Steven M. Sipple: Young Jayhawks will be a handful
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LAWRENCE, Kan. — America needs more people who think like Mark Mangino.Yet another great job by Big 12 media voting in the preseason polls. Kansas was picked to finish fourth behind Missouri (16 first-place votes), Nebraska (eight) and Kansas State.
Maybe you’ve watched the youtube.com video clip of Mangino’s expletive-laced sideline admonishment of Raimond Pendleton. Mangino was incensed earlier this season when Pendleton completed a long touchdown return by diving headfirst into the end zone even though no defenders were close.
Refs tossed their yellow flags, punishing Pendleton for excessive celebration. Even in America, the land of excess, this act of selfishness was too much for Mangino to stomach.
“You hotdog!” Mangino shouted into Pendleton’s facemask. “Look what you did!”
And on and on the coach raged. It was a wonderful bit of coaching, captivating video, a great lesson for the kid, not to mention a glimpse into Mangino’s style and how he wants his program to operate.
“He gets hard-nosed, tough-as-nails, play-to-the-whistle, coachable-type kids,” said Rivals.com recruiting guru Jeremy Crabtree, a longtime admirer of Mangino. “He’s found kids who fit his personality.”
Something’s obviously working, as eighth-ranked Kansas (8-0, 4-0 Big 12) is in position to play in its first major bowl game since the 1969 Orange Bowl.
As good as the Jayhawks are this season, they figure to be salty again next year. They list just eight seniors on their current two-deep depth chart, along with 16 juniors, 10 sophomores and 10 freshmen.
Kansas has tapped the state of Texas for players; the Jayhawks list 27 Texans on their roster compared to Nebraska’s 11. Fourteen Texans have cracked KU’s two-deep.
Please note that Kansas hasn’t produced a recruiting class ranked higher than 38th by Rivals.com in the past five years. During that period, the Jayhawks attracted only five players that were rated with either four or five stars, compared to 35 such players for Nebraska during the same period.
Mangino is regarded as a keen evaluator of talent, and he evidently is finding players who fit his system. And those players are playing with abandon and poise.
Do you think Nebraska (4-5, 1-4 Big 12) has a chance to win today against Kansas? Did you ever think you could legitimately ask yourself that question?
Strange days, indeed.
Texas (16) and Oklahoma (7) were favored to capture the South ahead of Texas A&M (1) and Oklahoma State.
An admission: Had I voted, I would have picked Texas to finish first and Kansas to end up third, a notch higher than the Jayhawks finished last year. My genius continues to astound.
At least one media type anticipated Kansas’ impressive improvement.
Todd McShay, a college football analyst for ESPN and ESPNU, picked Missouri to capture the North, but he picked Kansas second and made it clear this past summer that the Jayhawks should be taken seriously as a league title contender.
“I think Mangino’s done a tremendous job with what he has to work with,” McShay said Friday. “A year ago, Kansas’ record (6-6 overall, 3-5 Big 12) obviously wasn’t what they hoped it would be. But they lost two games by a combined four points, and also went overtime with Toledo and Nebraska, and I thought that told you a lot.”
So, will Nebraska blitz 96 percent of the time today, as it did in last week’s three-point loss to then-No. 17 Texas? Defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove, of course, isn’t saying.
Blitzing obviously can be a risky endeavor, especially against a dual-threat quarterback of Todd Reesing’s prowess. On the other hand, Nebraska’s cornerbacks should be able to handle Kansas’ rather ordinary group of wideouts, which might allow the Huskers to again turn up the blitz pressure.
“When you pressure people, everybody has a gap,” Cosgrove said. “If somebody loses a gap, the offense has a chance for a big play.
“But you know what, I wanted to get my guys going last week. Will I do it this week? It all depends. Obviously, the blitzes would have to change.”
Better be careful against Mangino, a razor-sharp offensive mind. He’ll be ready, probably with a few zone-read plays. Those seem to work against Nebraska.
The thing that impresses Callahan most about Kansas’ defense?
“They don’t give up the big play,” the coach said. “You don’t see long runs and long passes on film. We have a category in our film breakdown — big runs and big passes. There are not many of those on Kansas’ reel.
“They make you earn everything you get. That’s probably the highest compliment I could give any defense.”
What’s more, Kansas is ranked third nationally in turnover margin at plus-1.4 per game. It’s easy to imagine Nebraska junior quarterback Joe Ganz, in his first college start, pressing in what figures to be a raucous stadium.
Alas, it’s easy to imagine a few Husker turnovers leading to an easy afternoon for the surging boys in blue.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
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