Kansas sophomore Todd Reesing has been a solid performer this season, and his steady hand has been a big reason why the Jayhawks have soared into the top 10 of The Associated Press poll.
CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, November 1, 2007 7:00 pm
The way Todd Reesing plays Derek Fine on the golf course will tell you a lot about why he’s thriving in his first season as the Kansas football team’s starting quarterback.
Fine hits the snot out of the ball and, for a 6-foot-3, 250-pound tight end, has a surprisingly steady short game.
That combination has been too much for his regular golf partner, whom Fine says has gotten the best of him “maybe once or twice.”
Perhaps, then, it’s time for Reesing to start asking for some stokes?
“Todd?,” said Fine, taken aback by that possibility. “Never. He’d never be able to do that.”
To do so would be to give in to the fact that he wasn’t as skilled. It would be like admitting he had no chance of victory.
If Todd Reesing were built that way, he’d never be at Kansas in the first place. And the Jayhawks probably wouldn’t be 8-0 and ranked No. 8 entering Saturday’s game against Nebraska.
“I think a lot of it is him,” said Fine, a fifth-year senior who a year ago watched Reesing make his debut in the third quarter of KU’s ninth game, then complete seven of 11 passes for 106 yards to rally the Jayhawks from a 9-0 deficit to a 20-15 win over Colorado. “It always helps to be able to have your quarterback when things go good or bad, but especially bad, to be able to look back at him and always still have a positive look on his face. He never gets down.”
As a junior at Austin Lake Travis High, Reesing was the Texas Class 4A Player of the Year. The next season, he threw for 3,340 yards and 41 touchdowns with just five interceptions, and led all quarterbacks with a 72.3 completion percentage. He added another 750 yards and eight TDs on the ground.
But the only offers he would get from NCAA Division I schools were from Kansas State, Kansas and Duke.
What gave?
At 5-foot-10, Reesing was considered by many to be too small.
“They were just being honest. I wasn’t a bigger guy, one of the faster guys,” he said. “I had to deal with that, but it wasn’t a huge (handicap).”
Former K-State coach Bill Snyder liked Reesing enough that he wanted him to become a Wildcat. But it was a guy down the road in Lawrence, Kan., who Reesing really took to.
A week after he’d sent Kansas coach Mark Mangino a video of his performances, Reesing was on the KU campus and sold on the prospect of being a Jayhawk.
“He told me from watching tape he really liked how I made plays running and throwing the ball and how I competed, the way I improvised and made stuff happen,” Reesing said of Mangino.
Reesing came to Lawrence early, in January of 2006, and after playing well late last season entered spring ball in a tight race with Kerry Meier for the starting spot. But Reesing took quickly to the new scheme that first-year offensive coordinator Ed Warinner brought from Illinois, and though Mangino didn’t name a starter until fall camp, he would acknowledge then that Reesing had won the job in the spring.
He’s made that decision look wise.
Having passed for an average of 248.1 yards with 17 touchdowns and just four interceptions, Reesing is now one of 15 semifinalists for the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award.
His pass efficiency rating of 144.21 ranks 19th nationally, and he’s No. 25 in total offense at 272.3 yards.
On Tuesday, Nebraska coach Bill Callahan marveled about a play he saw Reesing make during Kansas’ 19-11 win at Texas A&M last week.
“He … kind of karaokes out of the pocket, looks at his receiver down the field and he ropes a throw that’s hot. It’s coming in like a laser,” Callahan said. “It was one of those plays where it was like, ‘Wow.’ It catches your attention.
“You watch him run the football, make the reads and then function as a normal drop-back quarterback … he’s very effective. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. This guy’s a competitor. … He’s a different type of guy that we’ve seen in a while.”
In his first start on the road, Reesing overcame an interception on his first play to lead the Jayhawks to their first win at Kansas State since 1989.
The next time KU hit the road, he spearheaded their first win in six tries at Colorado. And last week, Kansas won for the first time ever at A&M.
“The first impression I had of Todd was he’s real laid back, like he doesn’t really let things bother him, but was real competitive,” Fine said of Reesing’s personality. “He had a spark about him that’s kind of contagious around other people.”
Reesing might have noticed that in a quarterback he admired while growing up — Texas’ Major Applewhite.
Not surprisingly, Applewhite had another intangible characteristic that would apply to Reesing: an incessant will to finish first.
“Football, darts, pool, who can shoot the farthest spit wad,” Fine said. “He just wants to win.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.