We probably asked the wrong guy.A couple dozen reporters were slithering around Hadl Auditorium on Tuesday, getting quotes from around eight KU football players who showed up. One question was asked to about everyone: How excited are you to finally play a real game on Saturday?The question was first asked to linebacker Joe Mortensen, a guy who just looks the part of someone smelling blood and ready to knock someone else’s head off.Mortensen just nodded his head.”A couple of days away,” he said. Honestly, it sounded more like a warning to Central MIchigan’s offense than a simple fact of the calendar.Central Michigan-Kansas should be an entertaining game, and it’s obvious that all the players are itching to get out there after roughly nine months preparing for it.That’s what fascinates me about college football players. They bust their tail 12 months out of the year. They get screamed at. They get pushed. Their bodies are worn slick. They do 6 a.m. winter conditioning until they vomit. Their brains are cramped up with film study on top of academics.It’s 365 days of work. For 12 measley games.It’s quite a sacrifice. So you can imagine what the players are feeling right now, after living the last nine months preparing for Saturday’s season opener.”A big relief,” quarterback Todd Reesing said. “It’s great that it’s here. These next few days are probably going to go real slow.”Now, to the nuts and bolts of Tuesday’s press conference: * Senior Cesar Rodriguez will start at right tackle, though coach Mark Mangino said that the job hardly is safe with talented freshman Ian Wolfe impressing in practice and breathing down Rodriguez’s neck. * Receivers Raimond Pendleton and Dezmon Briscoe are working the most as the punt-return specialist. Mangino stresses that possession, proper fair catching and following blockers is much more important than the capability of hitting a home run. It’s the same belief he had last year, which explained why sure-handed Jonathan Lamb ended up being the man over Brian Murph. * Long snapper Kayl Anderson and offensive lineman Adrian Mayes were put on scholarship this offseason.That’s about it from Tuesday, quite honestly a pretty uneventful press conference. We’ll have stories every day previewing the game and the team, so keep checking back.And if you see Joe Mortensen out and about? Just be nice to him. For your health.