The highs and lows of Spring Scrimmage

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A beautiful Sunday afternoon, a large crowd (relatively speaking), and a free T-shirt.

Everything was set up perfectly off the field for the Kansas football Spring Scrimmage Sunday at Memorial Stadium. Here’s what I was able to walk away with following the play on the field:

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Mangino needs to hope nobody gets injured up front because the second string offensive line ushered blue jerseys to Reesing/Meier all game long.

Positives:

The secondary is much improved from a season ago — In all fairness to Anthony Webb, a true freshman should not be thrown into the fire in Big 12 Conference football. Junior college transfer Kendrick Harper appears to have solidified the No. 2 corner spot and a healthy Darrell Stuckey was all over the field Sunday. Tang Bacheyie, filling in for senior Jerome Kemp, did not have to make any plays but he sure passes the looks test. The man is huge and can run.

Joe Mortensen looks more comfortable at middle linebacker — Whether he remains the starter in the middle in front of Mike Rivera remains to be seen, but Mortensen looked at home attacking the line of scrimmage from the middle of the field as opposed to chasing down running backs off the edge, where his speed more closely resembles Tank Johnson than Derrick Johnson.

Anthony Collins is a monster — It was difficult to find the defensive end Collins was blocking as he was usually five yards downfield on the ground. The switch from right tackle to left tackle with Cesar Rodriguez is going to show how dominant Collins, as Todd Reesing/Kerry Meier will no longer be hearing footsteps from their blind side all game long. Collins appears ready to take his game to the all-conference level.

Kyle Tucker appears to have regained his sophomore form — Tucker may have let his nomination for the Ray Guy award as the nation’s top punter two seasons ago get to his head because he was flat out abysmal last season, routinely shanking punts into the crowd and booming punts into the end zone from 40 yards out. The old Tucker needs to return for Kansas to be as good as it can be.

Two competent quarterbacks — Mangino is yet to have one quarterback stay healthy an entire season, so whoever the starter may be, it will be nice to have a backup come in without much drop off.

A new offensive coordinator — Ed Warriner’s playbook appears it may actually have more than five plays in it. The new no-huddle offense looked to throw the ball downfield more than it did in any game last season, giving big and fast wide receivers Marcus Herford and Marcus Henry an opportunity to make plays.

Negatives:

Depth at offensive line — Mangino needs to hope nobody gets injured up front because the second string offensive line ushered blue jerseys to Reesing/Meier all game long.

Mistakes from the quarterback — While Reesing and Meier each proved they could run the offense with success, each needs to learn to take care of the football. Meier threw an interception to Stuckey, while Reesing still carries the football like a loaf of bread when scrambling.

Sarraf is a Lawrence senior in journalism.

— Edited by Stacey Couch

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