Keegan: Mountaineers better hike home now

By Tom Keegan     Sep 10, 2005

Kansas University takes on a nationally ranked opponent, a school that once won a game by 16 touchdowns, this evening at Memorial Stadium.

That’s right, Appalachian State checks in at 25th in the NCAA Division I-AA rankings and lest you take the Mountaineers lightly, remember they defeated Piedmont, 115-0, just 69 seasons ago.

A ranking of 25th places Appalachian eight slots behind the fearsome Sam Houston State Bearkats and 11 behind the loaded Lehigh Mountain Hawks.

The Mountaineers of Appalachian State aren’t quite in the class of the scary Northwestern State Demons though. No sir, the Demons rank ninth in the nation. Good thing the Jayhawks don’t have them on the schedule until next year.

With all due respect to a clever wordsmith by the name of Steve Behr of the Watauga Democrat, the Mountaineers have no shot of winning this game and they should consider themselves fortunate it’s not a winner-take-all purse. The school will get its Washington

Generals money no matter how many touchdowns behind they are at the end of the first quarter.

To use the No. 1 cliche for a stiff on the schedule and call this game a layup would be to insult the skill it takes to make a layup. It’s more like a Nerf Hoop dunk with a Mulligan just in case the first one pops out.

Not that this game won’t serve a useful purpose for KU.

It can be to the Jayhawks what exhibition games are to NFL teams, sparring partners are to champs, the putting green is to Vijay Singh. It’s a chance to work on cleaning up the sloppy edges.

It will be more interesting to watch than any NFL exhibition game, sparring session or putting green drills. For that we can all thank Appalachian quarterback Richie Williams, a candidate for the Walter Payton Award, given to the top Division I-AA player.

A threat to make the Jayhawks sweat with the pass and run, Williams has thrown for more than 5,000 yards in 24 starts.

Williams no longer has DaVon Fowlkes, third-place finisher in the Payton Award a year ago, on the other end of his passes.

Fowlkes led the nation in receptions, receiving yards and all-purpose yards. Even without Fowlkes, Williams should be plenty of fun to watch and so should the Jayhawks’ offense.

Chattanooga passed for 540 yards and scored 59 points against the Mountaineers last October. The good news for the Jayhawks is eight starters from that horrendous defense are back.

If KU doesn’t shred this secondary, it’s time to seriously worry about the passing game. Last week’s excessive drops robbed Brian Luke of what should have been a strong statistical performance.

“First-game jitters?” echoed tight end Derek Fine, who had a drop. “Maybe. Maybe not. We’ve got so many talented receivers. It’s just one of those things. Everybody has a bad day. We just have to work on it and go for no drops this game.”

No drops from the receivers and no big plays allowed by the defense would be a nice place to start in the way of setting goals for this sparring session. Florida Atlantic’s pair of 66-yard touchdowns should give the Jayhawks all the incentive they need to tame the nationally ranked Mountaineers.

Tough call as to which coach has the more difficult assignment: Is it KU coach Mark Mangino in convincing his players to take this game seriously or Jerry Moore in trying to make his players believe they’re going to pull off an upset.

“We’re not in a position at Kansas to take anybody lightly,” Mangino said.

That’s true of every team on the KU schedule, save one, the one with the extra A.

PREV POST

KU football to face ASU

NEXT POST

17109Keegan: Mountaineers better hike home now