You’ll have to excuse Kansas University running back Angus Quigley if you see him shaking his head or taking a little extra time to soak up the scenery during Saturday’s home finale against Oklahoma State.
The game will be Quigley’s last at Memorial Stadium, an emotional milestone to be sure. But it actually will be the second “last game at Memorial Stadium” of Quigley’s career.
See, last year, during his fifth season with the program, Quigley participated in all of the customs and traditions associated with Senior Day, but never really felt like he belonged out there.
“I just felt like I was another guy,” he said. “I was a senior, but I was just another guy. Now, though, guys look to me and coaches look to me to be a leader, and it actually feels like I’m a senior now.”
So cue the balloons, get the flowers ready, hand a tissue to mom. Saturday’s 11 a.m. game against 10th-ranked OSU, without question, will be the sixth-year senior’s final home game as a Jayhawk.
“We’re always joking around with him, saying, ‘Dang, Angus, you’ve already had one of these. Did you get tickets again?'” fellow-senior Chris Harris said. “I think the Oklahoma State quarterback (27-year-old Brandon Weeden) is older, but Angus has to be one of the oldest players in the NCAA.”
Asked if he thought Quigley might find a way to finagle a seventh year of eligibility out of the NCAA, Harris was honest.
“No, man. He’s done,” he said.
Quigley did not disagree and said the weight of his lengthy career finally coming to a close all had begun to sink in.
“It’s very much real,” he said. “I participated last year in Senior Day, and I remember thinking, ‘There’s always a fallback plan; I still could come back.’ Now, it’s just like two games and college is over for me. I’ve already graduated, and, when December comes, it’s all done.”
Will Gill play seniors?
With just two games remaining on the schedule, the 3-7 Jayhawks have no chance of qualifying for a bowl game this season.
And with Saturday’s home game against Oklahoma State being Senior Day, it might be easy to conclude that KU coach Turner Gill will do what he can to make sure all 20 seniors who suit up Saturday will hit the field in their final home game.
Gill said after Wednesday’s practice that he’d do what he could to get all 20 seniors in. But he stopped short of guaranteeing it would happen.
“I think at the end of the game, if, for some reason one way or the other, we can get them in, then we’ll do that,” Gill said. “But, again, the bottom line is we’re gonna play to win the football game and do the best we can. If we can still get those guys in, then we’ll do that, too.”
Mecham quietly cracks record books
Though he completed just three passes during last week’s loss to Nebraska, KU quarterback Quinn Mecham’s first two completions of the game landed him in the Kansas record books.
Mecham’s 17 straight completions during KU’s win against Colorado, combined with the two completions to open the game at Nebraska, gave him a string of 19 straight. That stretch broke the old mark of 14 in a row set by Todd Reesing against Minnesota in the 2008 Insight Bowl.
Mecham, a junior from Provo, Utah, will make his fourth consecutive start Saturday vs. OSU.