Kansas University football coach Mark Mangino made it clear during the offseason that Mid-American Conference power Toledo wasn’t his ideal nonconference opponent.
KU’s third-year coach would rather play a weaker team from a weaker conference while building his program, but the Jayhawks — who couldn’t find a lesser opponent for Saturday’s date — will play host to the MAC West favorite at 6 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.
Mangino’s opinion of the Rockets didn’t change after their 63-21 loss to No. 22 Minnesota on Saturday in Minneapolis.
“We’re not going to judge Toledo on the Minnesota game,” he said Monday during the Big 12 Conference coaches’ teleconference.
Instead, the Jayhawks will look at what the Rockets have done right.
Toledo has the sixth-best record (37-12) in Division I-A since 2000. The Rockets have helped the MAC gain a reputation as giant killer, including a 35-31 victory over Pittsburgh last season when UT finished 8-4.
Toledo returned 14 starters from that team and had high expectations for 2004 before Minnesota exposed the Rockets’ young defense in a 42-point slaughter on national television.
“The score of their game against Minnesota doesn’t indicate the type of team that they are,” said Mangino, whose team defeated Tulsa, 21-3, and will try to start the season with back-to-back victories for the first time since 1997. “Minnesota got some big plays early in the game, and things kind of snowballed on Toledo. We’re preparing hard for them. We know that that they’re going to work hard to try to rebound mentally for our game.”
Toledo quarterback Bruce Gradkowski threw for 202 yards — including 10 passes to Lance Moore for 99 yards — and the Rockets finished with 406 total yards.
It wasn’t nearly enough.
Minnesota had 464 of its 704 yards in the first half alone while building a 42-7 lead. UM punter Rhys Lloyd, who pulled off two fake punts, had twice as many rushing yards as the Rockets in the first half — 28-14.
Minnesota led 63-7 early in the fourth quarter before Toledo tacked on a pair of late scores. So what was the problem? Missed tackles, poor coverage or missed assignments?
“All of the above,” Toledo coach Tom Amstutz said during the MAC teleconference. “Minnesota is for real. They’re a really good football team. We still have some tightening up of our defense to do. We have a lot of young players up front. When one team’s strength meets another team’s weakness, those kind of results can happen.”
Toledo had six new starters on defense, including freshmen tackles Patrick Clark and Tyree Pollard. Five other freshmen dotted Toledo’s defensive two-deep chart.
“We’re going to learn a lot from this,” said Amstutz, who is 27-12 in his fourth season. “Our team is not the type of team that puts its head down. We’re going to bounce right back. We’re going to prepare for Kansas, and we have to get better next week.”
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Rideau honored: KU senior receiver Brandon Rideau was named Big 12 special teams player of the week Monday. Rideau blocked two punts Saturday. He returned one block 19 yards and caught three passes for 27 yards. Vernand Morency of Oklahoma State was named Big 12 offensive player of the week, and Texas linebacker Derrick Johnson was the defensive player of the week.
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Running back rotation: Sophomore John Randle led KU with 56 yards rushing on 17 carries against Tulsa, despite sitting out the first half for disciplinary reasons. Clark Green carried six times for 23 yards, all in the first half.
“Clark Green is going to play,” Mangino said. “He’s been a workhorse for us. There’s no question about that. Clark did a good job of getting bigger and stronger in the weight room, but I think some of the extra pounds he put on have slowed down his footwork. He knows it, I know it and we’ll get that corrected. You’ll see a lot of John Randle. We’ll decide how we’re going to go later in week, but they’re both going to be out there.”