James McClinton is ready to break an unpleasant streak.
It won’t be for individual reasons, but for a Kansas University football team that McClinton said was “starting to pick up the enthusiasm and play as a team.”
The streak to be broken? Kansas failed to win a road game last season and finished 0-5 away from Memorial Stadium. The Jayhawks lost by an average of 24.2 points to road opponents.
But don’t tell that to the 6-foot-1, 283-pound McClinton.
That was last season.
“I’m ready for it,” McClinton said about playing on the road. “It’s going to help us out a lot winning road games in somebody else’s house.”
McClinton, a junior defensive tackle, said the team wore down during away games last season from extensive travel. Kansas played a stretch of four consecutive weeks – one at Arrowhead Stadium – on the road.
Kansas coach Mark Mangino said he told his team road games should be just like the others.
“The field’s 100 yards, everything is exactly the same,” Mangino said. “It’s a state of mind. It doesn’t matter if it’s Memorial Stadium, if you’re on the road, if you’re at Arrowhead Stadium.”
If the Jayhawks win on the road next season, it will be with new personnel, specifically on the defensive line. Much of the reason the Jayhawks were able to stop the run so effectively – they led the Big 12 Conference in rushing defense last season – was because of the penetration that players on the defensive line created.
McClinton will be the only returning starter on a defensive line that lost Jermail Ashley, Charlton Keith and Tim Allen to graduation.
“I think their shoes can be filled,” McClinton said. “We have some players making big plays, so it’s not going to be a big problem.”
Clint Bowen, co-defensive coordinator, said McClinton had tremendous quickness getting to the quarterback. His commitment to get better in the offseason was a primary reason his teammates selected McClinton one of the captains this season.
“If you look at him and compare him to other D-linemen in the Big 12, he’s probably not the prototypical-type body type, but his quickness is what separates him,” Bowen said.
McClinton’s quickness enables him to catch opposing running backs as well. Last season, KU gave up a remarkable 2.4 yards per carry and 83.2 yards rushing per game, the best mark in the Big 12.
McClinton said the goal for this season was simple.
“We expect, just like anybody, to win the Big 12,” McClinton said. “If they said we’d be first (in the North), that’s good, but that’s on paper. You don’t win games on paper, so we still have to prove ourselves that we deserve to be first.”
McClinton, a Garland, Texas, native, said he intended to play football in the NFL.
“I expect it,” McClinton said. “It’s on the radar.”