Nick KrugAugust isn’t known for producing storms in Kansas, but the beginning of football season is here, and with it comes Kansas University’s version of “thunder.”
“People say that. They said the same thing in high school,” senior fullback Brandon McAnderson said. “But I don’t know what thunder is, actually. If I’m a big sound, then I’m thunder.”
After averaging 12.5 carries per season during his first two years with the program, McAnderson saw his production boom last fall.
In 12 games, “B-Mac,” as he’s known to teammates, carried 31 times and scored five touchdowns. Despite career highs in both categories, McAnderson’s main contribution came as a blocker as he paved the way for Jon Cornish’s single-season rushing record.
But Cornish is gone now, and talk around camp suggests a larger role for McAnderson.
Nick KrugAs a senior at Lawrence High, B-Mac ran for more than 1,500 yards for the Lions. While it’s not likely that he’ll break Cornish’s record of 1,457 yards, McAnderson is ready to play a larger role.
“It’s very exciting,” McAnderson said. “That’s what I came here to do when I committed here, and I was sure that it was going to happen. It just took a little longer than I would have expected. But I’m still excited about it, and if the opportunities come, I will embrace them.”
First-year offensive coordinator Ed Warinner has all but guaranteed the opportunities will be there. But instead of being slotted as the No. 1 tailback, McAnderson joins Salina sophomore Jake Sharp, red-shirt sophomore Angus Quigley and true freshman Carmon Boyd-Anderson on the list of those most likely to take Cornish’s carries.
“If it’s committee, that’s fine with me,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “If one guy proves he can do everything in the package all the time, that’d be great. I don’t foresee that happening, early in the season at least.”
Neither does Warinner, the architect behind the Jayhawks’ new offense. He plans to utilize all of the running backs, but admits that McAnderson and Sharp appear to be the most reliable options.
“We have a lot of different types of guys at the running-back position,” Warinner said. “Jake Sharp has great speed and the ability to do some things in the open field, and he’s developing as a pass receiver, as well. Brandon McAnderson is a little bit more of an inside runner, but still can do some things on the perimeter and in the passing game. He provides a big-back approach in there at 235 (pounds), so we like him. And he’s a real smart player, a veteran player. We kind of have a 1-2 punch there with a bigger back and a quicker, niftier, change-of-direction guy.”
Call it KU’s version of thunder and lighting, the two-back approach the New Orleans Saints used with Deuce McAllister and Reggie Bush to make it to the NFC title game.
While McAnderson and Sharp provide the Jayhawks with known commodities at running back, the team isn’t changing its offensive approach.
“Our offense is an offense that provides opportunity to run the ball because we throw the ball well,” Mangino said. “That’s going to be our philosophy.”
And that’s fine with McAnderson. He’s used to working hard without receiving much fanfare.
As a junior, McAnderson quietly created lanes for Cornish and earned an All-Big 12 second-team nod from league coaches. He also landed a couple of team honors. Along with tight end Derek Fine, McAnderson received the Gale Sayers Award, given annually to the team’s most courageous player. He also won the Bruce Kallmeyer Award, which goes to the top special-teams player.
As a senior, McAnderson’s honors have come early. His hard work and leadership earned the respect of teammates, and he was named one of KU’s four captains.
“I’ve always considered myself a leader, but to be elected a captain is something even bigger, and it gives you some more responsibility, that this win or this loss is something you have more of an impact on,” McAnderson said. “That’s all you can ask for as a college player, is to have an impact on the outcome of the game or the success or failure of the team.”
The honors don’t stop there. A series of team polls published in this year’s media guide conveyed that McAnderson was one of the team’s most popular players. In addition to receiving votes for the “nicest player on the team” and “most likely to succeed,” B-Mac was voted the top comedian.
It’s a title he has no idea how he earned.
“I’m a different kind of funny,” McAnderson said. “I’m a little more subtle, and I think they like that a little bit.
“It’s definitely the greatest honor,” he added, flashing a taste of his dry humor. “I might become a comedian now just because I have the confidence of my teammates.”
That confidence doesn’t stop with cracking jokes. With Cornish gone, McAnderson knows that his leadership, experience and ability will be more important, and he couldn’t be more excited about being asked to deliver.
“I wouldn’t call it pressure, I call it opportunity,” McAnderson said. “Any opportunity, you’re going to take advantage of. If it’s three or four (carries), and you get four yards, then how can you ask for 30? You get whatever you get, and you have to take advantage every time you touch the ball. That’s all I’m looking forward to.”
Mike YoderTruth be told, the Kansas University football offense never will be known as the B Mac Attack.
As long as big-play back Jon Cornish is available in the backfield, as long as Angus Quigley and ballyhooed newcomer Jake Sharp are there to push Cornish and as long as for-real gunslinger Kerry Meier is around to put the ball in the air, Brandon McAnderson is bound just to be another bullet in the gun.
But darned if he isn’t of a slightly higher caliber this fall.
“It’s an opportunity,” McAnderson said, “and I have to make sure I make the most of the opportunity.”
McAnderson, a 6-foot, 235-pound junior and product of Lawrence High, has played in all of the Jayhawks’ games the past two seasons – 23 games, with two starts, at fullback and on special teams.
As a red-shirt freshman in 2004, he had three carries for four yards and a TD. Last year, he had 22 carries for 102 net yards and a touchdown.
He also opened up umpteen holes through which the glamour-boy tailbacks scampered.
“Everybody wants more carries,” McAnderson said, “but it doesn’t make a difference what I do. I’m not into individual stats. There’s glory in both people, the one running it and the one blocking. If we get in the end zone, whether it’s me or Cornish or Meier, we’re in the end zone. We’re playing to win. That’s all that matters to me.”
103
Yards gained rushing last season by Brandon McAnderson
1
Yards lost rushing
4.6
Yards per carry last season
3, 40
Catches, receiving yards last year
McAnderson was a standout running back at LHS, an All-Sunflower League pick for coach Dirk Wedd. He rushed for 3,052 yards and 41 touchdowns in three years as a Lion.
He red-shirted in 2003, then made his initial mark on special teams the following season, when, in addition to the whopping three carries, he was credited with seven total tackles.
McAnderson played his way into the starting job last season, and at the year-end awards banquet was named the Jayhawks’ most improved offensive player.
Then in the spring, McAnderson started lining up in one-back sets – normally a job for a tailback.
But he didn’t make anybody forget Cornish – who led the team in rushing yards (780), rushing touchdowns (nine), average per carry (5.8 yards) and rushing yards per game (65.0).
Quigley, a red-shirt freshman, and Sharp, a true yearling who has been so impressive coach Mark Mangino has said he likely won’t be fitted for a red shirt, also will compete for touches.
“Angus is in there competing,” Mangino said. “Brandon McAnderson also has played single back for us, in the single-back set. Jake Sharp is in there competing. Angus is doing well. I like the way he’s coming from day one until now, but he’s still a work in progress.”
As long as Cornish continues to be used on special teams, though, the Jayhawks likely will need to spread the touches around.
Enter McAnderson, who says he’s just as content to throw a block as carry the rock.
“My role is to be an upperclassmen, to help the young guys, especially the running backs, to help them learn the offense,” he said. “My role is to make sure the football players play KU football. It’s exciting to have more opportunities. Every season is exciting. If it’s more time on the special teams, you have to be excited to have more time on the special teams. If it’s more carries, you have to be excited about more carries.”
Don’t be surprised if the sprinters pass a boxing glove instead of a baton during today’s Kansas Relays “Main Event,” set for 5 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.
It’d be a fitting gesture considering the competitors in the star-studded men’s 400 invitational relay have been as aggressive as heavyweights in publicizing what Olympic 100 meter champion Justin Gatlin calls “one of the biggest races of the year.”
“It’s just boiling over,” Gatlin, leader of the Sprint Capitol team, said of emotions heading into the race against rival team HSI, led by Kansas City, Kan., native and fan favorite Maurice Greene.
Sprint Capitol coach Trevor Graham said earlier this week his squad of Gatlin, Shawn Crawford, Dwight Thomas and Rodney Martin was so dominant it’d be “running against the clock,” not worrying about the competition in trying to better the meet record of 38.45 set by Green’s team back in 2000.
“He can be running against the clock, but the clock is going to be behind us. As I recall, we’ve never lost a relay here,” said Greene, who will run with Leonard Scott, Kaaron Conwright and Allen Johnson.
“I would say this: People have had more success against me when you don’t say anything, but the success rate when you do say something before the race : you get nowhere with that. It gets my blood pressure boiling. Let’s go.”
His relay teammate, 2006 World Indoor sprint champion Scott, forgot for a moment he’s known as a soft-spoken guy in discussing today’s challenge.
“I’m not a big talker as far as egging people on. When I do say something, it’s usually a strong statement,” Scott said. “For me to say something, that means you are in trouble because I step up my game more, too. Don’t lay down a challenge like that if you can’t back it up.”
Graham wasn’t backing down Saturday, even after HSI coach John Smith intoned: “Whatever is said in track and field before the race is fun. At the same time, the clock is round. What comes around goes around. Be careful what you say, you may wind up eating it.”
“Yes,” Graham said, asked if he knew his early week comment to the Journal-World and 6News would spark controversy this week. “Just to give the crowd something to come to see. We have a great shot to beat the meet record.”
Interestingly, a third team decided to enter the trash talk fray Friday. The Hobson’s Choice team of Rae Edwards, Mardy Scales, Mark Jelks and Ivory Williams, coached by K.C. coaching legend Al Hobson, isn’t backing down, either.
“I don’t think we can win. I think we are going to win,” Edwards said. “I respect Maurice and respect Gatlin. They are legends, but for me to be a man : I can’t say this man is better than me. I’m sure we are going to win.”
“We don’t bust our tail every day to come in second,” noted Scales, the 2005 U.S. 60 meters champ.
Hobson may have been asking for the hometown support when he said: “We are in Kansas. Even though it’s not basketball, you’ve got to ‘Beware of the Phog.’ We are the Phog.”
“You are not the Phog. You are a brick wall,” HSI coach Smith joked.
Today’s 400 relay, the last event of today’s 2-5 p.m. GOLDZONE2, may match Olympic greats Greene and Gatlin down the stretch. That’s the hope of meet organizers, who put pictures of the two relay anchors on the game program with the inscription, “Kings of the Dash Collide.”
Gatlin cautioned the 400 relay might not turn into a two-man show.
“It’s not me and Maurice,” he said. “You have to understand we will be on the fourth leg. If the stick doesn’t get around, we will just be looking around.”
Gatlin says he’s flattered he’s one of the two focal points of the Relays.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a hero,” he said. “I would say, ‘You really don’t have heroes when you consider it a heavyweight bout.’ You just want to look for a good fight, you want to see good punches thrown, good strategy. I think everyone is looking forward to the race.”
Including fans of local track legend Greene.
“I have to believe I can do the unbelievable things people have seen me do for years,” Greene said. “Just keep watching. I’ll show you.”
