Turner Gill: KU’s bye week comes at a good time

By Staff     Sep 20, 2011

Nick Krug
Kansas head coach Turner Gill watches from the sidelines during the first quarter on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011 at Kivisto Field.

Fresh off one of the worst defensive performances in school history, Kansas University’s football team laced up the cleats and got back to work quickly despite not having a game to prepare for this week.

With the bye week coming at the break between non-conference play and the start of the Big 12 season, the 2-1 Jayhawks figure to focus on a several different aspects this week.

Getting healthy, licking the emotional wounds that came with the 66-24 pounding at Georgia Tech last weekend and looking ahead to the Oct. 1 match-up with Texas Tech all will take place. But the Jayhawks also will spend a fair amount of time on self-examination.

“You focus on yourself as far as what we need to do to improve,” KU coach Turner Gill said Monday. “I think that’s not going to be a problem. I saw (Sunday) as we had a light workout, our guys were really energetic and ready to go and ready to get coached. They said, ‘Let’s go, coach, we’re ready to get taught and get better.’ They were eager and ready to go, and that was a good approach by our players and our coaching staff. We’ll be an improved football team, and we’ll have a better showing against Texas Tech.”

After taking Monday off, as they do every week, Gill said the Jayhawks would practice today, Wednesday and Thursday this week before taking Friday and Saturday off, as well. After that, they’ll jump back in on Sunday and start normal game preparations for the homecoming contest against Texas Tech. Typically, players and coaches say they want to get back onto the field immediately after a loss like the one the Jayhawks suffered in Georgia. But Gill said Monday the team was fine with the week off.

“It’s good timing for us, with regard to a few little injuries,” he said. “But also to get things going in a little bit smoother way on offense, defense and special teams. We’ll add a few more things and try to continue to improve. We’re just going to keep getting better. We definitely know that our football team has improved from last football season, so that is a big positive the way I look at it. Our kids are very excited to move on and get better.”

KU-TT kickoff set for 11 a.m.

Fox Sports Net announced Monday that it would televise KU’s homecoming game against Texas Tech at 11 a.m. on Oct. 1.

The game will be KU’s second straight on FSN and third televised game of the season. Kansas lost, 66-24, at Georgia Tech on FSN in its last outing and defeated Northern Illinois, 45-42, on Fox College Sports on Sept. 10.

In honor of homecoming, it has been rumored that KU will wear its light blue throwback uniforms for the game against the Red Raiders.

Texas Tech (2-0) will play host to Nevada on Saturday.

Georgia Tech cracks Top 25

Evidently, Georgia Tech’s whipping of Kansas impressed the pollsters.

After setting multiple school records for offense and running up 66 points on the Jayhawks, the Yellow Jackets were rewarded with a spot in this week’s Top 25 in both major polls.

One week after receiving single-digit vote totals in both polls, GT (3-0) jumped all the way to 25th in the AP poll and 24th in the coaches’ poll.

The Yellow Jackets open ACC play this weekend with a home game against North Carolina.

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