The battle for the governors cup will take place tomorrow night in Lawrence, KS, but that’s not the only thing at stake when Kansas State (4-1) takes on Kansas (2-3) in this in state rivalry. The main thing both teams are looking for is redemption from their previous outings. K-State is looking to move past their horrific beating at the hands of Nebraska on national television last Thursday. Before the game, the ‘Cats were garnering some votes in the top 25 and looking to steal the Big 12 North. They received one vote last week, and still hold an outside chance at the division but it would take a Corn Huskers miscue, which doesn’t seem likely. At least they lost to a top-10 team and surefire national title contender though. The Jayhawks are coming off a route by the Baylor Bears 2 weeks ago. KU has had a trying season this far with losses to Baylor, North Dakota State, and Southern Miss. They do own a victory over Georgia Tech which looked impressive at the time, as the Yellow Jackets were ranked 15th in the polls however they have since tailed off. In the game last year the Wildcats were able to win 17-10 behind on the back of halfback Daniel Thomas. Which leads us to the breakdown of this year’s game.
KSU Offense vs. KU Defense
K-State needs for their stud, Thomas, to revert back to his opening season form. That may be asking a lot of him as his opening season form was absurdly good, but they definitely need more production out of him, to lessen the load of QB Carson Coffman. Thomas has been held under 100 yards for 2 straight weeks, granted not many running backs can rush for 100 yards on the black shirts, especially with a mediocre passing game. Coffman has been hit-or-miss this year, but has had a tendency to come through in the clutch, engineering some spectacular 4th quarter drives. This could be the week that Thomas finally returns to form as he is facing a below average defense at stopping the run, as the ‘Hawks are ranked 95th and allowing 187 yards per game. Even so Thomas will continue seeing 8-man fronts until Coffman starts carving up the empty secondary. KU’s pass defense is allowing a modest 189 yards per game good for 40th in the nation. The D lost 8 starters off of last years team, including their whole front line and both safeties. Three of the starters were apart of the team that won the Orange Bowl. The Hawks have returned 2 freshman All-American from last year in LB Huldon Tharp and S Lubbock Smith, as well honorable mention All-Conference DE Jake Laptad. Major Edge: K-State
KSU Defense vs. KU Offense
Flashback to September 11th, as the Jayhawks were rushing the field and tearing down the goalposts, they thought they had found their savior. QB Jordan Webb was inserted after an ugly opening week loss to South Dakota State and if you asked fans in Lawrence he was some sort of mix between John Elway, Peyton Manning, and Joe Montana. Now Fast Forward to present day and those assumptions seem even more ridiculous than they did then (and they were pretty ridiculous then). Webb has at least given them the option of throwing the ball, and the team has put up some points, but they are still a sub .500 team. They have struggled all year to replace their core players from the Mangino era in Todd Reesing, Dezmund Briscoe, Kerry Meir, and Jake Sharpe. The Jayhawks offense is pathetic to say the least. They rank 74th in rushing and 84th in passing in the nation and are barely eclipsing 300 yards a game. On the other side of the ball the K-state Defense has been good or atrocious depending on which aspect you want to look at. The Rush Defense is believe it or not actually worse than KU’s ranking 116th in the nation allowing a meager 246 yards per game. However Webb will have his hands full trying to move the ball downfield on the KSU pass D, as they are allowing a stout 150 yards per game through the air and are ranked in the top 10. Despite the Jayhawks offensive woes one of the bright spots has been tailback James Sims who is averaging 4.9 yards a carry. Kansas will need for him to have a field day for them to have a chance in this game.
Edge: K-State
Special Teams
Last week the only bright spots you could find on the K-State team were the special teams players. Senior William Powell was electric returning the ball, almost to Nebraska territory every time he touched it averaging 31 yards a return. Punter Ryan Doerr pinned the Huskers inside the 20 3 times. The pair turned the field position battle in K-States favor throughout the night, but alas the ‘Cats couldn’t capitalize. Kicker Josh Cherry was perfect on the night hitting 2 field goals and 1 extra point. On the Jayhawks side kicker Jacob Branstetter has been anything but automatic, going 2 for 5 on the year, and already having missed and extra point. Punter Alonso Rojas is averaging a respectable 43.8 yards a boot but has already had 2 punts blocked, and Bill Snyder’s teams love to score non-offensive touchdowns. However returnman D.J. Beshears has been electric with the ball averaging 33.4 yards a return with a score.
Major Edge: K-State.
Coaching
We don’t need to spend too much time going over Coach Snyder’s accolades, as all KSU fans know them by heart. He engineered the “Miracle in Manhattan” and has led the team to 3 BCS bowls. He is a legend. On the flip side it’s harder to get a read on Turner Gill’s ability as a head coach. There is no doubting that he was truly one of the great players ever at the college level leading Nebraska to 3 Big Eight titles and 3 Major bowl games. But rarely do great players make great coaches. They struggle to adjust to the fact that not all players have the same work ethic they had. Gill started his career coaching at the University of Buffalo where his teams improved in his first 3 seasons going 2-10, 5-7, and 8-6. He led them to one conference championship and one bowl game, a loss. His high of coaching was when he led to the Bulls to a victory over then #12 Ball State in the conference Championship. He was then bypassed over the Auburn coaching job which many felt he deserved. But if you look at the teams records it’s hard to overlook the fact that he never established a conference championship caliber team year in and year out, despite playing in a below average conference with no true powerhouse. If Gill was as good of a coach as he was made out to be his teams would have done better than finishing 5th in his final year. It also hurts him that he is replacing Mark Mangino who actually restored some credibility to the KU football program with its 2007 Orange Bowl victory.
Edge: K-State
K-state pass defense will baffle Webb, and slow down the Kansas running attack enough. Thomas will gash the KU D, and Coffman will look better than he has all year as the Cats roll.
Prediction: K-State 34 KU 10
-- Josh Dockendorf, 91.9 Sports Staff
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Big 12 Week 5 Preview
The Big 12 season is getting underway for most of the teams around the league. Teams like Kansas State, Iowa State, Texas, and Texas Tech have already gotten one league under there belts, heading into this weekend. Well now Texas A&M and Oklahoma State have joined them. Both teams headed into last nights game unbeaten, and the winner would hold a punchers chance at winning the Big 12 South. Oklahoma State is that team after narrowly pulling out a 38-35 victory on a last second field goal after intercepting a pass when Texas A&M themselves were trying to drive down for a last second field goal. The game was a turnover-palooza with Aggie quarterback Jerrod Johnson, accounting for 5 turnovers himself, and the Pokes themselves had three turnovers.
Tomorrow’s slate of big 12 games get kicked off at 11:00 when the rival Jayhawks travel down to Waco to take on the Baylor Bears and there stud quarterback, Robert Griffin III. Griffin is a freakish athlete who has won several sprinting events, and has brought hope to the Bear ever since he arrived on the scene and won the starting job his freshman year. Last year he suffered a season-ending injury early on in the year. He has continued to develop as a drop back passer as he has thrown for 971 yards with 8 touchdowns and only two picks. They are 3-1 on the year. Meanwhile the Jayhawks have had an up-and-down year so far. They suffered losses to North Dakota State, and Southern Miss. However they were able to pull of an upset against then ranked Georgia Tech, who has since dropped out of the polls. The Jayhawks have become at least respectable since inserting Joe Webb into the quarterback position, but are still in process of rebuilding under first year coach Turner Gill. They are currently 2-2 on the year.
The only big 12 team to play a non conference game this week is the Buffaloes from Colorado who take on the Georgia Bulldogs at home this weekend at six o’clock. The Bulldogs have suffered a disappointing season since starting of the year ranked. They are currently 1-3 on they year and 0-3 in SEC play. The Buffs will get there first taste of Big 12 action next week when they take on a talented Missouri team. As of right now they are 2-1. The only game they played against a BCS conference team was a 52-7 loss at the hands of future conference foe Cal. Cal is just a middle of the road team this year so don’t expect much from the Buffs.
The next matchup comes over in Ames where the Cyclones take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Both Teams are currently 0-1 in conference play with Iowa State losing to K-State and Tech lost to Texas. Some good news on the Cyclones front, it looks as if starting Quarterback Austen Arnaud will get the go this week despite being injured. Tech on the other hand just wants to keep improving under first year head coach Tommy Tubberville.
But no surprise the game of the week will like always be the Red River Rivalry which takes place in Dallas pitting the Texas Longhorns against the Oklahoma Sooners. The winner of this game has gone on to win four of the last six Big 12 titles with the loser winning the other two. In fact the last time that neither one of these teams one the Big 12 was back in ’03 when the ‘Cats were able to upset the then #1 Sooners behind Darren Sproles. The Last time the south wasn’t represented in this game by one of these teams was back in 1998 when Texas A&M had the honors and were able to throw a kink into the BCS by upsetting Kansas State when we were ranked number one at the time. This will be sophomore Longhorn quarterback Garret Gilbert’s first chance in this environment. Gilbert came into the national championship last year for the injured Colt McCoy and was able to show some flashes of brilliance, but this year has been a little different as he has not had a solid running game to lean on, as the ‘Horns are ranked 76th in the nation in rushing. They are coming off their first loss of the season a 34-12 drubbing at the hands of the UCA Bruins. The Sooners on the other hand just have one question, which team will show up? Will it be the team that played magnificently when they steamrolled over #17 Florida State, or will it be the team that has shown up the other 3 weeks who has allowed Utah State, Air Force, and Cincinnati to all come within a touchdown of them. If Boomer Sooner is rolling all cylinders behind QB Landry Jones, RB Demarco Murray, and WR Ryan Broyles, then the game should be over at halftime. But if they aren’t the Longhorns might possibly be able to sneak home with a victory.
Missouri, K-State, and Nebraska all have byes this week, with the ‘Cats being the only team who has already played a conference game. Next week the Tigers play Colorado, and on ESPN Thursday Night Football the Huskers and Wildcats will meet for the final time as conference foes, with Big 12 North title implications most certainly on the line.
-- Josh Dockendorf, 91.9 Sports Staff
Tomorrow’s slate of big 12 games get kicked off at 11:00 when the rival Jayhawks travel down to Waco to take on the Baylor Bears and there stud quarterback, Robert Griffin III. Griffin is a freakish athlete who has won several sprinting events, and has brought hope to the Bear ever since he arrived on the scene and won the starting job his freshman year. Last year he suffered a season-ending injury early on in the year. He has continued to develop as a drop back passer as he has thrown for 971 yards with 8 touchdowns and only two picks. They are 3-1 on the year. Meanwhile the Jayhawks have had an up-and-down year so far. They suffered losses to North Dakota State, and Southern Miss. However they were able to pull of an upset against then ranked Georgia Tech, who has since dropped out of the polls. The Jayhawks have become at least respectable since inserting Joe Webb into the quarterback position, but are still in process of rebuilding under first year coach Turner Gill. They are currently 2-2 on the year.
The only big 12 team to play a non conference game this week is the Buffaloes from Colorado who take on the Georgia Bulldogs at home this weekend at six o’clock. The Bulldogs have suffered a disappointing season since starting of the year ranked. They are currently 1-3 on they year and 0-3 in SEC play. The Buffs will get there first taste of Big 12 action next week when they take on a talented Missouri team. As of right now they are 2-1. The only game they played against a BCS conference team was a 52-7 loss at the hands of future conference foe Cal. Cal is just a middle of the road team this year so don’t expect much from the Buffs.
The next matchup comes over in Ames where the Cyclones take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Both Teams are currently 0-1 in conference play with Iowa State losing to K-State and Tech lost to Texas. Some good news on the Cyclones front, it looks as if starting Quarterback Austen Arnaud will get the go this week despite being injured. Tech on the other hand just wants to keep improving under first year head coach Tommy Tubberville.
But no surprise the game of the week will like always be the Red River Rivalry which takes place in Dallas pitting the Texas Longhorns against the Oklahoma Sooners. The winner of this game has gone on to win four of the last six Big 12 titles with the loser winning the other two. In fact the last time that neither one of these teams one the Big 12 was back in ’03 when the ‘Cats were able to upset the then #1 Sooners behind Darren Sproles. The Last time the south wasn’t represented in this game by one of these teams was back in 1998 when Texas A&M had the honors and were able to throw a kink into the BCS by upsetting Kansas State when we were ranked number one at the time. This will be sophomore Longhorn quarterback Garret Gilbert’s first chance in this environment. Gilbert came into the national championship last year for the injured Colt McCoy and was able to show some flashes of brilliance, but this year has been a little different as he has not had a solid running game to lean on, as the ‘Horns are ranked 76th in the nation in rushing. They are coming off their first loss of the season a 34-12 drubbing at the hands of the UCA Bruins. The Sooners on the other hand just have one question, which team will show up? Will it be the team that played magnificently when they steamrolled over #17 Florida State, or will it be the team that has shown up the other 3 weeks who has allowed Utah State, Air Force, and Cincinnati to all come within a touchdown of them. If Boomer Sooner is rolling all cylinders behind QB Landry Jones, RB Demarco Murray, and WR Ryan Broyles, then the game should be over at halftime. But if they aren’t the Longhorns might possibly be able to sneak home with a victory.
Missouri, K-State, and Nebraska all have byes this week, with the ‘Cats being the only team who has already played a conference game. Next week the Tigers play Colorado, and on ESPN Thursday Night Football the Huskers and Wildcats will meet for the final time as conference foes, with Big 12 North title implications most certainly on the line.
-- Josh Dockendorf, 91.9 Sports Staff
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