**10:00 p.m.:** Just got back from Memorial, and here’s what there is in terms of postgame jargon …**First, some notes …**-Mark Mangino seemed pretty pleased after the game with the way the offensive line finished the game, most notably pointing out the nice mixture his group up front found with **Jeff Spikes** at left tackle and **Matt Darton** on the right. He said he expects an even more cohesive unit once **Ryan Cantrell** is back, though **Sal Capra** showed that he could have a bright future as a look-ahead to ’09.-Mangino also gave plenty of love to the play of his first string defense, which held the white squad to just 92 yards on 47 snaps and allowed just two first-down pickups on 12 third down tries. They were also without some key members, including **Joe Mortensen** and **Justin Thornton**, both out injured. As for **John Larson**, Mangino said the defensive end did not dress out due to illness, but should be back on the field soon. In his spot, the KU coach gushed on the development of junior end **Maxwell Onyegbule**. **Chris Harris** also looks like the No. 1 cornerback everyone expects him to be. He said he feels he’s smarter this year in terms of being able to anticipate plays. When asked about jumping an option play to his side in the first half, in which he stormed the backfield for a tackle for loss, he said a year ago, that’s probably not a play he makes right off the bat.-The seventh-year coach sounded pretty cool with his receiving corps, tapping **Kerry Meier** and **Dexton Fields** as the group’s two most dependable guys. Fields had five grabs for 46 yards and a score, while Meier caught four passes for 40 yards, and probably would have seen more action had he not quarterbacked most of the game with the second-string offense. In that role, he was 13-of-18 for 69 yards.-The first team offense rushed for just 81 yards, led by **Jake Sharp** with 40 on 10 carries. Junior college transfer **Jocques Crawford** was in the house Monday, but only as a spectator, as he won’t be enrolled until summertime. Mangino said he’ll still have a spot to earn, but it sounds like the rushing attack can’t be graded just yet. Especially without a solidified o-line.-**Spotted in the crowd … ** Rockhurst quarterback **Nathan Scheelhaase**, a four-star dual-threat quarterback prospect who will be a senior next fall … Former Jayhawks (just recently earning that tag) **Marcus Henry** and **James McClinton**.**And now some numbers …**-Reesing finished with 227 yards and one TD on 23-of-43 passing. He was picked twice. He also had a huge tackle on **Patrick Resby** after one of those interceptions, claiming that he’s doing his job by not letting the defense score … even if it’s just a spring scrimmage …-**Dezmon Briscoe’s** final line (eight catches, 92 yards) doesn’t look bad, but he proved he’s still got a ways to go in terms of consistency, dropping at least four passes. One was in the end zone late in the first half, one was on the last play of the game, which would have been a long TD grab.-**Mike Rivera** led the blue squad with eight tackles, including 2.5 for loss and one sack. **Chris Harris** had seven stops (six unassisted). **Arist Wright** led the white team with 10 tackles.-**Angus Quigley** saw plenty of reps with the blue squad, and in combined efforts on both sides, totaled 58 yards on 13 carries, including a 21-yard gain late after finally finding some daylight up the middle.-**Gary Green**, playing at receiver for the white squad (his third position in three years) had five catches for 34 yards.-**Stephen Hoge** was 1-of-2 in field goal tries in his debut as KU’s No. 1 place kicker. He was good from 36, but off from 34. **Rell Lewis** muffed two punt return tries, proving that there’s still some ground to cover on special teams.That’s about it. Overall a pretty ho-hum game, which answered at least one issue somewhat in terms of who is best fit to take over the tackle spots. Still plenty of questions heading into the summer, though. Wonder how different the offense will look with Crawford in place?Talk to you again, well, when I talk to you. Peace.**8:49 p.m.:** **Stephen Hoge** just missed wide on a 34-yard field goal trykicked into the south end zone, meaning this will probably finish as a 17-3 win for the blue team. Be back in a bit with postgame numbers and quotes.**8:39 p.m.:** And we have our first offensive touchdown of the game, as **Todd Reesing** hit **Dexton Fields** on a laser of an out route, completed on the left edge of the end zone at the stadium’s south end. It was an eight-yard score. Reesing has now thrown more than 40 passes tonight. He threw just 20 at last year’s spring game, but then again, there was still a quarterback competition at that point.**Rell Lewis** just dropped another punt return, which will of course continue the questions of who’s going to assume the role come September. Lots of time to figure that out, though.**Jeff Spikes**, the 6-foot-6, 314-pound redshirt freshman Mark Mangino is very high on, is now in lining up at left tackle with the first team offense. He’s looked pretty darn good on his first possession at the spot, working against **Jake Laptad**, arguably KU’s most naturally-talented defensive end.**8:26 p.m.:** Keeping an eye on the ever-entertaining topic of punt returns, **Ryan Murphy** muffed his first attempt of the game. **Rell Lewis** has looked pretty good, but lost his last attempt. There are no punt returns in the spring scrimmage, so we haven’t seen what either can do yet in that scenario.**8:16 p.m.:** Some first half numbers …-**Todd Reesing** was 15-of-29 throwing. He threw two picks, racked up 176 yards and didn’t find the end zone. He overthrew **Dezmon Briscoe** once, but then Briscoe dropped a later scoring opportunity.-**Briscoe** had 78 yards on six receptions. That looks a lot better than it really was. While three of his questions were straight-up impressive, he had two tough drops.-**Kerry Meier** was a perfect 8-of-8 throwing for the second team, picking up 42 yards through the air. He also caught three Reesing passes for 36 yards.-**Arist Wright** led all tacklers with seven stops for the white squad. **Chris Harris** and **Mike Rivera** each had five for the blues, all solo, with Rivera also tallying a sack.-**Jake Sharp** was the top rusher, gathering 21 yards on seven totes.-**Carmon Boyd-Anderson** probably had the toughest first half, losing seven yards on three carries, including the late fumble resulting in a defensive score.**7:57 p.m.:** The first team got into the end zone just before the half after turning it over on downs late. **Carmon Boyd-Anderson** was stripped by **James Holt** along the sideline, and **Kendrick Harper** rumbled 23 yards for the game’s first TD. **10-3, Blue team, Halftime.****7:48 p.m.:** Not playing tonight (notables, that is): **Joe Mortensen**, **Justin Thornton**, **Ryan Cantrell** and **John Larson**. Larson is not in uniform.**Dez Briscoe** just made two more big-time catches on a late first-half drive, giving him four for the game (at least four, might be five … no stats available just yet and I haven’t tracked play-by-play). Briscoe, though, dropped a zinger on a cross pattern across the middle a few snaps later, which turned out to be the offense’s best chance to score on that drive. That negates the two earlier snags, in some books.**7:25 p.m.:** Interesting series of events for **Todd Reesing** …First, after two nice strikes to **Kerry Meier**, who looks again solid at receiver, Reesing was picked by **Patrick Resby**. With just Reesing in his way before paydirt, Resby was spun down in the open field by the sophomore quarterback.Then, after a fumble recovery by **Chris Harris**, Reesing struck **Dez Briscoe** over the middle on a perfect toss between two defenders. And finally, after another pick, this time by **Drew Dudley**, Reesing went for another takedown, this time missing and losing his helmet in the process.Oh boy. Red shirt usually means no contact. Reesing don’t care, obviously.**Sidenote ….** The topic of discussion underlying the game up here in our little section is worst football movies of all-time. **Ryan Wood** bringing up **Little Giants** simply gave me a second opportunity in one week to mention the **Annexation of Puerto Rico** in my blog, and I am forever in debt to him for this…**Chip Budde** brought up **Lucas**. I then reminded him that it starred **Corey Haim**. His response? “Any Corey … You had me at Corey.”Aaaand there’s our first Corey Haim mention of the night. Could be a long one.**Current score:** 3-3.**7:12 p.m.:** Stephen Hoge passed his first test as the KU place kicker, drilling a 36-yard field goal into the closed end of Memorial Stadium with the wind blowing at his back, right to left.The first team offense has looked so-so. The play execution looks fine, it’s just some fine tuning that appears needed. **Todd Reesing** overshot an open **Dez Briscoe** on the drive which ended with the field goal, but he’s looked all right on the short routes. No, unlike **Joe Kane**, he’s not trying to win the Heisman on every throw (had to slip that in there somewhere …. now I’m at peace).First team defense looks solid, too. **Chris Harris** made an excellent play a few minutes ago late in the first quarter, sniffing out a draw play and exploding past Rod Harris at the line of scrimmage, making an impressive tackle for loss.As for the crowd, my rough guesstimate would say there’s 5,000-6,000 fans here. Not sure why the cheer squads and mascots are in the house, but, well, they are. Luckily for them it’s not too cold … yet.**7:00 p.m.:** **Offensive starters tonight ….****LT:** Matt Darton **LG:** Adrian Mayes **C:** Sal Capra (best name on the team) **RG:** Chet Hartley **RT:** Ian Wolfe **QB:** Duh **RB:** Jake Sharp **TE:** Bradley Dedeaux **WR:** Dez Briscoe **WR:** Dex Fields **WR:** Johnathan Wilson**Defensive starters ….** **DE:** Maxwell Onyegbule **DT:** Richard Johnson Jr. **DT:** Todd Haselhorst **DE:** Russell Brorsen **LB:** Justin Springer **LB:** Mike Rivera **S:** Olaitan Oguntodu **S:** Phillip Strozier **S:** Darrell Stuckey **CB:** Kendrick Harper **CB:** Chris Harris**6:50 p.m.:** Just getting ready for the action to start, we’re about 10 minutes away.**Rell Lewis** just took the ceremonial end-of-warmups punt which is followed by teammates swarming and jumping around the faux returnman.I’ll have some updates twice a quarter or so. Things might get a bit loopy after halftime. Just a warning.—————–So much for down time.As Lawrence still has a city-wide hangover from last Monday’s beyond-memorable national championship game in San Antonio, next year is already here.Well, sort of.It was postponed a couple of days due to weather, but tonight the gridders (had to slip in a Mayer-ism there) play their annual spring game at Memorial Stadium. The scrimmage starts at 7 p.m., gates are at 6 p.m. **_Be sure to check back here tonight from 6:30 p.m. to roughly 9 p.m. for updates from Memorial, including the postgame numbers._**[Last year][1], the buzz of the spring game was **Ed Warinner’s** spread offense. **Todd Reesing** threw for 171 yards and a touchdown on just 10 completions, **Marcus Henry** had 150 yards and a pair of TDs on six grabs and **Joe Mortensen** gave a glimpse of his season to come, with 10 tackles and a vicious shot on **Kerry Meier.**Of those four guys, three are back from a 12-1 team which unexpectedly took the nation by storm en route to winning a BCS game, thus making itself legit on the college football landscape. Probably Top-15 to start 2008 (no pressure there). Nine starters back on defense (more like 10 if you consider **Chris Harris** and **Justin Thornton** as half-starters from a year ago), six on offense and loads of expectations. Those numbers are even more valuable when looking at a bumped-up schedule, including Texas at home and road trips to face Oklahoma, Nebraska and South Florida.True, there’s not a ton to take from a spring football game. Though last year’s game was a reminder that it does have _some_ significance (remember, **Brandon McAnderson** came out of nowhere to rumble for 80 yards on 15 yards with two touchdowns, a harbinger to his upcoming 1,000-yard season).That said, here are some players/positions worth keeping an eye on, even though Monday night’s atmosphere will be a far cry from what September will bring …**The glaring vacancy:** For the first time in who knows how long, KU returns a quarterback off a stellar season, one which was played also in surprisingly full health. Protecting Reesing will be another thing, though. At spots like receiver and running back, there’s plenty of depth to cover up the holes left by graduation. Tackle is different.The Jayhawks lost both **Anthony Collins** (early entry) and **Cesar Rodriguez** (graduation). The list of guys battling to replace them is long, which is a positive. At left tackle it’s senior **Matt Darton** (started against Iowa State last year when AC was hurt) and redshirt freshman Jeff Spikes.The day before the Orange Bowl in Miami, at his press conference, **Mark Mangino** mentioned Spikes and the high hopes the coaching staff has for him (not mentioning him by name, of course, but bringing up a player from Ohio – by process of elimination, it’s Spikes). Mangino doesn’t do that very often in public about scout team guys, which makes me think this kid could develop into something else. At 6-foot-6 and 314 pounds, he sounds like a potential Collins clone.On the other side, as [Wood reported in his story Sunday][2], it sounds like sophomore **Ian Wolfe** has an edge on juco transfer **Nathan D’Cunha,** who’s still picking up several principles of American football (he’s a 24-year-old native of Australia who sounds pretty raw).KU allowed just 26 sacks a year ago. That’s quite a legacy to uphold at the bookend spots.**Who’s No. 1?:** KU lost just one receiver from its loaded receiving corps in Henry. Henry just so happened to be the Jayhawks’ No. 1 receiver, however.The long list of guys seemingly ready to step up into that role extends quite a ways. The most experienced name is obviously senior **Dexton Fields** (team-high 63 rec. in ’07, 834 yards, six TD). Fields is at this point established as one of the Big 12’s top possession guys. Nothing wrong with that.The guy who looks to have the highest ceiling and could at one point develop into an elite wideout is sophomore **Dezmon Briscoe.** The 6-foot-3 Dallas area product caught 43 balls as a frosh for 496 yards and seven scores. He only progressed as the year went on, serving as one of the few bright spots in KU’s only loss of the season in Kansas City to Mizzou, has the size to be a downfield threat and showed on several occasions (most memorably against Central Michigan and Nebraska) that he can own the red zone. If he becomes a reliable possession guys as well, watch out. Personally, he’s my pick to smash every receiving record in the KU books before his time is done.There’s also some intriguing guys who could fill in at the back end of the wideout rotation with Fields and Briscoe moving up, such as 6-3 sophomore **Johnathan Wilson,** who had some moments last fall. Another guy I’m going to keep an eye on will be juco transfer **Rod Harris,** just a sophomore, for the sole reason that when meeting him at the spring football presser last month, he was nothing short of pleasant to deal with. Maybe the friendliest guy I’ve met on this team.Also, at tight end, we’ll get to see who has the early upper hand between sophomore **Bradley Dedeaux** and true freshman **Nick Plato** in replacing **Derek Fine.** Plato’s size (6-foot-6, 228 pounds) is certainly intriguing.**Is this his year?:** **Angus Quigley** remains one of the great mysteries on this roster. Now a junior, having seemingly now gotten back to full strength after rehabbing a leg injury which kept him out for all of 2006, Quigley is flat-out imposing at 6-2, 222 pounds. With **Jocques Crawford** not set to be on campus until the summer, Quigley has a shot to get an early leg-up in the race for carries here in the spring. We’ve all seen what **Jake Sharp** brings to the table, but whether he’s a No. 1 back is yet to be determined. Physically, Quigley fits the mold of what McAnderson provided a year ago. Plus, don’t forget **Carmon Boyd-Anderson.** There had to be a reason he played some early last year as a true freshman. It’ll be interesting to see what steps he’s taken.**Speaking defensively ….:** Honestly, I’d think there’s less to be watching for on the defensive side of the ball. True, KU lost just two starters, but both were, um, pretty key guys (**Aqib Talib** and **James McClinton**). In terms of replacing Talib, you pretty much know what you’ll get with **Chris Harris,** the reigning Big 12 Defensive Newcomer of the Year. McClinton is another story. **Caleb Blakesley** and **Todd Haselhorst** bring back the most experience, but it’ll be interesting to see what guys like **Richard Johnson Jr.** and **Patrick Dorsey** (both redshirt freshmen) bring. The biggest thing in replacing McClinton is getting someone in there whose motor matches that of the departed senior, which, lets be honest, must come naturally. That type of thing isn’t developed. Not sure how much of that can be seen in the spring game.Another interesting spot to watch Monday night will be at middle linebacker. With Joe Mortensen out until probably right up to the beginning of the season due to injury, sophomore **Drew Dudley** (13 tackles, 0.5 for loss in limited action as a frosh) will be one to watch. It’d be a shame to see **Mike Rivera** move back to the middle should Mortensen not be ready after he flourished last year on the outside (96 tackles, 10.5 for loss, three sacks). Though something tells me that’s probably not an option.**Also, don’t forget about …:** We’ll also probably get a look at **Stephen Hoge,** the redshirt freshman kicker who replaces **Scott Webb.** No clue what to expect there. As for punting, transfer **Alonso Rojas** won’t be here until the summer, meaning Kerry Meier – yes, Kerry Meier – is currently tops in that slot on the depth chart. Also, punt returner is always something worth keeping tabs on in this program.Again, much of this won’t have a ton of significance until the summer.But the spring game will still show us _something._Check back this evening for some updates from the action. Hopefully mother nature has a heart. [1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/apr/16/spring_stings/ [2]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2008/apr/13/tackle_spots_grabs_ku/?football
