Kansas University’s football players didn’t trudge into the meeting rooms Sunday dragging tail.
That doesn’t mean, however, their tails couldn’t use some time off.
“They’re a little tired,” KU coach Mark Mangino said Sunday, one day after KU lost to Missouri, 36-28, in Kansas City, Mo. “Disappointed but not discouraged. They were wide-eyed in the meetings, anticipating getting ready to play in the bowl game.”
And, perhaps, a little relieved that not much is on the table this entire week.
The Jayhawks will not practice until Saturday at the earliest, a way for the fatigued players to get some critical rest and focus on their studies.
It’s also a chance for the coaching staff to hit the recruiting trail hard. The Jayhawks have 13 commitments for 2008, but now have an updated sell – a Top-25 program – in their back pocket as they look to add to what could be a high-impact class.
In polls released Sunday, the Jayhawks dropped to seventh in the Associated Press, fifth in the USA Today coaches and sixth in the Harris Interactive. They also were fifth in the BCS standings.
With the bowl game weeks away and an NCAA restriction on how many practices can be conducted, the coaching staff decided the best opportunity for time off is right now. It’s needed after eight straight weeks of games.
“There’s no reason to practice this early,” Mangino said. “We have to get out on the road. We’re in a contact period. We have to go out and recruit, and that takes precedence this week.”
KU players, meanwhile, will lift weights during the week and get in pads once next weekend. Even then, the practice will be geared toward getting the younger players repetitions, as several pre-bowl practices usually are.
Saturday’s loss to Missouri knocked Kansas out of the Big 12 North driver’s seat and all but eliminated the Jayhawks from a spot in the BCS National Championship Game.
Still, all is not lost from an 11-1 regular season, and the players seem to have an optimistic perspective.
“We’ll still be playing in a January bowl or a pretty good bowl,” cornerback Aqib Talib said Saturday. “So we’re not down. We’re going to get healthy. This will give us time to get healthy.
“We had a lot of people banged up out there and still going. This will give us a chance to get back healthy like we were at the beginning of the season. We’ll be full strength for this bowl game.”
As for Mangino?
“I’m fine,” he said. “You get up the next day, and there’s new challenges. You shift focus and just carry on.
“There’s no time to think about the past. You’ve got to stay focused on what’s important now.”
