Kansas University football coach Mark Mangino might be facing a quarterback question mark in real life, but the virtual Mangino has a definite quarterback controversy after the virtual Adam Barmann took over for the virtual Brian Luke and led the virtual Jayhawks to a 41-28 victory over Louisiana Tech this virtual Saturday night at the virtual Memorial Stadium.
After tossing three touchdowns in the first half of last week’s record-setting game against virtual Appalachain State, KU’s Luke was downright lousy against the Bulldogs.
Before getting the hook on the second to last series before the end of the first half, Luke had completed only 2-of-10 passes for 27 yards — which included a 25-yard gain by Derek Fine (Luke’s only crisp pass of the contest). The 6-foot-6, 225-pound senior also had three costly interceptions with the Bulldogs red-zone.
The virtual Luke’s struggles were probably the biggest reason that the virtual Jayhawks were tied late in the first half against. La. Tech.
Enter the virtual Barmann, who certainly didn’t seem any sharper on his first series as the virtual Jays went three-and-out. But Barmann bounced back big time his second go-round — floating a ball to Fine for 19 yards, flipping a quick out to Mark Simmons for three and then hitting a streaking Brian Murph for a 46-yard gain.
Get the stats: KU-La. Tech virtual box
scoreThe big play allowed KU virtual kicker Scott Webb to boot a 27-yard field goal that gave Kansas a 24-14 halftime advantage.
Murph played an even bigger role earlier in the game after the Bulldogs marched 75 yards on seven plays to score the game’s first points.
Murph took the ensuing kick-off untouched down the right sideline for a 103-yard score — the second-longest in KU history.
“I think we’re going to do great things on the offense this year,” the virtual Murph would likely say, considering he said the same thing before the season started.
What an understatement.
The virtual Jayhawks have already scored five times this season via kickoffs.
Big plays weren’t limited to just the virtual Jayhawks though, because virtual Bulldog quarterback Matt Kubik showed in the first half there was no QB controversy on the La. Tech side.
The senior slinger was on the cusp of a Tim Rattay-type day, throwing for 193 yards in the first 16 minutes alone.
Virtual Jayhawk Clark Green, who broke the school-record with five scores in last week’s rout against Appalachian State also had a nice half, rushing for 89 yards on 12 carries and adding his sixth touchdown of the season.
As if the virtual Mangino didn’t already have his hands full with what to do at quarterback, virtual redshirt freshman Marcus Hereford entered the game early in the second half.
Hereford immediately made an impact with his fleet feet.
He ran a perfect option with the virtual Jon Cornish for a 16-yard gain. The DeSoto, Texas native also decided to show off his arm strength when he tossed a 25-yard bullet to Mark Simmons.
Then the 6-foot-3, 205-pounder had his biggest highlight, faking a roll-out pass to the left side and going into the end zone. The touchdown put the Jayhawks up comfortably, 31-14, but added even more QB options for the virtual Mangino to juggle.
“We have a lot of different parts that we have to put together so that we can have a successful quarterback position,” the virtual Mangino might say, considering he said that at this week’s press conference. “We have to take several factors into consideration and there are going to be some decisions that have to be made pretty soon about some of the personnel.
“It’s a complicated situation to some degree because we’re
going to have to make a decision somewhere down the road.”
But the virtual Mangino had more pressing matters shortly after Hereford’s score.
The Bulldogs were on their way back, thanks to virtual Youngstown, Ohio native, Kubik, had his way against KU’s virtual secondary.
Kubik — who didn’t quite get to the 500-yard passing plateau (which the real-life Rattay did in seven different collegiate games) — did find Seneca Chambers for his second score, which cut virtual KU’s lead to 31-21.
Murph kept the Bulldogs at bay though, grabbing a great ball from Barmann in the back of the end zone to put the virtual Jayhawks back on top by 17.
But the door wasn’t closed yet.
Kubik found Freddie King on a fourth-and-goal from the five with 6:20 left to slice the deficit back to 10.
While the virtual Bulldogs receiving corps nearly had as good a day as their QB, it would take four of the Bulldogs totals — Freddie King (159 yards), Johnathan Holland (140), Eric Newman (60), and Chambers (59) to surpass the real-life NCAA record (405 yards) afternoon that former Techster Troy Edwards had against Nebraska in 1998.
After Chambers second score the Bulldogs got the ball back once more and were marching in the final minutes to cut the lead to single digits.
But after being burned the previous play, the virtual Charles Gordon had the day’s biggest defensive highlight when he wrapped up King on the five-yard line, but reached around with his other hand and knocked away the football, which the virtual Jerome Kemp hopped on.
KU’s virtual Charleton Keith would come up big on the Bulldogs final drive, sacking Kubick and also knocking down a pass. Finally Scott Webb added an exclamation point with a 47-yarder for the final margin.
“These guys are used to playing major conference schools,” the virtual Mangino might say of Tech. “In the last five or six years, they have defeated Alabama, Michigan State, and gave a heck of a game to Penn State. They are a good, hard-nosed team.”
In last season’s NCAA Tournament, Pacific’s Guillaume Yango scored 22 points and grabbed six rebounds in the Tigers’ 78-63 loss to the Kansas Jayhawks.
In this week’s X-Factor simulation, Kansas held Yango to four points and four boards in just nine minutes, forcing him into a team-high five turnovers in a 103-80 virtual KU victory.
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Yango sat out most of the first half after picking up his second foul, and didn’t play much in the second half after the Tigers fell too far behind to come back.
The Jayhawks had problems early against the Tigers, trailing 20-17 eight minutes into the game before going on a 15-3 run over the next five minutes.
Nick Bahe helped spark the run, finishing the first half with four points and three steals in eight minutes off the bench.
KU finished the first half with a 53-37 lead, despite being outrebounded, 17-13, and outblocked, 8-3, and shooting eight fewer free throws. Much of KU’s 16-point advantage was due to a 16-3 turnover advantage.
Pacific again outrebounded KU in the second half, and cut its turnovers down to just five after halftime, but the Jayhawks outscored the Tigers, 50-43, in the final 20 minutes.
J.R. Giddens led KU with 25 points on 9-of-15 shooting, including 5-of-9 shooting from three-point range. Aaron Miles was named KU’s player of the game with 20 points (7-of-14 FG), four assists and two steals.
Michael Lee and Keith Langford each added nine points, Russell Robinson scored six points, dished out seven assists and had four steals, and Darnell Jackson scored eight points in 10 minutes.
Wayne Simien scored four points and grabbed seven rebounds, Christian Moody had eight points and three boards, and Bahe had six points, four assists and three steals.
Marko Mihailovic was named Pacific’s palyer of the game after scoring 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting. He also had four assists and six rebounds.
Allan Purnell scored 12 points, David Doubley added 10 points, and Christian Maraker added nine points, seven rebounds and five assists.
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