FanHouse Kansas Jayhawks

AUSTIN, Texas -- University of Texas coach Mack Brown usually doesn't like to live in the past, but this week he broke out some old film for his team.

He showed the Longhorns how teams from 2006 and 2007 finished in comparison to 2005, when Texas won the BCS national title, and last season when many agree the 12-1 Longhorns should have been given the opportunity to compete for the national championship.

Brown's point to his second-ranked,10-0 squad is simple: stay focused these last two regular-season games, the Big 12 championship game in two weeks, and then biggest of prizes await the Texas Longhorns in Pasadena. A slip up anywhere between now and the Jan. 7 BCS national championship game will lead to great disappointment for Texas.

There is nothing new about Bob Stoops matching coaching wits with old mentor and boss Bill Snyder. They've done plenty of that over the years in Big 12 cross-divisional play.

But that doesn't mean Stoops isn't a little surprised to see Snyder, 70, back on the Wildcats sideline. The longtime Kansas State coach retired four years ago to pursue opportunities outside coaching, but was lured out of retirement last winter.

Stoops, whose 22nd-ranked Sooners host the Wildcats on Saturday, admits it's a little unexpected to be going up against his old boss again, but he was stunned when Snyder was no longer there, too.

The Kansas Jayhawks are the No.1 choice almost every preseason basketball publication, now they are also the unanimous pick to win the Big 12 championship by the league coaches, according to the poll released Wednesday.

The Jayhawks, who return all five starters and pretty much all of their scoring from a season ago, received all 11 possible first-place votes by the Big 12 coaches (head coaches can not vote for their own team). In addition to the retuning starters, which include All-Big 12 First Team selections Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich, Kansas also brings aboard one of the top recruiting classes in the nation.Collins and Aldrich have also been selected the preseason co-Players of the Year.

No, it was most certainly not pretty. Until the second half of the final minute, Michigan State never looked like it had this won. It had trouble all night finding somebody other than Goran Suton to give them any consistent scoring, and in the first half Kansas beat the Spartans at their own game -- pushing them around on the boards.

But while Kansas proved to be a more worthy defending champion than anybody imagined it'd be, Michigan State has more.

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Last night's action had one tight game, a blowout that tightened near the end, a walloping, and a game that never became a blowout though the outcome was never in doubt.

Tonight, Louisville takes on that, uh, Cinderella team from the desert in Arizona. Syracuse and Oklahoma should be a lot of fun in the early games. Later tonight Kansas and Michigan State looks like it should be gem. Also North Carolina gets Gonzaga, the original West Coast Cinderella that has not been that for some time.

Stop on by around 6:30 PM ET to talk about the action from yesterday and the games tonight. Plus, there is always the coaching carousel and what happens next at Kentucky.

This January Mark Mangino hired Ed Warriner as offensive coordinator in the hopes that he could bring some life to the lackluster Jayhawk offense. Warriner had previously served as the offensive line coach/run game coordinator under Ron Zook at Illinois. The move was prompted by a 2006 season that saw Kansas finish 100th nationally in total offense. Under Warriner's tutelage, the Illini led the Big 10 in rushing in 2006. If the spring is any indication, Warriner has certainly brought some changes to Lawrence.

"We're utilizing our playmakers a lot more," [sophomore quarterback Todd] Reesing said. "We're playing to our strengths instead of just running plays."

"Just running plays" seems to be a scathing critique of former offensive coordinator Nick Quartaro's tenure. But I find it a little hard to fault Quartaro for a lack of imagination. If you had been in his shoes, you would have put the ball in Jon Cornish's hands every play too. In addition, to a wider variety of plays, Warriner has the Jayhawks using more simplified terminology and a faster tempo.

"It's more up-tempo," [sophomore quarterback Kerry] Meier said. "They're trying to let us get out there and cut loose."

Kansas actually showed some no-huddle looks in their spring game, which is another Warriner addition. In 2007, I expect the Jayhawks to try and throw the ball down field more often, with talented quarterbacks Meier and Reesing, and talented targets like Marcus Henry.

Kansas junior Aqib Talib will spend time at both wide receiver and cornerback for the Jayhawks in 2007. Talib will follow the footsteps of Charles Gordon who played both sides of the ball for KU from 2003-2005. For his part, Talib appears up to the challenge.

"I did it all through junior high, all through high school," Talib said. "If they're throwing away from me during the game, (playing offense) keeps me in the game. It keeps me focused on the game and keeps me having fun."

Talib has All-American ability on the defensive side of the ball. A year ago he led the nation in passes defended with 28. He also notched six interceptions in 2006. He will need some help from his teammates, however, if the Jayhawk's pass defense is going to improve. Last season Kansas finished dead last among Division I-A teams in passing defense, giving up an astounding 269 yards per game. His role on the offensive side of the ball will likely be more specialized as new offensive coordinator Ed Warriner attempts to jump-start the Jayhawks passing game.

"They're going to throw me in there a couple of plays here and there," Talib said. "I'm not really sure, but the new offense? I kind of like it. It's more up-tempoed and more revolved around big plays. I think it'll be real good for us."

The nation's second most-played rivalry game between Missouri and Kansas will have a new home in 2007 and 2008. This year's game originally set for November 24 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, will now be played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The 2008 game will then be played at Arrowhead instead of Columbia, Missouri. For their efforts, the schools are guaranteed to receive at least $1 million from the game in each of the next two years.

While this isn't the first Big 12 game to be moved to Arrowhead – previously Nebraska played Oklahoma State in 1998 and in 2005 Kansas met Oklahoma at the NFL stadium – switching rivalry games to off-campus sites is a disturbing trend. At some point it becomes a question of how willing a school should be to trade a home-field advantage for a bigger payday. As one Kansas fan notes:

"KU has been great against Missouri at home in the last four years," he said. "We've had their number every time. We've killed them. I'd hate to see that momentum go away just because we want to play at Arrowhead."

But fans aren't the only ones disturbed by the move. Business owners in Lawrence are also upset and a recent economic study concluded the move will cost Kansas, Douglas County and the city of Lawrence a combined $713,000.

(via The Wizard of Odds)

The Kansas Jayhawks opened spring practice looking for a way to replace the impact of running back Jon Cornish, who is currently preparing for the NFL Draft. Cornish carried the offense a year ago, rushing for 1,457 yards and 8 touchdowns as KU finished the season with a 6-6 record. With a new offensive coordinator in Ed Warinner, the Jayhawks are hoping for better production from their receiving corps. One player that has already been singled out is 6-4, 200 pound senior Marcus Henry (pictured at right) who will line up at the X-receiver spot.

"The only guy that's a constant," Mangino said of Henry. "His abilities fit that position to a T. X is a guy that can stretch the field. He's a guy that, if you a roll a corner up to him, he should be able to get off the press coverage. Not neccesarily your fastest guy, but a big, rangy guy."

Henry was fourth on the team with 25 receptions for 316 yards and 3 touchdowns in 2006. He joins fellow receivers Dexton Fields, Derek Fine, and Marcus Herford who all return in 2007. With the graduation of leading receiver Brian Murph, Henry expects the wideouts to take on a bigger role.

"Our role is pretty important," Henry said. "Once we get our offense situated and everything, we've got to go out there and make plays and be in the right spot at the right time."

Henry seems to have the size and body that you look for in a go-to receiver. Should he come into his own in 2007, the development of sophomore quarterback Kerry Meier is sure to benefit.

Kudos to Scott Skiles for making sure his team doesn't get a big head. The Bulls lost to the Grizzlies this past weekend, and he doesn't want hear any excuses:

Told some players have theorized the Bulls play down to their level of competition, coach Scott Skiles frowned.

"Who are we to say we're playing down to anybody?" he said. "We haven't been out of the first round [of the playoffs] since I may have been in my 30s. That's utterly disrespectful. Dallas or Phoenix or San Antonio or Detroit, if they want to say that, they have the credentials to back that up. We don't."

I've always thought the idea of "playing down to another team's level" a little bit insulting to the other team, but it's real and it definitely happens. In fact, I think that's largely what separates the elite teams in the West from the elite teams in the East -- you just don't see the cream of the Western crop cough up winnable games as frequently as teams in the East like Detroit, Cleveland and Miami. I haven't see Chicago do this too much, though losing to the Grizzlies makes you think it's an occasional vice of theirs, as well.