All season long, staff members from the Lawrence Journal-World will share their picks for six college football games a week.
You might say, “Hey, didn’t the college football season start a week ago?”
Well, Saturday marks the beginning of the 2014 campaign for Kansas University’s football team. And this is KUsports.com. So we’ll go ahead and call this Week 1.
WEEK 1 MATCHUPS
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Southeast Missouri State at Kansas
USC at Stanford
Michigan State at Oregon
BYU at Texas
Michigan at Notre Dame
Missouri at Toledo
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
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Who is the most impressive college football player you’ve either covered or watched in person from the stands — and what made him memorable?
**Kansas 42**, Southeast Missouri State 7
**Stanford 30**, USC 27
**Oregon 42**, Michigan State 28
**Texas 28**, BYU 17
**Notre Dame 21**, Michigan 20
**Missouri 31**, Toledo 21
**Answer:** The first football game I watched live at Syracuse’s old Archbold Stadium. SU then was coached by decorated World War II hero Ben Schwartzwalder and had Larry Csonka and Floyd Little in the backfield. In different ways, both backs were amazing. I covered Adrian Peterson running against Kansas, Charlie Ward playing at Notre Dame, but the most impressive college football player I ever watched was Todd Reesing. He was immune to KU’s losing ways, never gave up on a play, seemingly had 30 sets of eyes, was the greatest scrambler since Fran Tarkenton, and threw remarkably accurate, catchable passes, long and short. He elevated a program to new heights and it immediately dropped back to the basement after he played his last game.
**Kansas 55**, Southeast Missouri State 10
**Stanford 31**, USC 23
**Oregon 33**, Michigan State 31
**Texas 20**, BYU 10
**Notre Dame 27**, Michigan 23
**Missouri 35**, Toledo 21
**Answer:** In all seriousness, current KU linebacker Ben Heeney is in the running for the answer here, but, since we’re talking all-time, I’ll go with former Colorado quarterback Kordell Stewart. Like Tommie Frazier at Nebraska around the same time, “Slash,” as he later became known, was Michael Vick, Cam Newton, Johnny Football and RGIII before any of those guys came around. Equally talented as a runner and a passer, Kordell played on some incredible Colorado teams and in some huge games and was a nightmare for opposing defenses to try to figure out. Watching him run the option with Heisman Trophy winner and 2,000-yard rusher Rashaan Salaam was one of my favorite memories of college football from my childhood.
**Kansas 51**, Southeast Missouri State 12
**Stanford 31**, USC 20
**Oregon 42**, Michigan State 21
**Texas 35**, BYU 17
**Notre Dame 21**, Michigan 10
**Missouri 31**, Toledo 24
**Answer:** I’ll stick with the most impressive KU player I’ve seen: Nolan Cromwell. He was so fast and so smart he pretty much single-handedly dominated a college football game. He played quarterback and actually couldn’t throw worth a lick, but it didn’t matter in the option offense. Honorable mention: Todd Reesing, Willie Pless.
**Kansas 28**, Southeast Missouri State 27
**USC 35**, Stanford 28
**Oregon 42**, Michigan State 3
**Texas 14**, BYU 13
**Michigan 31**, Notre Dame 28
**Missouri 45**, Toledo 42
**Answer:** Tony Sands. I’ve seen tons of better/faster/stronger runners, but I can’t recall one who did so much — remember his 58 carries for 396 yards against Mizzou? — with seemingly so little. He was small, not particularly fast and not particularly strong. But, boy, could he run.
**Kansas 42**, Southeast Missouri State 14
**Stanford 17**, USC 14
**Oregon 38**, Michigan State 24
**Texas 31**, BYU 21
**Notre Dame 34**, Michigan 31
**Missouri 33**, Toledo 28
**Answer:** My first college football game was 1974, Appalachian State at South Carolina. I remember very little about the game except that Ronnie Bass was Carolina’s quarterback. 25 years later, Bass turns up as “Sunshine” in “Remember the Titans.” Long California-boy hair, threw a ball 70-something yards in front of Coach Boone (Denzel Washington), learned the read option from Rev, flipped the linebacker who hurt Rev on his back and kissed Gary in the Titans locker room… Doesn’t get more impressive than that:
**Kansas 37**, Southeast Missouri State 31
**Stanford 30**, USC 27
**Oregon 41**, Michigan State 21
**Texas 24**, BYU 21
**Notre Dame 27**, Michigan 24
**Missouri 28**, Toledo 27
**Answer:** Former Kansas University running back Laverne Smith (exciting player, great speed and quickness).
**Kansas 41**, Southeast Missouri State 17
**Stanford 25**, USC 24
**Oregon 45**, Michigan State 30
**Texas 23**, BYU 21
**Michigan 31**, Notre Dame 27
**Missouri 30**, Toledo 20
**Answer:** I’ve never seen anybody with the combination of power and speed quite like Julius Peppers. When you watch a football game, your eye follows the action. The ball is snapped, and you begin tracking it all over the gridiron. But not when Peppers lined up at defensive end for North Carolina. Watching him fly around or bull over offensive linemen on the way to the ball — wherever that might be — was far more intriguing.
**Kansas 42**, Southeast Missouri State 13
**Stanford 20**, USC 17
**Oregon 30**, Michigan State 21
**BYU 17**, Texas 15
**Michigan 24**, Notre Dame 20
**Missouri 33**, Toledo 23
**Answer:** Todd Reesing was magic (or at least it felt that way on a cold, wet day at Arrowhead).
**Kansas 34**, Southeast Missouri State 21
**USC 27**, Stanford 17
**Oregon 24**, Michigan State 21
**BYU 21**, Texas 7
**Notre Dame 34**, Michigan 28
**Toledo 27**, Missouri 24
**Answer:** I’ve never covered college football, but my high school football team made a few trips to the Metrodome in Minneapolis to watch the Golden Gophers, and I’ll never forget how wide receiver Eric Decker caught every pass remotely in his area, and by in his area, I mean anywhere within 20 yards of himself. He regularly made cornerbacks look ridiculous with his ability to go through double and triple-team coverages, and he was a lot faster than he gets credit for.
**Kansas 42**, Southeast Missouri State 14
**Stanford 28**, USC 17
**Oregon 38**, Michigan State 35
**BYU 31**, Texas 24
**Notre Dame 31**, Michigan 28
**Missouri 42**, Toledo 28
**Answer:** The most memorable athlete I covered was former Baker University running back Dillon Baxter. At times, Baxter showed glimpses of why he was the No. 1-ranked running back in the class of 2010 and a projected star at USC. In his two years at Baker, Baxter ran for 100-plus yards six times, but he also had six games where he rushed for less than 50. There wasn’t much of a middle ground with Baxter: he either found his way to the end zone or into head coach Mike Grossner’s doghouse.
