John YoungWhen asking the current Kansas University football players to size up the nonconference schedule they’ll face this September, the same word tends to come up over and over.
And it’s not one you usually hear during the summer in Kansas.
“I feel like it’s kind of like a snowball,” junior linebacker Ben Heeney said. “We start off with South Dakota and hopefully we can get the ball rolling there, then we head down to Rice and have a chance to get our revenge on Rice and then bring Louisiana Tech back here and hopefully become 3-0.”
Doing that, of course, will be much tougher on the field than it plays out in Heeney’s mind, but that game-by-game momentum model is the one the entire KU roster is planning to use when the season arrives Sept. 7.
“We just want to go into the season firing on all cylinders and come out on Sept. 7 and just have a snowball effect,” said junior safety Cassius Sendish. “We’re not focusing on our rivals or the last week of the season against K-State. We want to go from South Dakota to Rice to Louisiana Tech to Texas Tech and so on.”
In opening with the Coyotes at 6 p.m. on Sept. 7 — no, this is not the North Dakota State team that spoiled Turner Gill’s debut or the South Dakota State team that KU struggled to separate from in last year’s opener — KU will be kicking off its season against a team from the Dakotas for the third time in four seasons.
USD and head coach Joe Glenn (second season) are coming off a 1-10 showing in 2012, which included an 0-8 run in Missouri Valley Conference games. The Coyotes return 35 letter winners from last year’s squad, including first-team all-Missouri Valley preseason pick Tyler Starr, a senior linebacker from Little Rock, Iowa. USD opens its season Aug. 31 at home against UC-Davis.
Week 2’s rematch with Rice, 6:30 p.m., Sept. 14 in Houston, is a game that has been circled on the Jayhawks’ schedules since they lost to the Owls at home last season on a last-second field goal by all-conference kicker Chris Boswell.
Rice returns 19 starters from last season’s Armed Forces Bowl championship squad (33-14 over Air Force), and David Bailiff’s squad (30-44 in seasons) is ranked 81st nationally by Athlon Sports and projected to finish second in Conference USA.
Quarterback Taylor McHargue, who led the Owls to an 7-6 record and 32 points per game in 2012, returns to lead the offense, and all but one starter is back on a defense that struggled at times a season ago, finishing 81st in total defense at 426 yards per game. KU is 1-1 all-time against Rice.
The Jayhawks keep it in Conference USA for Week 3 on Sept. 21, when they will face a Louisiana Tech team that missed out on a bowl game in 2012 despite finishing with a 9-3 record and owning one of the nation’s most exciting offenses.
The Bulldogs, led by first-year coach Skip Holtz, will be playing their first season in Conference USA after moving over from the WAC. They return 30 letter winners from a team that lost 31 seniors and will be led by defensive lineman Justin Ellis and offensive guard Matt Shepperd, both of whom were named to the preseason all-Conference USA squad.
KU is 2-1 all-time against Louisiana Tech, with its most recent game coming in the form of a 29-0 victory in Lawrence during the second week of the 2008 season.
The Jayhawks are just 9-5 in nonconference play during the past four seasons and have not entered Big 12 play undefeated since starting out 4-0 in 2009.
“I would say in every league it’s vital to take care of the nonconference because you want to go into conference play with momentum,” Sendish said. “We haven’t produced. But I’m confident in myself and confident in my team and our ability to produce this year.”
