If college football had been around when Nathaniel Hawthorne was writing, he might have penned of the Kansas University offensive linemen: “On the breast of their jerseys, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of blue thread, appeared the number 2.7.”
No such number appears on the blockers’ jerseys. Times have changed since Hawthorne wrote “The Scarlet Letter.” Public humiliation is out. Good thing for the Jayhawks’ blockers, because 2.7 is a number they don’t ever want to see again. It represents the average yards per rush for KU in 2004.
Three games into this season, against the weakest teams the Jayhawks will face, the number is 4.2.
Saturday night’s Big 12 Conference opener will reveal how much of the gain can be attributed to scheduling and how much to the line’s improvement. A year ago, the Jayhawks entered Big 12 play averaging 3.2 yards per rush, so they’re a yard ahead of that pace.
Making use of the holes created by the line, Jon Cornish is averaging 6.2 yards per carry and has rushed for five touchdowns. Clark Green has averaged 4.2 yards and has one rushing touchdown.
Junior center David Ochoa, one of five captains, captures why the line has improved.
“There is no other position where you’re that close to two other guys and you have to talk to them in order to be on the same page,” Ochoa said. “That’s the biggest difference from a year ago. Our communication is so much better. If you miked us up, had that kind of deal, you’d be kind of amazed how much we talk, almost in conversational tones.”
The five KU starters average 295 pounds, not huge by Big 12 standards.
“I think of us as an intelligent offensive line,” Ochoa said. “We know none of us weigh 330 pounds. We don’t look at that as a deficiency. We look at it more as a strength. We’re quick, we’re smart and we know what we have to do to get it done.”
He’ll take the description “athletic,” just not the one that usually goes with it.
“We don’t have guys who are going to drive block somebody 20 yards,” he said. “We’re all athletic guys, but a lot of times if you hear athletic offensive line, you hear finesse offensive line. I don’t think of us as a finesse offensive line.”
Good sign. I mean, really, do you want your offensive lineman describing himself as a finesse guy? Of course you don’t. Finesse won’t get it done Saturday in Lubbock, where the Jayhawks’ best chance at winning lies in shortening the game by running the football all night. It’s not as if Texas Tech didn’t have a weakness last season. Kansas just didn’t have the means to exploit it.
Most Big 12 teams found it easy to run the football against the Red Raiders. The Jayhawks managed just 86 yards. That won’t cut it this time. With former KU great Willie Pless being inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame this weekend, no better time for Cornish, a native of Canada, to have the game of his life.
“I have a lot of confidence in our running game with Jon Cornish and Clark Green back there,” quarterback Brian Luke said. “With Clark, we’ve got the experience and the maturity, and Cornish, just with his pure athletic ability, is going to put us in good situations.”
It’s KU’s best shot at an upset.
