Just one day until the Kansas football team opens the 2008 season. Here’s hoping for a quick Friday for all at workplaces across the nation.Before we get to the latest Sideline Report with KU center Ryan Cantrell, we have plenty of links to help get you prepared for Saturday (and also help you get through Friday).¢ [Kream Keegan][1] is back for another season.¢ If you haven’t listened yet, make sure you tune in to [Going Deep][2].Staffers Matt Tait and Eric Sorrentino break down this week’s game with Miami Herald beat writer Pete Pelegrin. The “Kansas Jayhawks – It’s Business Time” blog had a [good interview][3] with Pelegrin as well. ¢ Speaking of blogs, [“Hawk Digest”][4] is doing nice previews on each of KU’s opponents, [including FIU.][5] The [“Rock Chalk Talk”][6] blog has position-by-position previews as well.¢ I know parking is getting more expensive, but StubHub still says that KU’s football tickets are among the [top values][7] in college football.¢ I know this isn’t specifically KU, but reporter Jesse Temple did a great piece in Friday’s paper on [Jude Monye][8], who lives in Lawrence and ran for Nigeria’s 4×400 relay team in the 2000 Olympics.¢ One last note.Before getting to the zany questions on Tuesday, I talked with Cantrell about the offensive line and, specifically, freshman tackles Jeff Spikes and Jeremiah Hatch.”They’re always asking questions,” Cantrell said. “They’re always eager to learn. They want to be good. Every day, I get more and more confident in their abilities.”In talking about Spikes, Cantrell said the freshman was learning to use his big (6-foot-6, 314-pound) body better. Cantrell said oftentimes, offensive linemen from high school are used to manhandling opponents even without using good form. That doesn’t usually work in Division I.”You have to learn how to play with your knees bent and learn good technique, use the strength that you’ve built up through the years that you’ve been here,” Cantrell said.One of the key things, Cantrell said, was to play lower to the ground as an offensive lineman. Doing that, he said, creates better leverage and also better body control.It was interesting for me to hear about the correct technique for offensive lineman. We hear a million times from analysts that receivers should catch the ball before it hits their body and running backs should always carry the ball with their outside arm. Not many times do we hear about how offensive linemen can do their job effectively.I guess it’s not often that O-linemen get their chance in the spotlight.We’re going to break that trend in this Sideline Report.**Center Ryan Cantrell****Jesse Newell:** I’ve read that you collect tattoos. Is that right?**Ryan Cantrell: ** My first tattoo wasn’t a very good one. It’s on my back. I guess that’s a good place to have a bad tattoo. I don’t know. As soon as some guy comes back in here with a new tattoo, you just kind of get that itch and you’re like, ‘Man, I want to go get another one.’ So I’ll call my guy Chris (Lahue) over at [Skin Illustrations][9] and say, ‘Hey man, what can we do?’ So we’ll start coming up with stuff. **JN: ** Tell me more about the one on your back.**RC: ** Well, it was my idea. It just wasn’t done good. Thank God I found Chris, because the guy before that, I was going in the shop to kick that guy’s (butt).**JN: ** What was the tattoo?**RC: ** It’s like a brand symbol. Like an R.C. symbol.**JN: ** So how many tattoos do you have?**RC: ** I’ve got three.**JN: ** Are you working on more then?**RC: ** Yeah, definitely.**JN: ** I’ve seen that you like Lance Berkman. Is that because you look like him?![][10]![][11]**RC: **Ooh, man. Nah, actually I didn’t even play football until eighth grade. I played baseball. I was going to play baseball my whole life. I was going to play in the Majors and all that. I used to go to Rice baseball games, and he went to college at Rice. I’d watch him play and go to some of the camps and talk to some of the coaches. They’d kind of talk about how much I reminded them of him. I’ve always kind of liked him because of that.**JN: ** Could you hit as well as he can?**RC: **Oh man. Definitely not. The guy was hitting over .400 for I don’t even know how many weeks in the Majors. That’s retarded (laughs). There’s no reason you should be able to do that. **JN: **What position did you play?**RC: **In baseball I played catcher, third base, first base. Mostly in high school, I DH’ed, though.**JN: **Would you like to be called “The Puma?” _ [Ed. Note – I’m not going to lie. That Puma song is catchy.]_**RC: **The Puma. Ooh. I don’t know about that. No, I’m OK. **JN: **He’s got kind of tricky speed, though, doesn’t he?**RC: ** Yeah, he does. He looks very lethargic when he’s out there, but he’s really not. He’s pretty quick. He played outfield pretty well for the Astros for a couple years, too.**JN: ** I read in the media guide that one time a professor stopped class to talk to you. Tell me that story.**RC: ** I don’t even remember what week it was. It was my sports economics teacher. It was at the end of class, and he kind of stopped me as I was walking out. He gave me his personal Sports Illustrated – one with his name and address and everything on it – the one we had. … It was kind of weird just to relate to a teacher like that. ![][12]**JN: **Has there been a difference since you got here with the way people have treated you around campus?**RC: **Yeah definitely. Before, people found out you played football, and they were like, ‘Who cares?’ Now, they’re like, ‘Oh cool, you play football,’ and they kind of want to talk to you about it. We’re all about winning people over here, and we always want to try to embrace everybody we can just to make them a fan. **JN: **Tell me something that would surprise me about Coach Mangino.**RC: **He loves Larry the Cable Guy.**JN: ** Really?**RC: **He’s a big Larry the Cable Guy fan.**JN: **Have you watched it with him?**RC: **I haven’t watched it with him, but he used to call me Larry when I was a freshman because I had a little shorter hair and I always had the goatee. I guess he thought I looked like Larry then.**JN: ** Does he quote lines?**RC: **He’ll say, ‘Git-R-Done’ every now and then. He’ll kind of talk about it.**JN: ** Do you have to laugh when you see Coach Mangino say, ‘Git-R-Done?’**RC: **You can’t help but laugh. **JN: ** When people say to you that last year was a fluke, what do you think?**RC: ** I want to kind of figure out if they’re a guy or a girl, and if it’s a guy, I can maybe get a little more (ticked) off at them. It frustrates me, because they have no idea what we’ve been through here, especially what the fourth- and fifth-year guys have been through. They have no idea.**JN: ** What’s your favorite Mark Mangino story?**RC: ** I’d have to say my favorite one, because he tells it every year, I can’t remember what team it was, but they were playing somebody when he first got here, he called a timeout and had everybody come over and tuck their jerseys in. It’s just kind of a bizarre, funny thing, but it always sticks out to me. [1]: http://www2.kusports.com/keegan/ [2]: http://www2.kusports.com/podcasts/going_deep/2008/aug/27/get_familiar_fiu/ [3]: http://kansasfootball-itsbusinesstime.blogspot.com/2008/08/q-time-part-trois.html [4]: http://hawkdigest.squarespace.com/ [5]: http://hawkdigest.squarespace.com/hawk-digest-kansas-football/2008/8/21/florida-international-golden-panthers-2008-preview.html [6]: http://www.rockchalktalk.com/ [7]: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Stubhub-NASDAQ-EBAY-893615.html [8]: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/aug/29/precious_medal/ [9]: http://www.skinillustrations.net/ [10]: http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i44/lindze_06/berkman.jpg” width=”200″ height=”250 [11]: http://rimingtontrophy.com.ismmedia.com/ISM2/2008%20Candidates/CantrellRyan105.jpg” width=”110″ height=”140 [12]: http://worldonline.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/photos/2007/11/20/SICover_112607_Kansas.jpg” width=”266″ height=”339