The losses didn’t hit harder anywhere on the Kansas University football field.
They were the face of KU’s resurgent defense the last two seasons – three linebackers, overachievers, guided by intelligence and hard work. Nick Reid, Kevin Kane and Banks Floodman all ran out of eligibility, and the stinger is that they all did so at the exact same time.
No one in the KU program seems to be stressed about it, though. Instead, the feeling exists that it’s time to usher in a new, fresh attitude for the heart of the Jayhawk defense.
“Young, aggressive, crazy guys,” sophomore-to-be Mike Rivera said. “I think there might be a little bit of a different style.”
That’s no knock on the way things were, of course – and anyway, how could you knock on how effective last year’s senior class was? Instead, it’s just a desire for Rivera and his teammates to pave their own trail, while still remembering all they learned from the “Three Amigos” that did so well last season.
Through the first two weeks of spring drills, it appears that Rivera, Joe Mortensen and James Holt have stepped in to fill the starting roles. And get this – they’ll all be sophomores, perhaps setting up another special class that can clog up the depth chart with reliability.
Rivera, Mortensen and Holt were fixtures on special teams in 2005 – Rivera and Mortensen because their athleticism demanded playing time, and Holt because his nasty streak allowed him to skip a redshirt.
Even better for the new wave was that they started college football playing under the old wave – Reid, Kane and Floodman, perhaps KU’s best crop of linebackers ever.
“They set the bar high,” Rivera said. “But that’s good for us. It’s going to bring our level up, and we’ll play even better because of them.”
The three sophomores have teammates breathing down their neck – an injured Eric Washington, Brandon Duncan, Arist Wright, Jake Schermer and Ian Handshy all are thought to be in the mix, and all but Washington and Duncan had significant repititions in Saturday’s scrimmage in Topeka.
“There’s communication things between the linebackers and the secondary that need to be worked out,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “But we’re in spring football. That’s why we practice.
“I liked the way the linebackers played downhill (Saturday). I thought we tackled pretty well early on.”
Wrapping up opponents was a trait the old regime rarely failed at during their days in Lawrence. Rivera knows this year’s linebackers might be compared to Reid, Kane and Floodman.
But he doesn’t see the point.
“We’re not trying to fill their shoes,” Rivera said. “We’re trying to make new shoes. We’re trying to make our own names. We’re trying to build our own crew, our own linebackers.
“They’re going to raise the bar for us, and we’ll keep taking it up and keep getting better, getting better all the time.”
