virtual Arrowhead Stadium.
Instead the virtually inserted Jason Swanson rallied the virtual ‘Hawks for a mini comeback, but Kansas still was stung 34-20 by the virtual Sooners.
“When you’re playing a great team like Oklahoma, you got to be hitting on all cylinders, and unfortunately we weren’t,” the virtual Luke might say, considering that the real-life Adam Barmann made that exact statement after the Sooners defeated the Jayhawks 41-10 in Norman, Okla., last season.
Get the stats: KU-OU virtual box
scoreThat certainly didn’t seem like the case as Luke led the virtual Jayhawks (4-2 overall, 1-2 Big 12) down the field and into the end zone on their first possession of the game when Clark Green darted in from 10-yards out.
But what seemed like a successful start, quickly soured.
Minutes after virtual KU’s score, virtual standout Charles Gordon left the game with an apparent arm injury.
From there, the virtual Jayhawks turmoil only intensified — thanks solely to virtual Sooner Adrian Peterson.
The 6-foot-2, 218-pound ground-gobbler from Palestine, Texas quickly made his presence known. And even quicker yet, Peterson showed no proof of the mild ankle sprain that has limited him all week.
Peterson tied the game up when he caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from virtual Sooner QB Rhett Bomar halfway into the first quarter.
But Peterson’s day was just getting started.
On virtual OU’s next possession the sophomore slipped outside and showed off his blazing speed as he burnt past the virtual KU defenders before stopping in the Arrowhead end zone nearly 50 yards away.
By the time virtual Jayhawk defenders caught their breath they were again watching the virtual bull of a back bowl them over when Peterson powered in from two-yards out.
His touchdown plunge capped off an eight-play drive that featured 50 yards coming from him via the ground. It also gave the virtual Sooners a very healthy lead.
“They’re going to see the best running back in the country,” the real-life Mangino said during his weekly press conference, perhaps not knowing what his pregame prognostication meant to the virtual Jayhawks.
“We’re really impressed with Adrian Peterson. Who isn’t?”
Not the virtual Kansas defense in the second half when the Jayhawks limited him to just 33 yards some 150 less than Peterson racked up in the first half of the virtual showdown with the Sooners.
And if Peterson’s spectacular showing didn’t make it all but impossible for the virtual Jayhawks to rally, the virtual Luke’s second-half showing certainly did.
While virtual Kansas’ defense came back to shut down the virtual Sooners, virtual KU’s offense was even more quiet.
On five consecutive possessions, the virtual Luke led drives that ended with three plays and a virtual punt.
By the time the virtual Swanson did get in the contest with minutes left, it was too late.
And just for good measure virtual OU linebacker Dusty Dvoracek gave virtual Swanson such a hard smack it allowed virtual Sooner Zach Latimer pick up the loose football for a 68-yard fumble return.
Not for a lack of effort from the virtual one-time City College of San Francisco superstar.
In the last four minutes, the virtual Swanson completed the same number of passes as the virtual Luke did in five less tries. His 156 yards passing led to a two-yard Marcus Herford score in the final minute.
And onside kick later and the virtual Jayhawks at least were looking to make some virtual gamblers very angry.
But the game ended with Swanson on his virtual back in much the same fashion Luke had endured during the first half.
“To blame it on the quarterbacks is not fair,” the virtual Mangino might say considering he said that last week after real-life KU’s loss at K-State. “I would say that it was all 11 players on offense who contributed to the sub par performance that we had.
“You can’t really blame one player or say one player created the poor performance that we had. We were not good assignment-wise or fundamentally.”
Editor’s note: Without Wayne Simien in the lineup, we decided to start C.J. Giles against Georgia Tech center Luke Schenscher, with Christian Moody moving to power forward. We also did not add Alex Galindo to the roster after dropping Simien, as we didn’t feel confident about being able to give him the proper ratings to make his performance as realistic as possible. And an FYI: with Simien out KU fell from an A+ overall grade to a C+.
No Wayne Simien, no problem for the virtual Kansas University men’s basketball team against Georgia Tech in this week’s X-Factor simulation.
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Freshman center C.J. Giles started in place of Simien and finished with a solid line of 12 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks in the Jayhawks’ 100-86 victory over the Yellow Jackets.
The Jayhawks never trailed, leading the Yellow Jackets by as many as eight points, 35-27, midway through the first half. Georgia Tech pulled even twice late in the half, but Kansas took a 53-49 lead into the break.
KU outscored Georgia Tech, 47-37, after halftime, finishing with a 14-point virtual victory.
Simien’s fellow starting seniors also picked up the slack in his absence. Aaron Miles was named player of the game for scoring 26 points and dishing out seven assists in 39 minutes, and Keith Langford scored 21 points in 32 minutes, though he did hit just one of six three-pointers.
J.R. Giddens scored 19 points and grabbed six rebounds while playing all 40 minutes, and Christian Moody added 16 points and seven boards.
Russell Robinson added four points off the bench, and Darnell Jackson hit a pair of free throws.
B.J. Elder led Georgia Tech with 26 points, and Isma’il Muhammad – Georgia Tech’s player of the game – added 12 points, four assists and eight blocks. Jarrett Jack scored 10 points and dished out six assists, and Will Bynum scored 10 points in just five minutes.
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